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Day in Pop Report for 02/19/2015


Two Of Nicki Minaj's Team Members Stabbed, One Dead
Nicki Minaj revealed in an online posting that two members of her stage team were stabbed in Philadelphia on Wednesday and that one of them has died following the attack.

Minaj posted the following tweet. "Two members of my team were stabbed last night in Philly. One was killed. They had only been there for two days rehearsing for the tour". She then said in an Instagram post, "Another senseless act of violence that took the life of a great guy. So sad."

ABC's WPVI -TV reports that the stabbing came after an altercation began inside Che Bar & Grill and then moved out into the street. One man died from the stabbing while another is in critical condition.

"We believe that both of the victims, as well as the perpetrator, were all inside of this bar and that's when an argument started," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small, according to the ABC report, which you can read here.

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Vanilla Ice Arrested For Burglary And Grand Theft
Rapper Vanilla Ice, real name Robert Van Winkle, has been arrested and charged with burglary and grand theft in Florida, according to the Lantana Police Department.

The department released the following statement on Wednesday, "During the investigation, it was determined Robert Matthew VanWinkle played a role in the burglary and theft. Mr. VanWinkle is currently renovating the residence adjacent to the property in which the items were stolen.

"A search warrant was obtained and executed in unincorporated Palm Beach County in which several of the stolen items were recovered at a residence under the care and control of Robert VanWinkle. The property was identified by the victim at that location and returned to the rightful owner."

They also said, "Robert Matthew VanWinkle voluntarily met with detectives at the Lantana Police Department to provide a sworn statement. Based on the evidence collected, witness statements and corroborating statements, VanWinkle was taken into custody and charged with Burglary Residence and Grand Theft."

VanWinkle stars in a home renovation reality show.


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Afroman Arrested After Punching Female Fan
Afroman, real name Joseph Edgar Foreman, was arrest for assault on Tuesday in Biloxi, Mississippi after he punched a woman that jumped up on stage during his concert.

In a video of the incident, the performer is seen playing his guitar and then turning and landing a powerful blow to the head of the petite female fan who then fell to the ground from the assault.

NBC News reports that a local radio personality, John Govia, told them that the audience was shocked by the incident and after some fans began to "boo", the owner of the venue, Kress Live, canceled the rest of the performance.

Afroman was later arrested and charged with assault and was released on bond, according to media reports. A rep for Afroman provided Billboard with a prepared statement that said, "This was a completely involuntary reflex reaction to people infringing on his stage space. It was uncharacteristic behavior that was initiated by outside uncontrolled forces."

On Wednesday, Afroman's Twitter account had the following posting, "It is what it is". Read the NBC report and watch video of the incident here.

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Drake's Surprise Mixtape Sells Almost Half A Million Copies
Drake has topped the album chart after selling close to half a million copies of his mixtape "If You're Reading This It's Too Late," following its surprise digital release last week.

The mixtape was released to digital retailers last week without any advanced promotion and went on to sell 495,000 copies in the U.S., according to Billboard.

This gives Drake his third consecutive No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album charts. Billboard recently changed their formula for the charts and now factor in streaming data for the rankings.

The actual sales was 495,000 (5 thousand short of gold record status) and sales and streams were equal to 535,000. The sales data is even more impressive since it was all from digital sales; a physical CD was not released for the project.

Drake will have the chance to top the charts again sometime this spring when he releases his next official full length album, "Views From The 6".

Read the Billboard report for more chart news here.

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Tim McGraw Announces Shotgun Rider Summer Tour
Country music star Tim McGraw announced that he will be hitting this road this summer for a massive North American tour that will be dubbed the "Shotgun Rider Tour 2015".

McGraw is launching the tour in support of his latest studio album, "Sundown Heaven Town," which topped the country music album chart when it was released.

The tour will feature support from Billy Currington and Chase Bryant and is scheduled to kick off on June 5th in Little Rock, AK and will conclude on September 19th in Irvine, Ca (Orange County).

As previously reported, McGraw will be performing at the 87th annual Academy Awards this Sunday. He has been tapped to perform the Oscar nominated song "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" for country music legend Glen Campbell.

The song was from the documentary "Glen Campbell�I'll Be Me," and was recorded and co-written by Campbell for the film. Campbell retired from music due to his battle with Alzheimer's disease and McGraw will be performing the song in his place. See the tour dates here.

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Toby Keith, Linda Perry Among Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductees
Toby Keith, Linda Perry, Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, Willie Dixon, Bobby Braddock and Cyndi Lauper will be this year's inductees to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

They will all be inducted as part of the class of 2015 during the 46th Annual Induction and Awards Dinner, which is scheduled to take place on June 8 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.

Braddock was one of the most successful country music songwriters of all time scoring 13 No. 1 hits including "D.I.V.O.R.C.E," recorded by Tammy Wynette, "Golden Ring," the by George Jones and Tammy Wynette Read more, Tracy Lawrence's, "Time Marches On," and Toby Keith's hit, "I Wanna Talk About Me".

The late Willie Dixon is considered the father of modern Chicago blues and has had his songs performed by a wide range of artists including The Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, the Grateful Dead, The Doors and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The songwriting team of late Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter are responsible for some of the Grateful Dead's most enduring songs including "Touch Of Grey", "Casey Jones", "China Cat Sunflower," "St. Stephen" and "Truckin,'".

Country music star Toby Keith's songwriter credits include "Should've Been A Cowboy", "How Do You Like Me Now?!," "Who's Your Daddy," "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," "Beer For My Horses," and "I Love This Bar."

Cyndi Lauper is not only being recognized for the songwriting/co-songwriting of her own hit songs but also for writing material for artists ranging from Billy Joel, The Hooters, Mary Chapin Carpenter to Jeff Beck, Junior Vasquex, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nellie McKay and Max Martin.

Linda Perry started her career as the frontwoman of the hit group 4 Non Blonds and has gone to become a prolific hit song writer and producer for other artists including Pink, Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, James Blunt, Celine Dion and more. Her song "Beautiful" as recorded by Christiana Aguilera received several Grammy nominations.

Find more information about the organization here.

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Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher Talk Life After Two and Half Men
(Extra) "Extra's" Renee Bargh on the set of "Two and a Half Men" with Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher as they prepare to say goodbye to playing Alan Harper and Walden Schmidt. The show coming to an end after twelve years, so what's next for the actors?

Ashton planning to spend more time with fianc� Mila Kunis and their baby girl Wyatt, "I probably will spend a lot more time with my family and friends and that would be nice for a good while." Renee commenting on how well rested Ashton looks for having a new baby AT home, Ashton crediting Mila, "I have an awesome partner that takes care of all those things and does a really good job at it and I help a little."

Cryer revealing Kutcher just brought Wyatt to set, "I'm going to miss his daughter Wyatt because he brought her to the set for the first time last week." He joked, "She's a little bit of a diva, she poops in her pants and expects other people to clean it and I don't, that's not cool set behavior as far as I am concerned."

Cryer also revealing what's next for him, "I wrote a book that will be out in April." As for the series finale, the duo keeping tight lipped on what fans can expect, admitting there will be surprise guests, but not going as far as to say whether Charlie Sheen will be one of them. The actors instead having a bit of fun with Renee, Ashton, "There's tons of surprise guests�Surprising ones�The most surprising guests of all are the guests you wouldn't be surprised by." Jon laughing, "The thing is he's right."

However the end of the show does not mean the end of Cryer and Kutcher in Malibu, Jon explaining, "Ashton found a great beach house he really loved and said oh but it's a little pricey, hey do you want to go halfsies and I said there's a headline, the two of us buying a house together in Malibu after the show." Ashton still holding on to the dream, "It's still for sale."

Watch video from the Extra feature here.

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Ariana Grande Accused of Plagiarism For 'One Last Time' Video
(Radio.com) An Australian indie group called SAFIA have called out Ariana Grande's record label and video director Max Landis (son of John Landis who directed, among other things, Michael Jackson's "Thriller," National Lampoon's Animal House and Trading Places) of stealing the concept for one of their videos to create "One Last Time."

"This might just be coincidence but to us it looks like either the people at Ariana Grande's label or the film maker have seen our clip for 'You Are The One' & reworked the concept a little bit and then straight up stolen and copied some bits�(ESPECIALLY THE END!)," the band wrote on their Facebook page in a post on Monday (Feb. 16).

"Wouldn't be the first time uncreative talentless f- from big labels and/or big film firms steal ideas from small independent creatives who are trying really hard to make something different for a change," they continued.
The band dialed back their rhetoric on a subsequent post. Read more here.

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Imagine Dragons Perform 'Shots' On The Tonight Show
(Radio.com) Imagine Dragons released their new album, Smoke + Mirrors on Tuesday (Feb. 17) and celebrated by hitting the Tonight Show stage. The group performed their latest track "Shots," a jittery apology from frontman Dan Reynolds for everything he's done.

In an interview with Radio.com on Tuesday, Reynolds admitted the song's pounding instrumentation may sound happy, but the lyrics are rather melancholy. A theme throughout the new album. No, fame isn't all it's cracked up to be.

But, he also admitted that somehow during this performance he managed to split his pants in two places. This pants-splitting performance gives all those Imagine Dragons fans out there a taste of what the band's live show will have instore for them. The band's summer tour kicks off June 3 in Portland, Oregon.

Watch the video of the guys on the Tonight Show here.

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Kelly Clarkson Had Trouble Finding Collaborators
(Radio.com) Would you work with Kelly Clarkson? In a recent interview with Nick Grimshaw on BBC1, Clarkson revealed that she had some trouble in that department, particularly with finding collaborators for her new album.

"I honestly would collaborate with a lot of people, but everyone usually says no. I'm not kidding you," she said. She mentioned that she'd love to work with artists like Lady Gaga and Adele, but it hasn't worked out just yet. "I have legitimately asked several people who I'm not going to call out," Clarkson said. "And that's cool, but I don't know."

She did manage to lock down one high-profile collaborator for the new record. "I got John Legend to say yes, so that's cool," she said. I ask good people, I don't want to sing with crap people, so I ask people who are great vocalists, but I'm not going to point out anyone." Read more here.

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Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood to Host ACM Lifting Lives Benefit
(Radio.com) Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will take a brief break from their current world tour during the week of the ACM Awards. The couple will host ACM Lifting Lives' One Night, Two Cities, All Music Benefit Gala on April 17 in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas.

Keith Urban and Lady Antebellum will headline the shows with additional performances from Hunter Hayes and Little Big Town. The two shows will be held simultaneously at the Omni Dallas Hotel and the Fort Worth Zoo. While the Dallas show will feature Lady Antebellum and Hayes, the Fort Worth show will include Urban and Little Big Town while both Brooks and Yearwood will make stops at both venues.

"The Academy has an almost 50-year history of charitable giving and wonderful relationships with Garth and Trisha," said Bob Romeo, CEO of the Academy of Country Music, in a press release. "When Garth called about hosting this event, it was the culmination of years of hard work, and furthers the missions of our organizations - healing through the power of music, and improving lives by connecting fans, artists and the industry. Read more here.

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Gucci Mane Releases New Mixtape 'Views From Zone 6'
(Radio.com) After Gucci Mane released his long-awaited Brick Factory 3 mixtape, with appearances from Young Thug and Lil B, the Atlanta rapper has generously released another tape-which is all the more impressive considering he's still in prison.

Just like with Brick Factory 3, Gucci is hot on Drake's tail. His new mixtape is called Views From Zone 6, which riffs off the title of Drizzy's upcoming album Views From the 6. Features-wise, Drake isn't on the mixtape though it does have a handful of familiar faces like 2 Chainz, Lil B, Chief Keef, Andy Milonakis (!), Peewee Longway, Yung Gleesh, Quabo and Young Thug.

Even stranger than the fact that Andy Milonakis' name appears on the track list is that the comedian shares a track with Chief Keef, though Milonakis appeared on Keef's last mixtape, so the pairing isn't that weird. Read more here.

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Singled Out: Dauzat St. Marie's Time Slips Away
Last month Mat Dauzat from Dauzat St. Marie told us about the song "Time Slips Away." With this week's release of their new EP "Falling Again", we are running the story again for those that may have missed it. Here is the story:

The song "Time Slips Away" is probably one of the most sentimental and retrospective songs we've ever written. We were actually on the road with Schuyler Fisk and were staying at her family's farm in Virginia when we wrote it. The family has an incredible old home on a large plot of land with rolling hills, horses and a pond. We fell in love with their place and Virginia in general, hence the lyric "and I never knew what true love was until I touched down in Virginia." Actually, all of the lyrics from the songs are lifted directly from the pages of our own life stories. For example, when we were teenagers we used to frequently drive 2,000 miles to Los Angeles simply to play shows at the Whisky and Troubadour with our rock band at the time. From that experience you get the lyrics "with 2,000 miles to go," "driving to life unknown," and "I never knew what freedom was until I drove to California."

The lyric "I never knew where I belonged until I woke up in New Orleans" is a reference to the feeling we got when we returned to that great city after having moved to Los Angeles 5 years prior. Our band Hydrovibe had just gotten a song in the movie Saw III, which put us out on our first real U.S. tour. The first show of the tour was the House Of Blues in New Orleans. We were excited because not only is the New Orleans area Heather's home, it also used to be one of the strong stomping grounds for Hydrovibe before we moved. We were also additionally excited because we were introducing our drummer and bass player to the city as well. When we hit the stage at the House Of Blues, there were around 650 lovely screaming people in the crowd�. and we were absolutely BEAMING! After the show, we went out and had a big time in the city (as one does). The next morning we were recapping what a great experience it was, and so was spawned the lyric "I never knew where I belonged until I woke up in New Orleans."

The lyric "we're so far from those places and the songs of yesterday" is really just a commentary on how far we've come in our career� and how much ground we've covered - both physically and musically. And finally, the lyric "the players keep changing, but the song remains the same" is a commentary on all the changes that have taken place in our careers - personnel, labels, management, agents, band members, etc. Our career is always in a state of evolution, but at the core we are very much the same as we always have been - point us toward the stage and we'll sing our hearts out for you.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the EP right here!

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