Real Music People

Lil Wayne hasn’t released a major-label album in two years, an awful long time in today’s here-today, gone-tomorrow rap market, yet in that time he’s ascended to the top of his field, to the point where his next album, Tha Carter III, is among the industry’s most eagerly awaited. His stock has risen partly because of his innumerable guest features, but more so because of the steady stream of mixtapes he’s released — one after the other, month after month, none of them available at your local big-box retailer. In an age where the Internet is seen by some in the music industry as a threat to be contained with lawsuits and other forms of deterrence, Lil Wayne is one of an increasing number of artists who are using the Internet to their advantage, feeding his fan base all the music it can download and, in the process, inspiring a dedicated following.

Like recent mixtapes by Jay-Z, Kanye West, and 50 Cent, these Lil Wayne mixes circulate freely on the Internet and are promotional in nature, intended to drum up interest for forthcoming commercial releases.

Here’s the new single called “Just Fine”, which is the lead single from the upcoming album of Mary J. Blige entitled “Growing Pains” due out on November 27th.
Check this song out!!!

Here’s a Common music video for his new single entitled “I Want U”. The video will premiere on October 23rd on BET and AOL Music.

Here’s the music video for the new Linkin Park single, titled “Shadow Of The Day”, off their latest studio album “Minutes To Midnight”

Record sales of hip hop artists seem to be on the decline within the last year. Except maybe if the artist’s name happens to be Kanye West. Record sales of country artists is another story though.

Last week, Reba McEntire pushed Kanye off the top spot when her ‘Duets’ album came out at #1. This week, country trio Rascal Flatts is at #1 when their new album ‘Still Feels Good’ sold 547,000 units which easilty put them on top of the Billboard 200 mountain. Their latest release makes it the third straight #1 album for the band.

Country is about to take over!

A music video that is. Emmy Rossum has just released her video for ‘Slow Me Down’, her first single off of her upcoming ambient pop album which is due out on October 23. If you want to know what that means, well, if you like Imogen Heap, Frou Frou and Sia, you are definitely going to love Emmy.

Emmy talked a little about her video at the Teen Choice Awards last month. She went on the record about how the video was shot and it’s connection to the song saying “We were shooting at different speeds because the song’s about the pace of life and to create the blur of the world and how overwhelming that can be.”

Fall is upon us and so are the divas. It seems that all the divas that we know and love are coming out with new records this fall season.

Much like Kanye West and 50 Cent, some divas are going head to head with their releases. Celine Dion and Britney Spears will battle it out first when both of their upcoming albums drop on November 13. We would then see another diva showdown a week later in the form of Mary J. Blige with her upcoming album ‘Growing Pains’ to be released on the same day, November 20, as Mariah Carey’s new record.

It seems that the only diva missing from that list is Madonna. When is her album coming out?

For the past few weeks there has been a lot of hype surrounding Spears’ supposed ‘comeback’ performance but let’s just say it was less than mediocre. She was wearing heels that she could barely walk in and her performance consisted of her going from one side of the stage to the other in a jeweled bra and panties lip-syncing. Its sad seeing someone I idolized growing up, completely bomb on stage. There was so much hype surrounding this performance, not only from fans but from fellow celebrities. You would think that she would have done a better job at performing, but she gave up. She’s gained a lot of weight, her dancing was lame and her lip synching was worse than Ashlee Simpson. What a disappointment. That was so simple. As everyone we all were expecting something shocking, amazing, magic, and something strong. This was really bad for her and her career. Is not the worst thing in the world but is not the best and it was supposed to be the best for a comeback. I hope her music video for the song gets better than this. Is so sad to see her without self esteem and confidence. She needs help and that’s the down line.

Jennifer Lopez spices things up in her new video. Famed director and photographer David LaChapelle directed the Latin diva in the video for her new single ‘Do It Well’ and boy did he do it well.

When asked to comment about the video, Jennifer says, “It’s basically me, coming into this situation where people are oppressed in a way, and kind of being a liberator, like setting everybody free but beating everybody up.”

Leather, chains and dancing. Just imagine Jennifer Lopez as the sexy dominatrix and cross it with her ‘Waiting for Tonight’ video and you’ve got a mighty hot combination.

R&B singer Chris Brown and his new single “Wall To Wall”
Chris’s new album entitled “Exclusive” is due out on November 6th

Is a must buy for real hip hop fans. Album drops July 31
Common ft. Lily Allen - Drivin’ Me Wild
The track is the second single off his new album “Findin Forever” in stores now and the video premiered today via MT

Scottish rocker KT Tunstall longs for a split with her boyfriend - because it will give her inspiration for songs. The singer briefly split with long-term boyfriend Luke Bullen - and it inspired her to write song Someday Soon which features on new album Drastic Fantastic. And she now plans to have more arguments in a bid for musical success. Nonsense that you need to have split with your boyfriend to find inspiration to write love and emotional songs, that way to write rock and rap songs one would have to spend a few nights with a prostitute or a gay to write these woeful songs. I thing she’s completely looking at the wrong way to find inspiration to write songs, rather than a break up she could well sit on the pot and find better inspiration. We are looking for love songs that make us happy not sad and remorseful about our past relationships gone wrong. KT don’t spoil a relation for just trying to find inspiration dear, go have some coke and cheer up.

Newton Faulkner’s debut album includes the single Dream Catch Me
Singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner has hit the top spot in the UK album chart, confirming him as one of this year’s hottest new artists.
Hand Built By Robots was released last month and now sits above Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse in the rundown.

Faulkner rose to prominence supporting James Morrison and Paolo Nutini.

In the singles chart, Kanye West’s Stronger has held onto number one for a second week, holding off a challenge from Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls.

Soft rocker, acoustic alien, folk fantasist and blues boy are just a few of the nicknames you may fancy labelling Newton Faulkner. And if his personality is as laidback as his sound, the Surrey-bred Brit probably couldn’t care less what you tag him. As long as it’s not cheesy.

Here’s the first single from the debut album of American Idol winner Jordin Sparks to be released in November. The song is titled “Tatoo”

They’re in their 50s now, and they’ve traded their long heavy-metal locks for close-cropped cuts, but the original members of Van Halen are back in business and promise that they’re better than ever.

“Usually, when a band comes back like us, it’s rockers with walkers,” frontman David Lee Roth told reporters at the Four Seasons Hotel here on Monday. “This is anything but.”

Van Halen held a press conference to announce a 25-date concert tour beginning Sept. 27 in Charlotte, N.C. The re-formed group features three original members Roth, guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen along with Eddie Van Halen’s son, Wolfgang, on bass.

“This is not a reunion,” said Roth, 51. “This is a whole new band.”

“It is totally blowing our minds and I think it will yours, too,” said Eddie Van Halen, 52. “It’s better than it’s ever been.”

With its flamboyant frontman, “Diamond Dave,” Van Halen was one of the most popular rock bands of the 1980s. But the group split up in 1985 and the original lineup hasn’t performed together since.

“I’m shocked any of us are still vertical,” Roth quipped.

He and Eddie Van Halen insisted that the band’s reunion isn’t just a one-tour deal. After performing throughout North America, Van Halen plans to hit Asia and Australia.

“Then we make an album,” Roth said, adding that the group has “lots of dreams, lots of ambitions.”

“We really have re-formed this team like a brother team that it never was before,” he said.

Wolfgang Van Halen, 16, brings “a young energy and a spirit” to the band, Roth said, adding that the teenage rocker chose the tour’s song list, which features “close to 25 of your greatest hits.”

“You know every single song, you know every guitar lick, every woo, every kick, every jump, every drum lick,” he said. “We can’t afford to shirk that duty.”

The band has been rehearsing since October and plans to exceed fans’ expectations, Roth said.

Rapper Fabolous performed his new single “Make Me Better” with r&b singer Ne-Yo

50 Cent’s new album, “Curtis,” has been pushed back another week, from September 4 to September 11, according to Interscope, which declined to give a reason for the move.

“Curtis” originally was slated for a June 26 release but was pushed back in late May.

Two singles from the project have met with little success on radio. “Amusement Park” peaked at No. 36 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and is No. 57 in its ninth week there, while “Straight to the Bank” peaked at No. 30 and has since fallen off the chart.

Another new song, “I Get Money,” debuted in early July at No. 75.

“Curtis,” which is the follow-up to 2005’s “The Massacre,” features production from Dr. Dre, Eminem and Timbaland, plus guest turns by Eminem, Akon, Justin Timberlake, Mary J. Blige, Robin Thicke and Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls.

Britney Spears’ shelved pop comeback has been given a boost by producer Sean Garret, who insists the Toxic singer’s next single, is “out of control.” A week after her publicist revealed record executives had pushed Spears’ comeback album back to 2008 - prompting reports early studio work was no good - Garrett, who has just completed sessions with Spears, insists the singer has created another pop masterpiece. He tells “I’ve got this one record I’ve been holding for 10 months that everyone has tried to buy, but I stayed with Britney on it. I guarantee it will shake up the world. Oh puhlease, if it was it would have been out by now – she’s lost it, that’s why she wants to get into movies again (she doesn’t get that if she was that good and that hot, she woulda been picked up by now). Some producers are just trying to good mouth about her so that her appeal in the fans and music companies it maintained. She already had a few glitches while performing stage shows in America and that didn’t help either.

US rock singer Lenny Kravitz has been revealed as the headline act for the Brazilian leg of Live Earth.
Other acts confirmed for the concert on Rio’s Copacabana Beach include Pharrell Williams and Macy Gray.
Eight cities will be holding concerts across 24 hours on 7 July to highlight climate change.
Madonna and Duran are playing the UK concert at Wembley Stadium, while the US leg will see The Police, Alicia Keys and the Smashing Pumpkins perform.
Brazil is the only country hosting a Live Earth concert that is entirely free and open to the public, and organisers are hoping to attract up to one million visitors.

Aside from the US acts, Rio will play host to a number of native performers, including singer Xuxa, reggae rock band O Rappa and rapper Marcelo D2.
Other countries hosting concerts include Germany, Japan, Australia, China and South Africa. Linkin Park and Rihanna are headlining the Japan concert, while UB40 and Joss Stone will be playing in China.
The Istanbul concert was recently scrapped because of a lack sponsorship and interest in the Turkish event.

Former US Vice-President Al Gore, who is one of those involved in organising the events, said he expected Live Earth to attract “an audience of billions”.

Maroon 5’s new album, “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long” will not be promoted through a tour until this fall. On the other hand there was a show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom that showed some new material. Fans present were able to hear and see the band perform some of the album, which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 in May.

The show was very good with 11 tracks played. “Harder To Breathe” was the first on the list and the current single (“Makes Me Wonder”) continued the program and created a great atmosphere. This was easy to notice as Maroon 5 were asked for an encore that saw them go old-school with two of their hits from the “Songs About Jane”: “This Love” and “She Will Be Loved”

Three shows are also scheduled around June 25 in a three shows session in Osaka and as the opening act for The Police’s gig at the Miami Dolphin Stadium on July 10.

Kelly Clarkson’s new album is a dud. Her record label which was reluctant to release it in the first place is scrambling to release her new single ‘Sober’ after the first one ‘Never Again’ never took off.

I guess Clive Davis’ remarks about Kelly had merit.

There’s good news and bad news about all this though.

Good news, I think ‘Sober’ is better than ‘Never Again’.

The bad news, the song isn’t all that. It’s pretty but, in Simon’s school of thought, forgettable. It’s the worst thing in the music biz if you want commercial success. ‘Sober’ completely sucks compared to previous ballads of Kelly’s like ‘Breakaway’ or ‘Because of You’.

The Chemical Brothers just announced their sixth studio album release. It will be held on the 18th of June and the material will be called “We are The Night”. As expected, there will also be a single release earlier, on the 4th of the same month, for a track featured on the album called “Do It Again”.
In other news, the Chemical Brothers will hold a show at Chalk Farm’s Roundhouse on May 31 and will headline the Other Stage in Glastonbury on June 24. The band is well renowned for their shows and fans are expected to quickly buy all the tickets can be offered. It certainly became a good move for a club to book them and I must say that they do know how to raise a crowd off their chairs.