After wishy-washy reports of Rihanna’s brand new single release, the news is official. Despite a release date of September 14 being issued, Ryan Seacrest will exclusively premiere “Only Girl (In The World)” on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 3AM PT/6AM ET.
The song is produced by the duo responsible for her hits, “Hate That I Love You,” “Don’t Stop the Music” and her last #1, “Rude Boy.” Yes, Stargate has once again been brought on board to ensure Rihanna all types of “happy” and “dancey” success.
Hopes will not be held high but it will be nice to be pleasantly surprised because as Proph said, “She’s as as good as her last single.” The tastes of “Te Amo” and “Rockstar 101″ were bittersweet. We hope “Only Girl…” is that rot your teeth kind of sweet.
Jay Complex spoke to us about his Underdog mixtape some months ago and now the days are nearing as the official mixtape cover art is here. Teaming up with BJM Photogrpahy, Jay stands in front of a chalkboard lined with the words, “I will not back down.” It is a strong message to show his drive, hunger, passion for what he does and where he wants to be.
Jay recently let loose another track from the mixtape and we are feeling this right about now.
It was proven that not everyone can have their cake and eat it too when this week’s Billboard 200 chart was released. At #1 was Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream which was expected after the major success of her singles, “California Girls,” “Teenage Dream,” and the promo circus that was put together by her label. What wasn’t expected was although Perry was #1, her sales’ numbers were lacking. Teenage Dream sold about 192,000 copies which is not horrible by today’s music industry standards but is far off from earlier predictions. Early predictions had Perry estimated to sell near Gold numbers: near 400,000.
In a recent MTV article, the spotlight is put on Perry’s latest album as being more of a greatest hits collection than a “cohesive” list of songs. [READ HERE] Which makes sense as it seems people nowadays like their music uptempo and short as possible. So it’s almost as if the record labels know they won’t make the money with album sales so they say, “it’s all about the singles.”
There’s no sense in fighting the change; the days of each of your albums going Diamond with 2-5 #1 singles are over. Mariah Carey was the last to do accomplish that feat. Even Britney Spears who sold a ton of albums still only achieved her second #1 single about 10 years into her career and we still think that had to do with politics. In a similar situation, Alicia Keys couldn’t get a single to chart properly to save her life off the The Element of Freedom but that album surely went on to sell near-Gold figures in its first week alone and became Platinum soon after. On the contrary, Rihanna has hits upon hits especially only being around for five years yet her albums sales are nothing to boast about. Eminem is the only one out right now who can top both the singles’ and album charts along with Lady GaGa of the new decade of Pop Stars.
So as it stands the current crop of Pop stars are catering to listeners who appreciate a “fun” single instead of a “solid” album. But what will work for Perry is she has so many singles on Teenage Dream that they will keep the listeners’ attention and cause the album to stay in the charts for a long while.
N*E*R*D spoke had a one-on-one with Blackbook magazine to discuss their fourth studio album, Nothing. In the interview, the members discuss their different approach to the music all while keeping their unique and quirky style:
Williams’ deliberate shift from playboy to politico is felt all over Nothing, which he approached with a new-found sensitivity to global affairs. “We looked at the war, we looked at commerce, we looked at finance, we looked at the environment,” he says. It’s heavy stuff for a band whose inaugural single was called “Lapdance.” But, he adds, smiling, “We also looked at other interesting things, like the new Ferrari. I like a flower as much as I like a Ferrari. If it’s under the sun, why do I have to choose just one?”
For Nothing, 27 initial tracks were whittled down to the dozen or so that appear on the mastered album. The ones that got cut weren’t “magical,” Hugo says. “They were all great songs,” adds Williams, “but we needed something that will make people go, ‘What the fuck was that?’ When you hear this music, you’re gonna bug out.” Given the underwhelming critical reception of N.E.R.D’s last couple offerings, the band had better hope to blow a few minds. [SOURCE]
The guys have been through some changes as of late but it seems that the group remains a threesome. From what we just read it seems that the music will be left-field as usual so don’t expect a Billboard Hot 100 #1 unless it’s a surprise. Listen to 2 new tracks from the album after…
When we look through our posts from last year it was obvious how excited we were to see Rihanna’s “Rihturn” to Pop music. It was a whole other story when we heard the music. After losing a great deal of interest this year a story popped up online stating that Rihanna was to perform a new song in August of 2010. Well, August is nearly over and there is no new song BUT new information surfaced.
Firstly, Rihanna was most likely pushed to take over her official Twitter account which signals a whole new time period of her music. You would think Rihanna connecting more with the fans via Twitter would be great but she actually loses that mystery and star quality that the then mute Pop star exuded in the Summer of 2009.
The next bit of news was announced that the UK was to premiere the first single from the forthcoming album (to be released on November 2) entitled “Only Girl.” A lot of emphasis is being put on the fact that her new music will be a lot more “upbeat” and “dancey” compared to the music of her Rated R album.
A few more days passed and now Rihanna’s first single is another song entitled “Cheers” and will not premiere this Tuesday. One thing is for sure we could never write off a performer before we hear the music but the Bajan who ruled the Pop world with the song “Umbrella” and the album Good Girl Gone Bad may have reached her Thriller period in her career.
NOTE: “Thriller period” is another way of describing a Pop act’s peak in their career.
Oh, by the way, it looks as though will return to rocking longer hair in that unnatural Red hue…
So whilst we’ve been “absent” Kanye West is making sure the atmosphere stays saturated with his music, for at least until the end of the year. Here’s how he’s doing this:
Every Friday until Christmas a new song from the G.O.O.D. fam will be released: G.O.O.D. Friday
Kanye West and Jay-Z will release a 5 song EP entitled Watch the Throne
The first song from “G.O.O.D. Friday” is the second track from Watch the Throne. The massive track is simply titled “Monster” and it describes the song perfectly. Kanye West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver and Nicki Minaj all hold their own making for a pretty damn solid tune.
Let’s put the spotlight on Nicki Minaj for a little while. West stated earlier that Minaj had the potential to be the second greatest rapper, EVER. Well it is way too early to even think of a statement like that but we cannot help but agree with the popular opinion that Nicki Minaj absolutely took this song to a whole new level. Her rhymes were insane, her voices were entertaining rather than annoying and she turned the hype UP.
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Speaking of Ms. Minaj, a song leaked of hers feat. Will.I.Am entitled “Check It Out.” The song samples the popular late 70’s hit “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. The song is another “Your Love”; it’s mindless radio fodder but it is still so damn addictive. Listen to “Check It Out” after…
Drake was on Ustream the other night where he announced the Welcome Home Weezy tour. He also gave more details on his upcoming FREE R&B mixtape. He revealed the title of the mixtape to be (more…)
Britney Spears took to her official Twitter account to post a pic of herself on the set of Glee. She can be the cutest… Some could not be any more excited and others think she is lowering herself by appearing on the show. In other news, stans rejoice, it has been revealed that Spears’ seventh studio album is near complete:
Good news and bad news people……The bad news is Brit wont be attending this years VMA’s. The good news is she wont be attending because she is heavily focused on finishing her new album which is incredible so far! [SOURCE]
It still rings loud that her best album, Blackout, was created and released after a 4 year hiatus and when she was considered “insane.” It’s an interesting thing how the media tried to beat her to a pulp but speaking of Blackout, listen to one of our favorite cuts from the album.
Many Monsters cried their little poisoned hearts out to learn Lady GaGa would not release a new album until 2011. Well this morning on the Ryan Seacrest radio show, Lady GaGa stopped by and vaguely spoke of the new album:
“I know I told everybody my album was done, which is it kinda is done, but I can’t stop writing music. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I might have to put out two records.” [SOURCE]
Does that mean an album consisting of 2 discs or two separate projects? Either way, we want the new music to keep the the GaGa momentum going because who doesn’t like watching an artist transform into an icon.
Kanye West may still be on a handful of some people’s bad sides but as far as MTV and the rest of the public go, Kanye is good company. It was announced today that Kanye West will be performing at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. There is no confirmation as to what will happen on the stage that night but hopefully he performs a new single.
West has many “surprises” for us in the upcoming months to his November release album. But back to this 2010 VMA performance, we wonder if all will go peaceful or will some being feel the need to disrespect Kanye as he did another last year… *Kanye Shrug*
