B.o.B. wakes up and progresses throughout the day with many pretty ladies and a crazy house party. The question at the end is whether or not all that fun was all real or just a dream?

The video just smacks you in the face with enticing visuals. Lighting, fashion and simplicity are the three main factors behind this video and it’s those three main components that make this video one heck of a piece stylized art. Everything looks perfect and Kylie looks like, well, a goddess. Check the video out below.

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.

The overly cute Selena Gomez of Selena Gomez & The Scene is about to release the group’s latest single, “A Year Without Rain,” from their sophomore album of the same title. The album will hit stores on September 21. We’ve always overlooked Gomez because she just seemed like one of the Disney crowd aka a Hollywood Records product. Then it finally hit us that she is exactly what we always say the overly sexual female performers should be: class and intelligence over sex and scandalous behavior.

“A Year Without Rain” is an almost perfect slice of Euro-inspired Dance/Pop. The intro sounds a little like Coldplay’s “Clocks” before switching into a euphoric thumping dance beat. It doesn’t take but one listen before you could care less who it is you’re listening to and just realize that this song Rocks, we mean Pop. Peep a preview of the music video after…

Download audio file (Selena-Gomez-The-Scene-A-Year-Without-Rain-thecsperspective.com.mp3)

The anticipation for Ne-Yo’s forthcoming studio album, Libra Scale, is pretty much non-existent and that’s possibly due to the bland and boring material that has leaked thus far. A new leak surfaced earlier and whilst it’s still nothing magnificent it surely sounds good.

The Stargate-produced “Everything’s Alright” has a really nice string melody and relies on repetition to make it way too easy for the listener to catch-on and sing those “OH-OH-OH-OHHHHHHHHH’s.” Ne-Yo really is hit-and-miss with this album, mostly miss but this song is doing it for us right now.

Download audio file (Ne-Yo-Everythings-Alright-thecsperspective.com.mp3)

In other Ne-Yo news, he spoke about recently going into the studio with Beyoncé for the her fourth studio album:

“It’s coming along nicely. I can’t speak too much on it, but it’s another direction for her, and she’s carving out her own niche. In a minute nobody will be in Beyonce’s lane. They really can’t get in her lane now, but they really can’t get in her lane after this album.”

Ne-Yo is partially responsible for Beyoncé’s #1 hit, “Irreplaceable,” so maybe they’ll work the magic again. As for Beyoncé being in her own lane, just READ HERE.

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.

It may be four entire months until Lady GaGa reveals the title of her third studio album on New Year’s Day but that isn’t stopping the information from rolling out. It is now known that Fernando Garibay will executive-produce the album.[SOURCE]

Fernando Garibay worked with GaGa on The Fame Monster for “Dance In the Dark.” He may not be widely known YET but Garibay had his productions out on the radio since 1998. Some of Garibay’s productions include Mya’s “Movin’ On,” Ricky Martin’s “Shake Your Bon Bon,” Enrique Iglesias’ “Bailamos,” Britney Spears’ “Quicksand” and “Amnesia,” Whitney Houston’s “Nothin’ But Love” a heap of The Paradiso Girls tunes including his best kept secret, “Down.”

Garibay has an entire other truckload of well known Top 40 songs that he’s either solely or co-produced. We had no idea he co-produced Houston’s “Nothin’ But Love”; we thought it was all Nathaniel “Danja” Hills‘ doing.

After running through that list of songs and knowing the songs he’s produced we could not be any more excited about this album and know that the pair will cook up some GREAT things.

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…

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Not too long ago, just under a year, Shakira released her greatly overlooked She Wolf album. Now, the naturally sexy international artist is releasing a brand new album entitled Sale El Sol. The behind-the-scenes videos of her brand new single, “Loca,” featuring Dizzee Rascal made its way online and now we finally get to hear both the English and Spanish versions of the songs.

Thanks to Proph we know that song borrows from El Cata’s “Loca Con Su Tiguere.” The song takes us on a trip back to the old Shakira with all its Latin elements whilst implementing new sounds such as Cuban music and the “grimey” Dizzee. The song is a definite winner and further shows off how Shakira can pull off being a cultural artist with so much Pop appeal so well. Listen to both the English and Spanish versions below.

This Spanish version is sending a heatwave through this place, so sexy.

Photographer Blair J. Meadows was inspired by the catastrophic BP oil oil spill. Meadows chose five local models, placed them in swimsuits and set the tone for a dark themed photoshoot. Below is an excerpt of what the photoshoot is all about:

It’s been well over 100 days since the oil started to leak in the Gulf Coast – leaving countless amounts of animals and marine life in jeopardy, and turning “making a living” into trying to survive in a living hell. Predictions were made that the oil can possibly flow to the islands of the Bahamas. Most of us took this threat seriously seeing that we have no means of acting against it. However, in a matter of days we were back to normal: focusing on minor things such as where we go and how we dress. [SOURCE]

The models look great and Meadows & Co. put a lot of effort behind the entire project. It’s great to see our Bahamians putting a little more creativity and thinking a little more outside of the box artistically. View images after…

 

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By the time Lady GaGa’s third studio album hits stores in early 2011 we may hear a great portion of the album much earlier thanks to the Lady’s performances alone. At her recent concert in St. Paul, Minnesota the performer took to her piano to do her usual ballad routine. This time she switched things up and performed a brand new song entitled “Livin’ On the Radio.”

GaGa is really loving her piano. This is now the third ballad with a very similar sound: “Speechless,” “You and I,” and now “Livin’ On the Radio.” Be that as it may, “Livin’ On the Radio” is our favorite of the three. We can’t say that we’re super excited about her third album just yet but we know when the hype machine is powered up we’ll be right there like little sheep. Listen to the song after…

Nineteen year-old singer/songwriter JoJo (WOW, she’s still that young) had all sorts of drama including music leaks and label issues since the release of her sophomore album, The High Road, four years ago. Well all that mess has somewhat vanished as she exclusively teamed up with Rap-Up.com to premiere her new music.

Firstly, JoJo is releasing a mixtape under the title Can’t Take That Away From Me before her third studio album. The first song from the mixtape was unveiled on Rap-Up this morning. The song is titled “In The Dark.” JoJo explains her musical experimentation with the popular site:

“I think ‘In the Dark’ is different than anything people have heard from me before,” JoJo says of the song, which was produced by Jordan Gatsby and co-written by JoJo and Gatsby. “It’s a very sensual record and there’s an undertone of sadness to it.” [SOURCE]

Whilst being experimental it is also stated that the song will not reflect the material of her third studio album. Well they may want to reconsider because this is the most grown and one of the best sounding songs to come from JoJo… Wow, just listen to the song below because the vibe is so sensual and that bass is bananas. Listen 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.

Download audio file (Kanye-West-Monster-feat-Jay-Z-Rick-Ross-Nicki-Minaj-Bon-Iver-thecsperspective.com.mp3)

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…

Download audio file (Nicki-Minaj-Check-It-Out-Shout-feat.-Will.I.Am-thecsperspective.com.mp3)

Some months back we posted on the Philadelphia Hip-Hop duo known as Reinvention. They released a few songs but later decided to go their separate ways. Rapper Classic has been hard at work working on his solo material and has two tracks to show for it: “Pay Day” and “Rocka Salute.”

“Pay Day” is mellow but uplifting at the same time. It has an Alternative sound similar to a Lupe Fiasco song. What’s even better is the fact that those same rapping skills of Classic are transformed into singing in the hook. It’s a feel-good contemporary Hip-Hop tune.

“Rocka Salute” on the other hand is more aggressive and gritty. This song is a definite head banga and follows the lead of any other anthem out there. This is the type of song that will have your speakers flooding your surroundings to the point where nothing else can be heard.

The guy with the smooth beats and vocals, Sketch, is releasing a new single, produced by himself and written and co-wriiten by himself and Kieran Chase. “Once Upon a Time” will hit Bahamian radio waves this week.

Sketch’s brand new jam starts off midtempo to warm up the listener then the tempo picks up and the bass kicks in. The hyper Pop/Dance beat sets off and his “party” song is is full motion. Here’s what he had to say about the why he created his latest:

“I was in the studio thinking about what I should do next as a new single and started listening to Taio Cruz – Dynamite, Flo Rida – Club Cant Handle Me then Jessica Jarrell – Up And Running and realized that i didn’t have any party songs. So I got to the midi keyboard right away and started working on the track while Keiran Chase helped me with lyrics & Once Upon A Time was born.” [SOURCE]

Download audio file (Sketch-Once-Upon-a-Time-thecsperspective.com.mp3)

“…The sun finally shined through the clouds. I’m so grateful.”

… were the words typed by Chris Brown to genuinely display his gratitude for radio listeners making his single, “Deuces,” featuring Tyga and Kevin McCall #1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop charts and in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 for this week.

Congrats are in order to the guy who’s basically been shunned for the last year and a half. It’s really hard to say if he’ll ever reach that level of popularity he had but one thing is for sure, if he does, it definitely won’t be the same. His image is just totally different than his original clean cut look; that being said without considering the incident. Those tattoos just took away the detailed polish look his record label put on him in the beginning.

On top of the good news for Brown, a song that leaked twice before in snippet and tagged form is here in its full tagless glory. The song, “Without You,” is his usual run-of-the-mill sappy love story gone bad tune. The thing about this song is it still sounds pretty good and it doesn’t just sound like a cheesy Pop/R&B ballad.

Download audio file (Chris-Brown-Without-You-thecsperspective.com.mp3)

This past Saturday was the launch party of eLIFE242’s 2010 Swimsuit Edition. The event was tied in with Saturdays In the City hosted at the British Colonial Hilton’s Bullion Lounge. Many were in attendance and guests got the chance to interact with the swimsuit models including covergirl Ariel Garraway.

We were just as surprised to see the see the finished version of the magazine; everything happened so quickly and it was a great result. After the success of the party and magazine, these next few months should be very exciting. View photos from the launch party after…

 

Canadian singer-songwriter, Colin Munroe, has delved into the past and put his hands on a classic. The singer-songwriter put a modern twist on Prince’s 1984 classic, “I Would Die 4 U.” So how does it sound?

Well to start things off, the song is incomparable to the original. It’s not bad at all it’s just the original will always be on its own level of greatness. Munroe’s updated version slows down the tempo just a little and the beat is more punctual with added bass. It’s a cool cover that will get some more spins in one of our countless playlists.

Download audio file (Colin-Munroe-I-Would-Die-4-U-Prince-Cover.mp3)

Listen to the original after…