In the past few months, I've personally witnessed everyone from Jay-Z to the Roots to Joanna Newsom interrupting their concerts to show Sen. Barack Obama some love — plus, of course, I've heard the billions of shout-outs that they and other musicians have offered him in interviews, songs, and videos. Now, just in time for the candidate's coronation by the punditocracy this week, we've got another musical endorsement on our hands. This one's from L.A. dreamer Ti$a, a.k.a. Taz Arnold of acclaimed left-of-center hip-hop collective Sa-Ra. And unlike many of the well-meaning tributes thrown Obama's way, Ti$a's "Vote Obama" is kinda fun regardless of your politics.
Not the song itself, necessarily. (It loops Ice Cube's "It Was A Good Day" over, and over, and over, pushing that classic sample to the brink of annoyance. There aren't much in the way of lyrics, either.) But check out that video (below)! It's a pure candy-colored psychedelic treat, featuring featuring lots of celeb cameos. (Kanye West, Chris Brown, um, Travis Barker...) I haven't seen such a weird and cool-looking piece of campaign propaganda since Mike Gravel's last viral opus.
So help me brainstorm here. What cabinet position do you think Taz deserves in January based on this fine piece of work? Undersecretary of Trippy Parades? Day-Glo Funkmaster General, perchance? I think even John McCain could agree on one of those...
Chi-town rapper/actor Common's very cool upcoming album, Invincible Summer, has a much more synth-based sound than his last couple efforts — shiny circuitry in place of organic soul, you might say. (More on this in EW's summer music preview coverage, in print later this month.) But don't tell that to the character he'll be playing on-screen in the new Terminator sequel. According to Variety, Com's just been cast in T4as a human "freedom fighter," working closely with John Connor (Christian Bale) to take down those evil, murderous machines... so, probably not a guy who listens to a lot of mechanistic electro-rap.
But word! This almost makes up for that Ghostface/Iron Man snub. In all seriousness, this sounds great to me. I'm a fan of his music, of course, but I also thought he showed surprising sensitivity in his few American Gangster scenes last year, where he played one of Denzel Washington's brothers. What do you say? Bale's a pretty intense dude to share a screen with — think Common can hold his own alongside him?
Well, apparently he's spinning because he's in a studio that's been engineered to slowly rotate through 360 degrees, like one of those gimmicky revolving restaurants. But that really doesn't even begin to answer the questions raised by the mesmerizing video that Mr. West posted on his consistently entertaining blog. I mean, is he trying to send us a cryptic hint about a top-secret musical project? (First we hear he's recording at a freak-folk-friendly Sacramento studio, now this.) Gnarls Barkley's "No Time Soon" plays throughout the clip as 'Ye silently putters on his laptop. So maybe he's working on some kind of remix for those dudes? Or he could just be showing off an absurdly over-the-top bit of luxury design, like all the other random prototypes he's always posting. Perhaps Kanye had this room commissioned because he does his best work when slightly dizzy.
Or this could all be a subliminal ad for the MacBook he's using. Or — wait! — is it some sort of elaborate Photoshop trick? I dunno, but that meaningful stare he gives the camera as the clip fades out is driving me crazy. What do you say?
Forget Robert Downey Jr. Never mind that admittedly awesome trailer. The real reason I was looking forward to seeing Iron Man this weekend was, of course, Ghostface Killah's reported cameo. But word got out this week that the Wu-Tang rapper's character doesn't show up in the final cut.
Aw, man! Why'd they do Ghost like that? Seeing him and RDJ share "an exchange about lending each other yachts and Bentleys" whilst partying in Dubai would have meant so much to us fans. And Ghost really deserved this. By naming his first album Ironman and obsessively referring to himself as "Tony Starks" in song for the following decade, he singlehandedly made a second-string Marvel character cool again. (To a generation of kids who don't know from Sabbath, that is.)
And now, after a career's worth of pro bono product-placement work, Ghost gets bupkis. That SOHH story linked above says that director Jon Favreau made it up to him by commissioning an original Iron Man-themed rap song for the movie — which I guess could help salve the pain caused by his on-screen absence a little bit. In the meantime, I'll have to content myself with "We Made It" (below; lotsa NSFW language), a vintage Starks performance featuring what appears to be sampled dialogue from an old Iron Man cartoon. Anyone else wondering what a rapper's gotta do to score a cameo in a superhero movie?
I was pretty upset when T.I. was caught in a federal gun sting last fall. Above all, my heart went out to a smart, personable artist who'd gotten himself into some major trouble — and on a purely selfish level, I worried that the 30-year prison term he was facing might cut the career of one of my favorite rappers way too short. But T.I. was able to strike an extraordinarily lenient plea bargain last month, and today he debuted his first post-arrest music. "No Matter What," the lead single from his new album Paper Trail (now bumped up to an August 12 release), is streaming on StreetCred.com; you can also check it out below. So how does T.I. sound these days?
Good news: This ordeal hasn't taken anything out of him, talent-wise. That's not to say he hasn't changed. The T.I. we knew was a stylish lyricist, a guy who grinned as he delivered boasts and death threats in a shower of mellifluous verse. Here he slows that quicksilver flow down to a reflective drawl that matches producer Nate "Danja" Hills' stately beat. He wants us to hear what he has to say. That includes words of genuine contrition: "Apologies to the fans, I hope you can understand it/Life can change
directions, even when you ain't plan it/All you can do is handle
it." It also includes some glimpses of defiant pride: "Pain's a small thing to a giant/I was born without a dime/Out the
gutter I climbed/Spoke my mind/And didn't stutter one time/Ali said
even the greatest have to suffer sometimes." Ultimately, he settles on a spirituality that recalls Tupac Shakur's most influential work: "I hope the picture's painted clear/If your heart's filled with faith, then you can't fear/Wonder how I faced years and I'm still chilling?/Easy: Let go and let God deal with it." There are more than a few contradictions and ambiguities packed into all that — and he never quite gets around to talking about what was going through his mind when he decided to buy up all those illegal weapons. Then again, it would have been very easy for T.I. to back away entirely from his inner turmoil and cut an impersonal club banger for his first single. I'm glad he chose to bare his (complicated) soul again instead. Aren't you?
Usher's "Love in this Club" is easily one of the year's best pop or R&B singles to date. After weeks of constant TV/radio rotation, I still can't stop humming that pre-chorus hook (and no, I don't care whether or not producer Polow Da Don got those loops straight from GarageBand). But when one realizes, as Usher does, that one "want{s} to make love in this club," the real question is: With whom? That first version includes a decent guest verse from Young Jeezy; a semi-official remix added a welcome cameo from T.I., who put his slick "My Love" flow to good use yet again. But this week, Ush hit us with a special slow-jam sequel. "Love in This Club Part II" (below; some NSFW language) attempts to one-up its predecessors with all-new vocals from Beyoncé and Lil Wayne. And?
Well, Idolator’s already comparing it to R. Kelly's untouchably classic "Ignition Remix," which is just silly. If you ask me, the slower tempo does no favors to "Love in This Club," which was already a bit serious and gooey-sounding for a song about public sex. Now that it's become a straight-up quiet storm joint, Usher's can't-wait come-ons sound even more ridiculous and creepy. ("Don’t be shy, go on, let your boy get in," he croons, "So you can tell all of your friends you was on the remix.") As for Wayne, well, he's Wayne. For every moment of awe-inspiringlyricalgenius he's capable of, he seems to turn out a bonus burst of phoned-in drivel like this. He recycles lines and cadences from his own "Lollipop" and his popular remix of Mario's "Crying Out for Me"; all that's new is a particularly raspy vocal tone. The only real strong point in the whole song is Beyoncé, who's in great voice. It's nice to hear her on some new music, but what's she doing wasting her time on this subpar mess?
Then again, that's just my take; anyone out there like "Part II" as much as Usher's first try?
I am not a huge sports person (shocker, I know), but I
do greatly enjoy arcane disputes between rappers — and just in time for
the NBA playoffs, those two worlds have collided. As one of my less hopelessly dorky friends informed me at a convivial seder recently, Washington
Wizards shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson said last month that Cleveland Cavaliers small forward LeBron James was "overrated"; LeBron retorted that said insult was akin
to, say, Soulja Boy dissing Jay-Z; and just this past weekend, Soulja Boy himself chimed in to express his displeasure at being used as a synonym for
"wack rapper." (My NBA-savvy sources tell me that
Stevenson's the one who should really be miffed: He might not be in
shouting distance of LeBron's talent, but he is not an irritatingly
talentless nobody like Soulja Boy, whose greatest achievement to date is providing the raw material for a brilliant parody by blogger Jay Smooth.)
Point is, I see the makings of an epic musical battle shaping up. LeBron name-checked Jay-Z for a reason: He and the Jiggaman are good buddies. (Jay's even called LeBron an honorary "Roc member.") And we know that Jay's nursed his share of lyrical grudges in the past. Sure, he says he's older and wiser now — but he's been sounding more and more like his hungry old self lately. So could he defend his guy with some poisonous couplets aimed at Stevenson and/or Soulja Boy? The watch for a ruthless subliminal attack hidden inside Jay's next guest verse starts now.
Okay, maybe this is an unlikely scenario considering that neither Soulja Boy nor Stevenson have said anything at all negative about him — and since the whole point of LeBron's wisecrack was that someone as powerful as Jay would have no reason to swat back at an annoyance like Soulja Boy. Whatever! Let me have my dream! Alternately, Soulja
Boy also told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he'd consider "a 2-on-2 basketball
game for charity between himself and Stevenson against James and
Jay-Z." Now that's a game I'd tune in for. In the meantime, have any of you been following this somewhat contrived war of words?
How great is it that Tyga's new single, "Coconut Juice," prominently features the rap newcomer belting out the hook from Harry Nilsson's 1971 hit "Coconut" (a.k.a. "the 'lime in the coconut' song") over some supercharged synths? Very great indeed, say I. That simple sample elevates an otherwise mediocre tune into something I can't stop listening to — the first 30 seconds or so, anyway. Not sure why no one else seems to be thrilling to this bit of re-appropriative genius yet; as I write this, a Google blogs search for "tyga nilsson" turns up exactly one hit, and it's a snarky one. I mean, is Tyga into "Coconut" because of Reservoir Dogs? Was the song's producer just a really big fan of Nixon-era singer-songwriters? Whatever — I'm just happy this happened. (Check out the video — featuring moderately entertaining cameos from Lil Wayne, Pete Wentz, and Tyga's cousin Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes — below.) Don't you agree?
I love the way music sounds when it's played backwards. Such a simple change, really, but it makes even the most ordinary tune seem so beautifully alien — like looking in the mirror and seeing a Martian staring back. So I was pretty psyched to see (via Idolator) that Gnarls Barkley is giving away a backwards file of their just-released The Odd Couple for free online. On first listen, I'm finding no hidden Satanic messages to speak of, but plenty of gorgeously trippy ear candy. I'm this close to declaring Elpuoc Ddo Eht better than the (very good) original album — more mind-blowingly strange, at least. It'd be great if this inspired more bands to follow suit immediately, if only for the weirdos like me who adore this kind of stuff.
What are you waiting for? Run (backwards) on over to fronttobackbacktofront.com and check it out for yourself! And in the meantime, after the jump, a few of my very favorite songs that use backmasked sounds. Anything else I'm missing?
Ever since he started minting his ceaseless string of hits, Akon has told every interviewer in sight — including EW — about the three years he spent in prison after being caught leading a grand theft auto ring, and what a pivotal experience that was in terms of his growth as an artist. But the professional bluff-callers at The Smoking Gun posted a lengthy piece yesterday claiming to prove that the R&B singer never did any serious time behind bars at all, nor did he commit the major crimes he's talked about in depth so many times. They say he fabricated his car-jacking exploits out of thin air, adding fictional details as he went along, and concealing his relatively humdrum past.
Is Akon really "James Frey with catchy hooks and an American Music Award," as TSG calls him? We'll see. In the meantime, here's a bigger question: Why? What would be the point of making up such a comprehensive fake backstory, knowing it could crumble at the slightest investigation? (Compare this with someone like Jay-Z, who talks a lot about how he supposedly used to deal crack in Brooklyn, but purposely keeps it all very vague, instead of saying, "I was locked up in this specific prison for this specific number of years after committing this specific crime.") TSG seems to think it's all about commercial expectations: "Because without the embellishments and fabrications, without the havoc and heartache, what separates him from every other wannabe clawing for commercial success? Why chance having your work judged solely on its merits when a little artistic license can make you so much more distinctive and marketable?" That might be part of the story, but I'm not sure it's the whole thing. After all, who's articulating those demands? Was Akon egged on by more explicit pressures from label execs with a narrow conception of how "urban" artists are supposed to have lived? Or is there another explanation entirely? You tell me...
It's unfortunate that Alicia Keys has backed away from her admittedly intemperate comments to Blender magazine. In her clarification, she says she didn't intend to blame the government for creating gangsta rap as "a ploy to convince black people to kill each other"; rather, she intended to blame the media for overhyping music that, she acknowledges, sometimes portrays the reality of certain social ills. (As politicians know, when in doubt, blame the media.)
Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist — I prefer not to attribute to malice what can more easily be blamed on stupidity, short-sighted greed, incompetence, or neglect. I don't think the government is clever or efficient enough to have invented gangsta rap as a hitmaking scheme, much less as a genocidal plot. (Also, if the music really is a plot targeted toward black people, where do all the suburban white kids buying the music fit in?) But it is worth asking how gangsta rap became so popular, to the exclusion of all other forms of rap. It wasn't just media hype. Was it all just marketing? Or was it, as Keys suggests now, because it addressed social realities that were ignored elsewhere? I'm not fully convinced by any one of these notions, but these are questions that ought to be asked, and it would be a shame if the hyperbole of Keys' earlier remarks became an excuse to avoid asking them.
If I were truly conspiracy-minded, I'd wonder if Keys' newly apologetic tone had been forced on her by her management, by someone who worries that being seen as a firebrand will make it harder for her to sell tickets to soccer moms for her elaborately staged arena tour, which kicks off this weekend. I hope that's not the case; I hope Keys isn't discouraged from sticking to the goal she outlined to Blender to write political songs in the future; if anyone can make outrage into a hummable hit, it should be Keys.
Not that any of us should ever need an excuse to listen to "Funkdafied," but rapper-turned-VH1-reality star Da Brat turns 34 today. All together now: "So lay back and listen as I catch up on my pimpin'/ And freak this duet just like Ashford and Simpson." Genius.
As president of Island Urban Records, Jermaine Dupri has spent a lot of time thinking about the future of music. And his latest brainchild is... TAG Records, a joint venture with, yes, TAG Body Spray, the favored scent of skeezy dudes everywhere. When I first saw this press release in my inbox, I thought it had to be a way-late April Fool's joke. I still wish it were. "Today, we make history in the music industry with TAG Records," Dupri pompously offers. What kind of history — terrible-idea history?! I'm sorry, but sure-to-fail vanity labels and cheap-o deodorant brands (what, he couldn't have gone upmarket and partnered with Axe?) are two cultural phenomena which did not need to join forces. Besides, there's already a defunct label called Tag Recordings!
Oh, this label. As Jay Sherman would say, it stinks! (Indeed, one blogger has already dubbed it "Stanky Records.") It hurts me to give it even a little bit more publicity with this post. But now that I have, what do you say — would you ever willingly buy a CD with the TAG logo on it?
Lil Wayne's feverishly anticipated, infinitely delayed album Tha Carter III may not have a firm release date yet — latest word is it'll be out on June 10 — but boy, does it have some cover art. Since last night, when Amazon.com posted the oddly enthralling image to the left, the hip-hop blogs havebeenablaze. Wayne, it would seem, wants the world to see his magnum opus as the work of a thoughtful, tatted-up toddler. Is it real? Is it fake? In sum, HUH?
First things first: Wayne's label confirms that yes, this is the actual cover art for Tha Carter III. Wow. Maybe all those times he dubbed himself "Weezy F. Baby, please say the baby," he wasn't honoring his mentor Bryan "Baby" Williams after all. He was just shouting out his inner mafioso-esque child! What's more, I think I finally understand why last summer, the one time I talked to Wayne — shortly before he abruptly began screaming profanities for no apparent reason and hung up on me — he told me he'd been recording Tha Carter III "my whole life... working on every album I ever dropped my whole life." I'd assumed it was just another semi-coherent boast, but I see now that he was being mad literal. Ladies and gents, we have now seen the face of the nursery-schooler who composed "Lollipop."
Okay, jokes aside (they're just too easy!), I actually kinda dig this cover. It's a clear play to place Carter III in the pantheon of all-time classic rap albums featuring baby pix: Illmatic,Ready to Die... Weezy's power resides in his unparalleled chutzpah, his refusal to surrender an inch of creative freedom to his legions of detractors. Why shouldn't he slap a patently ridiculous, self-important Photoshop job on the front of his new CD? Besides, if he's finalized his album cover, maybe that means we're a little closer to actually hearing this thing within our lifetimes. Hallelujah! But what do you think of all this?
I've decided not to vote for Barack Obama, now that I've learned from this informative interview with presidential pundit Snoop Dogg that the candidate's campaign is actually funded by the KKK. Oh, I know it sounds ludicrous, and I realize that it's curious that Snoop didn't mention it during his recent political chat with Larry King, and I know Obama has categorically denied it, but still, who you gonna believe: a politician, or the Constitutional scholar who penned this treatise on First Amendment free speech rights (specifically, defending the right of rappers to use words like 'bitch" and "ho")? I don't know, by the way, whether it's also true that Hillary Clinton's campaign is secretly funded by a shadowy organization of male chauvinists, or that John McCain's is secretly funded by hippie peaceniks, but I'm sure Snoop will investigate those topics next, and I breathlessly await his report.
Now that hip-hop has become a multinational, gazillion-dollar enterprise, it's all too easy to forget how it began: as a startlingly fresh hybrid artform, practiced by a relatively small community of devotees in the Bronx and Manhattan. Wayne Frost, a.k.a. Frosty Freeze, was one of the undeniable greats back then. As a key member of the Rock Steady Crew, he helped take breakdancing beyond the streets of New York — popularizing the new moves on the big screen in films like Wild Style, Beat Street, and Flashdance.
Frosty Freeze died yesterday in a Manhattan hospital at the age of 44. (He'd been suffering from a long illness, which his family has not yet identified publicly.) I just got off the phone with Freeze's fellow b-boy star, Richard "Crazy Legs" Colón, who was kind enough to share a few memories of their early days together. "When we first started taking hip-hop on the road, he was there with me for the first tours," Crazy Legs said, recalling trips they took to dance in London and Paris. "The thing about it is, Frosty Freeze, although he was an inspirational
figure, wasn't anyone that was easily imitated. He was that unique. You have your Magic Johnsons and your Larry
Birds and your Michael Jordans. Frosty Freeze was at the forefront of
originality when it came to b-boying."
Despite all that, Crazy Legs said, the contributions of Frosty Freeze and other early b-boys are often overlooked. "Most people don't know the history of breaking before its primary commercial exposure. People think of it in terms of what went on in the '80s, but the dance started in the '70s, and Frosty Freeze was representative of the DNA of the style. He was the last one to truly represent the original form."
Amen. Let's take this sad occasion as an opportunity to remember Frosty Freeze's legacy — just like the makers of the YouTube tribute below have done. Were you influenced by any of Freeze's movies? What does b-boy culture mean to you?
The "behind the scenes shots" that Kanye West just posted of the sets for his spring tour don't quite come as advertised: There's just one pic, and it's pretty fuzzy at that. But the accompanying blurb has nonetheless sent me into an anticipatory tizzy. "I tell people, hey, this show is gonna be crazy and they say, 'I bet it is!'," Kanye smirks. "BUT THEY HAVE NO IDEA!" Let us count the design elements they have no idea of...
• "ROBOT DESIGNED BY ACCLAIMED ARTIST CHRISTIAN COLON": I won't lie, I get a little uncomfortable every time I read about human beings eagerly extending the hand of friendship to robots. (Haven't these people ever watched Battlestar?!) Still, this somewhat scary news does sound pretty cool.
• "CREATURES BY THE LEGENDARY JIM HENSON'S CREATURE SHOP": Creatures! Which gives me a perfect excuse to link to this genius Muppets/N.W.A. mashup that's been making the blog rounds (NSFW lyrics, obvs).
• "LIGHTING BY MARTIN PHILLIPS AND JOHN McGUIRE RESPONSIBLE FOR LAST YEARS
FESTIVAL ANNIHILATOR, DAFT PUNK'S PYRAMID, POSSIBLY THE GREATEST LIGHT
SHOW OF ALL TIME!!": True, that pyramid was really dope.
• "MY SET DOES NOT HAVE A PYRAMID IN IT OR ANYWAY FEEL LIKE A BITE OF DAFT'S SHOW": I appreciate that Kanye has taken the time to clarify these things.
• "HOLOGRAMS SHOT BY HYPE WILLIAMS!!!": Kanye and Hype have done somegreatwork together, so this should be fun. (Also of note: Judging by an NSFW follow-up image posted by 'Ye, some of these apparently might be naked-people holograms. Do with that information what you will.)
Put that together, and you've got more than enough to convince me to book some plane tickets, perhaps via his recently launched KanyeTravel.com. Any other spectacle-loving rap fans out there looking forward to this tour?
"HOW THE HELL DID A LEVIATHAN GET IN CITY SEWERS?" An important question — and there are few people I'd rather help me answer it than the Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man. Luckily, Mr. Mef is addressing this very issue in the new graphic novel he's written with David Atchison and artist Sanford Greene. Titled simply Method Man, it won't be on sale 'til July. But I'm lucky enough to have an eight-page excerpt sitting in front of me right now, and — well, let me just see if I can communicate a small taste of its awesomeness to you.
Okay, so, there's an evil sea monster dwelling in the underground sewer system of "One Bad Ghetto, USA." And man, did that thing pick the wrong kung-fu-obsessed rapper to mess with. In the excerpt, Method Man — er, his thinly veiled alter ego, mystical detective/"murder priest" Mosley Paine — accidentally discovers it swimming around. (This would be when he produces the exclamation that opened this post.) Paine pumps a few bullets into the beast... and then the excerpt cuts off. Right in the middle of the action!
Now I'm fiending to read the rest of the story, not to mention the separate graphic novels that Wu brothers GZA and Ghostface Killah are reportedly working on as well. Who's with me? And is it too much for me to ask that Meth record a new tune to soundtrack his monster-slaying adventures — a RZA-produced epic sampling Radiohead's "Fog" (a.k.a. "Alligators in New York Sewers"), perchance?
So Jay-Z's ditching his label and signing a comprehensive, historic $150 million deal with Live Nation, joining Madonna on the concert promoters' roster. Can a co-headlined Best of Both Worlds album and tour from Madge and Jay be far behind? (Minus any unexpected macing, fingers crossed.) All kidding aside, as big as this deal is, it really just confirms what anyone who's been paying any attention realized years ago: The old major-label power structure is passé (shocker), and big-time career artists can make waaaay more cash by touring than by recording CDs (double shocker). Still, it's impressive that someone as entrenched in the system as Jay has come around on this. And it's a smart move for sure on Live Nation's part. Jay feels like a more contemporary voice than Madonna, even though he just told the New York Times that he's become "the Rolling Stones of hip-hop."
The question, as always, is how much of an effect this will really have on the rest of the industry — whether this has long-term ramifications for people who aren't named Jay-Z. Every time a megastar signs one of these unorthodox deals, it feels more and more like the tide is shifting. But very few artists have fanbases big enough to justify a move like this, and something tells me Live Nation is not chomping at the bit to finance the next Memphis Bleek record. (Though I hope they prove me wrong — Bleek's last single was not bad!) So? Maybe none of that matters. If this means Jay will continue releasing music (in whatever format) and touring more often in the next few years, I'll be happy. How about you?
"The story is a lie," Sean "Diddy" Combs fumed when he heard about last week's new investigative report on Tupac Shakur's 1994 shooting. "I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would
be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue
story." Well, of course he was shocked. The L.A. Times had just accused his buddies of carrying out the (initial non-fatal) shooting, and claimed FBI reports proved that Diddy and the Notorious B.I.G. knew of the attack in advance — pretty serious allegations to wake up to one morning 14 years after the fact! Still, the Times wouldn't have run such an explosive story if they didn't have rock-solid evidence, right? Right?
Except, apparently, they did just that. Yesterday, The Smoking Gun posted an eviscerating takedown saying that the Times had been duped by a notorious forger who'd fabricated those FBI reports out of whole cloth. And the paper has now posted an apology that more or less concedes the point: "In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do
my job," acknowledges Pulitzer-winning journalist Chuck Philips. Ouch.
As a reporter, this whole unfortunate incident obviously gives me pause. (Note to self:
Kill that breaking-news post I wrote for tomorrow about the Xeroxed CIA files proving Elvis is still alive.) Yet I can't help wondering what else this reveals about our culture. The L.A. Times is a respected institution, not some random gossip rag. Would this story have passed their editorial muster if it was about someone other than Tupac Shakur? Are we too quick to believe sensationalized tales of violence and conspiracy when they involve rappers? Then again, isn't that partially because Biggie and 'Pac spent their entire careers spinning exaggerated myths of their own criminal prowess? You tell me...
Just last week, Annie Barrett lamented 50 Cent's lack of screen time in the teaser trailer for Righteous Kill. How are we supposed to know how the bullet-riddled rapper will stack up next to those no-name co-stars, Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino? Good thing 50 just put out a new viral video (below) that really shows off his talents as an actor. See, Nielsen SoundScan numbers just came out for last week, and The Elephant in the Room, the latest offering from 50's arch-nemesis du jour Fat Joe, opened with a mediocre 46,000 CDs sold. And that's left poor 50 torn up, to the point of senseless, uncontrollable tears.
Look, there are few phrases less intimidating than "YouTube dis," and 50 churns out these viral smackdowns practically by the half-hour. Besides, Fat Joe's current single is sorta catchy. But I can't deny that the first minute or so of this clip had me totally LOL'ing. (Things go downhill and NSFW after the 1:20 mark.) Are you as impressed as I was by the actorly skill 50 shows off here? And can anyone figure out why on earth 50 is wearing head-to-toe Harvard University gear throughout this video?!
Wait — he is?! So that wasn't just an Internet rumor last year, after all. According to the press release that arrived in my inbox this week, OutKast's elder half is indeed set to take the stage at the Atlanta Ballet next month fora rap 'n' dance extravaganza titled big. The release describes its blend of "new & never heard material interwoven with a classical masterpiece such as Verdi’s La Traviata" as a "unique on-stage experience." I'll say! But I've gotta admit that the (sadly Big Boi-free) dress rehearsal footage linked from big's official site looks cool, in a "modern interpretive dance in the key of Speakerboxxx" kinda way. And the guest-vocalist lineup mentioned in that press release is even cooler. Sleepy Brown, Goodie Mob's Khujo, Big Rube — that's maybe halfway to a full-on Dungeon Family reunion, always something to be glad about.
I'd still rather Big Boi just put out his long-promised solo debut
already — or, god forbid, the even longer-promised new OutKast CD. But all in all, this definitely sounds preferable to, say, another Who's Your Caddy?(I actually dragged my poor girlfriend to see that thing in theaters, only to find that it was too thoroughly forgettable to even make a decent "I Saw It, So You Don't Have To" post. And Lil Wayne's top-billed role was, like, three seconds long!) Anyone else starting to hope big does well enough to expand to a nationwide run?
Let me get this out of the way, before you go and get your hopes up: Snoop Dogg's new video is no "Sensual Seduction." Then again, so few things are — and "Neva have 2 Worry," a reflective look back at the twists and turns of Snoop's lengthy career, is definitely one of the stronger tracks on his new Ego Trippin' album (out next week). Snoop wisely farmed the video out to up-and-coming director Rik Cordero. Here's what they came up with (NSFW):
The first version of this video that I came across this week (also NSFW) pulled off a clever trick, splicing together footage from Snoop's past — hey, it's Suge Knight! — to look like a super-professional version of one of those tribute videos. Unfortunately, it appears that that was one of those tribute videos; the official video (above), which hit the Web yesterday, is missing all those archival clips. But I actually think I like this more contemplative approach a little better. We see a present-day Snoop sitting in a sequence of stripped-down rooms, narrating his musical history while wearing period-appropriate garb: "LBC" t-shirt and pot-leaf baseball cap for the "Nuthin' But a G Thang" era, flamboyant suit and fedora for the No Limit don years, and so on. There is also a priceless shot at 3:56 of a gangsta saxophonist, playing his horn amid a late-night crowd of angry guys in hoodies — this guy gives the Roots' Tuba Gooding Jr. a run for his money in the "badass brass man" department. (Be sure to watch through to the 4:32 mark for some bonus blowin'.) It's all pretty low-key, but it works. Don't you think?
So the title role in Fox Searchlight's long-gestating Notorious B.I.G. biopic has finally been cast, and it's... Brooklyn rapper Gravy, best known as the dude who allegedly took a bullet in the buttocks moments before a radio interview on Hot 97 a couple years ago. My first reaction -- and I say this as a dedicated New York rap head -- has gotta be, "Who?"
Back around that whole shooting incident, no less an authoritative rap blogger than Nahright's Eskay mocked Gravy as "a C-List rapper" whom "you've probably never heard of," and his hip-hop career hasn't exactly taken off since then. Now Eskay's pointedly wondering whether Gravy has any acting chops to speak of -- a fair question, but one on which I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, since I've never seen him act. I have, however, seen him rap, and the few tracks I've heard are strictly cookie-cutter
N.Y.C. mixtape-goon stuff. Go ahead and check out a representative (and NSFW) clip for yourself below. Okay, he's not (quite) the world's least charismatic performer. But honestly, beyond the very slight physical resemblance (hey, a pudgy guy in
a hat!) and the fact that he puts words together over
beats, Gravy isn't a very strong contender for the "next Poppa" title. His voice doesn't even sound anything like
Biggie's! Am I wrong to hope they just have Gravy lip-synch in the movie?
Of course, I could be wrong. Gravy could turn out to be a hip-hop Laurence Olivier. (Hey, I didn't really expect Diddy to make much of an actor, either, and he turned out pretty well.) But you've gotta assume that rapping is a fairly important part of this role — and right now, this seems roughly comparable to casting Aaron Carter in an 8 Mile remake. Anyone not feeling underwhelmed by this choice?
After four years of silence, Ashanti's back, and back with a vengeance. Her new video, "The Way That I Love You," from her upcoming album The Declaration, is based on the Oxygen reality show Snapped, a series that profiles women accused of murder. In the video, Ashanti stabs her boyfriend to death after finding proof of infidelity on her honey's Sidekick:
As the video cycles through the evidence — bloody knife on the floor, bloody footprint, bloody body in the bathtub — it does a competent job of condensing the drama of, say, Forensic Files, into 4:21 seconds, while convincing us that this louse did a very bad thing, and that the well-coiffed Ashanti was driven over the edge. (The vid's director is Kevin Bray, who's directed episodes of CSI: NY and Cold Case.) "When women snap, they do crazy things," she says in an MTV News interview.
Two things detract from my enjoyment of this video (not to mention my own failure in "setting the scene" — it's Friday morning, the birds are chirping outside my bedroom window, I've got a purring cat in my lap, etc .etc.): For one, this vid is based on a television show. Okay, a reality TV show, you got me there. But somewhere in this visual carousel of art-imitating-art-as-a-pale-simulacrum-of-life, I feel a little cheated. Isn't there enough drama in the so-called "real" world to fuel such incisive artistic commentary? Also, just to be a little petty: Ashanti's rubber-room garb — a silver floor-length ballroom gown — is nicer than anything I'd ever hope to own. I'd kill to own something like that. Now wait a minute...
What do you think, PopWatchers? Do you like the video? Are you psyched for the Ashanti's return? Or do you think "The Way That I Love You" deserves to be booked on charges?
Why would Common decide to remake an old single of his, eight years after the fact? Well, it helps that Smirnoff Vodka was footing the bill — but more importantly, why not? I'll always welcome new(ish) music from Com, and he recruited some ace talent for "The Light 2008," which hit the Web earlier this week. Add his brand-new verses to a beat from producer Just Blaze, a hook from singer Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry, and (presumably) a drop or two of Smirnoff, and here's what you get:
I should note that it's mathematically impossible for any sequel to top the original "The Light" — a beautiful collaboration with the late, great beatsmith J Dilla, and deservedly one of Common's most popular songs. That said, this new one fares pretty well. Just Blaze comes through with yet another ridiculously lush slice of sampled soul, in a similar vein to the Kanye West productions Common's put to great use on his last two albums. And Com continues to wear the smitten-dude role well: "The cadence of destiny/Patience and ecstasy/We could be fresh on the cover of Ebony." (My only real complaint is that he didn't rush to get this lovestruck ode out by Valentine's Day, you know?) I'm hoping the new album he's working on for this fall is more of a bold step forward than a fond look back — but this is definitely one retread I'm happy to hear. Aren't you?
Honestly, I never really expected to find out the truth about "Ludacrismas." When I posed the question "How come "Ludacrismas" is missing from the Fred Claus soundtrack?" last Thanksgiving, it was more of an existential cri de coeur than anything else, y'know? So I almost forgot to mention the brilliant rap carol when Luda stopped by EW's New York office yesterday morning to talk up a few of his upcoming projects. (And there are quite a few of 'em, including his next album Theater of the Mind, his new website, his new restaurant, and his big-screen roles in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla and, yes, Game.)
He was already walking to the elevator when I remembered to ask him about "Ludacrismas." Turns out the song didn't make it onto the Fred Claus soundtrack because of logistical difficulties. "They asked me at the eleventh hour to make that song, so the soundtrack was already turned in," he said. Mystery solved! And I'm not the only nutcase who's been wondering about this, thank-you-very-much. "People love the song," 'Cris continued, "so I was thinking of coming out with a Ludacrismas album." Sweet. I know what I'm buying for every single person I know next winter... Anyone else want to pre-order this sick stocking stuffer right now (uh, assuming Luda actually records it)?
Fortified with an Elvis-worthy dinner of pancakes, bacon, and a bit of the hard stuff — hey, just Coca-Cola! — my 11-year-old nephew Alex, in the midst of spring break, was ready to take on his first full-on concert. And if you, be you a pre-teen from suburban New York or a mid-30s magazine editor from the city, were going to have to choose a first concert to go to, Thursday night's Linkin Park show at Madison Square Garden (with frontman Chester Bennington, pictured) would have been, as Alex said after the show, an "A plus plus plus" one to make your live debut. (Hint: Jigga say, “Encore”!)
Which brings us to a question that both Alex and I just have to ask: What was your first concert, and did it deserve an "A plus plus plus"?
Where to begin with Kanye's daring new video? Directed by Spike Jonze, "Flashing Lights" is yet another fantastic voyage into the darkest depths of the rapper's royally complicated psyche. It’s more of a short film than a traditional music video, really; one blogger has described it as “Eminem's 'Stan' meets Fatal Attraction,” which is fair enough. Watch it below, then click through to the jump, where I'll go all Gabriel-Byrne-in-In-Treatment on Yeezy and try to parse this thing's hidden subtexts.
There come certain times in life when you're forced to ask yourself questions you never thought you'd have to answer. Tough questions. Questions like: Would you eat a fresh Italian appetizer prepared by a washed-up West Coast rapper? After watching the first episode of Coolio's new online cooking show, I'm proud to say that my answer is now an enthusiastic "Probably!" Give it a taste below (NSFW for reasons of language and cleavage), and check back after the jump for my verdict. Bon appetit!
Can the music industry handle the nerd revolution? I'm not talking about file-sharing or Daft Punk, I'm talking about hardcore MCs living the Geeksta life. Finally, after the mounting anticipation ever since MC Frontalot (a.k.a. Damian Hess) earned a feature story last year in Newsweek, I'm excited that the documentary Nerdcore Rising will have its long-awaited premiere at next month's SXSW festival in Austin. Rising follows Frontalot on his first U.S. tour, and, despite my lack of personal experience with D&D and high-waisted chinos, I can't wait to see more Nerdcore (what can I say, I know and love a lot of nerds). Here's a teaser clip in which a bespectacled fan sums up his favorite artist thusly: "Frontalot raps about all the things I care about, like Magic the Gathering and internet porn addiction." (Meanwhile, the Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra warns ominously, "Be careful with your own stereotype — it could become a prison.")
(Check out a longer, more musical trailer here.) After the jump, more on the Nerdcore movement.
Are we here at PopWatch HQ in tune with the forces of the universe, or what? We're already firmly on record as fans of both Philly songstress Res and Brooklyn wordsmith Talib Kweli — and what do you know, they've recently joined forces for a sweet collab called Idle Warship! (Thanks to Nah Right for the tip.) Right now, Idle Warship isn't much more than a MySpace page with a couple of new tracks. But those tracks are pretty great. On "Industry Diary," Res and Kweli take turns venting (in occasionally NSFW language) about music-biz madness over a soft, slow Alicia Keys instrumental; work-related griping has rarely sounded this sexy. How does this song have only 1100 plays so far?!
This isn't the first time Kweli's vinegar-laced lyrics and Res' sleepy harmonies have complemented each other — check out their excellent '02 duet "Where Do We Go" below — so it's no surprise that they have excellent vocal chemistry. And they're putting it to use for a noble cause. According to their MySpace, the new project's excellently punny name is all about taking aim at our vapid celeb-gossip culture: "There are always new deities screaming for our attention, and we
dispose of our gods in grand fashion. We tear them to shreds and fight
over the scraps like rats on a sinking ship." Then again, they also say that "[a]n Idle Warship sits at the port, waiting for a war that will never be
fought.... We are Idle Warships at bay, afraid of
the fight on the open seas." But who really cares what Idle Warship means? For the time being, we're too busy bowing in obeisance to our new favorite left-of-center vocal duo.
Hard to imagine that mere mortals like you and I could be more creative than Missy Elliott. Yet she's abdicated to us the awesome responsibility of naming her new album, due this spring. She's accepting submissions at her website; winner gets credit in the liner notes and a $500 Adidas gift certificate.
PopWatch's Adrienne Day and I tried to brainstorm some titles this morning. All I came up with was "Hits 'N' Missy" and "Missy Fit." Adrienne fared better, with such potential titles as "Missy Galore," "Misstified," "The Misstery," "Missery Loves Company," and, in honor of yesterday's primaries, "Supa Dupa Tuesday."
Think you can do better than we did? (And why shouldn't you?) Want to try out your ideas here before submitting them to Missy? Then go ahead and Get Ur Title On in the comments section.
News flash: popular music is full of references to drugs and alcohol. Okay, not a big surprise, but the sheer volume of drink and drug mentions is now quantified in a study by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, which finds positive mentions in two thirds of recent hit songs and mentions of substance abuse in one third of those hits. Also no big surprise: drug and alcohol references are most prevalent in rap and country. I will also not be surprised if there follows a lot of hand-wringing about how rap's favorable attitude toward drugs and alcohol is endangering our kids -- and a lot of shoulder-shrugging about the same content in country. Snoop's a menace, and so is Three 6 Mafia, but Toby Keith (pictured) may still sing "Beer for My Horses," and Joe Nichols may still sing "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off," without anyone batting an eye. Party on, everyone!
In a photographic play-by-play, rendered into comic-book form by those clever folks at Defamer (props to Slezak for the link), Paris Hilton gets booted off the stage at her own Super Bowl party by 50 Cent, who happened to be performing at the time. I mention this only because I met 50 a couple of years ago, and not only was he super-duper nice, he gave me a goodbye hug. Paris must've really done something to piss him off.
Both celebs have taken a thrashing in the press of late, but if I had to pick one of 'em, Celebrity Deathmatch-style, I'd pick 50, just because I think that, underneath all the bullet scars and the posturing, he is a fairly decent guy.
Between U2 and Hannah Montana, 3D music movies are totally the new new thing at the box office. And leave it to the ever-innovative Missy Elliott to push that trend even further. Next Monday, TRL and 106 and Park will debut what's being billed as "the first ever 3D music video,” created by Missy and director Dave Meyers for her single "Ching-A-Ling." According to the press release I just got, this will "take the game beyond the next level and into a whole new dimension." That's right — beyond the next level, without you having to leave your living room!
Or... not. In order to skip on past the next level and see Missy's awesome history-making 3D whatever, you'll apparently have to go pick up a pair of special glasses at locations including, uh, "FYE stores nationwide.” I guess the music industry is pretty desperate for excuses to coax us into brick-and-mortar retail outlets at this point. But do they seriously think people are going to get up off their couches and go shopping — just to see a 3-minute video for a decent-ish song that's not really even a hit yet?
Something tells me I'm not going to be making that trip. And I consider myself a Missy fan! Are any of you in, P-Dubs? And in the meantime, can anyone explain whether or not this whole thing has anything to do with Missy's recent endorsement of Doritos Collisions, which are sorta similar to Doritos 3D?
To most of the world, the Jay-Z song that hit the Web Wednesday night is brand new. Yet fanatical Jay buffs like, er, myself, have been waiting for "Ain't I" for almost a full year — ever since a song by that name was mentioned in EW’s March 2007 profile of Timbaland. Back then, he was working on "Ain't I" for Timbaland's in-progress Shock Value. Writer Ethan Brown was in the Miami studio where Tim stayed up all night waiting for the rapper to finish recording his verses in New York; in the end, they missed the label deadline for Shock Value by mere hours. I know you can't rush genius, but considering how awesome Tim and Jay's many collaborations had been in the past — "Big Pimpin'"! "Jigga What, Jigga Who"! "Lobster and Scrimp," people! (NSFW lyrics) — I was slightly crushed that "Ain't I" never made it out.
Well, "Ain't I" is everywhere now, thanks to a DJ Clue mixtape, and it is so worth the wait. (Check it out below; some lyrics NSFW.) The beat is one of the better freaked-out Martian bounces Tim's conjured up in recent years — it evolves through something like 3 or 4 separate mind-twisting movements — and Jay spits some extra-sharp braggadocio. (Notable themes, in addition to Hovie's own messianic status in the rap world, include modern art: "Warhols on my hall's wall/I got Basquiats in the lobby of my spot." Either he's taken up residence at MoMA, or that's one well-decorated pad.) The unofficial YouTube dude below uploaded "Ain't I" with a pic of a throwback-jersey-wearing Jay circa 1999 — appropriate, since this track is an excellently show-offy excursion to the territory Jay and Tim were working back then.
One other thing: How come DJ Clue keeps shouting the highly intriguing phrase "Blueprint 3" in the background? Could Jay possibly be back in the studio now, recording a threequel to his Blueprint and Blueprint 2 albums? That's what some online busybodies are whispering, of course; his publicist would only say that "Ain't I" is "an old song" when I asked if it was part of any larger project. So who knows what's next for the former Def Jam CEO? In the meantime, I'll be bumping this track indefinitely.
So Allhiphop.com is reporting, based on some unnamed sources, that Bill Cosby is recording a rap album called State of Emergency. Yes, that Bill Cosby — the very same sitcom icon /Jell-O spokesperson who's taken to casually bashing hip-hop in recent years. Cosby's drawn a healthy amount of criticism for what some call overly broad, reactionary attacks on a younger generation's culture. What could he possibly do with a mic, other than embarrass himself? According to that unsubstantiated report, State of Emergency will be a "sanitized, issue-oriented CD." That sounds like a pretty atrocious idea, on the face of it. Forget "conscious rap" — could The Cos be singlehandedly inventing the distinct genre of "crotchety rap"?
Well, maybe. But the man does have some relevant experience as a musician — even, one might say, as a rapper of sorts. What else would you call the talky, stream-of-consciousness Beatles and Motown covers he recorded for 1968's Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band!, if not proto-rap? You can find the seriously strange results all over the Web today (here, for example); some of them are even kinda good. So as easy as it is to mock Cosby's flow before we hear it, let's not forget that this could be listenable. Maybe. Anyone else half-believe in this project?
So I just got a press release about the comeback EP that Queens legend Kool G Rap is dropping next month, and it contains a sentence I never thought I'd read: "The single 'On the Rise Again' — produced by DJ Premier and feat. Haylie Duff on the hook is currently heating up airwaves and internet sites..." Aw, man, Kool G Rap's classic crime stories plus Primo's eternal boom-bap beats equals... wait, hold up — Haylie Duff?! The hardcore golden-age hip-hop purists who make up the bulk of G Rap's fanbase probably fainted when they saw her name. (I mean, we're talking about the less-famous half of a pair of Disney-approved siblings, for crying out loud!)
But here's the thing: "On the Rise Again" is actually kinda good. (Check it out after the jump.) Sure enough, Premier comes through with one of his patented sweeping-strings/knocking-drums backdrops, and G Rap hits us with the same lyrical swagger that made him so influential in the '80s and '90s. And Haylie? Her hook is... well... not too painful to listen to. For starters, it's only like a line and a half long, so there's no time to start wondering what the hell she's doing on a Kool G Rap song. (It actually sounds like it could be a sampled snippet of an earlier Duff song, though I can't find any song with those lyrics.) And her thin vocals work as a nice contrast to G Rap's weathered rasp.
Erykah Badu has been more or less M.I.A. (the acronym, not the British/Sri Lankan emcee) for the better part of a decade. Since she dropped Worldwide Underground to lukewarm reception in '03, we devotees have been forced to make do with various meager substitutes for her transcendent psychedelic-soul powers. At one point, she was reportedly working on not one but three comeback albums to be released over the course of 2007...none of which actually materialized. But! The self-proclaimed “analogue girl in a digital world” is now assuring us that she’ll be back for real on Feb. 26, when she’s releasing the aptly titled New Amerykah. And the teasers that have floated up through the ether over the past few days have been enough to drive this fan wild with anticipation.
First, the potential album cover (pictured). Unclear whether this will turn up on the final CD art or not, but I'm loving the image of Erykah as far-out high priestess, all the evils and joys of this crazy world tangled up in her capacious 'fro. New Amerykah's a complicated place: I spy guns, tanks, a flooded New Orleans home, a Masonic eye-pyramid, a syringe, a garish dollar sign, and some oil derricks — all of which are, perhaps, partially counterbalanced by the blooming flowers, spinning turntables, righteous fists, ancient Egyptian ankh, and divine tuning fork scattered among them. And, putting that thicket of geopolitical/spiritual imagery aside for a moment, how badass are those three-finger block-letter rings she's rocking on each hand?
Home
Chi-town rapper/actor Common's very cool upcoming album, Invincible Summer, has a much more synth-based sound than his last couple efforts — shiny circuitry in place of organic soul, you might say. (More on this in EW's summer music preview coverage, in print later this month.) But don't tell that to the character he'll be playing on-screen in the new Terminator sequel. According to Variety, 
Forget Robert Downey Jr. Never mind that admittedly 
I am not a huge sports person (shocker, I know), but I
do greatly enjoy arcane disputes between rappers — and just in time for
the NBA playoffs, those two worlds have collided. As one of my less hopelessly dorky friends informed me at a convivial seder recently, Washington
Wizards shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson 
Ever since he started minting his ceaseless string of hits, Akon has told every interviewer in sight — including 
It's unfortunate that Alicia Keys has backed away from her admittedly 
As president of Island Urban Records, Jermaine Dupri has spent a lot of time 
Lil Wayne's 
I've decided not to vote for Barack Obama, now that I've learned from 
The 
"HOW THE HELL DID A 
So Jay-Z's ditching his label and signing a 
"The story is a lie," Sean "Diddy" Combs 
Wait — he is?! So that wasn't just 
So the title role in Fox Searchlight's 
Why would Common decide to remake an old single of his, eight years after the fact? Well, it helps that 
Honestly, I never really expected to find out the truth about "Ludacrismas." When 
Fortified with an Elvis-worthy dinner of pancakes, bacon, and a bit of the hard stuff — hey, just Coca-Cola! — my 11-year-old nephew Alex, in the midst of spring break, was ready to take on his first full-on concert. And if you, be you a pre-teen from suburban New York or a mid-30s magazine editor from the city, were going to have to choose a first concert to go to, Thursday night's Linkin Park show at Madison Square Garden (with frontman Chester Bennington, pictured) would have been, as Alex said after the show, an "A plus plus plus" one to make your live debut. (Hint: Jigga say, 
Hard to imagine that mere mortals like you and I could be more creative than Missy Elliott. Yet she's abdicated to us the awesome responsibility of 
News flash: popular music is full of references to drugs and alcohol. Okay, not a big surprise, but the sheer volume of drink and drug mentions is now quantified in a 
In a photographic play-by-play, rendered into 
Between 
To most of the world, the Jay-Z song that hit the Web Wednesday night is brand new. Yet fanatical Jay buffs like, er, myself, have been waiting for "Ain't I" for almost a full year — ever since a song by that name was mentioned in EW’s 
So Allhiphop.com is 
So I just got a press release about the comeback EP that Queens legend Kool G Rap is dropping next month, and it contains a sentence I never thought I'd read: "The single 'On the Rise Again' — produced by DJ Premier and feat. Haylie Duff on the hook is currently heating up airwaves and internet sites..." Aw, man, Kool G Rap's classic crime stories plus Primo's eternal boom-bap beats equals... wait, hold up — Haylie Duff?! The hardcore golden-age hip-hop purists who make up the bulk of G Rap's fanbase probably fainted when they saw her name. (I mean, we're talking about the less-famous half of a pair of Disney-approved siblings, for crying out loud!)
Erykah Badu has been more or less M.I.A. (the acronym, not the British/Sri Lankan emcee) for the better part of a decade. Since she dropped Worldwide Underground to lukewarm reception in '03, we devotees have been forced to make do with various meager substitutes for her transcendent psychedelic-soul powers. At one point, she was reportedly working on not one but three comeback albums to be released over the course of 2007...none of which actually materialized. But! The self-proclaimed “analogue girl in a digital world” is now assuring us that she’ll be back for real on Feb. 26, when she’s releasing the aptly titled New Amerykah. And the teasers that have floated up through the ether over the past few days have been enough to drive this fan wild with anticipation.
