Christmas has come and gone, but Chris Cringle aka Ludacris is still in the giving mood.
Luda is dropping a free mixtape next week 'Conjure: A Hustler's Spirit'. To get everyone warmed up for his upcoming album 'Battle Of The Sexes'
In addition to that good news, Ludacris has hooked up with a producer by the name of Igloo for a rock/rap project featuring remixed joints from his last album 'Theater Of The Mind'.
The Atlanta emcee has leaked several tracks from the rock project as well as a one from the mixtape.
Peep the mixtape artwork and download the leaked tracks below
Video After The JumpThe newest Coke Boys, T-Bird and Duly aka Skyy High Entertainment LLC join French Montana in this latest video directed by Mazi O.
Be on the lookout for their new mixtape "Theater Seats" coming soon !!
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Well, the final numbers have been crunched and the end result is something we pretty much suspected all along: 2009 was a very big year for Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and the late, great King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
On Wednesday (January 6), Nielsen SoundScan released their sales figures for 2009, and while some of the data is downright depressing — total album sales (including digital) dropped more than 12 percent — we prefer to focus on the positive: Swift, Gaga and Jackson (not to mention Susan Boyle, the Black Eyed Peas and the Kings of Leon) moved a whole lot of units over the past 12 months.
Swift's Fearless was the year's top-selling album, moving more than 3.2 million copies, holding off a late-year charge from Boyle, whose I Dreamed a Dream sold some 3.1 million copies to land at #2 (though Boyle had the best-selling album released in 2009, since Fearless actually came out in November 2008). Michael Jackson's Number Ones was #3, selling more than 2.3 million copies, and Lady Gaga's The Fame (2.23 million) and Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas (2.2 million) round out the top five.
Jackson was 2009's top-selling artist by a mile. He sold more than 8.2 million albums, doubling his nearest competitor, Swift, who sold 4.6 million. Some group called the Beatles landed at #3, selling more than 3.2 million albums, followed by Boyle (3.1 million) and Gaga (2.8 million).
Gaga was named the top-selling digital artist of the year — a category based on total digital track sales — as fans downloaded more than 15 million of her songs. The Black Eyed Peas were next, selling nearly 13 million digital tracks. Jackson stood at #3 (12.35 million), Swift came in at #4 (12.3 million) with Beyoncé at #5.
The Peas held the top two spots on the top-selling digital songs list with "Boom Boom Pow" (4.7 million downloads) and "I Gotta Feeling" (4.4 million), followed by Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" (4.3 million), Flo Rida's "Right Round" (4.1 million) and Gaga's "Just Dance" (3.2 million).
The Nielsen SoundScan numbers were based on the 52-week period of January 5, 2009 -- January 3, 2010.
Source : MTV
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Tuesday morning, I received the Golden Ticket of journalistic invitations: a summons to Prince's mansion, high atop Mulholland Drive, to hear the new music he'll be releasing sometime after the holidays. At 8 p.m. that evening, I drove my dirty Mazda past the fountain in his courtyard, parked by the limo in the back, and entered his manse. The man himself greeted me in a candelit study, where he was laboring over a laptop with his Web designers, Anthony Malzone and Scott Addison Clay.
The next five hours took me from that room to a car Prince referred to as "Miles Davis," where we listened to one set of songs; into a back room furnished with a round bed, faux-fur carpeting and a plexiglass Rhodes piano, where he played cuts by his new protege, the comely Bria Valente; and into that white limo, where the entirety of "Lotus Flower," the album previewed earlier this month on Indie 103.1, boomed through the speakers as we drove through Hollywood.
Needless to say, it was an amazing experience. After the jump, a few tidbits, including Prince's promise of three albums in 2009 and his thoughts on Proposition 8.
Prince will release not one, but three albums in the new year. He's in final negotiations with "a major retailer" to distribute the music in physical form, and a highly interactive website will also provide an opportunity to buy. He's not working with a record label. "The gatekeepers have to change," he said several times throughout the evening.
He's found his way back to the sound of "When Doves Cry." The first disc, tentatively titled "MPLSOUND," is an electro-flavored solo effort recorded at Paisley Park Studios. Prince experimented with Pro Tools and "new ways of recording" on these trippy, experimental pop songs. One features a Q-Tip rap; another calls a "Funky Congregation" to worship and may become a live set piece.
He's ready to revive the Quiet Storm. "We got sick of waiting for Sade to make a new album," he said, introducing Valente's new album, "Elixir." The tracks are chill, with Valente's buttery voice melding with beats by Morris Hayes and Prince's guitar lines. Some are explicitly sexual. "This music is nasty, but it's not dirty," Prince said, explaining how sensual music fits in with his much-discussed faith -- he's a Jehovah's Witness. "There's no profanity. It isn't promoting promiscuity. She's singing about her lover, who could be her partner for life."
He loves his guitar. As the tracks played on Indie 103.1 indicated, "Lotus Flower" is rooted in the instrument. Prince said he refocused on his playing while performing live dates with the singer Tamar Davis in 2006; with the spotlight trained on someone else, he could fall back in love with solos and riffs. "Lotus Flower" is a varied album, featuring cuts recorded over the course of two years, but standout tracks include some heavy rockers -- especially the apocalyptic "Dreamer," which Prince said was partly inspired by the radical black comedian Dick Gregory.
He did not vote for Proposition 8. In fact, he didn't vote at all. "I didn't vote for Obama either," he explained. "Jehovah's Witnesses haven't voted for their whole inception." The controversy over a recent New Yorker "Talk of the Town" item, which Prince feels implied he supported the gay-marriage ban, has upset him. It's the first thing he wanted to discuss when the Web geeks had gone and we were alone. "I have friends that are gay and we study the Bible together," he said. He added that two sides fighting "only benefit the third person" who instigated the fight.
Source: L.A. Times
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HotSusan Boyle
Boyle, a worldwide YouTube phenomenon, brought a whole new concept to modern celebrity: dowdy chic. With her unglamorous appearance contradicting her rapturous voice, Boyle reminded us of the power of inner beauty, and in the process managed to, at least for a while, outsell every shapely young thing on the planet. Boyle's debut racked up the biggest opening sales figure of the year: over 700,000 units, most of them on (gasp!) physical CD.
Maxwell
After nearly a decade in hiding, the Brooklyn-born R&B singer made the kind of point-perfect comeback that instantly compensated for all the time away. His album "BLACKsummers'night" went platinum, earning some of the most enraptured reviews of the year, bagging no fewer than six Grammy nominations in their wake.
Kings of Leon
They're the first new rock band to break through in far too long. In '09, this brash Nashville foursome enjoyed iTunes' most downloaded album, "Only by the Night." The band also racked up a slew of Grammy nominations for their song "Use Somebody," ensuring they'll become only hotter in 2010.
Taylor Swift
Not only did this Nashville star (who just turned 20) have the top-selling album of '09 (with a tally topping 4 million copies), she became a combination saint/victim when Kanye West tried to ruin her moment of triumph at the MTV Video Music Awards in September. To certify her resurrection, two months later, at the American Music Awards, Swift even beat the sanctified Michael Jackson for the top prize: Artist of the Year.
NotU2
They may have enjoyed the year's most attended tour. But U2's latest CD, "No Line on the Horizon," bombed with fans and became the worst-selling disk of their career.
J.Lo
Yes, she fell on her world-famous rump on the American Music Awards, but she quickly bounced back (literally, it seems) to survive one of pop's goofier, and most blabbed about, public gaffes.
Kanye West
Already a famously bad sport, Kanye crossed the line to genuine jerk-face in the fall when he grabbed the limelight from Taylor Swift during her MTV acceptance speech and insisted that Beyoncé's clip should have won instead. After that, even the impeccably measured President Obama hauled off and called Kanye a "jackass."
Whitney Houston
While the troubled singer's comeback CD has sold strongly (800,000 copies and counting), her interview on Oprah left a bad taste in the mouth, and her intended comeback appearance on "Good Morning America" live from Central Park! found her in scratchy and damaged voice, barely able to croak through four short numbers.
Chris Brown
The young R&B stud achieved genuine pariah status this year by perpetrating the ultimate no-no viciously beating his girlfriend Rihanna after a pre-Grammy party. Brown spent the rest of the year apologizing, but the damage had been done.
Video After The JumpWhich stars had the biggest year? All this week, we've unveiled our top nine men and women of 2009 — with the winners announced today!
It's been a big year for Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears, but there's not much question that 2009 was Lady Gaga's year. New York native Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta began the year as a hot hopeful and will end it as one of the biggest pop stars in the world. And there's no one who challenged, provoked, entertained and, well, titillated us over the past 12 months quite like she has.
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In a very close race that went down to the wire, Rosa Acosta beat out Tammy Torres for XXL's 2009 Eye Candy Of The Year.
The award is well deserved as Rosa has been just about everywhere this year.
The 25 year old Dominican beauty who is incredibly flexible as we have seen in her stretching videos is making quite a name for herself as a video vixen.
Having appeared in Drake's "Best I Ever Had" and "Forever", 50 Cent's "Ok You're Right" and Jamie Foxx's "Blame It". Rosa seems to be every rapper's favorite eye candy..
In other Rosa news she has been picked to cover the comeback issue of King Magazine.
2009 is just about a wrap, let's hope we see a lot more of Rosa in 2010.
The good folks over at MTV UK have started an annual Best Boobs In Hollywood list.
There are a couple of surprises here in my opinion. Just how exactly do you comprise this list? I mean there has to be a formula of some sort right?
Well enough with the chatter, let's take a look at the list.
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on December 26, 2009 at 12:00pm
Video After The Jump2009 has been a wild year for Hip Hop. We've seen plenty of beefs, a rapper embarrass himself at the MTV Music Awards and the rise of hipster/emo rap.50 Cent recently sat down with DJ Semtex to talk about the highs and lows of 2009. One topic was his beefs with Fat Joe, The Game & Ja Rule. He also speaks on the Beanie Sigel/Jay-Z situation.
The most intriguing part of the interview however, comes towards the end. When 50 speaks very candidly about his feelings towards Interscope Records and why he feels no loyalty towards the label.
In 2009, we killed Auto-Tune, we partied in the U.S.A., and we howled "Awooo!" at the moon (en español, no less). And those were some of the more normal moments of the year: Seriously, there is no way to sum up a year that had so many bizarre and scandalous moments, so let's have the songs do it for us.
These are my picks for the Best Songs of 2009: odes to abstinence and combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bells, songs of sadness and beauty, tunes about getting loaded and getting revenge. They're all important in some way, and they all helped guide us through the tumultuous past 12 months. But that's enough from me, let's get to the songs ...
25. Black Eyed Peas: "I Gotta Feeling" Twenty million Peas fans can't be wrong — and certainly not in this case. The song that dominated the Billboard Hot 100 (#1 for 14 straight weeks) also happens to be an effervescent, electro-tinged blast, managing to capture the promise of a million Saturday nights. Also, it's the only song on this list to feature the phrase "Mazel tov," which counts for something.
24. Mastodon: "The Last Baron" Thirteen minutes of doomy, interlocking guitars, pummeling drums and whiplash-inducing time changes that climaxes with the best guitar solo of the year — a fiery, fret-wrecking two minutes that will make your skull explode. It's about inter-dimensional time travel, just in case you were wondering.
23. Ke$ha: "TiK ToK" On the basis of this song alone, Ms. Sebert seems like she'd be a fun girl to party with.
22. Wale: "Chillin' " A lean, mean slab of swagger-hop from our nation's capital. Spindly, urgent beats floating above a chopped-up sample of Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," Lady Gaga on the hook (channeling M.I.A.) and some deft wordplay from Wale himself ("I remain a Giant, and you're Jeremy Shockey") make this one great. And the Ben's Chili Bowl cameos in the video are a nice touch, too. (R.I.P., Ben Ali.)
21. Franz Ferdinand: "No You Girls" The swaggering soundtrack to your favorite Saturday night activities (knife fights, sex in bathroom stalls, shame), from a group of Glaswegian guys who are apparently well versed in all three. It's great, strutting guitar rock, and why this song — and its accompanying album, Tonight — weren't bigger deals is beyond me.
20. Miley Cyrus: "The Climb" You want a classic, throwback pop ballad? You got it, courtesy of Ms. Cyrus. Somber piano? Trilling strings? Nondescript-yet-inspirational message about overcoming adversity? This song's got it all, and it bears mentioning that Miley sings the bejeezus out of it, too.
19. The Flaming Lips: "Watching the Planets" A pounding, primal song about all the nebulous, intangible things we rolled into 2009 talking about ("hope," "change," etc.) that's also one of the first to suggest that perhaps none of it holds any water. When Wayne Coyne yelps "Oh oh oh oh oh/ Finding that there ain't no answers to find," he isn't just talking about black holes, you know.
18. Brand New: "At the Bottom" Ominous, snarling rock about death and burial and prescription drugs and other cheery topics of that sort. Full of loud/soft crashes, blurry fretwork and a positively crushing chorus, it's feel-bad music for feel-bad times.
17. Kelly Clarkson: "I Do Not Hook Up" Originally written for Katy Perry, it's probably a good thing she passed on it, since I can't imagine anyone other than Clarkson doing it justice. It's breakneck electro-pop with a big, rushing chorus and vocal fireworks galore. The best Kelly Clarkson song in years, from the best Kelly Clarkson album in years (All I Ever Wanted). We all win, even Katy Perry.
16. Lady Gaga: "Bad Romance" Deliciously over-the-top pop, as only Lady Gaga can do it. From the opening techno haze (which sounds like it could've been lifted off a Ministry of Sound comp) to Gaga's delightfully silly vocal ticks (the whole "Ga-ga, ooh-la-la" thing) to the whirring, wooshing backing beat, this is decidedly arty fare, with a bizarre video to match. Only, there's the chorus, a wondrous thing that can convince a million soccer moms to click the download button (or have their daughters do it for them) ...
15. Kid Cudi: "Pursuit of Happiness" A molasses-thick beat courtesy of the guys in Ratatat, a slurry, slippery delivery by Cudi, a knocking chorus and a cameo by MGMT. It's like a blog decided to make a posse cut, minus all the negative comments!
14. Thom Yorke: "All for the Best" Thom and his brother Andy cover the Miracle Legion, turn the song into a swooning, somber electronic daydream. It's take-a-picture pretty, like that image of your loved one in bed on a Sunday morning, laughing, sun streaming through her (or his) hair — perfect in ways only you can understand. When Yorke sang, "This will be on my video tape," this is probably what he was talking about.
13. Lily Allen: "Not Fair" Over the course of one week, I heard this song on the radio in New York, Paris and Rome, and each time, all the women in the immediate vicinity nodded in agreement to Lily's razor-sharp dissection of a less-than-giving lover. Then they all laughed at the oral-sex line — it seems dissatisfaction is universal!
12. Paramore: "All I Wanted" The 2:40 mark: That's when it happens. All the din falls away, and Hayley Williams — all five feet of her — is left by her lonesome. The tape is rolling, the clock ticking, and the engineer is peering at her from the other side of the glass. So she draws a breath and positively empties herself into the chorus, going bigger and getting higher than she's ever been before. You can practically hear the heads exploding in the room. It's the best vocal moment of 2009, signifying not only Hayley Williams' transformation from a kid with Kool-Aid-colored hair to a full-grown woman, but her arrival in the pantheon of truly great rock vocalists. Welcome to the club.
11. Rihanna: "Russian Roulette" We spent the second half of 2009 waiting to see how Rihanna would respond artistically after Chris Brown's assault on her, and with "Russian Roulette," we finally got our answer: She's hurt but strong — and changed. This is a sonorously sad song, full of self-doubt and self-eviscerating lyrics, proof that Rihanna has depths we never thought possible. And that she's human, just like the rest of us.
10. Das Racist: "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper. Remix)" Gloriously garish joke-rap, or slyly brilliant commentary on the twin evils of capitalism and globalization? Yes! As someone smarter than me commented, " 'Pizza Hut' is either the track we, as a culture, need right now, or the track we, as a culture, deserve — or both" My favorite version is the (somewhat derided) "Wallpaper. Remix," which sets the dumb banter ("I got that pizza butt/ I got that pizza butt") to blaring sorta-sax and a cheesy Casio/ Eurotrash backbeat, which seems strangely perfect to me ...
9. Miley Cyrus: "Party in the U.S.A." OK, so I took Miley to task earlier this year for this song not meeting all the requirements of a party anthem — but it's still a great single! All that matters here is the sentiment: that a good song can make all the difference, that a DJ can save your life, and that the butterflies really can fly away. Really, what more could you ask for from a pop song? A deliriously catchy robo-beat? Vague notions of patriotism? A Daisy Duke-fueled video? Well "Party's" has all that, too. More proof that this is the greatest nation on earth.
8. Jay-Z (featuring Alicia Keys): "Empire State of Mind" This was a pretty good song before the Yankees ruined it (more reason for us Red Sox fans to hate A-Rod) ...
7. Phoenix: "1901" Ridiculously catchy indie-pop, "1901" bobs and weaves and pumps its fists, but not before it checks its hair in the mirror first. Fashionable, smart stuff that re-imagines bookish subjects like "post-modernism" and "neo-classicism" as danceable, radio-ready rock (and sounds like it was lifted from every John Hughes movie ever made) — nobody did it better than Phoenix in 2009. From the library to the club, without a moment to spare, although of course, they're French ...
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Zero" I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a big fan of It's Blitz, but there's no denying the catchiness of its first single, a strutting, joyous thing that builds to a positively giddy crescendo. This is basically a smart and sexy disco song, complete with Karen O's vocal coos and a pounding backbeat.
5. Matt & Kim: "Daylight" I think this actually came out late last year, but it definitely made its mark in 2009. Homemade spaz pop from a pair of Brooklyn dumpster divers, "Daylight" is fuzzy and hissy, yet outshines songs that cost four times as much when it comes to sheer bliss. You'd be hard pressed to match the wide optimism of Mr. Johnson and Ms. Schifino, and with their shout-sung vocals and ham-fisted drumming, they've created a tune that proves you can get high on life.
4. Grizzly Bear: "Two Weeks" A sunny, shiny creature with a deceptively dark heart beating beneath its skin, "Two Weeks" is perhaps the best example of Grizzly Bear's brand of hazy dream pop, all pitch-perfect vocal harmonies and casually plinked piano. But like I said, there's something more here. Maybe it's the ultra-creepy video, or the ghostly, otherworldy quality of the song, but this also sounds like the kind of thing that plays on repeat in Charles Manson's brain. Then again, maybe that's just me — the best songs make you think, after all.
3. Shakira: "She Wolf" The battiest song released by a major artist this year, "She Wolf" is wondrous for innumerable reasons: the Italo-disco boogie, the "Awooos," the fact that Shakira compares herself to a coffee machine in an office. It's a delightfully strange pop song, no bones about it, and proof that perhaps Shaki is wackier than you might have thought. And while all of that is well and good, what I like best about it is that Shakira was brave enough to release it — sometimes you've just gotta applaud that kind of determination, and dance to it, and watch the video over and over again.
2. Animal Collective: "My Girls" The indie song of 2009, and the soundtrack to a million acid flashbacks, "My Girls" represents one of the most important rock acts of the decade finally realizing their potential. Having explored the depths of avant garde, AC turned their attention to pop music and discover, "Hey, we're pretty great at this, too." Icy synthesizers, pounding drums, vocal "Wooos!" and other sundry, "My Girls" recalls all seasons and all eras — but mostly, it just sounds like tomorrow. You'll be hearing this blasting out of the trunks of hovercars for decades to come.
1. Jay-Z: "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" Jigga might not have eradicated Auto-Tune in 2009, but you've got to commend the guy for trying. And that's why "D.O.A." is the best song of 2009: Jay's thinking globally but acting locally, and he's getting angry in the process. The No-I.D. beat — the angular guitars, the Klezmer breakdown — sounded like nothing else on the radio, even if Jay didn't intend for the song to get played on the radio in the first place. Which is more proof of his reach as an artist, of his stature as the biggest name in hip-hop: He's so huge he can put his fellow artists (not to mention the whole industry) on blast, and they still line up to pay their respects. To anyone else, a song like this would be career suicide, but it only made Jay stronger. From here, anything is possible. And if he's claiming he'll only wear black for a year straight, it's probably because he murdered everyone else in the game ...
MTV
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What You Watched and Searched for on YouTube in 2009
This year has been the biggest yet for online video, and for the first time we're sharing our official Most Watched lists and some of the fastest-rising search terms on YouTube. Some moments were big (President Obama's inauguration), some small (a Minnesota wedding party erupts into dance), some expected ("New Moon"), some surprising (Susan Boyle) — but all of them inspired, entertained and connected millions of people around the world via YouTube.
For these lists, we looked at view counts of YouTube's most popular videos this year (in some instances we aggregated views across multiple versions of the same video):
Most Watched YouTube videos (Global):
1. Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent (120+ million views)
2. David After Dentist (37+ million views)
3. JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
4. New Moon Movie Trailer (31+ million views)
5. Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)Most Watched music videos on YouTube (Global)*:
1. Pitbull "I Know You Want Me" (82+ million views)
2. Miley Cyrus "The Climb" (64+ million views)
3. Miley Cyrus "Party in the U.S.A." (54+ million views)
4. The Lonely Island "I'm On a Boat" (48+ million views)
5. Keri Hilson "Knock You Down" (35+ million views)
Then, to determine the fastest rising search terms for each month, we examined the billions of queries that people searched for on YouTube (through December 15):
Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (Global):
January: inauguration
February: christian bale
March: the climb
April: susan boyle
May: pacquiao vs hatton
June: michael jackson thriller
July: michael jackson
August: usain bolt
September: kanye west
October: paranormal activity
November: bad romance
December: tiger woodsFastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (U.S.):
January: obama inauguration
February: on a boat
March: watchmen
April: susan boyle
May: pacquiao
June: michael jackson thriller
July: wedding
August: send it on
September: kanye west
October: paranormal activity
November: adam lambert
December: tiger woodsThere are a lot of interesting nuggets in here. The fastest rising U.S. search term in July was [wedding], clearly related to "JK Wedding Entrance Dance," the third Most Watched YouTube video of the year. And while [michael jackson] was Google's fastest rising search term in 2009, [michael jackson thriller] was the faster rising search on YouTube. Movie trailers ("New Moon," "Watchmen," "Paranormal Activity") and inspirational moments (Susan Boyle, Usain Bolt) were popular, as were sensational celebrity scandals (Christian Bale, Kanye West and, most recently, Tiger Woods).
Source: Youtube Blog
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Video After The JumpThe Youngest In Charge, Cory Gunz unleashes visuals for one the hottest tracks off of his "Heir To The Throne" mixtape. In this Pulp Fiction inspired video directed by John Columbo, Cory keeps his cool and keeps spitting while the restaurant he's in is getting jacked.
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