Etiketter

torsdag den 31. marts 2011

Rihanna talks Chris Brown, S&M tendencies in Rolling Stone

(CBS) Turns out Rihanna really meant what she was singing in her recent hit single "S&M."

While speaking candidly to Rolling Stone magazine, the 23-year-old pop star has revealed some intimate details of her bedroom behavior.

"I like to take charge, but I love to be submissive," she says. "Being submissive in the bedroom is really fun. You get to be a little lady, to have somebody be macho and in charge. That's sexy to me."

Pictures: Rihanna

She adds, "I work a lot, and I have to make a lot of executive decisions, so when it comes to being intimate, I like to feel like I'm somebody's girl."

"I like to keep it spontaneous. Sometimes whips and chains can be overly planned - you gotta stop, get the whip from the drawer downstairs. I'd rather have him use his hands."

In addition to revealing her bedroom secrets, Rihanna confesses she might be "a bit of a masochist."

"It's not something I'm proud of, and it's not something I noticed until recently," she says. "I think it's common for people who witness abuse in their household. They can never smell how beautiful a rose is unless they get pricked by a thorn."

Rihanna also opened up on why she agreed to lift the restraining order against her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, who recently made headlines for losing his cool and breaking a window backstage on "Good Morning America."

Pictures: Chris Brown
Pictures: Stars with anger issues

"That's my decision," she says. "It doesn't mean we're gonna make up, or even talk again. It just means I didn't want to object to the judge."

"We don't have to talk ever again in my life," she adds. "I just didn't want to make it more difficult for him professionally. What he did was a personal thing - it had nothing to do with his career. Saying he has to be a hundred feet away from me, he can't perform at awards shows - that definitely made it difficult for him."

"But you can never please people. One minute I'm being too hard, and the next minute I'm a fool because I'm not being hard enough," she says.

Rihanna's full interview with Rolling Stone will be available when the issue hits newsstands Friday.

tirsdag den 29. marts 2011

Jennifer Hudson Describes Working with R. Kelly & Alicia Keys on her New Album I Remember Me

The newly-revamped Jennifer Hudson has returned after going through her own personal tribulations with a brand new album release. Her debut album was released in 2008 and now three years later, her highly anticipated sophomore ‘I Remember Me’ is finally complete.

The Oscar-winning starlet worked with numerous amounts of artists during the production process of the album, some of them Grammy Award-winning artists between the writing and the production of a good amount of her tracks. Hudson recently sat down with MTV News to discuss the details into her upcoming album and her experiences working with R. Kelly and Alicia Keys amongst others.

“R. Kelly was writing for me at the time, and I didn't even know it, and they just sent me this song. You don't want to get your hopes up too high of being able to work with someone like R. Kelly, and when they sent the song, they told me, 'Kelly put up a shrine of pictures of you to channel you, and he created this song.”

And channel her, he did. Hudson continues to explains how eerie it was that Kelly had Hudson’s style and idea down ‘almost perfect.

“It was kind of creepy to me, because when I heard the song, I was like, 'Oh my god! ... He's, like, giving me me! This is what I would do! This is something I would say.' And I hadn't even met him until after ... and I'm like, 'This is bizarre.'”

Hudson had similar experiences with that of Alicia Keys, who also worked with her on several tracks on the forthcoming album.

“I must say that working with Alicia was my favorite sessions in the recording studio ever, and I think it was partly because ... it was a learning experience. She's just amazing to work with. We had such a good time together. ... It was an amazing, fun experience.”


Jamie Woon - you need to hear in 2011

Watch Jamie Woon - Lady Luck


27 year old songwriter and producer Jamie Woon has charmed a host of critics with his electronic soul music. His ear-catching vocal talent saw the singer tipped as a soulful troubadour at a time when Adele and Amy Winehouse were finding fame, before collaborations with respected members of the dubstep community saw the producer coupled with the likes of James Blake and Mount Kimbie at the vanguard of the post-dubstep genre.


Woon hails from four generations of musicianship which includes Sensational Alex Harvey Band members Hugh and Ted McKenna and his mother Mae McKenna, who has provided backing vocals for performers including Michael Jackson, Kylie Minogue and Bjork. Initally inspired by Britpop, he started playing guitar at 15, and attended London's BRIT School before Son of Dave and Reggie Watts performances inspired the singer to incorporate loop pedals into his singer-songwriter act.


2006 demo Wayfaring Stranger bubbled under for over a year before a remix by Mercury Prize nominated producer Burial brought it to the attention of numerous bloggers. The singer followed this up with a trip to Barcelona to attend the respected Red Bull Music Academy where he worked with Subeena and Debruit. Woon's continued association with Burial, alongside fellow producer Ramadanman, has seen the likes of radio's Mary Anne Hobbs, Benji B and MistaJam take notice. Now signed to the Polydor label, 2011 should see the Londoner win over a series of new fans


mandag den 28. marts 2011

Jill Scott Returns To Her Roots On The Set Of 'Shame'

(singersroom.com) Everyone’s favorite Philly songstress, Jill Scott, recently shot the video for her new single “Shame.” The three-time Grammy award winning singer-songwriter began shooting the video to her highly anticipated fourth album, ‘The Light Of The Sun’ this week. The music, laughter, and dancing children filled the Philadelphia Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center.

The new album, set to release late this year, will feature a mix of musical influences ranging from hip-hop to blues. This album symbolizes the rebirth of the neo-soul siren, whose last album ‘The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3’ was released back in 2007.

Scott proclaims, "I really wanted to go back to my original state. I love hip-hop, and I was born to it," she goes on to say, "I needed to come back to it, it's been awhile, and I'm in a new environment."

A new environment indeed; Jilly from Philly has had an explosive hiatus as she signed with major recording label, Warner Bros. Records, who represent iconic singers like Madonna and Seal. In addition to selling millions of records from her last album, the success of Tyler Perry’s ‘Why Did I Get Married’ and its sequel alongside appearing in the HBO series ‘The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency’, Scott has been keeping quite busy.

More important to Scott than the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, is staying rooted in her community. She does this through her Blues Babe Foundation, which sets to assist minority college-bound students artistically and academically. Scott even went as far as to step in when she heard the Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center near where she grew up was next to be torn down by the city of Philadelphia.

"When I found out it was closing, it just hurt my feelings because kids like me needed a place to go," she says. "We just started to really take care of this facility because we don't want it to shut down."

This was the same rec center where Scott began writing poetry and music as a child. "Every community needs a rec center," says Scott. "I put a lot of my love and my heart here."

Scott is one of many artists that take an active interest in the welfare of their community. Stardom has never changed the songstress as she maintains her identity as the girl from North Philly – proud of where she grew up. "You still have to come back," she said. "Where you come from, you take care of that place. Everybody is supposed to be a part of their own community."

It is inspiring to see Scott paying homage to the place where her love affair with music began in her new video.

Watch the behind the scenes of "Shame"
HERE.

DJ Megatron shot dead in N.Y.C.

32-year-old BET TV, radio personality killed near his home in Staten Island, no arrests made


(CBS/AP)

NEW YORK - Urban radio and TV personality DJ Megatron has been shot to death in New York City.

His manager says the BET cable television segment host was killed while heading to a store near his home in the borough of Staten Island around 2 a.m. Sunday.

Police say the 32-year-old, born Corey McGriff, was found dead with a gunshot wound to his chest.

No arrests have been made.

DJ Megatron worked for hip-hop and R&B stations in New York, Boston and Philadelphia before becoming a figure on BET's "106 & Park" music series.

He has hosted the show's "What's Good" segment and has appeared in movies including 2005's "State

Property 2," starring rappers Beanie Sigel and N.O.R.E., formerly Noreaga.

A representative for Viacom Inc.-owned BET, or Black Entertainment Television, didn't immediately respond to email and phone messages.

The New York Daily News reports he had just moved to a new home, and his girlfriend recently gave birth to his third child.

"Everybody is shocked," an unidentified friend to the Daily News. "He just had a new baby. He wasn't feuding with anybody. Everybody liked him."

søndag den 27. marts 2011

INTERVIEW: Cee Lo



Los Angeles (CNN) -- Cee Lo Green was in the audience for Sly Stone's bizarre performance at last year's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, when the legendary funkmaster took the stage four hours late, inexplicably decked out in a pageboy wig and cop costume. Stone didn't finish one song during his 30 minute set -- even nodding out at points. Then he abruptly slipped down off the front of the stage and disappeared.

"I had hoped he'd do something like that," Cee Lo chuckled. "I can't wait 'til I can break the rules like that. The incomparable Mr. Sly Stone. Here's to you, sir." He raises his water goblet as a toast. "Don't ever allow me to predict what your next move is going to be, Brother Stone."

Lately, fans have had a hard time figuring out what Cee Lo's next move will be. At 36, he's already had the equivalent of three careers -- first, with the Atlanta-based hip-hop group Goodie Mob, then as one-half of the eclectic duo Gnarls Barkley, and now as a solo artist. His current album, "The Lady Killer," has catapulted him into the pop mainstream, thanks to the Grammy-nominated song, "F**k You" -- better known in it's G-rated incarnation, "Forget You."

"Predictability is the prequel to death," Cee Lo says. "The imagination is out of space, into other worlds and galaxies beyond. I would like to go that far myself, and anyone who would like to join me is welcome to come along for the journey."

For CNN, the journey began in a private dining room at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles, where the singer-songwriter elaborated on his thoughts.

CNN: Let's talk about all your different incarnations.

Cee Lo: You don't necessarily get to fit in. You should be getting in to make a difference, and really pushing the art forward, you know.

CNN: When are you going to do a rock record?

Cee Lo: There's always rock in what I'm doing. It may not always sound like it, but my attitude is always rock 'n' roll. It's always take it, ask questions later. I could possibly do a formal rock record later on tonight, if I so pleased to do so.

CNN: So let's talk Goodie Mob reunion, Gnarls Barkley reunion. What's on your plate?

Cee Lo: Goodie Mob reunion and then Gnarls Barkley reunion. You said it, sister. And in that order. I'm very excited about Goodie Mob. Goodie Mob is my heart, it's my home, and I am the prodigal son, if you will. I've returned home with many fish and a few loaves of bread that we will all eat.

And Gnarls Barkley, of course, it's an enigma, if you will. It's a monster. It's a noun. It's a person, place and thing, you know what I'm saying? So when I'm emotionally able to go back in that hole in the wall, I'll go back in there. And Danger Mouse will be waiting for me, afro intact.

CNN: You and Danger Mouse seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, personality-wise.

Cee Lo: Perceivably, yes. Actually, we have an awful lot in common. He's a very funny guy. You wouldn't know it. He's very smart. I've described Danger Mouse on a few occasions as a picket fence around my garden of wildflowers, can you dig it? Makes sense.

CNN: You had a really difficult childhood. Your dad died when you were 2, and your mom passed away when you were 18. How do you think that has played into what you do?

Cee Lo: I am both of those people.

They are alive and well inside of me. I'm acting out their will, and their way for me. Like their lives and death made me this way. Like if I had the power, or the opportunity, or the choice or the chance to change it, I wouldn't, you know. But if someone had the power to allow any of that to happen, I would ask only one favor -- to have them back to say, "Thank you." And that would be closure for me, because I get it now.

CNN: Do you think they're aware of your success?

Cee Lo: Definitely. My mother's in this room.

CNN: What don't we know about Cee Lo Green?

Cee Lo: You don't know that I'm crying behind these shades. No, just kidding. Everything is on a "you see what you get" kind of basis. So there's nothing to know, I don't think.

CNN: What's on your rider?

Cee Lo: We try not to be wasteful. I don't have one of those ridiculous rock 'n' roll riders. I just want all red M&Ms. There's usually some water, and there's some vodka, which I like. And I like tequila. Patron to be exact.

CNN: Are there certain foods you avoid before performing?

Cee Lo: I don't really eat a lot of dairy. A little cheese on a burger, you know. Cheese on a turkey club, that's about it. I used to love Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries, and Apple Jacks and stuff. I drank a lot more milk when I was a kid, but not anymore.

CNN: The best part was the milk at the bottom of the bowl.

Cee Lo: Yes. Ah, it's all cinnamony. It was all good.

CNN: Do you have a favorite restaurant?

Cee Lo: When I'm in L.A., I love a restaurant called Magnolia's. Very, very good food. I love the Jidori chicken from there. I love the chicken from Roscoe's, and the chicken sausage, the Stubby (two pieces of fried chicken, two eggs and a biscuit). Then I like Houston's, you know. I like Ruby Tuesday. I like the cheddar biscuits from Red Lobster.

CNN: If you're throwing a party, what is it you have to serve?

Cee Lo: Shots of tequila. That always gets the party going.

CNN: Do you cook, or do you have a cook?

Cee Lo: I do have a cook on call, but I can cook. My George Foreman Grill comes in handy. I actually have the new pocket-size one right here, in this pocket right here. So if you want, after the interview, I can pull it out and whip up a couple of grilled cheeses, just for me and you.

CNN: Do you live like a rock star?

Cee Lo: No, I actually live like I have a day job. When I'm home, I'm usually tired from rockin' and rollin', you know what I'm saying? And I want nothing more than to sit on my couch and watch "Family Guy." You know, in real life, I'm a lot like Peter Griffin.

I've been around long enough to avoid the entrapments and things of that nature. So I just want to be professional, you know. I want to be proactive and be productive. At the end of the day, I'm working for a living. I want to succeed at being a father, and just be a successful person, you know.

CNN: We hear you're also a grandfather.

Cee Lo: I'm a grandfather. I have a 21-year-old daughter who has a 2-year-old son.

CNN: Are you an indulgent grandpa?

Cee Lo: It's a real tingly feeling to have someone recognize you so young as their own. I'm Papa to him. He knows I belong to him in that way, so that's sweet.

CNN: Does he sing your songs?

Cee Lo: From what I hear, he sung a little bit of "Forget You" in the back seat. It's out of tune, of course, but it's cute.

CNN: Things are great now, but was there ever a point where you weren't quite sure things were working out for you in the music industry?

Cee Lo: I never wanted to give up. Music is my life, you know. If it dies, I die with it, you know what I'm saying? I have nothing to say without music. You have nothing to ask. We have no reason to be here. This music has brought us all together, ladies and gentlemen, and I toast to you.

Robbie Robertson Hires New Live Band: Dawes

'They’re all at the top of their game,' Robertson tells Rolling Stone. 'I’m the one that’s a little rusty


(rollingstone) Robbie Robertson last played live with the full lineup of the Band when filming 1976’sThe Last Waltz in San Francisco, and has rarely performed live since. But to promote his upcoming LP How to Become Clairvoyant, Robertson will make several appearances with an unexpected backing group: L.A. folk rockers Dawes.

So far, Robertson and Dawes are only planning television and possible festival gigs. Robertson first became familiar with the band when he needed a backup vocalist on some songs, including the new single “He Don’t Live Here No More.” His manager recommended Dawes frontman – and die-hard Band fan – Taylor Goldsmith.

Band to Watch: Dawes

“We were just kind of following the curiosity path,” Robertson tells Rolling Stone. “[My manager] came up with the idea of maybe working with them if I was going to do some TV things. We had a rehearsal a couple weeks ago in L.A. and ran over a few tunes, and it just felt pretty natural. They’re really good and they’re a band – it’s different than just getting a bunch of individual musicians and trying to make them click and blend. The guys are already in the blend, so that’s great. They’re all at the top of their game. I’m the one that’s a little rusty.”

Recording with Robertson was a lifelong dream for Goldsmith. His band became one of the only groups to play in the basement of Big Pink since Bob Dylan and the Band recorded there in the late Sixties. “I had never met Robbie, never thought I would,” he says. “I felt like the luckiest guy in the world when I got [the call] to go there. I was thinking, ‘Okay, I’m gonna sing background vocals on a song, Robbie’s not gonna be there.’ But I go and he’s there, and we hung out the whole time and he said he was really happy with what I did.”

SXSW 2010's Best Video: Dawes

They met again a few weeks ago when Robertson asked Dawes to meet him at a West L.A. rehearsal space to jam. “It was funny walking down the halls and hearing young metal bands and cover bands rehearsing, and we’re waiting for Robbie Robertson to arrive,” Goldsmith says. They jammed on three new Robertson tracks. “There were moments where he’d go into his guitar solos and I’d realize, 'Whoa, nobody else plays guitar that way.'"

Dawes' 2009 debut North Hills is full of rich harmonies and stripped-down instrumentation. Last year, when they played at Big Pink, Goldsmith told the small crowd his band wouldn’t exist without the space. “I got Music From Big Pink first,” he tells Rolling Stone. “Then once I got their [1969] self-titled album, and it became one my top three records ever… The romance of the guy that writes the songs and the other guys sharing the lead vocals, you got to know each guy on a personal level through their performances.”

Photos: Random Notes

Robertson adds, “Some bands today have the experience of really working together and honing their craft. And other bands are very much like, ‘I just got a guitar for Christmas, let's start a band.’ And you can hear the difference. You can hear a certain experience in some groups and it just feels grounded and when they play it’s such a strong unit. Even if they’re trying to not play as a strong unit there’s something that just works together – they know what works.”

Soul singer Loleatta Holloway dies aged 64


LOLEATTA HOLLOWAY- LOVE SENSATION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Jv_3htZOA


(nypost.com) American soul icon Loleatta Holloway, best known for her 1980 hit "Love Sensation," has died at the age of 64, her manager confirmed.


Chicago-born Holloway had been battling a short period of ill health and died from heart failure late Monday, her manager Ron Richardson told music website spinningsoul.com.

Holloway, who was also known for disco song "Hit and Run," successfully sued UK dance act Blackbox for a share of royalties from the group's 1989 number one single "Ride On Time," which sampled "Love Sensation" without credit.


Her work has also been sampled by Whitney Houston, for the star's 2009 hit "Million-Dollar Bill," and by US singer-turned actor Mark Wahlberg for his 1991 number one "Good Vibrations," with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.

Twitter tributes for the singer poured in Tuesday from fans and celebrities, including DJs Giles Petersen and Boy George.



Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/soul_singer_loleatta_holloway_dies_1T3d1OBCAIPPdZkNn7yaqN#ixzz1Hq15ATOf

Rainbow Arabia are L.A.'s new electro heroes



Danny and Tiffany Preston step it up with 'Boys and Diamonds.' They headline Friday at the Echoplex.

(latimes.com) Danny Preston of Rainbow Arabia has the rare day job that might actually inspire his songwriting. By night, he mans the production duties for the global-noise electronica duo with his wife, Tiffany. But on weekdays, he charters private planes for the world's wealthy, shuttling them to urban enclaves and distant paradises with no need for a frisking at the gate.

"I can hop on a plane whenever it's empty," he said over banh mi sandwiches at Xoia, a Vietnamese restaurant in Echo Park, last month. "It's only an option for such a small amount of people, but wow, what a crazy small world."

Rainbow Arabia's sound is likewise constantly shuttling from the humid percussion flurries of Africa to keening laments of Middle Eastern melodies and the micromanaged, after-hours
techno of Berlin. On its new album, "Boys and Diamonds," its first for the lauded German dance label Kompakt, there's a panache that befits the kind of plane ride on which the Champagne flows freely. But on the way to their status as L.A.'s unlikely new electro heroes (cemented with a headliner booking at the Echoplex for Friday night), there have been a few bumps.

Rainbow Arabia was never supposed to be a band, really. Danny and Tiffany were each preoccupied with other, more straightforward projects, but the logistics of coupledom made it kind of inevitable that collaboration ensued. Their influences had long been more varied than traditional Echo Parker indie fare, and the stranger corners of their record collections — Omar Souleyman, Smithsonian world-music compilations — began popping up in their programming.

Danny's beats typically redlined with punk's overdrive, and Tiffany's vocal melodies felt simultaneously combative and immediate. The local tastemaker Manimal Vinyl released their 2008 record, "The Basta," and many locals didn't know what to do with a sound too antagonistic for a dance floor yet too machine-driven for rock clubs.

The band acknowledges that some of its goals were lost in translation, particularly for its penchant as two attractive, arty L.A. musicians to adopt aesthetics and imagery from the Third World and other cultures.

"Good music is always supposed to step on toes," Tiffany said. "Our intentions are always positive, and we wanted to open people's ears to sounds they were supposed to be afraid of. But I could see how if I was wearing a burka in photos that would be offensive."

She paused. "Ah, wait, I did that, actually."

But around 2009's "Kabukimono," the band started to make something singular from its disparate ideas, and a residency at the Echo put them at the head of a small pack of local experimentalists on their same label. A remix for the Swedish producer the Field put the duo firmly on Kompakt Records' radar, and though the label made its name in meticulous, mercurial dance music, it saw Rainbow Arabia as a natural extension of its ethics.

"Without You" buzzes with No Wave synths buoyed by South Asian drum samples, and "Hai" goes right for the hips with a dub step wobble and Tiffany's insatiably catchy but just-beyond-intelligible lyrics. "Nothin Gonna Be Undone" evokes M.I.A.'s bus-depot clamor, and the title track warps an African guitar line through bright Ibiza synths and tweaked chants.

"I suppose Rainbow Arabia are coming from a different sonic palate than what we are known for," said Kompakt label manager Jon Berry. "But Kompakt's 'sound' has been always deeply influenced by
pop music, and we have always released a more subversive style of techno and house music than what trend in the niche dictates. For us, 'Boys and Diamonds' is a tremendous variation of electronic and pop music that fits perfectly in our roster."

But it came at a price domestically. Danny and Tiffany said that the expectations of a deal with a much more high-profile label made the home recording sessions for "Boys and Diamonds" arduous.

"As soon as we finished the album, we stopped talking to each other," Tiffany said. "You know how having a kid changes a marriage? This album was like having a whole litter of kids."

But in time, they came back from the edge of a breakup and quickly learned to enjoy their newfound place at the forefront of L.A. experimentalism. Tours have grown and spread internationally as befits their new label home, and they're growing more physical and capable live, where Tiffany spends much of a set writhing ecstatically while Danny manipulates live samples.

This time, getting on planes might mean the end of Rainbow Arabia's workdays instead of its beginning.

"We took a risk and knew we had to step it up," Danny said. "We had no life for forever. Music makes us way more stressed out than work."