It’s almost impossible to imagine now, but barely five years ago, Rihanna was basically the female version of Sean Kingston. These days, Kingston isn’t much more than a Justin Bieber accessory and Rihanna…well, she’s arguably the biggest female pop star around these days. She’s racked up an impressive 11 #1 hits on the pop singles chart, sidling up against the likes of Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson in the blink of an eye. She’s one of the more unique-sounding […]
Posts tagged "Jay-Z"
We Saw It!: Jay-Z & Kanye West In Boston 11/21/11
Can two of hip-hop’s finest rock an arena show. Take a look at our review of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Watch The Throne” tour date in Boston.
The Popblerd Chart Report 11/13/11: Scotty McCreery’s Teenage Dream
Television viewers voted Scotty McCreery as the 10th American Idol, and those same viewers likely contributed to the teenager’s debut at the top of Billboard’s album charts this week. Clear As Day starts off at pole position with a fairly impressive 197,000 units sold. It’s the biggest first week sales total for any “Idol” champ since David Cook in 2008. Also worth noting, after a year and a half without a new solo artist debuting at #1 on the album […]
The Viewfinder: Beyonce’s “Countdown”
Even with a little bambino on the way, Beyonce is still as (Sasha) fierce as ever. She debuted her new video for the Boyz II Men-sampling “Countdown” last night, and it’s pretty much 4 minutes of everything you’d expect from a Beyonce video. The cuts in this video are so fast (and there’s so much happening even apart from that) you might just go dizzy from watching. It’s certainly the best of the videos released so far from the 4 album. […]
Spin Cycle: “Black & White America” by Lenny Kravitz
Since his debut in 1989, Lenny Kravitz has been pretty consistently pelted with scorn. Initially, it was because most people (the few who knew who he was, anyway) knew him as the hippie-dippy husband of The Cosby Show’s Lisa Bonet. Even as Lenny built up successes as his own entity (and divorced Bonet), the criticisms continued. Whether it was his deliberately retro sound, his lack of originality, or his occasionally banal lyrics, Lenny couldn’t (and still can’t) seem to catch […]
Spin Cycle: Lil’ Wayne’s “Tha Carter IV”
Rapper Lil’ Wayne once said, via an album title, I Am Not A Human Being. Listening to his new album, Tha Carter IV, it’s not difficult to see where Wayne was coming from – it’s not difficult to envision the rapper being dropped from a UFO into someone’s Hollywood backyard on a quiet, chilly night. The objective? To ruin hip-hop by turning it into an exaggerated version of its worst stereotypes, to behave in a deliberately bizarre fashion to court […]
2011 MTV Video Music Awards Live Blog
It’s the 2011 version of the VMAs and really, other than who has a hot single, what’s the real difference from year to year? You take a bunch of famous pop stars, give them tons of alcohol, and just let them act the fool on live TV. I think the real question should be: Who is going to do something that makes the Twitter go crazy? Kanye, Lady Gaga, or how about Kanye? My money’s on Kanye. I have my […]
Chart Stalker: Throne Maintained; Weezy & Drake’s Domination
This week’s Billboard album chart has a familiar ring to it: Jay-Z and Kanye West hold the #1 spot for a second week with Watch The Throne. Featuring the hit single “Otis”, the hip-hop superstar summit rings up another 177,000 units in sales this week. It sells more than double the quantity of the week’s #2 album, which is–looky looky–Adele’s 21. Now riding the wave of a second hit single (“Someone Like You” hits the Top 40 this week), Adele’s […]
Spin Cycle: Kanye West And Jay-Z HAM It Up
After their collaboration with Rihanna on Jay-Z’s Run This Town from The Blueprint 3 and Jay-Z’s guesting verses on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, it seemed fitting that they’d work on a project together. But considering the size of both men’s egos, it wouldn’t have been out of left field to think that a full length collaboration album would be impossible to complete. Jay-Z has tried a few already times with little success, considering he and R. Kelly […]