Weezer's Rivers Cuomo has revealed that Lil Wayne has recorded a guest rap on a song on the band's forthcoming new album, 'Raditude'. The singer/guitarist told MTV News that he enlisted the rapper to give the song "edge" – although did not reveal which specific track he guests on. "We got Lil Wayne to come in and do a rap on it," he said. "Any other rapper would've just done, 'Yay, we're partying! Let's drink and have fun,' but he gave it the edge I was looking for. "You can hear in his voice, it sounds so dark, like he was gonna get shot or something when he walks out of the studio....
When Oprah Winfrey recently interview rapper Jay-Z, she made a point to play up their similarities. Like Jay-Z, Winfrey grew up poor and in a fractured family, only to achieve success she’d never counted on. In addition, both moguls say very little about their love lives to the public. But their thoughts on the N-word are where the talk-show host and the rapper part ways. Winfrey is staunchly against the use of the racial epithet. “When I hear the N-word, I still think about every black man who was lynched—and the N-word was the last thing he heard. So we'll just have to disagree...
This Is It, a new single by the late Michael Jackson, will be released on October 12 ahead of the two-week cinema run of the concert film of the same name, starting October 28. The previously unreleased track features in the closing credits of the documentary flick and features backing vocals by the Jackson 5. It will be the lead-off single from the film soundtrack, due out October 26. Meanwhile, Jackson's sister La Toya has an MJ tribute song video out this week to promote Home, a single that emerged in July taken from La Toya's upcoming, indefinitely delayed, album Startin' Over ....
Michael Jackson believed that initial mixes of his seminal 1982 album 'Thriller' were "crap" and "sucked", it has been revealed in a newly-unearthed interview. In the interview from '80s, published by the News Of The World, the late singer revealed that he was considering scrapping the Quincy Jones -produced album before being inspired by watching children play to salvage it. " 'Thriller' sounded so crap. The mixes sucked," he said. "When we listened to the whole album, there were tears... I just cried like a baby. I stormed out of the room and said, 'We're not releasing...
The mayor of Vienna has admitted that the Michael Jackson tribute concert that was expected to be held in Austria's capital was badly organised. Mayor Michael Haupl told the city's council the show would have been "very interesting... had it been properly prepared and organised but it was not". Organisers cancelled the planned 26 September concert after struggling to find major stars to perform. A replacement show has been planned for June next year, in London. Vienna authorities had initially agreed to subsidise the tribute at Schönbrunn Palace and planned to give organisers...
Hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas have played to a mixed audience in Malaysia after a government ban on Muslims attending the concert was lifted. The event was initially restricted to non-Muslims because it was being sponsored by beer company Guinness. Alcohol sales at Friday's concert were restricted to areas which signs said were off-limits to Muslims. The group's glamorous singer, Fergie, dressed down in jeans and a t-shirt for the concert in Kuala Lumpur. "I have had to change my costume," she said before taking to the stage, "but I mean the woman's silhouette is still there,...
Ryan Adams has auctioned off a collection of his original artwork for charity. Held at Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York, the paintings and collages were auctioned off with proceeds going to the Housing Works Bookstore Café, an AIDS and homelessness charity. Three weeks prior to the opening of the exhibition, Adams became Morrison Hotel Gallery's first artist in residence, creating additional canvases for the auction. The paintings will stay on display at the gallery for public viewing until October 15. See MorrisonHotelGallery.com for photos of Adams artwork and for more information.
Pop star Lily Allen has joined almost 100 other British musicians at a heated three-hour debate to discuss how to tackle illegal music downloading. The meeting was called after a public dispute among artists over whether serial file-sharers should be punished. The attendees agreed perpetrators should not have their internet accounts suspended, as ministers have suggested. Instead, they released a statement saying persistent offenders should have their bandwidths "squeezed". Artists including Allen, George Michael, Annie Lennox, Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien and Pink Floyd drummer Nick...
Mos Def is making a documentary about the relatively unknown punk band Death . The Brooklyn rapper turned actor is collaborating with Roc-A-Fella records founder Damon Dash on the film project about the Detroit punk band, whose members were all black and who formed in 1971. "It's going to be great," Mos Def said about the documentary, in an interview with Filter Magazine. "These dudes were pre-Sex Pistols, pre-Bad Brains, pre-all that shit, and nobody knows them. I don't understand how the whole world could forget them." The film has already started filming and is being directed by...
Pepsi is inviting music fans across the country to join in their effort to create a unique music collaboration for the "Ultimate Refresh" of the new single "La La La" by electro hip-hop duo LMFAO. Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas is joining Pepsi and LMFAO to produce a user-generated video and music track that will be available to consumers in December 2009. "It could be the sound of a bouncing basketball or a honking horn during rush hour traffic, everything I see and hear on a daily basis inspires the music I make," said Will.i.am. "I can't wait to get into the studio to produce this...
