Mariah Carey has been a busy woman lately. Having just ended her ‘Angel’s Advocate’ US tour and preparing for the release of her similarly titled remix album, another track from her new project has surfaced. The remixed version of ‘Ribbon’ features the song’s co-writer, The-Dream, and rapper Ludacris. ‘Angel’s Advocate’ will be exclusively released via Target on March 30th. Give the song a listen below:
R&B star Christina Milian and hit-maker hubby The-Dream are celebrating the birth of their first child. The couple welcomed a daughter, who they named Violet, on Friday (February 26th). According to the delighted pair, the child has “a full head of hair”.
While the child is Milian’s first, she is The-Dream’s fourth – the singer/songwriter has three children with ex-wife, singer Nivea.
Milian and Dream, real name Terius Nash, married in October last year, announcing the pregnancy a few weeks prior to tying the knot in Las Vegas.
The first single from singer/song-writer The-Dream’s 3rd (and supposedly final) LP ‘Love King’ surfaced a few minutes ago. Also titled, ‘Love King’, the song finds the hit-maker in familiar territory with its witty lyrics, numerous catchy hooks, and playful production (courtesy of L.O.S Da Mystro)
Though a decent effort, the fact that the song would not sound out of place on either of his previous album’s (2007’s ‘Love Hate’ and 2009’s ’Love vs Money’), highlights a lack of artistic progression – if this is a taste of what the rest of his record will be serving up. While, I, for the most part, enjoy Dream’s offerings and his ‘trademark’, it’s somewhat problematic when much of your material sounds the same – despite there being a 3-4 year gap between when they were released. Still, I’m sure radio will eat this up. Take from that what you will…
Jamie Foxx has been hard at work on his next studio album. One of the songs emerging from his studio sessions is ‘Quit Your Job’, which was written and produced by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. Foxx’s new album hits stores later this year.
This song definitely has The-Dream and Stewart written all over it. From the colourful, almost ‘Sesame Street’ melodies to the beat, the record remains within familiar territory for the production duo. Although a nice track, Foxx sounds more like The-Dream than anything else, especially the end when he ascends into his falsetto. Artists need to be careful not to lose their identity when being directed by producers. As proven by some of the songs on Mariah Carey’s ‘Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel’ album, it is very easy to get lost in the production.
One of music’s biggest hit makers, The-Dream, has finally finished his new studio album. The singer/songwriter, who co-wrote Mariah Carey’s ‘Obsessed’ and Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’, had the following to say about the LP, ‘Love King’:
“Love King is the best of the Three albums And Its FINISHED!” he tweeted. “Pre-Order and buy from a brand you can Trust! Radiokilla Records.” {Source}
This is some very exciting news! The-Dream’s last album, ‘Love vs. Money’, was one of the best of 2009 and demonstrated why he is indeed a musical prodigy. Songs like ‘Walking On The Moon (Ft. Kanye West)’ were shamelessly overlooked by the Grammy Awards in favour of much weaker material. Interestingly, although his material for other artists have gone down as some of the biggest hits of the last decade, he is yet to have a #1 song of his own. Hopefully he ‘gets his’ with this new album.
In a rather unexpected turn of events, hit-makers The-Dream and Jermaine Dupri seem to have become involved in a public feud. Last evening, the studio titans, who are both probably best known for their work with diva Mariah Carey, took to Twitter to vent their frustrations surrounding the success (or lack their of) of Carey’s ‘Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel’ LP. Seemingly instigated by some of the songbird’s infamous ‘lambs’, the argument began on Dupri’s official Twitter page with the following post:
The-Dream, who was engaged in a heated argument with a group of Carey’s fans, then released the following statements about the situation via his own Twitter account:
Well blow me down! This has to be one of the most random arguments of the year. Although there have been rumblings of dissent amongst the critics and Carey fans alike about her decision to let The-Dream and Tricky Stewart handle her entire project, I don’t believe anyone expected Dupri to get involved, especially in a fan-lead dispute. In fact, many may wonder if this situation is merely a glimpse into the unseen tensions that exist within the industry politics. Is it that Dupri is upset that his material was not included on the ‘Memoirs…’? Or is this just a clash of the egos of two of music’s biggest hit-makers? Who knows. Either way, it would be interesting to see how events unfold.
Sidebar: Is anyone else itching to hear Carey’s thoughts on the matter?
US Magazine snagged this exclusive shot of Christina Milian and The-Dream’s wedding, which recently took place in Rome, Italy.
Christina looks great, but if Dream’s outfit isn’t a boiling hot mess I don’t know what is! There’s nothing wrong with trying to be fashion forward, but my goodness those boots – on your wedding day. I vote ‘no’…hell no.
R&B vocalist and go-to songwriter The-Dream was on a rampage last evening after not receiving a single Grammy nomination for his ‘Love vs. Money’ LP which was released earlier this year. The Executive Vice-President of Island Def Jam took to his official twitter page to vent his frustrations about being ignored by the Grammy Awards committee. Peep an excerpt from his tirade below:
Wow! I absolutely agree with his sentiments. ‘Love vs. Money’ stands as one of the best Contemporary R&B albums released this decade, in my honest opinion. With unique productions, dynamic vocals and incredible productions, there is certainly no reason why this record should not have been nominated in several of the major categories. His single ‘Walking On The Moon’ (featuring Kanye West) was a definite front-runner for ‘Best Rap/Sung Collaboration’ as was ‘My Love’ (featuring Mariah Carey) for ‘Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group’. The fact that Jamie Foxx and T-Pain’s auto-tuned ‘Blame It’ got favoured over the latter song is completely baffling. To compound the situation, many of the songs that The-Dream wrote himself were chosen in place of his own material (see Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’). Hot mess.
Sam’s 2 Pence:Can’t say I thought the album was Grammy worthy, Trent. (FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT lol)
Jay-Z’s much-hyped ‘Answer The Call’ 9/11 charity concert took place in New York’s Madison Square Garden last night (and aired on FUSE). A host of fellow artists joined the rapper, whose Blueprint 3 LP aptly dropped this week, including Rihanna, Kanye West, Kid Kudi and John Mayer. Check out the performances below:
Run This Town / Can’t Tell Me Nothing (w/ Rihanna & Kanye)
Already Home, Heart of the City, D.O.A (w/ Kid Kudi & John Mayer)
I really enjoyed all the performances, though I must say Ms. Fenty did remind me why she doesn’t get my support with her live performing (no stage presence+annoying yoodling+no believe’ablity=not hot).
While there remains no concrete release date for Christina Milian’s much delayed ‘Elope’ LP, one thing is certain, though; her creative partnership with fiance The-Dream is yielding the hotness. The latest collaborative effort from the pair to surface is a lengthy snippet ‘Welcome To Vegas’, which much like previously heard cuts from the album ‘Zipper’ and ‘Chameleon’, is audio-fire – to put it simply.
Here’s hoping the album, which will now drop via Interscope, receives an affirmative release date ASAP.
Regular readers will know that I felt LeToya Luckett’s sophomore effort ‘Lady Love’ was a little too-ballad heavy (a view, for the most part, I still hold). However having given the album a few more spins, it definitely has A LOT of grower potential and is steadily winning me over – no track moreso than ‘Good To Me’.
The bouncy mid-tempo is best summed up as fire on a track! While listening to this one I was literally saying: “LeToya Nicole Luckett, you better SANG!”. Definitely one of the tracks which showcase Ms. Luckett’s greatly improved vocals. Awesome track, one that should surely be considered as a single.
Ciara has switched up her look quite dramatically, as these new shots show. The 23 year old performer is rocking a short do, one which I feel suits her really well. Some may remember, she sported a similar look in one of the scenes in the ‘Promise’ video.
Tidbit: I am finding it quite funny reading on some of the other blogs about how CiCi chopped off her hair LOL. Like next to all the females artists now, she wears weaves – this being one of them, along with the one before this, the one before that, and so on. She looks awesome all the same.
Hard on the grind for her ‘Lady Love’ project, LeToya Luckett performed a set in Dallas over the weekend for ‘Hip-Hop For HIV Awareness’. Peep her performance of new single ‘She Aint Got…’ above.
Good performance aside, a little underground drama popped off on the back of this one.
Notice how at the start LeToya does an acapella of previously heard new song ‘Regret’ singing: “Now you’re at the bar with 1, 2, 3. Poppin’ game, ya look so lame, without me your pimpin’ ain’t the same”. Immediately after, just before launching into ‘She Ain’t Got…’, she then says to the crowd “I know ya’ll know who I’m talking about!”. To date, LeToya’s only public romance has been with fellow Houston native Slim Thug.
Further adding fuel to the fire, Slim Thug took to his official Twitter pagenot long after saying: “If u a R&b singer chick fuck with me Ima make u go platinum.. Give u helluva songs torn,regret,not anymore,she ain’t got etc…gnr”.
I guess things aren’t as cool between the former couple as we’ve been led to believe. Hmmm…
Last week it was confirmed that Whitney Houston’s comeback album is titled ‘I Look To You’. The set features productions from the likes of Ne-Yo, Akon, Swizz Beats, Dianne Warren and R. Kelly who penned the album’s title track.
I remember watching the above clip little over a year ago, which sees the R&B crooner singing the song, confirming he wrote for it Whitney’s LP. Kelly will, I’m sure, be glad the cut has been placed on the final record for 2 main reasons: 1) he will be part of something the world is waiting for and, 2) “Ka-Ching!!!” Should Whitney’s album be the seller many are predicting it will be, a major paycheque for controversial Kelly would be in store.
About the actual track, I’m loving it! Can’t wait to hear Whitney’s take on it. That said, while I appreciate all Whitney’s been through, I’m hoping the album isn’t all ‘inspirational’ ballads. Ballader or otherwise, Whitney is very versatile and can churn out some winning contemporary uptempos too (See: ‘It’s Not Right, But It’s Ok’, ‘If I Told You That’, ‘Whatchulookinat’).
‘I Look To You’ hits stores on September 1st via Arista.
Adrienne Bailon, formerly of 3LW and the Cheetah Girls, recently sat down with Hot 97’s Angie Martinez to discuss her time with both groups, her new solo deal with Island Def Jam, the ‘adult pictures’ which almost ended her career and more. A pretty interesting interview, one in which Adrienne comes across really well.
With Keri Hilson’s debut ‘In A Perfect World’ finally set to arrive in stores tomorrow, the singer-songwriter dropped the video for her latest single ‘Knock You Down’ today. The Kanye West and Ne-Yo assisted song is definitely one of the album’s standout cuts IMO, so it’s great to see it get the single treatment.
About the video, I’m liking the concept. Nothing to make you go ‘wow’, but does just enough. Keri looked great too.
