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.

Thoughts?

R&B contralto Jazmine Sullivan is preparing to release her sophomore album. The Lauryn Hill-inspired singer has been in the studio with some of music’s biggest hit makers including Ne-Yo, Carlos ‘Los Da Mystro’ McKinney and Ryan Leslie. The untitled LP hits stores in Summer 2010. {Source}

Sullivan has one of those voices reminiscent of those once heard on ‘Showtime at the Apollo’ in the early 1990’s. If her new album is anything close to what she did on her debut, then I am sure that she will have a hit on her hands. I still can’t believe that she did not win the ‘Best New Artist’ at last year’s Grammy Award ceremony, especially after hearing her live vocal performances of ‘Need U Bad’. Shame shame shame.

Sidebar: I know I’m not the only one who got caught in singing ‘Bust Your Windows’ at the top of my lungs in the middle of traffic. Am I?

Thoughts?

Pussycat Dolls lead singer Nicole Scherzinger is pushing ahead with her solo career. The songstress, who recently split from longtime boyfriend Lewis Hamilton, is reportedly focusing all of her energy from their breakup into her new music. Scherzinger is currently in the studio with Ne-Yo who had the following to say about their work together:

Nicole is in a state of liberation right now so the tracks are very free. She is in a place where she is happy to be alive and the tracks are definitely expressing that.

The whole album is going to be a pressure release – a great big exhale – and I’m happy about that. She has a lot of emotions after splitting up with Lewis. But it’s like taking an eagle and giving it back its wings. {Source}

It’s great to see that Nicole has found a way to express herself in her music. However, where does this leave the  rest of the Pussycat Dolls? It seems that everyone else in the group gets put on pause whenever she attempts to develop a solo venture. This really says something about the system that the group has in place where everything revolves around one singer. Furthermore, unlike Destiny’s Child, where Beyonce was undoubtedly the group’s front woman, the rest of the band generally lacks the support to have their own side projects and careers while Nicole is away. I would really like to hear what she has to say about these issues as, thus far, she has remained very quiet about them.

Thoughts?

R&B songstress Alicia Keys appeared on German games show ‘Schlag den Raab’ recently. The singer performed a medley of her hits ‘Empire State of Mind’ and ‘Doesn’t Mean Anything’. Keys’ new album ‘The Element of Freedom’ peaked at #15 in Germany.

With the exception of a few off-key notes, Keys did her thing, as usual. The singles chosen from this album, while good representations of the direction that she took, don’t reflect the true potential of the LP. However, Keys is yet to deliver a poor performance (possibly in her entire career) and continues to demonstrate why she is one of the best.

Thoughts?

UK singer Alexandra Burke took the stage on ‘So You Think You Dance’ today. The ‘X Factor’ winner performed ‘Broken Heels’, the third release from her ‘Overcome’ LP. To date, ‘Broken Heels’ has peaked at #12 in the UK.

Other than the fact that she was singing over a very loud backtrack, Burke delivered a solid performance. She has a lot of stage presence and it was good to see her utilising the entire stage instead of remaining glued to one spot like her other British counterpart, Leona Lewis. Hopefully she uses her voice more in future performances because she seems to have a strong dependence backtracks.

Thoughts?

R&B star Trey Songz stopped by The Wendy Williams Show yesterday to perform new single ‘Say Ahh’ (which you can watch above), as well as sit down for a chat with the former shock-jock.

Despite coming across kinda amateur and karaoke, Trey turned in a pretty decent performance. Not bad. In any case, check out the interview below:

Your thoughts?

Peep the cover for Monica‘s new single ‘Everything To Me’. She looks breathtakingly beautiful. Stunning.

Your thoughts?

UK media darling Cheryl Cole is looking further extend the success of her solo project ‘3 Words’ with the release of ‘Parachute’. Confirmed today as the latest single to be lifted from the Platinum selling LP, the song was jointly produced by Syience (Beyonce & Jay-Z’s ‘Hollywood’) and will.i.am.

Though Ms. Cole certainly leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to the quality of her voice, music etc, this definitely stands as one of her better solo offerings thus far. Unashamedly Pop, with Urban sprinklings, I can see this one being a mainstay on the radio here.

Tidbit: It will be really interesting to see how Ms. Cole’s solo career holds up once the X-Factor hype dies down. Speaking of the popular show, there are reports that Simon Cowell is lining her up to join the panel of the US show. Hmm.

Hit or Miss?

Mention of the name Shontelle will likely bring about sound bites such as ‘who?’ / ‘what?’ Indeed the Universal Motown artist is known for little more than her moderate hit ‘T-Shirt’ from last summer. After the  inevitable tanking of her debut LP ‘Shontelligence’ (serious side-eye at the label exec who okayed that monstrosity of a title), the 24 year old is back with new single ‘Licky (Under The Covers)’, the video of which premiered a few minutes ago.

Where does one begin?! I mean the Ray Kay directed clip boasts the sheen and polish of the modern era’s better videos, yet pretty much everything else is an unmitigated atrocity. I can honestly say I have not heard a song as terrible as this in, what must be, YEARS! Really, this is borderline criminal. As for the video, I vote ‘no’ on the contrived styling and wannabe bad girl image (a clear swagger-jacking of fellow Bajan, Ms. Fenty). Even more cringe-worthy to watch was Shontelle’s dead-on-arrival sex-appeal; it just looked forced and awkward. No, no, and no.

Upon first watch, I laughed hysterically. Yet, watching again, I felt so embarrassed for her. If she’s to be anything other than a one-hit wonder, she’ll have to come much harder. Awful.

What do you think of the song / video?

The video for JLS’ third single ‘One Shot’ premiered literally a few moment ago. Aside from the song being awful, its accompanying video is a boiling hot mess! A recession special if I’ve ever seen one, the dated choreography and all-round atrocious performances turned in from all involved make this cheese-fest that much worse. Most perplexing, however, is the fact that with these guys being so big (here in the UK), this will likely be a hit. SMH…

Tidbit: Why does JB never sing? (“Merry Christmas” LMAO!!!!!!!)

What do you think of the song / video?

Pop phenomenon Lady GaGa made her highly anticipated appearance on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ moments ago. The singer performed a medley of her songs ‘Monster’, ‘Bad Romance’ and ‘Speechless’ from her ‘The Fame Monster’ LP. Check out all of the interview segments after the jump….

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Rihanna is set to release a remixed version for her platinum ‘Rated R’ LP. As reported by Rihannadaily.com, the record is set to hit stores in February and is being primarily produced by DJ Brooklyn Zoo. The electro-producer took to Twitter to reveal the following details about the project:

Def Jam asked me to pick 10 Rihanna tracks to remix, for a complete remix album release in February. My deadline is January 18.
I’m planning on releasing a Rated R mega-mix with all the snippets in January.
Just finished my fix for “Rihanna/Gangsta 4 life”, now working on Rihanna: “Wait Your Turn”,”Rude Boy”,”Fire Bomb” and “Te Amo”.
Started o/t last 6 tracks for the Rihanna “Rated R” remix album. Russian Roullette, Hard, Stupid in Love, Photographs are approved by Def Jam.
Working on a mix for the refix album I’m doing for Rihanna/Def Jam… grinded on the fix for “RockStar”. Doing 10 tracks in total.

This news does not come as a shock at all. It seems that Def Jam is using the exact same formula for all of their major acts because Mariah Carey’s ‘Angels Advocate’ remix LP is currently on track for March 9th. Either way, unless they have found a way to remix Rihanna’s voice, I doubt that we have much to look forward to except ten more songs of nails running across a chalkboard.

Thoughts?