The video for Amerie’s new single ‘Why R U’, the first from her Def Jam debut ‘In Love & War’, premiered a few hours ago on BET. While the video is visually appealing (Amerie looks great), it dually manages to be ‘just there’, ‘blah’, ‘dry’…you get the point LOL. As an avid Amerie supporter (well as of the last album ‘Because I Love It’), I really can’t warm to this song; it simply just isn’t good – most especially not single quality. I maintain, whichever label honcho allowed this needs career re-assessment, because this is not the business. Best of luck to Amerie with this project though…she’s going to need it.
What do you think of the video?

Your favourite singer and mine Cassie stopped by a US radio station this past week to discuss a number of things, including her now infamous nude snaps. Peep the video above.
Your thoughts?

Check out this behind the scenes look at the video for Amerie’s new single ‘Why R U’. I’ll hold my judgement until I see the vid in its entirety. I will say though; Amerie looks stunning. {As usual, thanks Adrian!}
Your thoughts?
That Grape Juice Exclusive: Kelly Rowland Update
R&B star Kelly Rowland has been busy as of late promoting her smash collaboration with David Guetta ‘When Love Takes Over’, as well as her hit Bravo reality series ‘The Fashion Show’. According to new reports, things have been equally as busy behind the scenes in the world of Ms. Kelly:
Big changes are going down with Kelly Rowland, Beyonce’s partner in Destiny’s Child, where the two lifelong friends teamed up to become the top-selling female group of all time. Rowland is out of her own Sony deal, and the planets are lining up for this free-agent diva, who’s the vocalist and co-writer of a single by French star DJ David Guetta that is already a smash in Europe and blowing up in Britain. It’s already #17 in U.K. airplay and the week’s highest climber, while racking up the biggest audience increase, with major adds including Radio One and Capital. The single’s also breaking in the U.S., where it’s on Astralwerks/EMI, with multi-format airplay at Z100, WXRK, WKTU and WNYZ New York, B96 Chicago, KNGY and KMVQ San Francisco and KNHC Seattle.
Rowland has also parted ways with Matthew Knowles, and named Jeff Rabhan new manager while the well-respected Gary Stiffelman takes over her legal representation from Destiny’s Child/Beyonce attorney Ken Hertz. She remains an unsigned artist whose albums have sold tens of millions, so expect plenty of action. {Source}
More power to her! Things really are popping off for this immensely talented, and oft underrated, star. Go Kelly!
In other Kelly news, Brandy posted the following on her Twitter last night:

“On the phone with @kelly__rowland..I am so blessed to have her back in my life:)

Some of you may remember, Kelly and Brandy used to be good friends several years ago. However for reasons neither has addressed (although we did ask Brandy in our interview with her a few months back), they stopped speaking. It’s great to see the ladies have put the past behind them. A duet, perhaps?

Your thoughts?
Aguilera's New Album Title Revealed
After a while away from the scene (her short lived Greatest Hits project aside), Christina Aguilera is prepping her fourth studio album for release in September. The project, according to HMV, is titled ‘Light & Darkness’. Mother of one Aguilera has worked with with DJ Premier (‘Ain’t No Other Man’), Linda Perry (‘Beautiful’), Tricky Stewart (‘Umbrella’, ‘Single Ladies’), among others, on the record.
Word has it the visual theme for the album will be ‘High Fashion’ inspired, with a fusion of Andy Warhol and contemporary styles
Sounds real promising. I’m really hoping this is better than ‘Back to Basics’ – which IMO was contrived mess. Xtina would be much better off NOT trying to be the next Madonna and making such a conscious effort to drastically switch up her style and sound with every record -it’s just not necessary. She seriously dropped the ball with ‘Back to Basics’ after the near-flawless ‘Stripped’ LP. For her sake, she needs to pick it up big-time, this go round.
Your thoughts?

Check out a glowing Whitney Houston posing it up for the cameras on the set of the photoshoot for her highly anticipated ‘comeback’ album (due September 1st) recently – while listening to some Michael Jackson. This year is shaping up to be a great one for the legends. Here’s to ‘real’, undeniable talent…
Your thoughts?
New Song: Amerie - 'Dear John'
As Amerie readies her Def Jam debut ‘In Love & War’ for its August 11th release date, a new cut from the set has surfaced called ‘Dear John’. While the production on the midtempo ballad sounds a lot fresher and more ‘chartable’ that the album’s first single offering ‘Why R U’, I can’t help but feel that Amerie was a little out of her range vocally with this one. ‘Strained’ is word that comes to mind upon listening to this. With Ms. One Thing’s voice being an acquired taste to begin with, this isn’t the best of looks to showcase her immense talent. Here’s hoping the rest of the album delivers. In the meanwhile, I’m cranking up ‘Because I Love It’ on my iPod.
Hit or Miss?
 
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will.i.am Pulls Plug On Solo Career
Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am is currently seeing the group achieve new feats with their latest project. However the same success was not realised for his solo project, 2007’s ‘Songs About Girls’. It appears the experience has caused the star to pull the plug on his solo career:
will.i.am has confirmed that he will not record another solo album.
The rapper, who released Songs About Girls in 2007, has revealed that he plans to concentrate all his efforts on the Black Eyed Peas, Breaking News.ie reports.
“No, I’m not doing another solo album. It’s all Peas,” the group’s frontman noted.
will.i.am also said that he thinks that the band’s latest album The E.N.D. is their best work to date.
“I’m excited about this album. It’s the best. It’s going to be hard to top this,” he added. {Source}
While I can’t say (with a straight face) that will’s solo assaults on the charts will be missed in any way (they were awful IMO), it goes to show some folk are better suited to a group set-up, rather than solo. Who else would you say falls into that category?
Your thoughts?

Check out ‘D.O.A (Death Of Autotune)’, the official street single from Jay-Z’s hotly anticipated ‘Blueprint 3’ LP.
Hit or Miss?

Check out short preview of the video for Ciara’s latest single ‘Work’, which was directed by Melina.
In our interview with CiCi, which you can expect to see / watch on Tuesday (maybe even before…watch this space!), she discusses the videos for her next singles, Fantasy Ride sales, her industry contemporaries and much more. You know that we ask the questions you really want answers to…so be sure to keep it locked on TGJ in the coming days for that.
Your thoughts?

The full video for Jordin Sparks’ latest single ‘Battlefield’ premiered today. While the song is hands-down a winner, the same cannot be said for its accompanying clip. It’s not that the video is poor per se; it’s more that not much of anything is going on. I’m all for concept clips, but this almost feels like a video made for the fact that the song needed one. Nonetheless, an awesome song, that I’m sure will continue to climb the charts – and rightfully so.
What do you think about the video?

Ciara inteview (part 2) went awesome…you’re gonna love it…it will be up quicker than you can say “Sam, the man, the Kelly Rowland stan!”


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