Trina - 'That's My Attitude' (First Single)
Following last year’s top-10 charting ‘Still Da Baddest’, Trina is back with new single ‘That’s My Attitude’ from her new album – tentatively titled ‘Amazin”.
In being one of the few who actually feels Ms. Trina is actually quite underrated, I’ve -for the longest – enjoyed the swagger she exudes on her tracks. Hence why, despite this track’s somewhat samey feel to what we’ve heard from the Diamond Princess in the past, I am liking it. That said, this is more street single, than first single material.
Hit or Miss?


Interesting. A shame the actual video didn’t come out as well…

Your thoughts?
Confirmed: Mariah's 'First' Single Is...
Showbiz 411 colunmist Roger Friedman, an extended member of Mariah Carey’s PR team, continues to serve up information about what to expect from the diva’s forthcoming ‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’ album – today confirming that Foreingers cover ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ will be the record’s ‘first official single’ (rolls eyes). Check out the report below:
Foreigner’s Mick Jones can start ordering caviar and Champagne again: Mariah Carey is releasing her own gospel-tinged version of his masterwork song, “I Want to Know What Love Is.”
It’s the first “real” single from her new album following the summer release of the witty “Obsessed,” which is also included on “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel.” The album and the single hit the world on Sept. 29th.
I heard the Foreigner song yesterday along with all of “Memoirs” and let me tell you: Mariah’s got a hit on her hands along the lines of “Emancipation of Mimi “The hour-long CD is ballad-centric. Written and produced with The Dream and Tricky (I know, but these are their stage names), “Memoirs” boasts a lot of singles. Starting with the Foreigner song is a canny move in these uncertain times. By the time its run is over, a new generation will think “I Want to Know What Love Is” is a Mariah Carey song.
Mick Jones, who wrote it, should start picking out some nice new cars thanks to Carey. The money should come rolling in quickly.
The other songs on the album — these are the titles, although the running order is still being finalized: “Betcha,” “Obsessed,” “H.A.T.E.U.,” “Candy Bling,” “Ribbon,” “Standing O’s.,” “Impossible,” “It’s a Wrap,” “Inseparable,” “Up Out My Face,” “More than Just Friends,” and “Angels Cry.”
Several of these are radio ready. “Angels Cry” is an honest-to-god ballad a la “Vision of Love,” and should be a gigantic success. “Standing O’s” also has potential, as do “H.A.T.E.U.” — which stands for “having a typical emotional upset” — and “Inseparable.”
Def Jam’s L.A. Reid — who previewed the CD for the first time yesterday with a clutch of staffers — is playing with the order, to get it right. But he really can’t go wrong. Carey’s album, is, as they used to say, “what the kids want.” Plus, it’s got stuff for the slightly older crowd. I loved the doo-woppy “It’s a Wrap.” And the Foreigner track is so powerful, it’s going to be everywhere.
Good news, too: no more songs about Eminem. One was plenty.
So, by the end of September we’ll have new CDs from Whitney and from Mariah. They’re each top notch and different from each other enough that their fans should want them both. Maybe we’ll see a return to record stores (we have but a few in Manhattan now) and diva duels on radio if programmers are smart.
Hmmm. What I find kind of baffling about this whole ‘first official single’ nonsense, is that with the ‘Emancipation’ project the first single ‘It’s Like That’ didn’t perform that well, yet the label stood by it as the album’s first single. The record’s 2nd single ‘We Belong Together’ dropped thereafter and we all know what happened with that one. So why ‘Obsessed’ is being dubbed a ‘summer treat’ as opposed to a single is hella confusing.
I’m guessing the poor performance of Mimi’s last album ‘E=MC2’, particularly the singles (‘Touch My Body’ aside), has the label very worried about the success of this LP; so much so that they are distancing themselves away from anything that isn’t an undeniable smash hit i.e. ‘Obsessed’. All signs point to this album needing to be a hit for Mariah, otherwise things may take a turn for the worse. Labels pump money into projects and expect good returns – especially on major artists such as Mariah. Regardless of an artist’s status, if they aren’t making money for the label, then they are in danger of facing the axe. Simple as. With ‘E=MC2’ just about hitting Platinum status in the US, despite a #1 single, massive promotion and 2-3 more singles, it was a relative commercial failure. Hence why there is so much riding on this.
About the actual preview, ‘Angels Cry’ sounds intriguing, but thats about it. The line about the LP being ‘what the kids want’ doesn’t excite me – if anything, it has the opposite effect. Some of you may wonder why I seemingly go in on Mariah the way I do, but when an artist who has been blessed beyond belief with such a voice and delivers classics such as ‘Butterfly’ and ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’ lowers herself to making audio-garbage such as ‘Touch My Body’ and ‘Obsessed’, one is justified in asking: WTF?!
I mean I really do want to support, but ol’ Mimi is making it oh-so-hard to…
Tidbit: Is it just me or is anyone else struggling to find the correlation between ‘ballad-centric’ and ‘for the kids’? Surely, these are opposing sounds?
Your thoughts?
Christina Lines-Up All-Star Cast For New LP
Pop star Christina Aguilera appears to be going all-out on her next album, enlisting a star-studded cast of the industry’s hottest movers and shakers for the record:

Christina Aguilera has confirmed some of music’s coolest artists will feature on her next album.

Santigold (formerly Santogold), M.I.A, Lady Tron, Goldfrapp and singer Sia will all appear on the star’s next disc.

In an interview with A.P.E Radio she said: “I think I’m most proud of this work than I’ve ever been, just because I worked with so many amazing and incredibly talented people.”

The Neptunes and Major Lazer are also rumoured to be contributing beats to the album.

Christina continued: “I really like to step outside of my own box. The result was just crazy magic. There truly is something for everyone to enjoy on the record. Lots of good stuff in store!” {Source}

Sounds exciting. Christina has yet to match ‘Stripped’, her most solid body of work to-date IMO, with her recent releases; so here’s hoping she serves up the hotness with her latest CD.
Your thoughts?
That Grape Juice were fortunate enough to catch up with the UK’s #1 girl-group, the Sugababes, here in London last week. The multi-Platinum selling trio, consisting of Keisha Buchanan, Heidi Range, and Amelle Berrabah, chat with us about their new single ‘Get Sexy’ and forthcoming album, signing with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation imprint in the US, the poor performance of their last LP ‘Catfights & Spotlights’, being criticised for going too ‘commercial’, solo plans and much more. A fun watch, I must say 🙂 Enjoy! (Special thanks to: Louise D, Leon M, Jamell, Sean L, Beatrice A, Seye ‘Iizsik’ and Alistar C!)


Your thoughts on our Sugababes interview?
Bow Wow Signs To Lil' Wayne's Cash Money
Rapper Bow Wow announced late last night on Twitter that he has signed with Lil’ Wayne’s Cash Money label. Check out what the pint-sized star posted:

BOW WOW IS A CASH MONEY MILLIONAIRE. SHOUT TO STUNNA FOR BELIEVING IN ME AND GIVN ME A CHANCE SHOUT OUT 2 WAYNE FOR LETN ME WALK ON BOARD! AND MY YM FAMILY AND CASH MONEY FAMILY. LBW/CASHMONEY/YOUNGMONEY BOW WOW WAYNE AND DRAKE? WHO GOT STOP THAT TRIO! GNR LETS GO ITS SHOWTIME!” {Source}

Is it me or is anyone else a little puzzled by this, as ol’ Shad said he was retiring from the industry early this year as he’d ‘done did it all’? I guess he was trying to save face after being dropped by Columbia. Oh well, I really can’t knock his hustle – regardless of how annoyingly cocky he is. Whether folks rush to the stores to buy his music will be real interesting to see, but best of luck to him.
Tidbit: Bow Wow forgot to list Omarion as one of the other artists signed to Cash Money. The pair will now be label mates again. What? I’m just saying…
Your thoughts?
Mariah's 'Obsessed' NOT First Single - Apparently
With Mariah Carey’s ‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’ project in disarray, it’s seemingly been put down to her network of close media contacts to ‘clean-up’ the mess that is rapidly becoming this album. Former Fox News reporter, Roger Friedman, who is in Mimi’s extended PR team, has gone on record to supposedly explain what’s going on behind the scenes with Mariah’s LP:
Mariah Carey—despite idiotic postings elsewhere—is gearing up for her big new CD release.
Mariah feels so strongly about “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel” that she’s even re-hired the PR powerhouse that made her second-stage career such a success. She’s back with Cindi Berger of PMK HBH. It was Berger who made her “Emancipation of Mimi” the biggest hit of Mariah’s career. Smart move.
Of course, that means both Mariah and Whitney Houston are now being repped by the same PR company. PMK’s Kristen Foster is handling Whitney with my old pal, Jill Fritzo.
“Memoirs” was scheduled for an August 25th release, then moved to September 15th. Now it’s set for September 29th. If the regular Grammy deadline had been in place—September 30th—Mariah would have made it. But the unfortunate early deadline of August 31st cut her off. So she has some slack time to get “Memoirs” just right.
The first single from Mariah’s CD will not be “Obsessed”—that was just a summer trifle, and it was a lot of fun. The real first official single is said to be a powerhouse ballad along the lines of “Vision of Love.” {Source}
Oh Mariah. I do find it hilarious that the oh-so-used explanation for a single under-performing – ‘oh, it was a buzz single’ – is being used here. Besides, Mariah herself, as well as her label, radio programmers etc have all acknowledged ‘Obsessed’ as the first single. I can guarantee, had the song did what it was supposed to on the charts (aka been a massive hit, instead of a barely moderate one), they would have been trumpeting it as the record’s first single. SMH…
For a brief moment I got excited at the prospect of a qualitative single from Mariah – as Friedman alludes to, instead of the cookie-cutter trash she’s been putting out as of late (something she is so above making). Then I remembered how I’ve been punk’d by Mimi with everything she’s done post-Emancipation, hence my decision to be pleasantly surprised when she does deliver the hotness. At this point, though, I wouldn’t bet much on that happening.
Randomness: Is it me or is Mariah kinda dropping albums (so close together) for the sake of it now? I mean it’s not as if she’s in Janet Jackson’s predicament, where her last releases were slept on – and perhaps feels she needs to prove something. This I ask as Post-Emancipation Mariah seems to be releasing material very quickly – yet bringing nothing new to the table and consistently serving up rubbish material.
Tidbit: Check out this preview of Mimi’s ‘Memoirs’ from the UK’s Sun paper. Things are not looking good 🙁
Your thoughts?

Fantasia sat down with CNN this week to discuss what she’s been up to since she’s been out of the spotlight for the last year. An interesting watch, one in which she opens up about having tumours in her throat and going back to school. More power to her!
Your thoughts?

R&B star Keri Hilson recently performed a set for Walmart Soundcheck online concert series. Check out her performances of new US single ‘Slow Dance’ (which I’m hearing was minimalist due to the more explicit nature of her usual live performances of the song), new UK single ‘Energy’ as well as album cut ‘Alienated’.

Pretty good….
What do you think of Keri’s performances?
This week’s classic From The Vault video is Mary J. Blige’s 2005 international smash ‘Be Without’. A return to form for the future Hall-of-Famer, the song serves as one of those that sound as fresh today as it did when it was first released – IMO one her all-time best. It’s not often singers who have been in the industry for so long manage to add to their list of career-defining hits so late into their career, something I feel really is a testament to just how great both this song and Mary J are. Enjoy:



Your thoughts?

Peep this preview of D. Woods’ video for debut single ‘Legalize Me’. Still on her Independent circuit grind, I’m must say I’m quite impressed with D for this one.
Your thoughts?
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