After Nelly’s most recent effort ‘ Wadsyaname’ pretty much tanked last summer, the rapper is back with ‘Party People’ . The song, which features Fergie, is the ‘official’ first single to be lifted from the St. Louis star’s new LP ‘Brass Knuckles’ (due June 24th). I’m kinda surprised, I wasn’t expecting to like the Polow Da Don produced track as much as I do. The beat goes hard and serves as the grittiest Nelly has come on record for a while now. The Fergie feature surprisingly works pretty well, with the Black Eyed Peas front-woman holding her own on the hook, as well as her own rap verse (you read right). IMO the song has a lot of hit potential. Nelly will be shooting the song’s video in Los Angeles this week.

R&B star Ne-Yo recently spoke with MTV about his forthcoming new album, his third, which he revealed is called ‘Year of The Gentleman’:

“I’m trying to take it back to where you couldn’t walk out of the house unless you looked your best,” he explained of the album title. “Back in the day of, say, the Rat Pack and Nat King Cole … any picture you ever see, they’re suited and everything is right from top to bottom. Not saying it has to be a suit, ’cause clothes don’t make the man — it’s the attitude and person. The music needs to personify that. A lot of this music [on the album], some of it is gonna be urban, some of it is gonna be pop. Some is gonna ride that middle.

“The third [LP] is more of the good [music],” he added. “The second album proved I’m here to stay. I won a Grammy for that one. So, I’m here to win more Grammys. At the same time, I love what it is I do, so [this is] another excuse for me to pen more facets of my personality.”

I’m hoping he redeems himself from his so-so 2nd album, as, Grammy or not, it wasn’t up-to-par with his stellar debut. ‘Closer’ is growing on me, though, so things are looking good at the moment IMO.

Here is the official cover for Mariah Carey’s forthcoming new album ‘E=MC²’, which hits stores April 15th. I’m not liking it. The cover is actually a mess IMO; she looks like an ostrich with that dress or whatever she’s holding. The font doesn’t really mix with the background either. Just, no. Granted it’s just a cover, Mariah has kinda disappointed me on all fronts this time around (so far) – songs, performance-wise and now this. I’m really hoping her album will be serving up more than what I’ve heard already, as it would be a shame to go from the brilliance that was ‘The Emancipation’ to…well…this.

He did good I guess, but something about him even being on the show in the first place doesn’t quite sit right with me.

UK singing sensation Leona Lewis continued her US promotional campaign, this time making a big stop on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Check out her performance of ‘Bleeding Love’ below:

Academy Award winning actress Halle Berry gave birth to her first child, a baby girl, yesterday night. PEOPLE.com reports:

Halle Berry – who only recently said, “I want to stay pregnant forever” – had a baby girl Sunday and “is doing great,” her rep has confirmed.

The father is Gabriel Aubry. Berry, 41, and the 32-year-old model met while shooting a Versace ad in Los Angeles in November 2005 and first stepped out publicly together three months later at the February 2006 opening of a Versace boutique in New York City.

Berry first announced her pregnancy in September last year, when she was three months along.

During her pregnancy, the Oscar, Emmy and Razzie winner told InStyle she felt “fantastic” thanks to eating right and keeping fit with yoga, swimming, light weights and an elliptical machine. “Right now I just have so much joy and energy,” she said. “I can just go and go and go.”

For his part, Aubry has been reading baby manualsand parenting books.

Congratulations to Halle and Gabriel. I guess there’s hope yet for older prospective Hollywood mothers – Janet, Mariah and them lol.

Check out this video of BET host and former America’s Next Top Model contestant, Toccara, going nuts on a recent episode of ‘Celebrity Fit Club’:

Check out this controversial quote on females in the music industry lifted from Snoop Dogg’s guest entry on BET.com’s ‘Hip Hop Vs. America’ blog. According to the ‘Sensual Seduction’ rapper, its only good looking (by who’s standards is anyones guess) women that sell records:

“How many ugly women selling records? None! Only the pretty ones sell records. Beyonce, Mary J, Keyshia Cole, the ugly ones don’t sell. I ain’t gon say no names, but they don’t sell records. They just be singing their little hearts out, but they don’t get no sales, cause they ugly. Now, that’s my fault? I can see this on TV now: ‘Snoop Dogg called me, ugly’. You beautiful on the inside, baby. What I wanna say to go on top of that, to the chocolate women, the dark-skinned women, I love ya’ll. I got a chocolate daughter at home. I always tell her chocolate is the best thing in the world”.

I’m gonna give Snoop the benefit of the doubt by saying he didn’t fully engage his brain before trying to articulate his point. As, on a surface level, what he is saying is arguably true – after all, the Beyonce’s and co are more likely to sell better than their less glamorous counter-parts. Where Snoop is wrong IMO, is that he appears to be endorsing such a bias industry standard.

Mariah Carey was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live a few hours ago. The diva gave the first live performance current smash ‘Touch My Body’ as well as the hit-in-waiting ‘Migrate’ along with T-Pain. Check out the performances below:

‘I Decided’ has been confirmed as the first single to be lifted from Solange Knowles forthcoming sophomore album ‘Soul Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams’ (due this summer). Produced by The Neptunes, the track is a soulful/jazzy number that should sit well with the adult contemporary audience.

One has to wonder, though, if the idea of Solange going down the (Neo)soul route was because it’s what she wanted or to avoid the the inevitable comparisons to her elder sister Beyonce. Whatever the reason, I’m hoping Solange achieves some level of success with this project. The material I’ve heard thus far has been very promising.

Pop superstar Madonna is set to release her latest album ‘Hard Candy’ on April 29th, boasting contributions from the likes of Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams. The above pic has been revealed as the LP’s official cover. Though I’m kinda feeling the look she’s gone for, the background is a mess, as is the ‘Hard Candy’ font.