The Britney Spears / Kevin Federline custody battle took a surprising turn yesterday when the Pop star opted to end her her battle to win back custody of her children, Sean Preston and Jayden James, from her estranged ex-husband. Check out the report via OK!:

In an exclusive interview with OK!, Kevin’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan says both Britney and Kevin reached and signed off on a settlement in their custody case today.

Kaplan tells OK!, “At about 8 p.m. PT, a final settlement in the Kevin Federline-Britney Spears custody case was signed. All parties have agreed to the following: Kevin will retain sole legal and physical custody of Sean Preston and Jayden James. Britney will continue to have visitation rights which may increase over time. The agreement will be presented to the court in the morning for approval by the commissioner.”

Kaplan adds, “Kevin is ecstatic and the boys are thriving.”

Britney, who remains under the legal conservatorship of her father Jamie Spears, lost custody of her sons to Kevin last October. At the time she had visitation privileges but they were severely restricted following her January hospitalization for psychiatric evaluation.

She currently has monitored visitation with her sons two days a week and one overnight.

Here’s hoping things continue to straighten out in Britney’s personal life. I’m sure many a fan are awaiting her return to the charts.

Your thoughts?

Review in a bit…

In the meanwhile…

What do you think of the video?

Granted she did exude more charisma than we’re used to seeing from her, watching this back really did have me asking myself ‘when the hell is Beyonce coming back?’ lol.

What do you think of the performance?

In Solange’s interview in the Summer 2008 issue of Rap-Up magazine (on newsstands now), she speaks on the burden of being a ‘Knowles’. Check out the extract below:

“At this point, it’s starting to hurt me more than help me because my family is sort of known as the new age Huxtables. We’re the clean-cut girls. But I got married at 17, had a kid at 17. Ever since I was younger, I always considered myself to be into more artistic things than [Beyoncé]. People just hear the [Knowles] name and they just put a stamp on it automatically.”

I’ve increasingly come to respect Solange’s genuineness over the last few months. It really is refreshing in an industry that sees much of its stars assume the media-savvy, plastic/wooden personalities. More power to her…

Any thoughts?

It’s pretty decent, I guess. To be honest, however, T.I. has yet to top his ‘Urban Legend’ LP material-wise IMO. it’ll be interesting to see what ‘Papertrail’ will be serving up.

Hit or Miss?

Peep this photoshoot Michelle Williams shot for MTV last month. She looks great! Click here to see more pics.

With Nas’ controversial new ‘untitled’ album in stores this week, the acclaimed rapper stopped by the Jimmy Kimmel Live show yesterday to perform current single ‘Hero’ along with Keri Hilson. I really their showing; Nas’ flow was as on-point as ever, Keri held her own with the live vocals and the crowed were hyped. Great performance.

What do you think of the performance?

The video for Ashanti’s brand new single ‘Good Good’ premiered today. Directed by Melina, the video (which for some reason turned out exactly how I envisioned it lol) is great! Quirky, different and generally not your standard R&B clip, this is arguably one of the better videos to come out this year IMO. Tidbit: Nelly makes a cameo, which is sure to get tongues wagging.

What do you think of the video?

It was reported back in May that Britney Spears had begun work on her new album. Today, her record label have confirmed the news, adding that the recovering Pop princess will be spending the summer recording the LP. Check out the report via Billboard below:

Spears is said to be working “with a team of top-notch producers and songwriters” not named in the statement, but JR Rotem, Sean Garrett, Guy Sigsworth, Danja and Bloodshy & Avant have all independently revealed that they’re contributing to the as-yet-untitled project.

The new album, for which no release date has been confirmed, will be the follow-up to last year’s “Blackout,” which has sold 879,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The album was largely overshadowed by Spears’ tabloid-fodder personal life and her disastrous performance of the single “Gimme More” during the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas.

On a bit of a random note, I’m actually surprised ‘Blackout’ shifted as many units as it did. I say this, considering there was next to no promotion for it for obvious reasons. I guess it goes to show that the interest level is still there; with a pretty impressive producer line-up, it’s left to Britney to deliver on *all* fronts this go round…

Do you think Britney still has what it takes?