Despite the controversy that has ensued regarding Beyonce’s unrecognisable ad for L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant have denied altering the shot:

“We highly value our relationship with Ms. Knowles. It is categorically untrue that L’Oréal Paris altered Ms. Knowles’ features or skin-tone in the campaign for Feria’s hair color.”

A rep for the 27-year-old Knowles declined to comment beyond the L’Oréal statement.

The ad is appearing in this month’s Elle, Allure and Essence. So far the magazines have not said anything about possible Pantone issues. {Source}

Granted we all know that was a lie from the pits of hell (I mean, honestly now…), it was unlikely they’d own up to such nonsense. After all, that would allow for increased debate about the whole issue; they wouldn’t want that now, would they. SMH…

Any thoughts?

Continuing along her promo trail here in the UK, Solange performed ‘I Decided (Part 2)’ on T4 recently. The few off-notes aside, I enjoyed this performance. I’m hoping we see more live performances of other material from her forthcoming LP ‘Sol-Angel & The Hadley Street Dreams’ soon, though.

What do you think of the performance?

Rapper Nas stopped by The Wendy Williams Show to perform ‘Hero’ from his #1 album ‘untitled’. Great performance; highly charged and Nas’ flow was as on-point as ever.

What do you think of the performance?

Watching this kinda reignites my slight disappointment with the actual video (you’d think the finished product would have been better); it lacked that certain ‘something’ IMO. With summer in full swing, I’m still kinda holding out for a release of the oh-so-aft (for this time of the year) ‘Sucka For Love’. Then again, this is Bad Boy we’re talking about…

Your thoughts?

R&B crooner Joe, seemingly, out of nowhere has taken aim at R. Kelly, blaming the singer for trying to ruin his career. Check out the report via Contact Music below:

R&B singer JOE has accused R. KELLY of pressuring radio DJs not to play his records – in a bid to scupper his growing stardom.

The Stutter singer released six albums with Jive Records over an 11 year period, but left the label earlier this year (08) after the company pushed back the release of his 2007 LP, Ain’t Nothin Like Me, several times.

And the Grammy-winning star believes his rival labelmate Kelly was to blame, insisting he would call Jive bosses and radio stations and urge them not to promote the singer too strongly.

Joe says, “R. Kelly was very instrumental in making a lot of decisions when it came to my records being played on the radio.

“He would make a call to the radio station or to the label and say, ‘Hey, this Joe record is too hot right now. Y’all (sic) need to pull that back.’ And they would oblige. It’s incredible that now I get the opportunity to, I don’t know, maybe pay (R. Kelly) back in some sort of side bar kind of thing.”

And Joe, who left Jive to release his forthcoming LP New Man through Kedar Entertainment Group, insists he is still a prevalent musician despite R. Kelly’s alleged intervention.

He says, “I’m still very relevant in the game. But yeah, he did try to make some decisions when it came down to my records being on fire, and climbing up the charts and on the radio stations. He felt like they should pull back because he felt he was more important. And with their loyalty to him, they obliged.”

Though I do support Joe, it does kinda seem like he’s a little bitter about being…well…not all that relevant in the contemporary music scene and is taking aim at R. Kelly because of it. I mean, I find it a little odd that he’s only coming out of the woodwork now. Anyway…

Check out this behind the scenes footage of Nelly’s new Sean Jean Underwear shoot:

Your thoughts?

In a statement to the press, Usher’s record label have confirmed that the Grammy winner has re-hired his mother Jonetta Patton as his manager. Check out the report via Billboard:

In a short statement issued by LaFace/Zomba, it was announced that the artist “has dissolved his management arrangement with Benny Medina and has re-engaged Jonnetta Patton as his manager.”

Usher split his mother as his manager in May 2007. He then hired Medina, who was integral in the launch of the artist’s recent album, “Here I Stand.” In 10 weeks, it has sold 948,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It’s the No. 8 best-selling album of 2008 so far.

However, it hasn’t come close to matching the gaudy numbers of its predecessor, 2004’s “Confessions,” which sold 3.77 million copies in its first 10 weeks and is at 9.6 million to date.

Let the ‘I told you so’s’ ensue lol. For real, this is definitely a good look for Usher IMO; maybe not for the ‘Here I Stand’ LP (which IMO was dead on arrival), but for his long-term prospects.

Your thoughts?