Following her departure from Blackground Records earlier this year, R&B star Toni Braxton has been hard at work on her sixth studio album. Though currently untitled, the album is set for release early 2008. Most interestingly, the LP is slated to drop via J Records – reportedly Braxton’s new label. If true, it’ll be a homecoming of sorts for the ‘Unbreak My Heart’ singer, whose most successful years were when signed to Arista (now J Records). Bryan Michael Cox, Johnta Austin and Monica have all been tapped to work on the project. {Source}
Having really enjoyed Toni’s last album ‘Libra’, it’s great news to hear that she’s making new music. The ‘label did me wrong’ excuse is cited so often with artists these days, yet when you have a stellar album such as ‘Libra’ flopping, something had to be up. Here’s hoping she is successful with this new project.

Will you be checking for a Toni comeback?
Amy Winehouse’s tour manager has up and left the embattled ‘Rehab’ singer, claming that working for the star was harming his health. See the report below:

Troubled Amy Winehouse has been dealt another blow today after her tour manager quit amid drugs accusations.

Thom Stone walked out on the singer just a day after she had a meltdown during a gig in Birmingham, swearing at fans and falling over on stage.

Mr. Stone confirmed he had quit after it was said that he found working with Winehouse and her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil who is currently behind bars, was harming his health.

The last straw was when Amy, 24, and Blake were arrested with cannabis in Norway last month.

The Sun reported today that doctors found heroin in Mr. Stone’s system after he inhaled it passively on Amy’s tour bus.

The tour manager is said to have produced a doctor’s note which revealed traces of the class A drug in his blood.

“He insisted to the management team that the only way that could have happened would have been through inhaling it from Blake and Amy. Thom just had it up to here. It was a nightmare job,” the paper reported. {Source}

As much as I support Amy, there’s no denying the woman is out of her mind. Check out this vid of her allegedly taking ‘something’ on stage during her show in Zurich recently:

How and why she is still allowed to perform when it’s common knowledge she’s a crack head is beyond me. Someone needs to stop all this before it’s too late. SMH..


Your thoughts?
Rapper Chingy makes his official return to the DTP (Disturbing The Peace) fold with new album ‘Hate It Or Love It’, which drops on December 18th.
The album will be preceded by first single ‘Fly Like Me’ (ft. Amerie); the video for which will debut on BET’s Access Granted this coming Monday (19th November).

What do you think of the cover?
Actor Will Smith appears on the cover of the December issue of Men’s Vogue magazine. With Barack Obama, Tiger Woods and Denzel Washington all having appeared on the cover of the mag this year, it reinforces a positive shift with the Vogue institution as a whole – which has seen very few black stars grace its cover through the years.

What do you think of the cover?
According to reports, the legendary Jackson family (Janet included) may be set to tour in 2008. Check out the report via Yahoo Music below:

Rumors of a Jackson 5 reunion show for 2008 have been sparked by a concert promoter.

Leonard Rowe promoted Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall tour the late ’70s/early ’80s. He has now met with the Jacksons to discuss the possibility of a reunion tour in 2008.

Rowe told Access Atlanta: “His brothers are ready. Janet is ready. But the motor of that car that makes the car run, isn’t just yet.”

Rowe added: “In April of this year, I flew out to Las Vegas and met with them all and he told me, ‘Let’s look at ’08.’ We wanted to go this year, but [Michael] said it would take a lot of preparation. He didn’t say no.”

The last Jackson 5 studio album was 1989’s 2300 Jackson Street.

Speculation about such a tour has been rife for years now, but this marks the first time a credible source has spoken about it. I’m all for a Jackson tour, although I doubt it’ll materialize – too many egos. A few one-off specials, perhaps?

Do you think the Jacksons should reform/tour?
The Queen of Hip Hop/Soul, Mary J. Blige has teamed up with funk-rock collective Maroon 5 for a remix to the band’s current single ‘Wake Up Call’. Produced by Mark Ronson, the remix works on a number of fronts – it’s great to see Mary venturing out of her R&B niche as she did with her collabo with U2 on ‘One’.
Hit or Miss?

{Link Removed As Requested}

Ok, it appears much of Beyonce’s forthcoming DVD (‘The Beyonce Experience’) has been ‘surfacing’ as of late, so it’s for that reason that this will be be the last vid posted here until the DVD drops on November 20th.

About the performance, she nailed it! IMO ‘Get Me Bodied’ is hands down the best track on ‘B’Day’, so it was good to see her do the performance justice live – extended version and all. A tidbit: did anyone else spot the guitarist during the ‘drop down low and sweep the floor with it’? She was getting it! LMAO!

What do you think of the performance?

According to The Washington Post’s review of a recent Bobby Brown show, things for the ‘My Prerogative’ singer are going from bad to worse. Check out the review below:

Although his pelvic thrusts were geriatric and his tongue aerobics creepy, Brown got through his portion of the New Jack Swing show without major incident. The “King of R&B” (who appeared with one-half of Jodeci, two-thirds of Tony! Toni! Tone! and one-third of Guy) ably revisited his post-New Edition, pre-Whitney Houston peak, including “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Roni” and, of course, “My Prerogative.” As is always the case with Brown, however, what he said was far more interesting than what he sang.

“Baltimore!” Brown shouted at one point. When the crowd failed to react, he asked, “Where am I right now?” After figuring out he was playing to a Washington crowd, Brown said, “They told me I was in Baltimore — I guess so I could come out here and embarrass myself.” The singer also played coy about his reported October heart attack: “You all think I had a heart attack, but I’m all right. I made it. They told me I had an hour and 15 minutes, now they’re telling me I only got 40. I only got 40 minutes, but I still got broke off. I can pay child support for another year — y’all won’t be seein’ my [behind] in jail no more!”

A mess.

R&B singer Chris Brown is set to star in holiday flick ‘This Christmas’ alongside Regina King. The teen star co-directed this video for the song (of the same name) from the film’s soundtrack. Both the song and video are pretty decent. Veering off topic slightly, this has just reminded me of how quick 2007 has gone by – we’re at the end of the year already. Anyway, ‘This Christmas’ will hit theatres across the US on November 21st.

What do you think of the song/video?

As many of our readers will know, I interviewed R&B singer Mario last week (look out for the interview later this week). The ‘Crying Out For Me’ singer confirmed that he will be doing shows in the UK during December. Below are the dates and other info:

Tuesday December 4th – Jazz Cafe, London

Wednesday December 5th – Jazz Cafe, London

Thursday December 6th – Jazz Cafe, London
Tickets for the shows are available now via See Tickets, click here to purchase.

Will you be checking for Mario’s shows?

As the release of ‘The Beyonce Experience’ DVD draws nearer, new performances from the set are starting to surface. Check out the red-hot performance the singer gave of ‘Freakum Dress’ above and the ‘Baby Boy / Murder He Wrote’ performance below:

Hate it or love it, these go to show why she is considered to be the ‘Hottest Chick In The Game’.

What do you think of the performances?

Hip Hop star Jay-Z’s new LP ‘American Gangter’ shot straight to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart this week, with sales in excess of 425,000. The rapper is now tied with the legendary Elvis Presley for the most #1 albums – both having 10 apiece – just behind The Beatles.

Some other chartings this week include Chris Brown’s sophomore set ‘Exclusive’ which debuted at #4 with an impressive 294,00 copies sold and Cassidy’s ‘B.A.R.S’ album which charted at #10 – selling 63,000 copies. {Source}

Having heard the album myself, I feel Jay deserves to do well with this record. I’m guessing the naysayers will have to fall back now.

Your thoughts?
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