Beyonce performed on the Today Show this morning in support of her B’Day Deluxe re-release, which drops tomorrow (April 3rd). She performed a combined English and Spanish version of ‘Irreplaceable’, as well as ‘Green Light’. Check out the performances:

Irreplaceable (Spanglish Version)


Green Light


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Eve – Tambourine

 

Fresh off her collaboration with Kelly Rowland on ‘Like This’, rapper Eve is back with a new single of her own. The track, ‘Tambourine’ was produced by Swizz Beats (Busta’s ‘Touch It, Beyonce’s ‘Check On It’ etc) and it’s expected to be the first single from E-V-E’s new album ‘Here I Am’ due later this year. It’s an upbeat/club kinda track and should do well. I’m liking it, although it’s kinda repetitive.
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———————————–Johnta Austin – Video (ft. Unk)

This new track from talented singer/songwriter Johnta Austin isn’t really doing it for me; it’s not bad, it’s just not that good either. Considering this is the man who played a major part in the career-reviving ‘Emancipation of Mimi’ album, I expected better. The subject matter in ‘Video’ has been done so many times before and the beat is kinda generic, so the song comes across ‘dated’. I’ve heard better tracks from him, such as ‘Turn It Up’ and ‘Hood Love’, so hopefully he delivers on his next offerings.

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Bone Thugs N’ Harmony (ft. Mariah Carey & Bow Wow) – L.O.V.E (SNIPPET)

The clip is kinda short, so I can’t give a full review. However, from what I can hear, the track sounds like its gonna be good. I’m sure it’s a Jermaine Durpi production; the beat sounds real ‘JDish‘ and I can hear him shouting in the background lol. Mariah’s flow on the hook sounds great, dunno why Bow Wow is on the track though.

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R&B superstar Usher has confirmed that he is engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Tameka Foster. In a statement to MTV News, the ‘Confessions’ singer hinted at the possibility of his marriage to Foster- a professional stylist- taking place before the end of the year.
Foster’s background is familiar territory for Usher. Similar to his ex (Chilli from TLC), Foster, 38, is older than the singer…10 years older; she also has kids with her ex husband- who she left for Usher. It’s not all smiles though. It has been reported that Usher’s momma, Jonetta Patton (who is also his manager), isn’t pleased with the relationship. It could have something to do with the fact that she once fired Foster as her son’s stylist as she wasn’t styling him ‘according to his caliber’. Ouch…
*As they’re leaking so fast, any new Beyonce vid will be posted in this post*

Still In Love (Kissing You)

Not sure how I’m feeling about this one. It’s very simplistic, set on a beach. The song is definitely one of the better additions to the B’Day Deluxe album and I would have liked to have seen a ‘proper’ video for it. Then again, the song is the B’Day equivalent of Dangerously In Love, so maybe they wanted to let the vocals take centre stage – which they do.


Flaws & All


This video is real simple, so it matches the theme of the song. She lets her guards down and shows some of her true personality, which we often don’t see.

Get Me Bodied

WOAH. This video is FIYAH! I’m liking the whole concept…everything. She ain’t ever brought it like this in terms of a video before. Beyonce’s former band mates Kelly and Michelle feature in the video too. She should have saved herself the time and just released this and ‘Green Light’, as they are clearly two of her best videos. PERIOD.

Green Light


Now this is what I’m talking about. Everything about this video is ON-POINT! I’m liking the ‘different’ vibe/choreography she went for on this one. I applaud the fact that she’s doing something kinda different here too. Hands down one her best video’s yet…

Suga Mama

This one’s a straight dance/concept video. I’m liking it for what it is but some of the other vids are much better. She was working the choreography though.

Rihanna has premiered her new single, ‘Umbrella’, from her upcoming new album. The track, which features Jay-Z, is good, but nothing special. No doubt it will be a hit, though, as her label insist on shoving her down our throats. When Jay started rapping I got the impression the song was gonna be hot and then her annoyingly nasal singing kicked in. Def Jam are not wasting anytime; the album name has been revealed as ‘ Good Girl, Gone Bad’ (hmmm) and will drop June 6th.

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Ok, so Beyonce’s B’Day Deluxe is leaking left, right and centre; videos, tracks…everything. This vid for ‘Freakum Dress’ ain’t bad, but it makes me wonder if there was any point in the whole ‘making a video for every song’ idea in the first place. There’s nothing innovative or interesting enough to make me want to go out and buy the album because of it. What’s more is that you can tell they were on a budget…it’s kinda cheap. To be honest, the only video’s that show any signs of being worthwhile are ‘Get Me Bodied’ and ‘Green Light’. Let’s hope the other vids are saying more than this.

British soul singer Joss Stone has launched a scathing attack on Christina Milian in the upcoming GIANT magazine issue. EUR WEB reports:

While Stone had some harsh criticism for today’s crop of R&B singers, her most scathing words were saved specifically for singer-actress Christina Milian, who just so happens to be the ex-girlfriend of her ex-boyfriend, Beau Dozier.

Stone describes most singers today as “just highly paid strippers.” When told she may have just insulted a large swath of singers, she cocked her head to the side, flashed an innocent smile and said, “What? It’s not like I’m not telling the truth.”

When Christina Milian’s name came up in conversation, Stone, according to writer Aliya S. King, “doesn’t bother to hide her disdain for the woman who Dozier, now Stone’s ex-boyfriend, once dated.”

Stone told King: “I could tell you some stories about her… ,” then launched into a “profanity-laced tirade against the pop star.”

King writes: “After I point to my tape recorder, reminding her that she’s on record, Stone doesn’t quit. Instead, she continues to go off on Milian and, even worse, Milian’s mother. ‘I’m just honest,’ Stone concludes with a shrug.”

“Christina has never met Joss,” Milan’s publicist responds. “She can’t imagine what this is all about.”

Ain’t this funny? How does she manage to to call out anybody else when she, herself, has a shady background?. Wasn’t it just a few short weeks ago that Joss came under fire in the ‘F*cking for Tracks’ exposé? What she doesn’t seem to understand is that she can call all these R&B chicks ‘hoes’ all she likes but at least they’re ‘hoes’ for all to see! She, on the other hand, is a ‘hoe’ behind closed doors and that’s worse. She needs to sit down.

Beyonce’s B’Day Deluxe re-release is days away from being available in stores (April 3rd) and the inevitable leaking of some new cuts from the project has happened.
The ‘Kitty Kat’ video (below) will apparently serve as an intro to the ‘Green Light’ video, hence why it has a short running time (appox 1min). It’s a cool vid and the special-effects work better than I imagined from seeing the video caps.

‘Flaws & All’ ain’t doing it for me right now. She delivers vocally, but the song itself is kinda blah. The other track, ‘Still In Love (Kissing You)’, is much better and can be likened to ‘Dangerously In Love’ – a strong, emotive ballad. Assuming she’s singing about Jay-Z, she even drops the line ‘I love you more than music’. Check them out…

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Finally, heres an extended preview of the ‘Get Me Bodied’ video and it looks like it’s gonna be the best out of all of them. The choreography is ON-POINT and theres cameos from Kelly and Michelle (of Destiny’s Child)…oh and Solange lol.

So there you have it…I still hope she decides to lay low after all of this because people are tiring of her.
Though Beyonce’s B’Day Deluxe re-release has yet to hit the shevles, Rolling Stone are reporting that the ‘Deja Vu’ singer is to release ANOTHER album this year:

After a world tour, Beyoncé will release a live album that her team considers the finale piece of their B’Day puzzle. “This is going to change the way people launch records,” says Matthew Knowles, Beyoncé’s father and longtime manager, who conceived B’Day’s multiple releases early in the recording process. “It’s not just a one-time event anymore.”

That’s some BS. Matthew is talking out of his backside; they know full well that the only reason for all these re-releases/new albums is due to B’Day not selling as well as ‘Dangerously In Love’. End of. I feel sorry for all the people that are buying into all this nonsense.

Source: Rolling Stone

These are pics of Fantasia on the set of the video for her new single – ‘When I See You’. The video was shot in Brooklyn on the Williamsburg Waterfront.

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She looks on-point. Don’t know why it’s taken so long to release a follow up to her first single ‘Hood Boy’. Hopefully the song/video will do well because it’s one of the best on her great sophomore CD, ‘Fantasia’. If you haven’t picked it up already, I advise that you do so…it’s FIYAH!

Rapper/actress Eve graces the cover of the April/May edition of GIANT magazine. E-V-E does does not hold back either; addressing everything from her sextape, to her caucasian ex-boyfriend, why her sitcom really ended and her thoughts on the current state of Hip-Hop.
On Her Leaked Sex-Tape:

I was hurt by it, but what kept me calm is the fact that it was my boyfriend. Not that I wanted people to see me having sex, but it wasn’t like I was getting gangbanged – that would have been crazy!

On her relationship with Guinean dictator, Teodorin Nguema Obiang & dating other races:

I’d rather not talk about it. We met through mutual friends, and we were together for three years. It was a good relationship…I’m going to love who loves me, and if I’m attracted to a person I’m attracted to them. I’ve had black men, especially industry types say to me, ‘Oh, I heard you were dating someone white? No, but if I was, it would be my choice, so stay out of my business. They don’t like when I say that to them though.

On why her sitcom, ‘Eve’, was taken axed:

There was a lot of politics going on at UPN with the black sitcoms and with Will Smith’s show [All of Us], so I had a feeling we weren’t coming back. There are no guarantees in television, and they don’t even give you a heads up. The show ended two seasons shy of syndication eligibility and was sold to TV One.

On the current state of Hip Hop and her future plans in the industry:

For me it all started with [D4L’s] ‘Laffy Taffy.’ When I first heard that song on the radio, I just knew it was a joke, but then I kept hearing it. Every artist has the right to do what they want, but I don’t believe in making that kind of music. It’s disposable.”

“Hip-hop is in cardiac arrest, but I think it’s revivable. it’s not that I’m so profound, rhyming about when Jesus came down or anything, but I take the time to sit down and make sure my words come together so they sound right and flow with the track. I think a lot of that is missing

Eventually, I want to completely move into moviemaking because it is a pretty stable life. Music is unfortunately, getting crazy. I mean, rock stars don’t even have longevity and music is just – hip-hop, especially – so…superficial.”

“There’s nothing special.
There’s not one hip-hop artist that I can say is special…There are some that are definitely better than others, and that’s my personal opinion, you know? But if I had a child, I wouldn’t let them watch TV, and I would not let them listen to the radio. As far as the videos go, and all that.. I just can’t.

Interesting. Good to see her keeping her name out there, in prep for her new album.

Source: WHUDAT

Kelly Rowland debuted her video for ‘Like This’ a few hours ago on MTV’s TRL. Though it’s not what I expected, I’m liking it alot. This is hands-down her best video yet. She clearly has a lot more confidence and is now a believable solo star. Both she and Eve are looking on-point in the video too.

What do you think?
Kelly On TRL

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Kelly Backstage on TRL

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