Trey Songz made a guest appearance on ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’ last evening. The somewhat successful singer performed ‘Already Taken’ from the ‘Step Up 3D Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’. Check out the performance below:

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Hip-Hop heavyweights Drake and Nicki Minaj took to the stage on Jimmy Kimmel Live! a few hours ago to perform Young Money smash ‘Bed Rock’.

Check out their performance after the jump…

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International crossover star, Taio Cruz, performed his new single ‘Dynamite’ on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. The singer songwriter performed the track as part of his set to the promote his ‘Rokstarr’ LP – which was released in the States this week.

While I’m gonna need Mr Cruz to update the wardrobe pronto (fellow Brits will know what I mean), as well as his live performing skills, it’s hard to deny the song’s smash hit potential. Put simply, it’s the business.

In any case, check out Taio’s performance after the jump…

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Ciara and Paris Hilton partied the night away at Timbaland‘s 38th birthday party last night (April 28th). The pair joined the likes of Brandy, Ray J, Justin Timberlake, and Interscope head Jimmy Iovine, to help the hitmaker celebrate at Drai’s at The W Hotel Hollywood.

Your thoughts?

Rapper Eve has been out of the spotlight for almost 3 years, and in January confirmed that she has parted ways with Interscope – her label home of 11 years. In a new interview with VIBE, the self-proclaimed ‘pit-bull in a skirt ‘ elaborates on the split, revealing  the mishandling of her shelved 2007 LP ‘Flirt’ to be the reason for her departure. Check out what she had to say below….

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Eclectic singer Kelis stopped by the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show last night to perform new single ‘Acapella’. With label head will..i.am spinning on the decks behind her, Kelis delivered a rousing performance of the #1 Billboard Dance smash (while a slightly unenthusiastic audience looked on ). Check out how she fared below…

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With the release of his 7th album, ‘Raymond vs. Raymond’, on the horizon, Usher’s team has provided his fans with a look at the record’s official tracklisting. The album features contributions from Rico Love, Polow Da Don, Jim Jonsin, Danja and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. ‘Raymond vs. Raymond’ hits stores on March 30th. Check out the official line-up below:

1. Monster

2. Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home) (Ft. Plies)

3. There Goes My Baby

4. Love ‘Em All

5. She Don’t Know (Ft. Ludacris)

6. Lil Freak Usher (Ft. Nicki Minaj)

7. Mars vs. Venus

8. Prolover

9. Foolin’ Around

10. Papers

11. So Many Girls

12. Guilty (Ft. T.I.)

13. O.M.G. (Ft. will.i.am)

14. Making Love (Into The Night)

{Source}

Thoughts?

It appears Pussycat Dolls creator Robin Antin‘s promise of new faces in the group is holding true, with Twitter posts by member Melody Thornton indicating that she has been axed from the five-piece. The 23 year old’s telling Tweets have been posted over the last two days. Here’s what Thornton said:

Not sure yet what my n.y’s resolution is but I know I wanna let go of the ppl who wanna let go of me! So ill start there. Sad
11:30 PM Dec 29th from UberTwitter

Thx 2 God, Jimmy Iovine, Robin Antin, Ron Fair and everyone involved in making the Pussycat Dolls a sucess! What a start! Thx 4 the bridge!
about 2 hours ago from UberTwitter

With all-signs pointing to Ms. Melody being ousted (unsurprising considering her being so vocal about her talents not being utilised), I must say this sure looks to be a blessing more so than anything for the ridiculously talented VOCALIST.

As the sales of the ladies last LP ‘Doll Domination’ show, Robin Antin’s stubborn insistence on keeping the focus exclusively on Nicole has made for PCD to be come a sinking ship. With their 3rd album looking to rehash the same formula, if ever there was a time for Melody to spread her wings and get her shine, it’s now! I mean Melody just standing there looking pretty and singing the odd ‘ohhh’ and ‘ahhh’ never did sit well with me, especially considering she has a better voice than the chick out front!!! (IMO). In any case, we wish her much success – she certainly deserves it.

Your thoughts?

As we’ve been reporting for the last few months, Janet Jackson has been on the brink of inking a new deal with A&M Records – the label she began her career on. Well, according to the New York Daily Post, the deal was finalised with the Interscope-housed label last month.

Interestingly, the label – on which Janet saw the release of 2 of the biggest albums of her career ‘Control’ and ‘Rhythm Nation’ – always had plans to release a Janet greatest hits LP – so say our sources, yet have gone all out in the way of promotion and having Janet herself board, since signing her.

According to the newspaper, A&M/Interscope wants ‘Number Ones’ to remind people how great Janet is. There’s the  hoping it’ll wet the public’s appetite for Janet and pave the way for her new music.

Particularly amped for Janet’s new album is A&M/Interscope executive Jimmy Iovine (who janet was snapped out with last month), who has has enlisted hitmaker Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins to oversee the album.

“Jimmy has given the mandate to make this Janet record a success,” reports the paper. “He believes that he has the right team in place to finally take Janet back to the top of the music charts. It’s a top priority for the label”

As at writing, the album as a pencilled-in release window of 2nd-quarter 2010.{Source}

To say the confirmation of the deal has me uber amped would be the biggest of understatements. Very much a rooter for the underdog, I’ve been waiting the longest for the all the pieces of the jigsaw to re-align for Ms. Jackson (if you’re nasty) and they seem to be doing just that. A team and label who are fully behind her, a super-producer overseeing the project, and all that jazz. Could 2010 be the year Janet re-asserts her place at the top? We sure hope so!

Tidbit: Upon hitting ‘post’, Sam goes into intense prayer and fasting in hope of another ‘Feedback’ from this Janet and Darkchild union!

Your thoughts?

Despite the dismal sales forecast for Amerie’s latest effort ‘In Love & War’, the singer continues to press on with her promotional attempts, most recent a trip to the Jimmy Kimmel Live show to perform new single ‘Heard Em All’.

Ms. Rogers delivered a pretty decent performance, yet you’d know never know judging by how dead the crowd were (can they be blamed, though? Probably their first time hearing the song!). I worry a little for what the future holds for this immense talent; when will she finally get her deserved kudos?

What do you think of the performance?

According to Video Static, Janet Jackson is preparing to shoot the video for new promotional single ‘Make Me’. The cut is being used to promote her new greatest hits compilation ‘Number Ones’:

BOOKED: Janet Jackson – Robert Hales, director

To support the new Janet hits compilation, Number Ones…

artist: Janet Jackson
song: “Make Me”
label: A&M/Interscope
director(s): Robert Hales
production co: HSI
producer: Oualid Mouaness
exec producer: Coleen Haynes
commissioner: Kathy Angstadt

Go Janet! Though she’s served up better cuts in recent years, I’ve had the song on ‘repeat’ recently – the bridge is killer!

In other Janet news, we have reliable word that Ms. Jackson is *very* close to signing (or has already signed) a new record deal with Jimmy Iovine’s Interscope Records, home to Lady GaGa, Eminem, Pussycat Dolls, 50 Cent, and the Black Eyed Peas. Notice how all of the aforementioned are promoted to the high heavens. Could this be the ‘comeback’ we’ve been waiting on?

Do you think Janet can make a comeback?

In a recent interview with MTV, super-producer Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins revealed new details about Janet Jackson’s much anticipated new studio album, which he’s working on. Peep the full report below:

When we caught up with producer Rodney Jerkins on the VMA red carpet in September, he was already hard at work on Janet Jackson’s next studio album. Now the super-producer is opening up a lot more on exactly what fans can expect for Janet’s 11th studio album.

Janet is like my sister now,” Jerkins told MTV News on Wednesday (October 21) at his Los Angeles recording studio. “We definitely have this incredible chemistry, this bond — I think we musically connect, crazily. I knew it — it’s funny ’cause I predicted this. Five years ago, people used to ask me who I wanted to work with, and I was like, ‘Janet Jackson.’ And I was so passionate about that because I’ve always been a fan of her music and what her and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have done in the past. And I felt like, knowing she wants to try new things, that I feel I can get it and I can deliver it for her,” he said.

DarkChild explained that fans can look forward to an emotionally driven album.

“Since we’ve been working … I feel like the studio has become a second home for her because with the whole situation with Michael [Jackson] happening, and I feel like right now, emotionally, she can come here and let all her feelings out. I got her writing again — she has the pen and the pad in her hand.”

But it’s not just the recent passing of her brother Michael that is fueling the content of Jackson’s album. Fans are going to see a side of Janet that they’ve never seen before, thanks in part to Rodney’s persuasion.

“You gotta understand, she lost her brother. She was in a relationship for seven years that’s over now. There’s things that she told me that I didn’t even realize. You know, certain [things] like self-esteem that I didn’t even realize that she dealt with for years that you know. … She’s working on her book and she’ll deal with that in her book, but also in songs, certain songs we’re dealing with that head on. And sometimes it can be a touchy subject for us to even go into, and I kinda had to persuade her, ‘Let’s just go, let’s talk about that.’ And she’s been doing it, and she’s a pro about it.”

Although Rodney says you can expect some up-tempo dance tracks on the new album, it won’t have the futuristic sound we heard on her last project, 2008’s Discipline.

“It’s funny, ’cause when we just started the project, she was like, ‘I wanna do 10 dance records, all up-tempo to dance. Let’s just go dance,’ ” Jerkins said. The sound is inspired by worldwide influences, from African rhythms to Brazilian and Latin music, and RJ said we can expect features on this album like a Pitbull track that was recorded last week.

“But she hits me today and she says we need to do some mid-tempos as well,” Rodney continued. “And I’m glad for that because there’s a time when you listen to a record that you wanna mellow out and she always gives us those great smoothed-out mellow records. So now that she’s in that zone, it’s like ‘Yes!’ ’cause we can focus on that. But I’m still gonna keep the beats hard underneath ’cause she’s still a dancer at heart.”

Jenkins and Jackson co-produced her recently released single, “Make Me,” which will be included on her greatest-hits compilation Number Ones, due in November. A release date has not been announced for her yet-untitled studio album.

To say I can’t wait would be an understatement! I really feel this will be the album we’ve been waiting on Janet for – a largely up-tempo record with qualitative lyrical content. Roll on 2010!

Your thoughts?