Search Results for: Jay Som

Timbaland is like an athlete who took his franchise team from lottery-pick status to a dynasty. After helping everyone from Nas to Nelly Furtado stay on people’s lips when they make requests to a DJ, Timbaland is bored. He needs new challenges and wants to start from scratch. “I’m tired of making hit songs,” lamented Tim, who said he’s the coach “Phil Jackson” of the studio. “I done made 20 #1 hit records. That’s old to me. Let somebody else go and do it. I gotta make records that mean something.” With the exception of a few of his friends… Read more »

Now, Aaron Carter, the younger brother of Backstreet Boy’s Nick Carter, joins this exclusive group of superstars with the debut of his own action figures from Play Along Toys, in conjunction with the August 7 release of Aaron’s new CD “Oh Aaron!” The launch of Aaron’s CD and action figure drew hundreds of teary-eyed, screaming, young fans, who lined up for hours at K-Mart’s New York City store for the opportunity to pick up Aaron’s new CD and collector dolls, catch a glimpse of pop’s newest superstar and maybe even score an autograph. The Aaron Carter figures come dressed in… Read more »

While lip-synching on a four-wheel Honda motor bike during his “Livin’ It Up” video shoot late last month, Ja Rule took a little time to count his blessings. No, not because he narrowly escaped being shot by voluptuous, water-gun-toting models who served as eye candy for the clip’s barbecue/party setting, rather, because Ja has finally shaken a beleaguering hex. “It’s been a jinx with me and Case,” he said, referring to his collaborations with his crooner labelmate and the song’s guest star. “Everything we’ve done hasn’t got cleared. We made a record in like ’95, ’96. We did a song… Read more »

The writing is on the wall – and on the request lists of radio stations all across the nation – America wants AFROMAN. In just a few short weeks, AFROMAN’s breakout smash hit, “Because I Got High” has become the #1 most requested song at top radio stations around the country. “Because I Got High” is blitzing radio stations nationwide, with an unprecedented avalanche of requests leaving no doubt that the track will be the top “feel-good” single of the year. The first single from the upcoming Universal Records release The Good Times, “Because I Got High,” is a tongue-in-cheek… Read more »

Word spreads by flyer and e-mail, drawing a small but dedicated corps of young hipsters to a nondescript club on a sleepy, dimly lit street corner. They are in search of deejays spinning a sound so new that some have crossed state lines for their first chance to dance to it. That sound is UK Garage, or Two-step, a dance genre from London’s underground club scene that has crossed the Atlantic – and not just to such likely haunts as New York and San Francisco. It’s also growing in popularity from Washington to Dallas and, in this case, Minneapolis, where… Read more »

Time was, pop stars who hit it big would ride out the success of an album and then lie low for awhile, presumably restoring their creative energies and also whetting the public’s appetite for the next record. Not any more. Today’s acts – wary of fickle fans and short attention spans – are pumping out albums in quick succession so as not to lose the spotlight to someone else. “Unfortunately right now, you have to just hit while you’re hot,” said teen pop starlet Jessica Simpson, who released her self-titled second album in June, a year and a half after… Read more »

Radio airplay is and has been the primary driver of retail record sales in the United States. Some estimate that nearly 90 percent of sales is the direct result of an artist being exposed on radio. But today, radio is joined by an array of other media choices: MTV, BET, and VH1, digital downloads, and streamed audio. Consumers borrow friend’s CDs and tapes, and see live performance. Any record label or promoter would be remiss by ignoring any one of these outlets since they all help to sell music. In the first-ever project of its kind, James Schureck at Jeff… Read more »

No doubt about it, Hype Williams has the juice. So much juice that Vita is traveling from New York to Los Angeles to work with the video director – though she doesn’t know what she’s in for. “I haven’t read the treatment yet,” Vita admitted Wednesday prior to making the trek to film the first clip from her upcoming debut, La Dolce Vita. “I’m sure Hype has some good ideas. When I get out there, I’ll see what I’m going to do and what I don’t wanna do.” Vita does know that the clip – based on her remake of… Read more »

Orange County, California rockers Lit are nearing completion on their third full-length album, due out October 9th. Working in North Hollywood’s NRG Studios with producer Don Gilmore, who handled the band’s 1999 sophomore breakthrough A Place in the Sun as well as recent efforts from Sugar Ray and Eve 6, the group has tracked fifteen tunes and is presently knee-deep in mixing. Although the album is currently without an official title, Lit – singer A.Jay Popoff; his brother, guitarist Jeremy; drummer Allen Shellenberger and bassist Kevin Baldes – say a recent obsession with Seventies arena-rock may weigh heavily in the… Read more »

Pudgy and shy, 13-year-old Matt Shafer had an outlet in rap but few to really share it with – until a chance day he saw Bob Ritchie work the deejay’s turntable. “Wickie-wickie-wickie,” was how the skinny, smug 16-year-old Ritchie scratched records during a deejay contest, his baseball cap’s visor flipped up and a rapper’s clock dangling from his neck. The showman did his thing backward, even upside down. “Everything about him was cool – the way he dressed, the way he talked. I admired him, looked up to him. He was kind of like an older brother to me,” Shafer… Read more »