Search Results for: Thursday

That’s the word from Ruben Studdard’s rep after the second-season American Idol champ otherwise known as the Velvet Teddy Bear checked himself into a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital Monday night. Studdard’s Los Angeles-based publicist, Liz Morentin, says the silky-voiced 26-year-old is suffering from exhaustion. Per doctors’ orders, Studdard is expected to remain hospitalized for the remainder of the week, forcing him to cancel several gigs in support of his new gospel-flavored disc, I Need an Angel, which hit stores Tuesday. “All promotion for his new album this week has been canceled along with his concert dates in Atlantic City on November… Read more »

Los Angeles – Detectives were negotiating the surrender of rapper Young Buck, who is suspected of stabbing a man who had punched rap star Dr. Dre at the Vibe Awards, police said Thursday. Santa Monica Police Lt. Frank Fabrega said detectives had been in contact with Scott Leemon, an attorney representing the rapper, but had yet to reach an agreement. “We’re encouraging him to surrender,” Fabrega said. Leemon, a New York attorney, issued a press release saying Young Buck, whose real name is David Darnell Brown, would “surrender in the near future and then be released on bail.” Leemon, reached… Read more »

Rome – Goth rockers The Cure are enjoying an unexpected revival, but frontman Robert Smith isn’t letting it go to his head. “It’s very flattering,” Smith told Reuters Television late on Thursday after performing at the MTV Europe Music Awards, his first MTV event in 15 years. “But I’m not stupid enough to think it’s an Indian summer. “We realize that this upsurge in media attention is almost entirely due to very good young bands picking up on The Cure,” added Smith, who wore his trademark red lipstick and heavy eyeliner under an unruly mop of hair. When asked whether… Read more »

For the third time in his career, Eminem has a new album debuting atop the Billboard albums chart. Encore, the rapper’s fourth full-length LP, will bow at #1 on next week’s chart with more than 710,000 copies sold, according to SoundScan. What’s more impressive is that Shady pulled off the feat with less than a full first-week’s worth of sales. Because the album leaked online, Encore went on sale Friday, four days before the previously scheduled release of Tuesday. Since SoundScan ends each week’s tally on Sundays at midnight, Em’s 710,000 copies, which is also the year’s fourth-largest first-week total,… Read more »

London – When the curtain went up on MTV’s Europe Awards in Rome on Thursday, only one of the performers was signed to an independent record label. And at European pop music’s annual showcase event where fans vote for their favorites either online or by mobile phone, not only were the majority of acts from the United States, but all major prizes went to Americans. The independent record industry says the business has been taken over by four mega-companies that are helping to entrench American cultural “hegemony” across the music world. “The record business is stacked in favor of the… Read more »

Troubled rapper O.D.B., in a casket surrounded by red and white flowers, was remembered by family and friends Wednesday at a Harlem church where the focus was on the positives in his life. “I grew up in this man’s music,” said Jason Davis, 25, who traveled to New York from Camden, N.J., to bid farewell to the man born as Russell Jones. The wake, which was open to the public, will be followed Thursday by another wake and a funeral. Jones, who would have turned 36 Monday, complained of chest pains, collapsed and died Saturday inside a Manhattan recording studio.… Read more »

New York – P. Diddy’s “Vote or Die!” initiative lives on. Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, who started the group Citizen Change to increase voter turnout among young people for the Nov. 2 presidential election, told The Associated Press the group will continue to be involved in politics. “This is phase one, step one for us to get people engaged,” said Combs, who celebrated his 35th birthday on Thursday. “I’m trying to set up an infrastructure of empowerment and understanding power.” The group – with the slogan “Vote or Die!” – enlisted celebrities such as Mary J. Blige, Leonardo DiCaprio and… Read more »

What fresh hell hath the Internet wrought this week? Why, it’s another letter from Britney Spears. Fresh off a Fiji honeymoon with hubby Kevin Federline, the pop tart posted a sequel to her “letter of truth”, discussing everything from taking a time-out from her musical career, her desire to become a mommy, her enrollment in art classes and how she can’t wait to start decorating her new digs. “I’m just getting back from my honeymoon and it was absolutely breathtaking,” Spears gushes as the letter begins. “This is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.” In the latest dispatch,… Read more »

After making his final appearance with Jay-Z last week on their ill-fated co-headlining tour, R. Kelly made a different sort of appearance on Thursday (November 4) – in court. In a procedural victory for the R&B singer’s defense team, the Chicago judge presiding over Kelly’s child-pornography case granted the defense’s request to have a hearing to determine the alleged victim’s age. While the prosecution has alleged that the female in question was 14 years old when the tape was made, some of the defense’s actions – such as when Kelly’s attorney Ed Genson previously argued in written motions that it’s… Read more »

ock trio Sleater-Kinney has signed with venerable Seattle label Sub Pop Records after releasing its past four albums for fellow indie Kill Rock Stars. The group will begin recording its Sub Pop debut Thursday with producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev) in upstate New York, with an eye on a May release. “We instigated it because we wanted to do something different,” vocalist/guitarist Corin Tucker told Billboard.com. “We really like the team that’s at Sub Pop now. There are people there who are really enthusiastic and putting out really good music. We’ve done a lot of records with Kill… Read more »