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Lenny Santiago has a rich history in the rap game. His hands have been in almost all Roc-A-Fella Records releases (sans Kanye West’s), and now he is running things over at Def Jam as vice president of A&R. He signed DJ Khaled and also spearheaded the A&R work on Jadakiss’ The Last Kiss and Fabolous’ upcoming Loso’s Way (due July 28th), and his big fall project is the new one from Ghostface Killah. But hold up: There’s been some controversy over whether Ghostface will really live up to early descriptions that the record that will be an R&B album. Tony… Read more »
The Used is proud to announce that its fourth album, Artwork, will be released on Sept. 1. Produced by Matt Squire, Artwork is a raw collection of 11 songs that not so delicately teeter between aggressively discordant and charmingly hooky. The first single, “Blood On My Hands,” premiered June 30; it sold over 5,000 copies in the first day and shot to No. 9 on the iTunes Alternative Chart. “‘Blood on my Hands’ sums up everything about The Used,” guitarist Quinn Allmann said. The single is confined chaos, brutally thrashing one moment and proffering a pop-driven, sing-along chorus the next.… Read more »
In early 1984, when Epic Records executives presented their slate of upcoming releases at the convention in Hawaii of parent company CBS Records they couldn’t resist playing up the success they were experiencing. So between the pitches for new albums, Epic inserted stock footage of semi trucks and a voice-over that thunderously announced, “There goes another load of Michael Jackson’s Thriller albums!” Trucks weren’t really leaving the warehouse every few minutes, but Thriller was still shattering expectations more than a year after its November 30, 1982, release. Epic was selling more than 1 million copies per month in the United… Read more »
US Royalty
Miley Cyrus took a break from shooting “The Last Song” on the Georgia coast by borrowing a guitar and treating fans to an impromptu, two-song performance on the patio of a beachside seafood restaurant. “By the time she finished the first song, there must have been 50 little girls and their moms who came rushing up,” said Ray Rogers, owner of StingRay’s restaurant on Tybee Island. He caught Miley’s surprise gig on video. Rogers said the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana” star dined on snow crab legs with a friend after wrapping up Monday’s first day of filming of the Walt Disney… Read more »
Usher has reportedly filed for divorce from his wife of less than two years, Tameka Foster-Raymond. The 30-year-old Confessions singer filed the petition in an Atlanta Superior Court, and no details regarding the split were revealed. Usher marred Foster, who was previously his stylist, at a lavish Georgia ceremony in 2007, and the couple had two sons together. However, the pair had been separated for some time, and Usher was recently seen in paparazzi photos partying at a nightclub in Las Vegas. Earlier this year, Foster suffered cardiac arrest while undergoing a plastic surgery procedure in Brazil, forcing Usher to… Read more »
British police charged singer Pete Doherty with drunk driving, drug possession and driving without a valid license or insurance last Thursday. The Gloucestershire Constabulary said officers arrested a 30-year-old man early Thursday after spotting a car driving erratically in Gloucester, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of London. A police official speaking on condition of anonymity in line with departmental policy confirmed the man was Doherty, who played a concert in Gloucester on Wednesday. Doherty’s manager Andy Boyd confirmed Doherty was in police custody and was due to appear in court Friday. He said he had no other details. A… Read more »
Kris Allen won the affections of the “American Idol” voters and runner-up Adam Lambert, who recently dished about his crush on the season-eight champ. “I was like, ‘Oh, sh–, they put me with the cute guy,’” Lambert said of his roommate during the show. “Distracting! He’s the one guy I found attractive in the whole group on the show: nice, nonchalant, pretty and totally my type – except that he has a wife. I mean, he’s open-minded and liberal, but he’s definitely 100 percent straight.” Well, it turns out Allen is cool with the attention. “I’m flattered,” the “Idol” winner… Read more »
