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Promoting her latest album, Concrete Rose, and her upcoming movie “Coach Carter” has given Ashanti an idea – to capture all the madness in a book. Maybe. “I was thinking, do I want to do something towards the children, or do I want to do something like ‘Ashanti: Behind the Scenes’?” she said. This of course would be Ashanti’s second book, her first being the 2002 collection of poetry “Foolish/ Unfoolish: Reflections on Love”. And being that she’s the type who lives to multitask, it could include moments from her life as a singer, as an actress and as an… Read more »

Los Angles – You only need one word to sum up the year in pop 2004: Usher. Clearly, it was his house. The rest of us were just overnight visitors. It began innocently enough, right at the beginning of the calendar year. On the Billboard Hot 100 dated Jan. 10, 2004 (coincidentally, the 55th anniversary of the introduction of the 45 rpm record), the highest new entry was “Yeah!” by Usher Featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris. Six weeks later, “Yeah!” had assumed pole position, and remained there for 12 weeks, tying it as the longest-running No. 1 (with “Lose Yourself”… Read more »

Hilary Duff is, after all, your girlfriend and, yes, you should stand up for her. But did you really have to bring small children to tears? According to a report on MTV.com, Madden – Good Charlotte lead singer and Duff’s current partner in love – was at a radio station’s Christmas show in New York last Friday when he was approached by two young autograph seekers. Duff quickly pointed out the problem – one of these boys was Cody, the kid brother of her arch-nemesis Lindsay Lohan! To sign an autograph for this completely uninvolved 8-year-old child would be like… Read more »

Merchants are describing this year’s holiday-season sales as a roller-coaster ride. That could hardly be said about the full-year sales experience. At least a roller coaster offers the contrast of intermittent highs and lows. Album sales started with one long rise toward a hopeful tally for the first eight months of 2004, followed by a steep decline that stole back most of the year’s advances in just a few weeks, as if a thrill ride had been designed by a party pooper who did not fully grasp the concept. But maybe a better analogy – as Ludacris replaces Jay-Z and… Read more »

In a bold move to pave the way for more widespread licensing of music publishing rights, EMI Music Publishing and Sony BMG Music Entertainment have entered an umbrella agreement that sets working guidelines for clearing rights to new digital music delivery opportunities on phones, PCs, digital cable systems and emerging physical configurations. The pact, announced Dec. 17, pairs the world’s top publishing house and the second-largest record company globally, promises to drive the clearance of thousands of copyrighted works for new distribution formats. The deal covers North American rights for master ringtones and ringbacks; DualDisc, the new two-sided music format… Read more »

New York – Dreams of world domination must be hard for MTV executives to avoid when they host a party at the Kremlin, with a Russian diva and Queen dueting on “We Will Rock You” and Russian soldiers performing a hip-hop dance routine. MTV Networks will reach a milestone in February when the turn of a switch starts an MTV outlet in Africa, the company’s 100th channel worldwide and first based on that continent. Most of its American audience is probably unaware of the extent to which MTV and its sister networks have blanketed the world in an aggressive expansion… Read more »

Los Angeles – According to the Chinese calendar, 2005 will be the year of the rooster. Looking back at the year in music, 2004 goes down as the year of Usher, not only in pop, but certainly in R&B/hip-hop. The seemingly invincible singer-songwriter commandeers the top of the R&B and pop charts this year, thanks to his album “Confessions.” In the R&B realm, the Atlanta-based artist takes the No. 1 spot on year-end recaps including Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artists, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artists-Male and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. That’s in addition to his status on the pop recaps: Top Pop Artists, Top Pop… Read more »

To record what is shaping up to be their heaviest album yet, P.O.D. have spent the past three months living and brainstorming in the former Palm Springs, California, home of sunny ’60s folk-rock quartet the Mamas and the Papas. The area, which now mostly houses retired couples, would probably rather have had the “California Dreamin’ ” singers as neighbors than the dreadlock-waving, guitar-thrashing writers of “Boom” and “Youth of the Nation,” but the San Diego rockers were gracious residents. “We had to go to all the neighbors’ houses and tell them that we were a rock and roll band and… Read more »

They endured unpredictable weather on a Spanish plain for their “Vertigo” video and traffic on the streets of New York for “All Because of You,” so U2 thought they were keeping it simple by shooting their next clip in a Dublin, Ireland, theater. That is, until they were put at the mercy of the venue’s Christmas production of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” The group shot the video for the track “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own” on Monday at the Gaiety Theater, according to a band spokesperson. The theater, which is currently housing the children’s story production, gave… Read more »

Los Angeles – Rappers love a good feud. Whether it’s East Coast vs. West Coast, or Eminem vs. everyone, the spats inspire spiteful lyrics that make for juicy listening. Alas for catfight aficionados everywhere, rapper Ludacris has decided to take the high road with his nemesis, Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly, who cost him a lucrative endorsement deal two years ago by denouncing his lyrics as “garbage.” His new album, “The Red Light District,” which opened at No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts on Wednesday, mostly ignores O’Reilly’s recent legal battle with a woman television producer over telephone sex… Read more »