Search Results for: dr dre

In a major victory for Hollywood movie studios, a federal appeals court on Wednesday barred a Web site from revealing how to make unauthorized copies of digital video discs (DVDs). The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the controversial 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not infringe on the free speech protections of the U.S. Constitution. There were actions in two other DMCA-related cases on Wednesday. A federal judge in Trenton, New Jersey, dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the DMCA filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In that case, a group of… Read more »

They came not to bury him, but to praise the man who pioneered television sketch comedy. Sid Caesar, whose “Your Show of Shows” was a household name during its run from 1950 to 1954, recalls being amazed and profoundly moved when he received a 15-minute standing ovation during his recent appearance on Drew Carey’s improvisational series “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” on ABC. The 79-year-old actor, who walks with a cane following recent surgery to both hips, told Reuters his biggest fear about returning to the small screen after an absence of more than 20 years was that no one… Read more »

Busta Rhymes celebrated a birthday on Tuesday, but it wasn’t the anniversary of the day he was born. It was the day he was reborn as an MC and businessman – the day his new album hit stores. “I named my album Genesis ’cause there was nowhere left to go after The Coming (1996), When Disaster Strikes (1997), Extinction Level Event (1998) and Anarchy (2000),” he said recently, sitting in the offices of J Records. “Sequentially it made sense to be at that point…. The only place left to go is just rebuilding a whole brand new whatever.” Part of… Read more »

It’s been well over a year since Dr. Dre first announced that a reunited N.W.A., with Snoop Dogg subbing for the late Eazy-E, had begun work on their first album in ten years, Not These Niggaz Again. Four members of the reformed gangsta squad – Dre, Snoop, Ice Cue and MC Ren – shared a bill on last summer’s Up in Smoke Tour, where they sketched beats and rhymes in a mobile recording studio. Last July, Dre said that the group’s lone absentee, DJ Yella, had signed on and that pending some legal issues with Priority Records – such as… Read more »

R. Kelly’s “The World’s Greatest” entered Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart last week at Number 75. The song is the first single from Ali, The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, out today (November 27), which also features songs from Alicia Keys, Aretha Franklin, Angie Stone, and Everlast. R. Kelly, who auditioned for the role of Muhammad Ali, wrote “The World’s Greatest” before seeing the film, and penned “Hold On” for the soundtrack after previewing the movie, which stars Will Smith. The soundtrack also features Dionne Warwick’s son David Elliot singing Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home To Me.” Al… Read more »

Britney Spears, a former Mousketeer, is at the center of an aggressive drive into the movie business by a handful of young pop stars molded by the music industry and MTV. Not since the 1960s, when singers like Elvis Presley, Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Johnny Cash crooned their way onto movie screens, have studios produced as many star vehicles to showcase the hip-shimmying musical talents of the day’s teen idols. Their holy grail is “The Bodyguard,” starring Whitney Houston, which grossed $122 million and relaunched a pop song that became a perennial hit. The soundtrack is one of the best… Read more »

The world’s big record labels are finally rolling out online subscription services smack in the middle of the holiday season that caps the music industry’s worst year in at least a decade. In coming weeks, music fans – who have for years been pulling everything from Radiohead to Madonna off the Web for free from services like Napster – will be introduced to a new breed of money-for-music services like PressPlay and MusicNet, which have been developed by the major record companies. Several smaller independent firms like FullAudio and Listen.com will soon be launching subscription services too. Industry officials and… Read more »

The Cranberries make their return to the stage for concerts at radio station Christmas shows in December. The Irish super group were due to visit the continent in October and December in support of their new album, “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee,” but postponed their October schedule due to the uncertainties in the world as a result of the American tragedies. “I was really concerned for my two little children at a very difficult time following the uncertainties arising out of the conflict in Afghanistan. Our guitarist (Noel Hogan) is going through challenging times in his family, and the… Read more »

“Shhhhh!” is printed across the front of one of the T-shirts Ryan Adams is hawking during his current tour in support of his fabulous second solo disc, “Gold” (Lost Highway). It suggests that fame is the intention of least value for this 27-year-old singer-guitarist, an artist who has managed to fly ever so slightly above the radar as a solo artist and, previously, as leader of Whiskeytown, making one impressive artistic statement after another. On a night when a Mick Jagger performance was the hottest celeb-filled event in town, Adams’ show was the hottest ticket – the House of Blues… Read more »

Slipknot have postponed their upcoming tour, which was scheduled to kick off on November 21st in Fargo, North Dakota, until next year. The twenty-four-city tour in support of the band’s latest album, Iowa, was also to feature 40 Below Summer. The postponement is due to percussionist Shawn Crahan’s (a.k.a. Number Six, a.k.a. the Clown) wife having just undergone surgery for Crohn’s disease. Her recuperation is expected to take six weeks, during which Crahan will remain in Iowa to care for her and their three young children. Slipknot’s European tour will go on as planned, kicking off on January 20th in… Read more »