October 24th, 2012 | 2:43 pm by Lacey Seidman, Zara Golden, and Lindsey Weber (@Lacezilla)

Rihanna And Friends Celebrate Drake With Birthday Cards, We Steal Them From His Trash (Whoops!)


Today is Aubrey Graham’s birthday, and as the talented singing-rapper completes his 26th year of life, he’s smooth-talked his way into the hearts and minds of millions of fans (not to mention his fellow celebrity friends). Likely receiving countless gifts from friends, strangers, and business associates, Drake surely can’t keep each and every token, no matter how personal some may be. And that’s exactly why we decided to raid his garbage.

Dumpster diving is the classiest of adventures, especially when the trash you’re sifting through belongs to Toronto’s golden boy. Invasion of privacy, maybe, but like we’re taught on various reality shows, what’s discarded onto public property is considered free for the taking. Below are our findings: the front covers and inside messages of birthday cards from Drake’s grandmother, Rick Ross, the OVO fam, his Rabbi, Rihanna, the Young Money crew, and Chris Brown are all revealed.

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September 12th, 2012 | 10:19 am by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Get Excited With These Cruel Summer Previews And Official Tracklist


One of the fall season’s most anticipated releases, G.O.O.D. Music’s Cruel Summer is just a few days away, ready to drop on September 18. Already, the all-star compilation’s lead singles, “Mercy,” “New God Flow,” “Cold” and “Clique”, have our G.O.O.D. music fever burning hot. The star-studded tracklist suggests that we’ve only known the beginning of it, because Kanye West is readying to drop another monster of an album on us. In the mix are G.O.O.D. Music men Big Sean, Pusha T, 2 Chainz, D’Banj, Cyhi the Prynce, Kid Cudi and John Legend, G.O.O.D. Music’s first lady Teyana Taylor, as well as a handful of unexpected others summonsed from Kanye’s thick rolodex, like Jay-Z, Ghostface Killah, The-Dream and Ma$e. No big deal, you know?

Can’t wait until Tuesday to hear all that new G.O.O.D. Music? Check out a preview now below or via iTunes. First up? The biggest R. Kelly hook calling on you to put your middle finger up. Okay! Until Tuesday, we leave you with that typically climactic, middle finger-flicking R.Kelly hook on the opening track, “To the World.” Read more…

August 21st, 2012 | 7:41 pm by Lacey Seidman (@Lacezilla)

Mariah Carey And Rick Ross Sit Ringside At Meek Mill’s “Triumphant” Boxing Match

Whether you’re one of her lambs or not, there’s no arguing the fact that Mariah Carey’s new single is motivational. Unveiled to the world this evening, the video for “Triumphant (Get ‘Em)” stars both of the song’s featured rappers, MMG ring-leader Rick Ross and his Philly protégé, Meek Mill. Given the opportunity to emerge a champ as the video’s protagonist and in real life, Meek plays the role of a boxer going twelve rounds in the ring against a hearty opponent, taunting him the entire time.

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August 14th, 2012 | 12:41 pm by Bené Viera

DJ Khaled, Kanye West And Rick Ross Shake Things Up In “I Wish You Would” With A Cameo From Kim Kardashian

Warning: Not only is DJ Khaled, Kanye West and Rick Ross‘ video NSFW, but it may cause a serious headache. Apparently Kanye West didn’t learn from the controversy over the “All of the Lights” video potentially causing seizures. In “I Wish You Would,” which includes a prelude to Kanye’s “Way Too Cold,” things get a little shaky. Literally. Dressed in all black standing in a tunnel the screen shakes the entire time. We weren’t speaking in jest about the possibility of having a headache immediately after watching. Outside of the product placement for Puffy‘s Ciroc, the Hype Williams directed video includes nothing other than the earthquake-like rattling. Oh, and Kim Kardashian makes a brief appearance when her beau raps, “And I’ll admit I fell in love with Kim.” Watch at your own risk. Read more…

June 28th, 2012 | 6:16 pm by Bené Viera

“I Wish You Would” Doubt DJ Khaled’s Power To Put Kanye West And Rick Ross On A Track Together

DJ Khaled ft. Kanye west and rick ross

DJ Khaled is the guy that puts a slew of rappers on one track that usually becomes some sort of anthem. Doing so has made Khaled one of the most known hip-hop DJs in the game. This time he’s putting out his own album, Kiss the Ring, and for his second single “I Wish You Would” he’s enlisted Kanye West and Rick Ross, the heads of G.O.O.D. Music and Maybach Music respectively. One may wonder how this is Khaled’s song when it’s produced by Hit-Boy with lyrics taken care of by Ross and West. It’s simply Khaled’s because he is the one responsible for making the track happen. Read more…

June 22nd, 2012 | 3:25 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Congrats! Lil Wayne Scores His 100th Billboard Hit

French Montana’s star studded “Pop That” debuted this week on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart at #57, landing Lil Wayne on the charts for the 69th time as a feature. Combine this with his 31 chart entries as a lead act, and – voila! – Lil Wayne has racked up an astronomical 100 appearances on Billboard‘s R&B/Hip-Hop charts. Only Jay-Z and the late James Brown have done that before him.

Is Weezy on track to be the best rapper alive? A quick look at the numbers behind his first 100 suggest that it might me so.
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May 22nd, 2012 | 12:32 pm by Bené Viera

Destruction In “Take It To The Head” Video Featuring Rick Ross, Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj And Lil Wayne

DJ Khaled has the most incredible musical superpowers because only someone superhuman can consistently get all of the hottest artists on one track. This go ’round he brought together Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross for the Colin Tilley directed “Take It To The Head.” Not to mention Drake, Busta Ryhymes and Baby (aka Birdman) make cameos. Next time there’s a hip-hop beef, we must call Khaled. He can get everyone toghether! Complete with crashing buses, graffiti and fire, the video is all about destruction. If the setting looks familiar perhaps it’s because you’ve been to Universal Studios in Orlando, FL. Per Stereogum.com, the set was in fact shot at the Earthquake ride at the popular amusement park. Now, if the rappers could’ve rapped their verses while on the ride, that would have been impressive. Read more…

April 5th, 2012 | 7:45 pm by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

“Theraflu” Proves That Kanye West Is Still Sick (In A Good Way!)

Sometime during the wee hours of the morning last night, Kanye West dropped a new song, “Theraflu”, on an unsuspecting populus. We say unsuspecting not because Yeezy is anything other than prolific, but because NO ONE HAD ANY IDEA IT WAS COMING. (And, judging by the speed from which copies of this song are disappearing from the Internet, we’re guessing he didn’t, either.)

Not much is known about the eventual home for the song —Will it end up on his rumored G.O.O.D. Music compilation? Is this a leaked DJ Khaled track? Is it something that Funkmaster Flex simply WILLED into existence?— but what everyone does know is that Kanye is using the song to woo Kim Kardashian. “Can I have a bad bitch without no flaws / come to meet me without no drawers?”, Ye opines early on in the track, before confessing that said bad bitch is none other than the recently divorced Kimmy K. “And now I admit I fell in love with Kim / Around the same time she fell in love with him,” Yeezy raps, “Well that’s cool babygirl, do your thing / Lucky I ain’t had Jay drop him from the team.” The “him” he’s referring to here is, of course, Kris “The Hump” Humphries, who plays for the New Jersey Nets under owner Jay-Z. Well, a quick check of ESPN.com shows The Hump is still gainfully employed, but that doesn’t mean that Kanye’s braggadocious ways didn’t end up paying off.

Quite the opposite, in fact: According to TheFABLife, Kanye and Kim have been on one long, very public date all day long today. A date that included a stop by FAO Schwartz, no less! Just as he prophesied in “Theraflu”, we can almost guarantee that Kanye’s romp is going to be headline material for tomorrow’s Paris News!

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June 6th, 2011 | 4:00 pm by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

2011 Song of the Summer Countdown: Adele Continues To Roll Deep


[Click here for a larger image]

Welcome to Week Two of VH1′s Song of the Summer countdown. Each and every Monday from now until Labor Day, we’ll be utilizing today’s most advanced data collection techniques Microsoft Excel to chart the competition of what will become THE song that people will think of when they remember the summer of 2011.

Last week, Adele‘s monster smash, “Rolling In The Deep,” captured the top spot, scoring 87 of a possible 100 points. (For a reminder on how the scoring system works, click here.) Somehow, the English songbird managed to increase her stranglehold on the #1 spot in this countdown this week, racking up 91 (!!!) points and proving that no matter what medium people use to consume music these days, they’re using it to listen to Adele.

However, lest you think that Adele has got this summer on lock only two weeks in, there are a number of new songs that cracked the charts this week for the first time: Jason Derulo‘s “Don’t Wanna Go Home,” DJ Khaled‘s superstar-laced hit “I’m On One” (which features Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne), Coldplay’s “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” (which was just released on Friday) and Taylor Swift‘s bid for power pop domination, “The Story Of Us.” Oh yeah, and Adele’s powerful anthem of lost love, “Someone Like You,” managed to crack the Top 20, too.

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June 3rd, 2011 | 2:45 pm by Lacey Seidman (@Lacezilla)

Summer Jams: Lacey Seidman’s Top Three Contenders for “Song of the Summer”

After a miserable NYC winter, the weather is again warm, and we’re all about hitting these streets! But what will our summer-lovin’ soundtrack include? Since the pop music monster is one that defies taming, most of us can already venture to guess what we’ll likely hear blasting out of car windows while dining al fresco and laying poolside, but for me, it’s all about the songs that may or may not hit the mainstream radar. Specifically, songs that light your summer on fire and arouse flashbulb memory nostalgia for years thereafter. As a music head, I can’t wait to find out what will be this year’s perfect audio accompaniment during glorious, sweaty cocktail-glass pre-game rituals, or what I’ll have on repeat in my headphones as I dodge European tourists in Times Square. Until then, here’s hoping that the radio gods are listening, and (fingers crossed!) that they have good taste.

NOMINATION: Friendly Fires, “Live Those Days Tonight”
EXPLANATION: If mainstream radio could just bend some rules and make room for an indie-pop dance record, this next few months would certainly be a bit lovelier. Summoning nostalgia for the (allegedly) more-fun 80s past that he never had the chance to experience, Friendly Fires’ frontman Ed Macfarlane vows to one-up his predecessors on this uptempo, synth-happy slice of audio heaven. Heavy with drums and feel-good vibes, “Live Those Days Tonight” is the first single off of the band’s critically acclaimed sophomore release, Pala, and is also the perfect summer party accessory!

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