December 1st, 2011 | 2:05 am by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

Eight Burning Questions About The 2012 Grammy Nominations

The nominees for the 2012 Grammy Awards—seventy-eight categories worth, if you’re counting at home!—were announced last night. Four of those categories (Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist) were announced live on CBS during a star-studded concert, featuring performances by the likes of Lady Gaga, Rihanna, The Band Perry and more. If you happened to go to bed early or decided to watch American Horror Story instead, we’re here to help. Rather than plead ignorance when your co-workers ask you for your thoughts on the nominations, we’ve come up with this list of eight handy conversation starters to get you going. No, we’re not focusing on boring things like who got the most nominations in this post (if you want that stuff, no worries, we’ve got you covered); instead, we’re gonna give you a kickstart for some things that are actually fun to discuss, like whether or not Lady Gaga was doing dressed like a cross between a Cobra Kai member and Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, if Kanye West is going to go ballistic again after being snubbed in the Album of the Year category, and deciphering what exactly a Skrillex is. Enjoy, and happy watercoolering.

[Photos: Getty Images]

November 16th, 2011 | 1:15 pm by Kat George (@kat_george)

Beef Alert! Ludacris Disses Drake On His New Track “Bada Boom”

We love a good hunk of beef, and it seems like veteran rapper Ludacris has slapped new-kid-on-the-block Drake in the face with a big, fat, juicy steak’s worth. On his new track, “Bada Boom”, Ludacris not only samples The Fifth Element with Leeloo’s iconic line, “big bada boom,” he throws down against Drake — lyrically, of course.

The beef began after AllHipHop interviewed Drake and asked, “How much do Young Money artists bounce off each other? I noticed you have similar inflections and cadences or rhyme patterns.” Drake attributed the style to Big Sean and tacked on some cryptic, but not so cryptic so as not to ruffle any feathers, editorial, “I don’t want to offend somebody. I hate that rappers picked that flow up. I wish they had left that for people that know how to use it. [They go like] It’s a parade! MACYS!”?

Read more…

September 17th, 2007 | 11:16 am by Jim Macnie

Celebrating MLK’s Dream

John Legend
Lots of prep work has gone into the solidification of the Martin Luther King, Jr National Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC. All that’s needed is a final chunk of change to help get the whole thing built. When it’s complete, a tribute to the great man’s ideas regarding equality and peace will be closely situated to those praising other American thinkers, such as Lincoln and Jefferson.

An array of performers have bonded together to help secure these project funds – The Dream Concert is a superstar deal that takes place in New York on Tuesday, September 18. Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Carlos Santana, Ludacris, John Legend, Babyface, Usher, Garth Brooks, Wycliffe Jean, Joss Stone, Talib Kweli, Robin Thicke, Whoopi Goldberg, Magic Johnson, and several others will take the stage for the cause.

Check back on Wednesday. We’ll have some post-show pics for you. Which artist would you most like to see yourself? Hit “Comments.”

June 25th, 2007 | 1:19 pm by Rich Juzwiak

T.I. versus…Ludacris?

Ti_luda

Beef was on the menu of a brunch in Los Angeles on Sunday, where a scuffle broke out between T.I. and Ludacris‘ Disturbing tha Peace Records partner Chaka Zulu aka the man whose name you are most jealous of. Seriously, who wouldn’t want the melodious lungs of Chaka Khan coupled with the warrior spirit of Shaka Zulu? Chaka Zulu may be the closest we’ve come yet to a perfect human being and I say that solely on basis of his name.

Anyway, details are scant but T.I. is said to have punched the face of Chaka, the partner of Luda, his on-again, off-again rival at the Power Brunch event hosted by Warner Music Group EVP Kevin Liles. An entourage-wide scuffle is said to have then broken out, only to be broken up by the police minutes later. In the end, one woman was injured and, according to a witness, T.I.’s shirt was torn. And the whole place swooned!

I dedicate two anti-violence tracks from hip-hop’s golden era to T.I., West Coast All Stars’ "We’re All in the Same Gang" and the Stop the Violence Movement’s "Self Destruction." T.I., your permanently fastened sunglasses don’t fool me: you need some cooling out.

Learn from your elders, T.I. [People / Images: Getty]

June 14th, 2007 | 2:48 pm by VH1

50 Cent: The Real Hottest Bachelor

Fifty_2
People Magazine‘s Hottest Bachelors issue is out, featuring the sweet , hunky faces of Blake Lewis, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ludacris. But they might want to revise their list to add 50 Cent, who just got $100 million richer.

The hip-hop star is packing away a ton of cash from his deal with Glaceau, the makers of Vitamin Water. Fifty signed on to have a drink named after him (Formula 50) in exchange for equity in the company as a shareholder. Glaceau was just bought by Coca Cola in a massive $4.1 billion deal, and now the rapper is set to rake it in, adding to his already enormous pile of millions.

It’s really cute that single Blake Lewis can beat-
box and all, but wouldn’t you rather have a man with millions upon millions of dollars – and a ton of crazy tattoos?