T.I.‘s Family Hustle is expanding in a Major way. Pun intended. For the Marc Klasfeld visuals to “Hello” featuring CeeLo he’s brought along the whole clan to star in their very own T.I. style western.
Robin Thicke‘s recent collaboration with Pharrell Williams and T.I., “Blurred Lines,” is arguably the most buzzed about video of 2013 thus far. So, naturally, when he popped by VH1 headquarters last week, we asked him TONS of questions about the evolution of both the song and the video:
Have you been watching this season of T.I. And Tiny: The Family Hustle? You should be. Tip’s parenting skills are on point, whether it’s encouraging his pack to diversify their hobbies or reminding them that the “gangster” lifestyle is not something they necessarily want to emulate. Although we’re seeing the casual, off-duty T.I.– a man who is responsible for bedtime and keeping his brood healthy–on screen that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about his collection of hits that remain in steady rotation.
One week ago today, Lil Wayne nearly kicked the bucket after sippin’ too much sizzurp (or was he poisoned?). TMZ erroneously reported that he was on his death bed and being read his last rites, but Weezy proved the naysayers wrong, emerging from his coma long enough to tweet “F**k TMZ.” However, over the course of the last week, he seems to have squashed his beef with Harvey Levin; he released an exclusive video this morning to TMZ proclaiming himself “good … a n***a more than good.”
We gave Robin Thicke‘s “Blurred Lines” our #ONREPEAT stamp of approval yesterday, and not just because of Thicke’s falsetto croon or Pharrell‘s righteous mashup of Marvin and MJ. One of the best parts of the video, and possibly of the 2000s, is seeing T.I. straight-up clowning on the dancefloor, busting moves that we never ever thought him possible of. Read more…
The gauntlet has been thrown down, y’all! After Justin Timberlake dropped a moody video for “Mirrors” on Tuesday night in which he doesn’t even show up until five minutes and 45 seconds have elapsed (!), Robin Thicke decided it was high time to bring some capital F.U.N. back to the R&B game. His new video for “Blurred Lines,” featuring starring performances from Pharrell, T.I. and a bevy of supermodels, has captivated the entire editorial floor here at VH1 this morning. Read more…
A lone woman on a track with three great emcees outshines her male peers. Allow us to introduce you to Kris Stephens. T.I.‘s “Memories Back Then” featuring B.o.B, Kendrick Lamar and Kris Stephens on the chorus should’ve made Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head. Originally the banger was titled “Somebody That I Used To Know” with a sample from Gotye from his song of the same name, according to Hip Hop Wired. It’s assumed a sample clearance is why we have the new version with vocals by T.I.’s artist Kris Stephens. And no shade to Gotye at all because we adore him, but we couldn’t imagine this track without Kris’s sultry voice. Read more…
Last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, T.I. hooked up with The Roots to perform “Ball,” the lead single off his brand new album Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head. And while he may have been short his collaborator Lil Wayne, he was in no way lacking in energy. The self-proclaimed Trouble Man, keeping it simple in a grey sweatshirt and a single (though thick!) gold chain around his neck, and his hype man threw themselves around the stage all aflutter while spitting as assuredly as ever. Seriously, if there were a way to capture whatever it was T.I. did on that stage last night, you could probably provide power to at least Atlanta, but probably the greater metro area, as well. And then T.I. could take a break from music, take a break from all his television and movie gigs and still be watching those bottles, those models and those stacks multiply. That said, can you blame him for being so excited? We couldn’t, because this song gets us going, too.
Big Boi came back in the game figuratively screaming, “I will not lose.” Aside from the positive reviews Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors has received, we finally will get the Andre 3000 and Big Boi reunion we’ve impatiently waited six years for. There’s no Outkast album that we know of in the works, but Big Boi is planning on adding a verse to Frank Ocean‘s “Pink Matter,” which already features 3 Stacks. Read more…
Men lie. Women lie. Numbers don’t. After taking a deep-dive into this year’s VH1.com streaming data, we’ve come up with a list of the Top 40 Most-Watched Videos of 2012. All you favorites are below, and there are even some underdog surprises that we didn’t expect to rank so favorably. So yeah, consider this an early New Year’s gift, and start re-living all the music video glory that took place in this incredible year of the apocalypse.
40. Gavin DeGraw “Sweeter”
39. The Fray “Heartbeat”
38. Gym Class Heroes “The Fighter featuring Ryan Tedder”
37. Bruno Mars “Grenade”
36. Adam Lambert “Never Close Our Eyes”
35. Daughtry “Crawling Back To You”
34. Tamia “Beautiful Surprise”
33. Adele “Rolling in the Deep”
32. Ellie Goulding “Lights”
31. David Guetta “Titanium (Ft. Sia)”
VH1 Presents Mixtape Festival: Train, NKOTB, TLC, The Script + more! Tickets on sale now at MixtapeFestival.com!
