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November 28th, 2012 | 10:00 am by Lacey Seidman (@Lacezilla)

Bad Timing: Why Meek Mill’s Debut Dreams & Nightmares Got Unfairly Shafted

It’s often said that timing is everything, and Meek Mill’s debut album couldn’t have arrived in a more luckless moment. The eve of his Dreams & Nightmares release brought him eclipsing circumstances in the form of Superstorm Sandy hitting the East Coast, and while folks in the Northeast were battening down the hatches and preparing for the worst, the Philly spitter promoted his album on Twitter heavily, all while sheltering a house full of relatives from the storm.

A number of @-replies and retweets attacking the rapper for being insensitive to the tropical cyclone reality at hand spilled into my Twitter timeline, and I myself, stuck in the house and concerned for friends and family, admittedly thought that maybe the active promotion was in poor taste. And I’m a fan. But can we blame him? Meek Mill had been waiting to release his first full-length album since he was 16-years-old and, conflicted by an influx of somber reports on flooded communities and power-loss, wasn’t about to allow the building odds to thwart his momentum. Read more…

November 12th, 2012 | 11:00 pm by Bené Viera

Watch Alicia Keys’ VH1 Storytellers Now!

Alicia Keys is a talker, admittedly. For her VH1 Storytellers special tonight, telling the back story behind her songs was a piece of cake. Alicia knows how to interact with a crowd. “It’s actually one of my favorite ways to perform, though,” the “Superwoman” singer told the audience. “Really small and intimate. Close.” Alicia has so many hits narrowing them down to a six song set had to be challenging. Luckily, Alicia mixed it up with songs we know every word and ad lib to with new songs from her forthcoming album.

It takes her to tell the funny story of working with John Legend and Kanye West in the studio for “You Don’t Know My Name.” If you missed VH1 Storytellers: Alicia Keys you’re in luck. Watch the episode online right now, or check out our clips of her entire set. Read more…

November 12th, 2012 | 11:00 am by Bené Viera

VH1 Storytellers: Alicia Keys Sneak Peek: Kanye West And John Legend Were Instrumental In The Making Of “You Don’t Know My Name”

There’s no way that Alicia Keys has the problem of a guy not knowing her name. That is, if she wanted him to know her name, which she obviously wouldn’t as a married woman. But we’re talking the single Alicia Keys days. We don’t want to spoil tonight’s VH1 Storytellers: Alicia Keys by giving all the intriguing tidbits on how some of her greatest songs were created, but the sneak peek of “You Don’t Know My Name” is too good not to share. Alicia tells the story of working in the studio with relatively unknown artists Kanye West and John Legend. Yes, think back to the time Kanye was unknown. In the studio John and Kanye sang on one mic together, like the ol’ school artists–before the days one could send in their verse to be pieced together with fancy equipment. Read more…

June 5th, 2012 | 5:30 pm by Bené Viera

Robin Thicke’s Duets Partners Had To Love Soul Music

For Robin Thicke Mary J. Blige and Method Man’s collaboration on “All I Need” changed his perspective on duets forever. He probably never imagined he’d think of performing it as a judge on ABC’s Duets, which he ultimately decided against. When charged with finding partners for the show, Thicke was looking for some pretty specific requirements. We’ll give you a hint. His partner had to be a woman. We caught up with the R&B singer to find out what the must-haves on his list were. Read more…

June 1st, 2012 | 11:02 am by Bené Viera

Duets Judge Robin Thicke Thinks The Beatles Have The Greatest Duets Of All Time

It takes two to tango in Robin Thicke’s new gig as a judge on ABC’s new singing competition show Duets. Along with his co-judges Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Jennifer Nettles, they flew around the country in search of talented singers to become their duet partners. Undiscovered talent singing with veteran singers sounds like a recipe for an assortment of musical pleasantries. With all the pairing up on Duets, we were curious to find out what duets Robin Thicke loves, and what songs he planned to sing on the show. Read more…

May 23rd, 2012 | 3:16 pm by Bené Viera

John Legend Defends Fiancee After Death Threats From Team Breezy Outraged That She Criticized Chris Brown

John Legend’s fiancee Chrissy Teigen learned the hard way that criticizing Chris Brown leads to death threats. Literally. Turns out P!nk wasn’t the only person not feeling Brown’s lipsyncing. After Chrissy tweeted, “live singing is a helluva drug” during Brown’s Billboard Music Awards performance, team Breezy got sensitive and quite defensive. His ~~stans~~ fans flooded her mentions tweeting her obscenities, death threats and hurls of insults that she was irrelevant, or only relevant because of her famous musician husband to be. Teigen “clapped back” finding all the hatred amusing and sad at the same time. She sarcastically teased Brown’s fans for their incorrect grammar and overall ignorance. Mostly she was sad that there were a legion of young ladies that desperately defended Brown without having ever met him a day in their lives. Those Breezy fans are vicious!

According to Necolebitchie.com, John Legend stayed out of the drama for obvious reasons– until Chris Brown tweeted (which since has been deleted), “Team Breezy! Lets stop sending death threats! I know y’all bout that life but it’s the wrong message! Ur turning haters into victims! And that only furthers their pointless existence.” That must have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for Mr. Calm, Cool, Collected John Legend. He took to Twitter and responded, “Personally, I don’t think @chrissyteigen’s existence is pointless. Nor anyone else who dares criticize a performance.” He continued, “Every artist has to be ok with the fact that some people won’t like their work. All critics aren’t “haters.” Lastly (in our favorite response) he tweeted,”And don’t ever tell me to put my “bitch on a leash”. She’s a grown woman with her own mind and her own opinions and this is not 1950.”

Tell ‘em John! Although he never directly responded to Brown it’s crystal clear who he was referring to. We admire the chivalry of John. The fact that he’s such a nice guy with a clean cut image makes his defense of Chrissy that much cuter. Two snaps!

John Legend Defends Girlfriend Against Chris Brown Fans [NecoleBitchie.com]

[Photo: Getty Images]

May 21st, 2012 | 12:15 pm by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

The Top 5 Moments At The 2012 Billboard Music Awards

2012 Billboard Music Awards

Last night’s Billboard Music Awards was an exhausting extravaganza, one that lasted for three full hours and still managed to feel a bit incomplete. Of course, it didn’t help the show’s cause that many of the biggest names in the music world — Adele, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lady Gaga, to name just a few — decided that they had better places to be last night than at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and the show caught some Twitter backlash for last-minute(ish) tributes to Donna Summer and Adam “MCA” Yauch that fell flat.

That said, there were certainly more than a few memorable moments at last night’s show (which we hope you watched while following our @VH1Music Twitter feed). Here are our Top 5 Moments from the 2012 Billboard Music Awards! (Apologies in advance to all the Beliebers, for young Justin’s mostly lip-synced performance of “Boyfriend” did not make the cut.)

5. Kelly Clarkson’s live television debut of “Dark Side”
Presenter Robin Thicke introduced Kelly’s performance of her new single, “Dark Side,” by stating that she was performing the song “for the first time ever.” Of course, that was not entirely accurate, as Kelly performed an AMAZING version of “Dark Side” on VH1 Storytellers last fall. Still, Kelly looked incredibly gorgeous and, not surprisingly, used her powerhouse vocals to blow the roof off the place. Read more…

May 18th, 2012 | 1:56 pm by Bené Viera

The Top 5 Most Anticipated Billboard Music Awards Performances

The Billboard Music Awards may not be known for scandalous surprise girl-on-girl kisses like the VMAs or interesting collaborations like the Grammys, but the 2012 Billboard Music Awards is offering performances by the hottest artists of today. Carrie Underwood, Linkin Park, Nelly Furtado and Kelly Clarkson are only a few of the A-listers hitting the stage this Sunday at MGM in Las Vegas. We’re curious to find out if BMA can pull off a tribute to the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, in just three days. Watching how artists bring their songs to life at a major award show is always exhilarating, but here’s the five singers we’re most excited to see and why.

1. John Legend and Jordin Sparks honoring Whitney Houston.

Finally, a full Whitney Houston tribute. Jennifer Hudson did an amazing job at the Grammy Awards, but we were left wanting so much more. Thanks to Billboard, our wish came true in the form of John Legend and Jordin Sparks (who actually co-starred with Houston in the remake of Sparkle). It’s no easy feat to cover The Voice’s songs for even the best vocalists in the business. We’d love to hear the two sing “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” or “How Will I Know” as they are Houston’s earlier songs that are light and fun. It was announced that Bobbi Kristina and Cissy Houston are making special guest appearances to accept awards on Houston’s behalf. Will the gospel legend sing and take everybody to church? A lot is riding on this tribute, we’re hoping they nail it. Read more…

April 11th, 2012 | 3:55 pm by Lacey Seidman (@Lacezilla)

Posse Up! Q-Tip Joins Kanye and The G.O.O.D. Music Team

With an impressive dossier full of production credits compiled over the years, Q-Tip is a behind-the-scenes force on his own. Just this morning, however, Def Jam released a press release announcing that, through Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint, the A Tribe Called Quest co-founding rapper/producer has been added to the label’s esteemed hip-hop family, reuniting him with chairman and CEO of Universal Republic and Island Def Jam, Barry Weiss, whom Tip knows from his days at Jive in the early 90s.

Joining the already-robust G.O.O.D. Music roster alongside Big Sean, John Legend, Pusha T, Kid Cudi, and others, Q-Tip will be able to flex his creative muscle amongst other hungry artists – veterans and up-and-comers alike – all while consulting and collaborating with head honcho, Kanyeezy. In friendship and in business, the rapping producers clearly see eye to eye; back in December, we saw Kanye and Tip palling around together backstage at Florence + The Machine’s MTV Unplugged taping with some tall ladies in tow, and overheard them discussing plans to hit the studio that night. It seems that our in-that-moment daydreaming wish for a fresh collaboration from the pair (beyond Watch The Throne’s “That’s My Bitch” and others of the past) seems to have morphed into a bigger partnership – one which further solidifies G.O.O.D. Music’s crew-cred within a hip-hop ecosystem that’s slowly becoming more and more about who’s on which team: MMG. YMCMB/OVOXO. Grand Hustle. ASAP Mob.

Tuned In: Kasabian Win Best British Band At The NME Awards And Pay Tribute To The Monkees’ Davy Jones

At last night’s NME Awards, Kasabian won the Best British Band Award, and used their moment to pay tribute to the late Davy Jones of The Monkees. Front man Tom Meighan declared, “This award is for Davy Jones of the Monkees” before bursting into song. Singing an a capella version of The Monkees’ Theme, it wasn’t long before the rest of the band joined in, clapping along to the beat and inciting the audience to sing along. It was a touching moment, but also a joyful one, as the cheekiness and energy of the tribute bought the room together in a very appropriate ode to The Monkees.