Drake Shows Off His Fascination For Gold On "Take Care" Cover

Drake seems to display the lavish lifestyle that we as fans have given him on the cover for his sophomore album “Take Care”. The album is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated releases of the year with a release date of October 24, 2011.

"Take Care" will be available in three different versions — standard edition, Birthday Edition, and the chopped & screwed Take Care OG Ron C Edition — which will allow Drake to snag that #1 on the charts much quicker. Collaborators include Lil’ Wayne, Florence Welch, Stevie Wonder, The Weeknd, Rick Ross, and more.

It took me a few spins before I got into ‘Headlines’, but his other singles ‘Marvin’s Room’ and ‘Club Paradise’ instantly drew me into this project. His debut was great so I’m hoping for more of the morbid sound, except with indie influences.

Source: [The Prophet Blog] 

Bruno Mars Reveals 'It Will Rain' Cover For 'Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn' Sountrack

Bruno Mars is ready to release music. Don’t get too excited thou – the single won’t be off his new album.

The ‘Grenade’ singer has opted to partake in the Twilight series by releasing the first single titled “It Will Rain” from “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack”, which will be released 8th November 2011, ahead of the movies release on 18th November 2011. The single will be released worldwide on iTunes on September 27, and in the U.K. on October 31. The single cover was revealed and shows a laidback Mars sitting under an umbrella, surrounded by colourful shades of paint dripping down.

"Remember that song I told yall I finished? Well its called It Will Rain #ComingSoon," he tweeted. He says "after seeing the movie, I thought that it would be a perfect fit.". Mars says that "the 'Twilight' movies for me (are) a love story. But it's a dark love story. And I think the best way to describe the song is: it's the darker side of love. I think that pretty much sums it up."

He even spoke about the songs conception: "It Will Rain" "started off with me and the guitar," Mars says, "and I just had this melody in my head and basically laid it down after I saw the film." Mars also got to see "most of the movie" so he "could catch the vibe and feel where they were going with it." He even showed off a bit of his humorous side by saying that he doesn’t know where in the film the song will be heard. "I have no idea! As long as it's not after the credits. I hope it's in a good (scene)!"

Well, I can't wait! You know Mars always delivers great songs but I love darker tunes and always love the lead singles from the Twilight soundtracks. 

Source: [Billboard] [MTV] [Ace Showbiz]

Demi Lovato Chooses 'Who's That Boy' As Next Single

After experiencing top ten success with her emotional drenched single ‘Skyscraper’, Demi Lovato is ready to help Dev’s flop career by releasing ‘Who’s That Boy’ as her second single from her album “Unbroken”.

The single’s production and songwriting credits go to Ryan Tedder, who has produced songs for Beyonce (‘Halo’), Jordin Sparks (‘Battlefield’), and Kelly Clarkson (‘Already Gone’).

To support the single, the Disney princess is preparing to shoot a video for the song. "We're in the middle of getting the treatment and things put together," she told MTV about the project. "So hopefully we'll be shooting that soon." 

I scanned through Demi’s new album and, albeit dated, the album sounds really good. It’s expected to do well with predicted sales of 115,000 copies the first week, which would make it the best first-week sales of her career. I have no idea why she would want to collaborate with Dev when she could have worked with Ke$ha, who is better by tenfold.

You can check out the song and a performance of the song on "Good Morning America" below the jump.

Rihanna's Cover For 'We Found Love' Is Amazing

That Rihanna reign just won’t let up!

The singer confirmed that her new single ‘We Found Love’ featuring Calvin Harris will premiere tomorrow (22 September). The album promo started pretty strongly, as the singer used facebook as a promotional tool by launching a campaign which allows fans to unlock missions that reveal information regarding this era.

Sporting a vintage 80’s post-grudge image, the singer appears in a blurry black-and-white cover similar to her classic Rated R era. Can you guys see the look of despair plastered on her face? That’s because she feels bad for leaving your faves’ wigs to rust while she continues to heat up the charts!

The lyrics of ‘We Found Love’ can be read after the jump. Get ready to be slayed! 

Ciara To Work With Kevin McCall

Remember Ciara? The one who slays every living performer, yet can’t secure herself a proper hit album?

Well the singer is ready to hit the studio once again, as Kevin McCall confirmed on twitter thet he’ll be working with the crunk princess to create some “smash” records.

This could work in Ciara’s favour because Kevin is the same person who saved Chris Brown’s career with his hit song ‘Deuces’. Kevin has a great hand at producing hit records so it will be interesting to see whether he can help Ciara after her latest pair of flop albums.

Source: [Toyaz-World]

Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse Sing In Body And Soul Video

Check out the new video by Tony Bennett featuring the incredible Amy Winehouse for the charity single ‘Body and Soul’.

The single became Bennett’s first top 40 U.K. single in years and was recorded in March at London’s Abbey Road Studios for Bennett’s 85th birthday album Duets II. Proceeds from the track will be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, a charity which was started by Winehouse’s family to help youth charity.

It’s a shame that such an impeccable talent had to die at such a young age. This song was recorded a few weeks before her death and will only be added to her discography of authentic and classic records.

Check the video after the jump.

New Single - Mario 'The Walls'

As humans, we all go through experiences which, in some way, mould us into the people that we are today. Going through experiences in life and using that experience to develop a maturity that cannot be inherited is what separates the boys from the men. My point: Mario is one of the only R&B artists that continue to grow. Although he experienced his mother abusing drugs he has continued to stay true to his sound and never oversteps the boundaries of sexual. 

The most-underrated R&B artist of our generation finally released his first single, ‘The Walls’, off of his upcoming untitled fifth studio album. Although the lyrics and minimal beat is above average, Mario’s delivery makes the song worth listening to. It’s basically the starter, preparing us for the main course. The only criticism I can give him is that he stays away from singing overly-sexual songs like his lesser peers Chris Brown and Trey Songz.

Admit it: All of Mario’s albums are amazing!

With a career spanning almost 9 years you would expect Mario to be on Usher-level success. But you know that talent gets overlooked a lot nowadays. It still bothers me that R&B stans will complain about a lack of talent in the industry, yet we have Mario who has been delivering great songs and he still gets shunned by the media. However, this has the makings of an urban hit. Lets hope that it translate into a mainstream hit.

3.5/5

Listen to the Prince of R&B’s new single below.

Kelly Clarkson Blesses Us With 'Mr Know It All' Performance

German fans were lucky enough to be blessed by a Kelly Clarkson performance, as the vocal heavyweight took to the stage to perform her new single 'Mr Know It All' in front of a crowd of 17,000 people at the 2011 ‘Stars For Free’ music festival in Berlin.

As per usual wigs were torn to shreds by Kellegend’s performance – and she didn’t even break a sweat using more emotion in her toes than your robotic faves!

The singer is gearing up to perform at the ‘iHeartRadio’ festival which will serve as the best promotional platform for the release of her upcoming album “Stronger”, currently set to be released October 24.

Purify your ears with the Bruno Mars-inspired track.

Source: [Toyaz World]

Beyonce's 'I Was Here' Song Used In 9/11 Tribute Video

10 years ago, America witnessed one of the most tragic and life-changing events that shook culture forever – the crashing of two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. So many loved ones were found dead which caused a lot of families to suffer emotionally and financially from this tragedy. Now, 10 years later, we commemorate the event and take the time to send our condolences to those who were affected by the September 11 attacks.

Beyonce's Diane Warren-penned ballad ‘I Was Here’ was used in a tribute video compiled by ABC news. As the song plays, montage of mourning families and friends. It displays memorials, tributes, and landmarks of the September 11 terrorist attacks. It would be easy to point fingers and say that this was another scheme of Beyonce’s to sell more copies of “4”, but rather concentrate on the positive and accept Beyonce for being apart of such a emotive clip.

R.I.P. to all the people that died during this event. Our prayers are with your families. 

Source: [Ace Showbiz][Toyaz World]

Britney Spears To Release New Remix Album

What you are looking at is an example of greedy record executives trying their luck with Photoshop, yet hopelessly failing at the same time. This is how your album cover will look like once you become R2-D2 and stop putting input in your work.

Britney Spears took to “her” Twitter last night to reveal the track listing, which we hoped was a bad prank. The set is scheduled to be released October 11 and will feature remixes from her “Blackout”, “Circus”, and “Femme Fatale” albums (which are all fantastic). Too bad we’re only getting one new remix (‘Criminal: Varsity Team Remix’).

Will you be buying this? I’m not into remixes but might listen to it. You know that this might sell almost as much as the previous remix album…

Alicia Keys Speculated To Be Working On A New Album

Everybody knows that Alicia Keys took a step closer towards pop music on her last album “The Element of Freedom” and it was the Prince-inspired elements that producer Jeff Bhasker added that made the album unique and one of Alicia’s most appreciated pieces of work (although it didn’t sell as much as her previous catalogues).

Well the singer was apparently enjoying sessions with Bhasker and her longtime partner Kerry ‘Krucial’ Brothers, who both received major credits for their work on her previous album. I’m anticipating her new album and if it sounds anything like ‘Try Sleeping With Broken Heart’ then I’m all for it!

Source: [Toyaz World]

Coldplay Unveils "Mylo Xyloto" Track Listing

Coldplay has unveiled the tracklisting for "Mylo Xyloto" today and tweeted a possible lyric from the third track 'Paradise'. "When she was just a girl she expected the world but it flew away from her reach so she ran away in her sleep and dreamed of paradise". I love it! 

The band has already performed most of the songs from the album during various promotional appearances for "Mylo", which has been schedueled to be released on October 25.

Wait! That means that they'll be going head-to-head with Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger"!

You can watch their performances and read the track listing after the jump.

Cassie Previews New Single 'King Of Hearts'

It was announced that Cassie would be returning from her long hiatus with a single called 'King Of Hearts'. Well the single has leaked in snippet form and was clearly made to blaze up dancefloors and iPods! It's safe to say that Cassie heard the cries of her indie fan base that have been smudging her gelid vocals over their remix's and is back to slay the underground scene with these new songs.

It has been years since we last heard from the Bad Boy Princess. We were treated with not only one, but three and a third songs this week! The first two songs, 'Make You A Believer' and 'Radio', were released off Bad Boys official mixtape "The Preview", while "Don't Lose It (your wig)" was leaked in demo form. How can you not be Cassiefied?

"Electro Love" will continue Cassie's mass slayage later this year!

P.S. I couldn't find a link to the snippet ever since it was blocked in my country. I can't use any file sharing sites as well so you'll have to hear the song over at This Is R&B.

Kelly Clarkson Is Coming Back 'Stronger'

Brace yourselves people...Kelly Clarkson is back!

The singer recently revealed the album cover for "Stronger", her upcoming album which is bound to move a threshold of copies. Preceded by the lead single 'Mr Know It All', the album is currently booked for a release date of Octover 24, a day before it's original date.

The black-and-white cover features gold accents and shows the Queen of Diversity striking a sophisticated pose, holding a golden chain that is connected to a ring placed around her middle finger, where the success of your faves lie around.

'Mr Know It All' is shaping up to be a pretty big hit as it has debuted at No.30 on the Adult charts and is nicely sitting in the top 5 of the iTunes store.

Who'da thought knew a Bruno Mars-rip off would become this huge? (I did!)

Madonna To Slay With New Album Due In Spring 2012

Madonna stans are poppin’ bottles while listening to “Ray Of Light” due to the news of a new Madge album.

The Queen of Pop confirmed a “February, March” date for her new single, while her twelfth studio album is scheduled for a Spring release.

Madonna says that she's "started a little bit of work in the studio" for the forthcoming album and that recording the album will commence in "New York, until the end of the year" when she returns to the United States. 

Madonna has been recording the album since July, and her “Ray Of Light” producer William Orbit has been confirmed to join the line-up of collaborators. French House music producer Marvin Solveig is also scheduled to be apart of the Album of 2012 and will surely provide Madge with songs hot enough to fry Britney Spears’ 2-minute noodles-inspired weave.

Let the stan wars begin!

Source: [The Prophet Blog][Billboard]

Chris Brown Displays Vocal Growth In Acoustic Set

With all the auto-tune Chris Brown relies on nowadays during performances and songs, it would be difficult to remember that he actually has great vocals instead of confusing him for being Captain Crunch’s robotic fiend.

The comeback singer covered Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles”, alongside group U.G.L.Y, in an impromptu acoustic performance and mashed it up with his R&B hit “No Bullsh*t”.

Chris Brown on WhoSay

Kudos to Chris for covering one of the best pop songs of the last decade. Listening to this cover not only signifies Chris’s growth vocally, but also displays his unique tone of voice. It’s refreshing to actually hear him sing without the necessity of auto-tune.

I’ve made it no secret that I’m a huge Chris Brown fan, regardless of his past and the ignorance he sometimes displays. If he continues to show improvement, he’ll become one of the most influential stars that our generations knows.

I hope he didn’t cover this as a birthday gift for Beyonce…

Sources: [Rap-Up][Toyaz-World][WhoSay]

Kevin McCall Discusses Solo Album and Chris Brown's "Fortune"

Kevin McCall has yet to release an album yet has already been making a name for himself as a songwriter and a producer. McCall played a pivotal role in the making of Chris Brown’s career-reviving hit “Deuces” and majority of mixtapes, “Yesterday” by P.Diddy, “One Night Stand” by Keri Hilson and Chris Brown, and “Roll Up” by Wiz Khalifa.

Rap-Up caught up with the hitmaker to discuss his solo music and what the outcome of Chris Brown’s upcoming album “Fortune” will sound like.

“Chris Brown is behind me 100 percent,” said Kevin, who formed a writing team with Chris and SeVen (formerly of RichGirl). “I’m working with Chris a lot. I did a lot of stuff with other producers just because I believe you have to venture out to find new sounds.”

He also told Rap-Up that he and Breezy collaborated heavily on "Fortune", which is scheduled to be released early 2012. “The Fortune album is really done. Chris Brown has four albums done if he wants to,” he revealed. He then revealed that "the album’s done and it’s great. I like it better than F.A.M.E. personally.”

Kevin is also planning on joining Chris on select dates of his “F.A.M.E.” tour, which starts later this month.

It’s exciting to see someone as refreshing as Kevin to be producing songs for Chris. Most of his productions have been top-notch R&B/Pop and it will be interesting to see whether he can concoct something stellar and unique for Breezy. Anything but songs like “Oh My Love” or “Say It With Me” should be created, or else there’s going to be a plethora of problems.

Source: [Rap-Up]

Lupe Fiasco Embarks on Generation LASER Tour

Underrated MC Lupe Fiasco is embarking on a 20-date North American tour on the Generation LASER Tour. The tour will support his latest album, "Lasers", which reached #1 on the Billboard 200.

The tour will kick off on September 12 in Boston until October 11 in Oakland. The opening acts include Big Sean, Girl Talk, Tinie Tempah, Sarah Green and Wale. This is almost hip-hop heaven and I would have gone just to see Tinie and Wale. You know you love them as well!

The dates are added below.

Foster The People Speak With Bing

New indie group Foster The People are currently making waves across the world with their amazing single “Pumped Up Kicks” which has reached #3 on Billboard Hot 100.

The band only formed two years ago yet has played at massive festivals such as Coachella and Lollapalooza, and have even received VMA nominations. It’s not surprising that the group is shocked at the phenomenal success that they’re achieving right now for an independent group. The group recently shared their experience with Bing.

“It’s so crazy to think how many things have changed in such a short period of time,” says Mark Foster of Foster The People.

 

Foster The People’s album “Torches”, which reached #8 on Billboard 200, is out in stores. You can purchase it here.

Source: [Idolator]

Ke$ha Selects May 2012 To Release Sophomore Album

Fans waiting to receive a Ke$ha album this year will have to wait longer according to Doctor Luke, who tweeted that her album might see the light of day “not this year…. close to May….”.

This will be her second studio album after serving us with her consistent pop album “Animal" and its follow-up EP “Cannibal”, which in total gave her 6 platinum top ten hits. This new album will either make or break Ke$ha, as this new album should propel her into global superstar status.

We all know that Ke$ha is an amazing songwriter and spent the year touring and poppin’ bottles, thanks to the royalties that she’ll obtain from Britney Spears’ smash ‘Till The World Ends’, which she wrote (co-wrote).  Hopefully we see some growth in this album and watch her critics swallow their words up about her  lack of musical abilities.

Here’s hoping we at least get a hot rap song with an aggressive dub step beat courtesy of Billboard.

Speaking of Billboard, you can listen to Ke$ha’s “Animal” and “Animal (Billboard Remix)” after the jump. They are two of Ke$ha’s best songs so y’all best be buying ‘em on iTunes! 

Britney Spears Selects 'Criminal' As "Femme Fatale's" Next Single

Britney Spears is ready to show the world that she still has a soul with the release of her new single “Criminal”. The single release was confirmed by Britney and also won a poll selection on Facebook that asked fans which song they wanted to be released as the next single.

“I don’t know if I’m at liberty to tell”, she told MTV at the Video Music Awards. “But I will anyway. It’s Criminal”. She also gave an idea of what the visuals will look like, “I was thinking of a really cool concept for the video just to make it interesting”.

“Criminal” will be the fourth single off of Britney’s seventh studio album “Femme Fatale”, which is undoubtedly the best pop album of the year. The song is a rhythmic mid-tempo track infused with a whistle-melody that will stay stuck in your head. It’s a beautiful song and should show non-fans that Britney still has a bit of soul in her.

Source: [Toyaz-World][KO-Video]

Lil John Uses Youtube Clips For ‘Drink’ Video

Crunk producer Lil Jon has clearly been too busy searching for videos on Youtube than trying to sell records. Instead of using 2004’s royalties to pay for a proper video, the dude decided to compile footages of other people drinking.

The video for his LMFAO-featured single “Drink” premiered earlier today, and, you can imagine what the results are going to be. LMFAO are clearly too busy topping singles charts to be able to feature in this video. It’s nothing creative and won’t influence art but it serves its purpose…

Lil Jon’s new album will be released later this year.