We’ve got the intergalactic album cover where he’s ripping off Kanye West’s metro (are people still saying metro, or is there some newer, cooler way to describe a fashionable straight man?) schtick. Then he stole his style from Michael Jackson while performing at a concert in New Jersey. Still latching onto the MJ craze right now, Brown is releasing a new song on his album called “Bad.” What, “Thriller” would have been too obvious? More »
Self-promoting MC Soulja Boy was arrested on Wednesday night after trying to evade the police, who showed up at an abandoned house where he and 40 other people were gathered for a “music video shoot.” He was picked up on a misdemeanor obstruction charge and released shortly after. On the bright side, getting arrested has done nothing to crimp his style: Not 24 hours after he was picked up by the cops, he was making songs for groupies and asking people to rate his Twitter profile picture. That’s what I call spunk! [TMZ] More »
Oh hey, another 2009 song that I love has a video out! (Guess that’s today’s pattern.) The Vistoso Bosses’ “Delirious” first crossed my transom back in January, and my relationship with the track was pretty much love at first listen; its delicate blend of woodwinds, gently plucked guitars, and fluttery sighs sound exactly like the earliest blushes of a crush. And the two 16-year-olds who make up the group are completely adorable, with fashion sense that could be described as “future-forward.” Pity, then, that someone at the Bosses’ record label decided that in order to make the song “saleable” they had to go and tack on a verse by Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, who at least refrains from name-dropping electronic devices in his cameo. (He does, however, rhyme “me” with “me.”) The video after the jump. More »
Also on the new Tapemasters Inc. mix: “LOL :)” (pronounced “el oh el, smiley-face”), an ode to the lurid trend of “sexting” by Trey Songz with assists from Soulja Boy and Gucci Mane. Oh, readers, you are going to hear this song, which I believe is the lead single from Songz’ forthcoming album Ready, everywhere this summer. It has a delicate beat that I guess is supposed to remind one of computer alert sounds; it name-drops Twitpic; and Soulja Boy’s verse features a line where he rhymes “Blackberry” and “Halle Berry.” (He also name-checks his recent hit “Kiss Me Thru The Phone,” which is a further testament to his ability to self-market.) The track after the jump. More »
The most notable move on any of Billboard‘s flagship singles charts this week isn’t on the Hot 100, where the Black Eyed Peas make it a month at No. 1 with the tiresome “Boom Boom Pow.”
Instead, over on the normally snoozy Modern Rock chart, a veteran band makes the second-biggest leap to No. 1 in a decade and a half, and in the process breaks out of a tie with U2 for the second-biggest roster of penthouse-dwellers in this chart’s history.
I’m speaking of Green Day, a band with arguably the most daunting challenge of any act in post-millennial rock (especially since Axl Rose finally got Chinese Democracy out of his system): following up an album that hit the trifecta of popular success, critical acclaim and industry recognition.
Scoring a No. 1 hit right away at radio sets up that forthcoming album nicely. But a close examination of the erstwhile Bay Area punkers’ chart history indicates that this quick score doesn’t necessarily mean much as a predictor of Green Day’s success. More »
Continuing his elaborate metacommentary on the 21st century couched in saying really stupid shit to the press, Soulja Boy gave a new slew of bon mots to former Idolator guestblogger Jeff Weiss for New York‘s Vulture blog. In addition to saying that “everything is going digital” while hawking his decidedly carbon-based shoe line, he expounded further on why he put up the “How to ‘Crank Dat'” video on YouTube, how he’d never actually supermanned a ho, and the metaphysical implications of swag: