Music & Commentary Weekly Wrap-Up for 6.7.2013
POP
Labrinth
Our Artist Of The Month for June is the London singer/songwriter/producer Labrinth. He has already reached platinum status back at home, and now he is ready to bring his infectious soulful style here to the US. Find out what made his debut album, "Electronic Earth" such a big hit, and how he became the first artist Simon Cowell personally signed in six years. His American debut single "Beneath Your Beautiful" is an unforgettable duet with Emeli Sande. It has just begun to build a presence on Pop radio from RCA Records. One listen is all it takes for you to know you are hearing the talent of a true career artist! Click here for more!
Bruno Mars
One of the week's biggest stories is unfortunately a sad one. On Monday we reported the news that Grammy Award winning singer/song writer/producer, Bruno Mars' mother died suddenly on Saturday, June 1st. Bernadette Hernandez died of a brain aneurysm. She was just 55 years old. Bruno quickly left his tour to return home to his family. Click Here to read Bruno's first tweet since the sad news.
Miley Cyrus
As we told you last week, Miley Cyrus joined Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS FM radio show to premiere her brand new song "We Can't Stop" on June 3rd. Well we should say that Miley took over Ryan's show that day, because when she arrived she kicked Ryan out of the studio. (probably a good way for him to sneak in a nap in between his many jobs) Miley and Ryan's co-host, Ellen K played "We Can't Stop" at least 4 times on the show that day, Thanks to her fans, the song premiere became a trending topic on Twitter worldwide. In case you missed it, click here to listen!
OneRepublic/ Sara Bareilles
OneRepublic has announced more summer tour dates, and this time they're going to be sharing the stage with Sara Bareilles. The co-headlining tour will begin August 29th in Denver, CO at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. For compete tour date listings and the chance to check out their current singles "Counting Stars" and "Brave"click here.
Paris Jackson/Michael Jackson
We like nearly everyone else in Pop culture or news did our best to cover Paris Jackson's apparent attempted suicide this week. In an expected fashion, this news about Michael Jackson's daughter spread like a wild fire, and very rapidly grew to become one of the main topics for gossip blogs like TMZ. Our report stated that according to TMZ Jackson cut her arm and required numerous stitches. The incident was first reported when she reportedly called a suicide hotline, and the operator grew concerned enough to alert 911.
Since then a whirlwind of media coverage has erupted surrounding it. Paparazzi has caught people like Latoya Jackson and Debbie Roe leaving the hospital she's recovering in, Maryland Manson has offered his words on the issue, and Conrad Murray has recorded a statement where he offers to talk to her and tells her that he loves her. For more on this and an update on Wade Robson's alleged Michael Jackson abuse related creditors claim, click here.
Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez showed off a bit of a dark side this week. First she released "Slow Down" produced by the Cataracts. It is a hot dance club track, with steamy lyrics that explain exactly why she would want to "slow down" with someone. If she plays her cards right, there could be a lot of music lovers that will be doing exactly that to this song all summer long.
Secondly, Warner Bros Pictures has released the first trailer to her new movie Getaway. You. After watching it we learned that this isn't Wizards of Waverly Place right away. Why? Well, she attempts to car-jack Ethan Hawk. Check it all out and see what we're talking about by clicking here.
Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber plans to head off to space. Billionaire entrepreneur extraordinaire Richard Branson announced that he and his manager Scooter Braun have signed up to be on the first Virgin Galactic flight to Space. No word yet on when that first flight is ready to boldly go where no Pop star has gone before, but we did learn some of the costs involved. Take a look at that, who Biebe and Scooter would be rooming with, and find out what Justin plans to do once he gets to space by clicking here. Cheers.
Alternative
Ha-Ha Yo
The week began with the start of the month of June so that means we get to introduce you to our new group in our Indie Artist Spotlight! This month we are featuring the Alternative/Hip Hop duo HAHA-YO! The two guys, Tom "Boyder" Boyd and Luke "Lukey the Bird" O'Brien. They have made a name for themselves with fun viral music videos like "Jimmy Buffett," and "I Love You, Yo" These videos they have become known for usually include appearances by their supporting friends. Brain Bangley and Big Champ. Together they create songs rooted in pop, hip-hop. What started as fun songs eventually turned in to fun videos, on a YouTube channel that has over 4 million views. After getting such a positive response from fans they decided to release their first EP, "Hey" this month! To preview their songs and to download their EP, Click Here!
The Roots
TV watchers can watch the legendary Roots Crew do their thing now, every night on NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, but true Roots fans remember that the band's path to stardom was a long one, and it wasn't always easy. To help that part of their career be remembered, the band was given a mural in their home town of Philadelphia at the tail end of last week. For some specifics of how it all went down, and to get a better look at the mural, click here.
Nine Inch Nails
Last week Nine Inch Nails announced their signing to Columbia Records. Well, just as Trent Reznor's announcing statement indicated things are ready to go, and the band is moving fast. Following a leak on Wednesday, the band announced the album's new title, released their new single to SoundCloud, and gave out the dates to a corresponding headlining tour. Check it all out by clicking here.
Urban/Hip Hop/R&B
Tiara Thomas
Producer Rico Love announced the signing of R&B singer songwriter Tiara Thomas to his Division1 imprint on Interscope Records. This news came a bit unexpectedly because prior to her signing to Division1, Thomas was best known for her association with Washington DC based Wale, and performing and writing on his current hit single "Bad." Well, as the week went on, we learned that according to Wale himself via an interview with Hot 97's morning show, that his relationship with Tiara Thomas was a "casualty of the game."
Click here for more on Tiara's new deal with Rico Love and Interscope. To watch her do her thing on record with Wale for what very well could be the last time, Click here. Enjoy.
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is ready to release her 11th studio album. The Pop diva officially announced the news via her Twitter account on Wednesday. This is news that she has been building to well before her public involvement with American Idol. She gave us a glimpse into the creative process for album in an interview that we published back in August. We're thinking that the diehard MC fans will especially love it. Check that out by clicking here. Also, for those of you who don't know, Mariah joined Miguel as the surprise guest at the recently passed 20th anniversary Summer Jam concert for Hot 97. If you were like us and missed it the first go round, click here to check it out. It's a lot of fun.
J. Cole
Rapper J. Cole has thown Promotion of his second album Born Sinner into high gear. He started the week off right by releasing the album's second single "Crooked Smile" featuring TLC. From our assessment, it is a song about having confidence in the unique characteristics that help define you. Cole talks about this issue by using his own actual "crooked smile" smile as an example of something that once served as a source of insecurity, and later grew into a source of identity for him. We couldn't help but be reminded of TLC's own hit in the year 2000 called "Unpretty." It is of course just a bit grittier though.
Cole also took to Twitter on Wednesday announcing what we considered to be an aggressive preview stream sharing plan that was pushed simultaneously in different regions around the globe. To check out all the specifics on that, plus the songs themselves, click here.
Robin Thicke
It seems like Robin Thicke is everywhere these days thanks to the growing popularity of his smash hit single "Blurred Lines." The song became his first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, jumping to number 6 this week, The song that is most added at Pop radio again this week has surpassed his previous peak on that chart, "Lost Without U", which hit #14 in 2007. As he continues to dominate the iTunes singles chart for the first time in his career, Robin is showing no signs of slowing down.
This past Tuesday Robin digitally released the second single from the forthcoming album also being called "Blurred Lines." That song is a tender balled called, "For The Rest Of My Life." In it Robin does what he does best, sing about his wife, Paula Patton. The song stands out for uniquely telling the story of how they met and fell in love as teen agers. "For The Rest Of My Life" is going to be serviced to Urban AC radio in the near future, but if you can't wait that long to hear it Click here!
Justin Timberlake, Nas, Jay-Z, Timbaland
You know how they say, a picture is worth a thousand words? Well a lot of people are having quite a bit to say about a photo taken earlier this week. That photo taken by one lucky, and very well connected on looker was a snap shot of Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Nas, and Timbaland all in the recording studio together. So what is the story behind this photo? Well, it could be nothing, or it could be everything. But what we believe is that we may be getting a preview of a possible collaboration involving all these artists. After all what do they all have in common? Timbaland has worked with each of them multiple times. We all know JT loves to collaborate with Tim whenever possible, so we may have a good reason to be excited, especially knowing that RCA did in fact confirm that JT's next album would be released on September 30th, as the sequel to "The 20/20 Experience." That's not all Justin fans! Anyone following him may remember that he hinted at a bunch of new music he recorded with Jay-Z when he and Timbaland were supposed to be working on Beyonce's project. Maybe those songs are what could be shaping a new Hip Hop themed album, seems like could fit right in! Click here for more from Justin on the subject, as well as some cool related media!
Kelly Rowland
Out of all the songs to come out recently, Kelly Rowland definitely has one worth talking about. Her current single, "Dirty Laundry" is a song that covers some very sensitive subjects from her personal life in a way that we haven't heard before. It takes us back to 2002, when Kelly and Beyonce first began the process of going solo. For the first time ever, "Dirty Laundry" describes how difficult it was for Kelly to be living in Beyonce's shadow as she watched her become the star she is today. She explicitly expresses the sadness and loneliness that she was feeling during that time. This time was not only difficult for her because of changes in her career, but Kelly also revealed being in an abusive relationship during that time as well, No one expected to hear this from Kelly, so many years later, but one thing is for sure, it must have been something very important to her. It has been said that she has had to leave the room at Republic Records listening sessions when the track was playing. Click here to listen
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