Mass Appeal Launches MAJR, A New Kids Line Featuring Apparel, Books & Toys Source: Mass Appeal / Mass Appeal Last week, Entertainment company Mass Appeal announced a line of children’s apparel, books, toys and more under the newly launched brand MAJR. The brand, originated as a playful take on the concept of “Mass Appeal Junior”, will inspire and educate the next generation (newborn through pre-teen) through the global movement of hip hop culture in which Mass Appeal has become a dominant voice. The overlapping worlds of music, fashion, art and popular culture will drive MAJR’s injection of diverse perspective into the kids products market. MAJR launches with a selection of apparel available with matching designs for parents and children. The first toy in the collection, “Boomblox”, a set of building blocks that form into an old-school boombox, has also been announced, with shipping expected to take place in the fall. Source: Mass Appeal / Mass Appeal In addition to apparel and toys, a cornerstone of the new brand will be a collection of kids’ books driven by some of the biggest names in hip hop. The first book, inspired by Mass Appeal co-owner Nas’ hit song “I Can”, will be the “I Know I Can” book series, empowering kids to be whatever they want to be when they grow up.
We reported last week that someone not named Chad Johnson got Evelyn Lozada pregnant . Now the reality star has at last revealed the baby’s father. It’s Carl Crawford! Evelyn Lozada: Pregnant By Carl Crawford! The Basketball Wives star, 37, who confirmed her second pregnancy via Twitter in late November, had kept the identity of the baby’s father under wraps. Now she has confirmed to OMG! Insider’s Nina Parker in an interview airing Monday that the rumors circulating about Crawford are indeed true. The L.A. Dodgers outfielder, 32, nicknamed “The Perfect Storm” by fans and one of the most overpaid men in sports, is certainly a great catch! Or was. It’s not clear if they’re still together. But if you’re going for a sports baby daddy to take care of you for 18 years, Evelyn Lozada hit the jackpot. Lozada also went on to reveal that she was in love with Crawford – “I still believe in love,” she said – despite her tumultuous relationship history. Evelyn was famously married to NFL star Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson for six weeks in 2012, until Chad head-butted her and got arrested during a fight. Lozada sort of implies that she and Crawford still have a thing. “I definitely would get married again,” she said in the interview. “I’m not one of those people that’s like ‘we need to get engaged, we need to get married.’” “No, absolutely not … I feel likeif that’s going to come, just like with the baby, let it come. I’m not forcing anything, so if it happens, it happens.” The VH1 reality star, who has a 20-year-old daughter named Shaniece from a previous relationship, also revealed her due date is in late March. Congratulations!
Nominees for the 2014 Grammy Awards were revealed Friday night in a special CBS presentation, and it was the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis show. The hip-hop duo earned seven nominations, including best new artist, song of the year and album of the year. Only Jay Z’s nine nods topped them. “Seven is unbelievable,” Lewis said. “We came here hoping for one.” Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Thrift Shop (Grammy Nominations Concert) English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, who was also nominated for best new artist, said in an interview that he’d rather Macklemore & Lewis win the Grammy. “They’ve achieved so much this year in popular culture,” Sheeran said, referring to “Same Love.” “They really changed things doing a song about homophobia.” Fellow newcomer and hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar is also is nominated for seven Grammys, while Lorde and her smash hit “Royals” are up for several. Taylor Swifit, Rihanna, Blake Shelton, Kacey Musgraves, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, Drake, Katy Perry, Robin Thicke and Daft Punk are also representing. Check out the full list of 2014 Grammy nominees below! Album of the Year The Blessed Unrest – Sara Bareilles Random Access Memories – Daft Punk good kid, m.A.A.d city – Kendrick Lamar The Heist – Macklemore & Ryan Leiws Red – Taylor Swift Record of the Year “Get Lucky” – Daft Punk and Pharrell “Radioactive” – Imagine Dragons “Royals” – Lorde “Locked Out of Heaven” – Bruno Mars “Blurred Lines” – Robin Thicke ft. T.I. and Pharrell Song of the Year “Just Give Me a Reason” – Pink ft. Nate Ruess “Locked Out of Heaven” – Bruno Mars “Roar” – Katy Perry “Royals” – Lorde “Same Love” – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Mary Lambert Best New Artist James Blake Kendrick Lamar Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Kacey Musgraves Ed Sheeran Best Pop Solo Performance “Brave” — Sara Bareilles “Royals” — Lorde “When I Was Your Man” — Bruno Mars “Roar” — Katy Perry “Mirrors” — Justin Timberlake Best Pop Duo/Group Performance “Get Lucky” – Daft Punk and Pharrell “Just Give Me a Reason” – Pink ft. Nate Ruess “Stay” – Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko “Blurred Lines” – Robin Thicke ft. T.I and Pharrell “Suit & Tie” – Justin Timberlake ft. Jay Z Best Dance/Electronica Album Random Access Memories — Daft Punk Settle — Disclosure 18 Months — Calvin Harris Atmosphere — Kaskade A Color Map of the Sun — Pretty Lights Best Rock Performance “Always Alright” — Alabama Shakes “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” — David Bowie “Radioactive” — Imagine Dragons “Kashmir” (Live) — Led Zeppelin “My God Is the Sun” — Queens of the Stone Age “I’m Shakin’” — Jack White Best Rock Album 13 — Black Sabbath The Next Day — David Bowie Mechanical Bull — Kings of Leon Celebration Day — Led Zeppelin …Like Clockwork — Queens of the Stone Age Psychedelic Pill — Neil Young With Crazy Horse Best Alternative Music Album The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You — Neko Case Trouble Will Find Me — The National Hesitation Marks — Nine Inch Nails Lonerism — Tame Impala Modern Vampires of the City — Vampire Weekend Best R&B Performance “Love and War” — Tamar Braxton “Best of Me” — Anthony Hamilton “Nakamarra” — Hiatus Kaiyote ft. Q-Tip “How Many Drinks?” — Miguel ft. Kendrick Lamar “Something” — Snarky Puppy With Lalah Hathaway Best Urban Contemporary Album Love and War — Tamar Braxton Side Effects of You — Fantasia One: In the Chamber — Salaam Remi Unapologetic — Rihanna New York: A Love Story — Mack Wilds Best R&B Album R&B Divas — Faith Evans Girl on Fire — Alicia Keys Love in the Future — John Legend Better — Chrisette Michele Three Kings — TGT Best Rap Performance “Started from the Bottom” — Drake “Berzerk” — Eminem “Tom Ford” — Jay Z “Swimming Pools (Drank)” — Kendrick Lamar “Thrift Shop” — Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz Best Rap/Sung Collaboration “Power Trip” — J.Cole ft. Miguel “Part II (On the Run)” — Jay Z ft. Beyoncé “Holy Grail” — Jay Z ft. Justin Timberlake “Now Or Never” — Kendrick Lamar ft. Mary J. Blige “Remember You” — Wiz Khalifa ft. The Weeknd Best Rap Album Nothing Was the Same — Drake Magna Carta…Holy Grail — Jay Z Good Kid, M.A.A.D City — Kendrick Lamar The Heist — Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Yeezus — Kanye West Best Country Solo Performance “I Drive Your Truck” — Lee Brice “I Want Crazy” — Hunter Hayes “Mama’s Broken Heart” — Miranda Lambert “Wagon Wheel” — Darius Rucker “Mine Would Be You” — Blake Shelton Best Country Album Night Train – Jason Aldean Two Lanes of Freedom – Tim McGraw Same Trailer Different Park – Kacey Musgraves Based on a True Story… – Blake Shelton Red – Taylor Swift Best Jazz Instrumental Album Guided Tour — The New Gary Burton Quartet Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue — Terri Lyne Carrington Life Forum — Gerald Clayton Pushing the World Away — Kenny Garrett Out Here — Christian McBride Trio Best Gospel Album Grace (Live) — Tasha Cobbs Best for Last: 20 Year Celebration Vol. 1 — Donald Lawrence Best Days Yet — Bishop Paul S. Morton God Chaser (Live) — William Murphy Greater Than (Live) — Tye Tribbett Best Tropical Latin Album 3.0 — Marc Anthony Como Te Voy a Olvidar — Los Angeles Azules Pacific Mambo Orchestra — Pacific Mambo Orchestra Sergio George Presents Salsa Giants — Various Artists Corazón Profundo — Carlos Vives Best Americana Album Old Yellow Moon — Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell Love Has Come for You — Steve Martin & Edie Brickell Buddy and Jim — Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale One True Vine — Mavis Staples Songbook — Allen Toussaint Best Comedy Album Calm Down Gurrl — Kathy Griffin I’m Here to Help — Craig Ferguson A Little Unprofessional — Ron White Live — Tig Notaro That’s What I’m Talkin’ About — Bob Saget Producer of the Year, Non-Classical Rob Cavallo Dr. Luke Ariel Rechtshaid Jeff Tweedy Pharrell Williams
Perhaps I wasn’t hip to the various colors available in the gray spectrum before, but after checking out this Divergent photo , my eyes have been opened to the possibilities. If you’ve read Veronica Roth’s book, then you know that this photo is likely from the earliest parts in the film. Perhaps the choosing ceremony? Not sure when else there would be so much Abnegation gray in one place. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort play the brother and sister duo, Beatrice and Caleb Prior in the film. We don’t have too much longer to wait for the latest young adult dystopian novel adaptation as Divergent opens in theaters on March 21st of next year.
Long shrouded in mystery and the subject of endless fascination for conspiracy theorists, Area 51 has been officially acknowledged by the CIA. Newly-released documents say the site is real, but suggest the area served a far less remarkable purpose than many had supposed … or hoped. Area 51, about 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is synonymous in popular culture with government secrecy. Many believe it holds the answer to the age-old question: Are we really alone in the universe? Spoiler alert: That is still unclear. The documents, which include a map of the location , show Area 51 was a testing site for the government’s U-2 and OXCART aerial surveillance programs. The long-secret U-2 program conducted surveillance around the world, including over the Soviet Union during the Cold War over a period of decades. No mention of alien autopsy rooms or spaceship parking lots are mentioned in the declassified reports, likely to the dismay of those seeking alien intel. For these true believers, the existence of alien spacecraft in or around Area 51, and the government’s attempts to cover up their trace, is irrefutable. This has been the case ever since reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) began to emerge from the Nevada desert in the mid-20th Century. The documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archives. He requested the information in 2005, as part of his study of aerial surveillance programs … although the location of Area 51 was not a well-kept secret. In fact, the map that was released in the CIA documents more or les mirrors the one that appears after a simple Google Maps search for “Area 51.” It is more or less known that it exists in a section of rural Nevada with few access points and heavy security … very, very far from anything and anyone. Still, Richelson told CNN he believes this could signal a dramatic change in the government’s willingness to declassify information about the famed base. As for the true believers, they still have Roswell?
Miss Rowland if you nasty… Kelly Rowland “Kisses Down Low” Kelly Rowland has always been one to wave her freak flag high and proud and she does it again on this new record called “Kisses Down Low.” Produced by Mike Will Made It, “Kisses Down Low” is exactly what you think it is about. However, this is a family website and you’ll just have to listen to the lyrics yourself. Kelly’s been putting in work lately after appearances on Big Boi’s “Mama Told Me,” and Ludacris’ “Representin.” Read More At Hip Hop Wired
Black Women And Embracing All Forms Of Sex If we are to go by popular culture, we are to believe that this new generation of young people, particularly young women, now feel less restricted to discuss their love of mouth-to-meat knob slobbing .Rappers write odes to the BJ and it is not uncommon to see your favorite television or movie star act one out on the screen. We even have female entertainers like rappers and comedians brag about how well versed they are in the act. Culturally whatever stigma, which was attached to the act has all but dissipated. More…
No Robots, a movie by San Diego State University students YungHan Chang and Kimberly Knoll is lovely, sad, and ultimately redeeming. It’s also a great challenge to the way we normally use robots as metaphors: No Robots from YungHan Chang on Vimeo. Often, when we see robots in popular culture, they’re actually more powerful than Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : Think Progress Discovery Date : 24/01/2012 23:21 Number of articles : 2
The great Fifth Generation filmmaker Zhang Yimou has gone from having films like Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern banned in his homeland of China to directing the lavish opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, his more recent work taking place in the safer territory of the grandiose historical melodrama of Curse of the Golden Flower and the Nicholas Sparks-worthy sentimentality of Under the Hawthorn Tree . Zhang has insisted that he’s not interested in politics, a tack that certainly seems to have its benefits: With an estimated budget of around $90 million, The Flowers of War is one of the most, if not the most, expensive Chinese production to date, it stars Christian Bale and it’s China’s Oscar submission. But that doesn’t mean that Zhang’s latest output should be dismissed offhand as nationalist propaganda. That the accusation’s been tossed at The Flowers of War , a big, button-pushing, brutally effective World War II-era drama, may be due to unfamiliarity with the atrocity during which it’s set — the Nanjing Massacre, during which hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed and tens of thousands raped by Japanese soldiers after the capturing of the city in December of 1937. It’s a horrific incident that remains relatively unexplored in popular culture, though Iris Chang’s bestselling book The Rape of Nanking , Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s 2007 documentary Nanking , and Lu Chuan’s excellent City of Life and Death , which played in a few U.S. theaters last year, have brought it recent attention. Given that the massacre remains a painful point in China-Japan relations, and that certain far-right Japanese ultranationalists (like Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara) like to claim the massacre never took place and was invented to tarnish the image of Japan, it’s surprising that the Japanese soldiers don’t come off even less one-dimensional in Zhang’s film. The Flowers of War starts off with less context than I’ve given above, offering up a title card about “an especially dark chapter in human history” before dropping right into a destroyed Nanjing through which a scattering of schoolgirls runs, looking for shelter. Also scurrying through the wreckage and the piles of bodies is John Miller (Bale), an American mortician hired to bury the head of the local Catholic cathedral. While the ragged remains of the Chinese forces, led by Major Li (Tong Dawei), exchange fire with the Japanese troops, John discovers to his dismay that only students remain at the church — a group of adolescent convent girls and George (Huang Tianyuan), the orphan boy trying to serve as their caretaker. Finding no money for his fee, John settles into the late Father Engleman’s quarters to get trashed on Communion wine when a group of prostitutes arrives at the gates, having been promised sanctuary by the church’s cook, long since fled. Bale’s presence in the film is a kind of misdirect, a calculated element intended to better its international commercial prospects — his character makes a clumsily predictable journey from cynical drunken expat to hero willing to sacrifice a chance to escape the country in order to care for the children who’ve ended up in his charge. It’s the relationship between the famous “women of the Qinhuai River” and the frightened, sheltered girls that’s the stealthy heart of the film, the prostitutes sauntering in like brightly plumed birds and taking over the basement despite the protests of the cathedral’s scandalized remaining inhabitants, settling in to gamble and gossip. Yu Mo (Zhang discovery Ni Ni), the “top girl,” sets out to seduce John, knowing that as a Westerner he’ll be spared by the invading troops and might be able to help them escape. Meanwhile, the girls’ experience is filtered through Shujuan (Zhang Xinyi), who refused to leave the city without her schoolmates, and whose father (Cao Kefan) is now working for the Japanese in order to stay nearby. Despite the church’s supposedly being protected, Japanese soldiers break down the door (“We’re got virgins!” one yells), and it’s only due to the intervention of Major Li, hiding nearby, that the girls are spared gang rape and that only two are left dead. The Flowers of War never errs on the side of the overly nuanced — a soaring chorus accompanies moments of grace, and beyond a setup based on the looming threat of sexual violence to 12-year-old girls, the film features multiple characters sacrificing themselves to protect the youngsters, from Major Li, who fends off a platoon singlehandedly in an over-the-top but masterfully shot action sequence, to John, in his trek toward redemption, to the prostitutes, who end up offering themselves in the place of the children. A particularly harsh digression in which two of the latter travel back to their brothel to retrieve precious items they left there seems included only to reinforce the terrible fate awaiting any women who fall into the hands of the Japanese soldiers. Colonel Hasegawa (Atsuro Watabe), is the lone Japanese officer who’s not portrayed as a complete savage, though he’s still bound to follow orders, no matter how distasteful. But while it’s as blunt as any typical big-budget war epic would be, the film finds plenty of moments in which Zhang’s skill as a filmmaker and his deft handling and interest in female characters shines, from the way Shujuan serves as a far-too-young witness to these horrors, the camera often closing in on her gaze through a fracture in the cathedral’s rose window, to a sequence in which John cuts the prostitutes’ hair as they sleep (he knows how to work on people only when they’re lying down), so that they rise fresh-faced, with schoolgirl bobs. The enchantment with which the film views the Qinhuai ladies goes beyond any simple hookers-with-hearts-of-gold conceit — an imagined moment in which they sing while strolling through the church finds in them a magic that circumvents the victimization of their circumstances, a vision of lost decadence amidst the devastation. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
MTV News reveals the Nevermind You Never Knew with a week of 20th-anniversary coverage. By James Montgomery Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain in 1991 Photo: MTV News “What are we about? Oh, we’re just this crazy rock and roll band.” That was wild-haired Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic’s summation of the band during their first interview with MTV, on September 30, 1991, and he wasn’t just being modest. At the time, their Nevermind album had been in stores for less than a week, the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had just premiered on “120 Minutes” and, really, outside of a few hardy souls in the Pacific Northwest (and various in-the-know journos), no one had really heard of Nirvana, the band that would come to “define an era,” “change the world” or any other hyperbole that would (rightfully) be showered upon them. Back then, they were just another “crazy rock and roll band,” one that was just beginning the voyage from underground to mainstream. Twenty years later, we still marvel at how far they managed to get, and how symbolic that trek truly was. And though they’d released their debut album in 1989, for all intents and purposes, Nirvana’s story really began with Nevermind, which, though it may seem incomprehensible to anyone who lived during the halcyon days of 1991, turns 20 on Saturday. In honor of that anniversary, and the moment where the foundations of rock and popular culture fundamentally shifted, we’re rolling out a week’s worth of coverage — exploring the impact of Nirvana and their wondrous, groundbreaking album, talking to folks who were there the moment everything went global and, of course, mining our tape libraries to unearth rare moments that show Nirvana as they really were: three rather scruffy, decidedly playful guys who often seemed at odds with their own success. Or, as Kurt Cobain put it in a 1993 interview with MTV News: “I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman; I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.” To kick things off, we decided to look back at Nirvana’s meteoric rise to fame, as told by the band itself. The above video compiles quotes taken from our vault of Nirvana interviews, starting with that first sit-down and continuing on to the release of their final studio album, 1993’s In Utero. It’s a story that’s been told thousands of times before — as most great tales have been — but never by the members of Nirvana, in their own words. It is appropriately raw, unwashed and revelatory. Just like Nevermind was when it burst forth 20 years ago … and, like all classics, how it still is today. Stick with MTV News all week as we reveal the Nevermind You Never Knew , celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s definitive album with classic footage, new interviews and much more. Related Videos Nirvana: The Nevermind You Never Knew Related Photos Kurt Cobain: A Life In Photos Related Artists Nirvana
