J.Lo talks about the tunes Gaga helped write and produce on her new Love? album. By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Matt Elias Jennifer Lopez Photo: Michael Caulfield/ Getty Images Jennifer Lopez came onto the scene as a dance princess, throwing millennium parties while “Waiting for Tonight” and frolicking on the beach declaring that “My Love Don’t Cost a Thing.” Well, it’s now 2011 and not that much has changed for J.Lo. She still wants her fans to shake their fannies while she sings about the ups and downs of love. This time around, however, she got some help from this millennium’s biggest pop princess, Lady Gaga — along with frequent Gaga collaborator/producer RedOne — for the just-released Love? album. “I think RedOne’s sound is very specific, but he also can be very individual for each artist that he works with, which I like, but there’s still kind of a commonality in it,” J.Lo said. “But it’s him. He makes a record sound so big and important … When he would play me different tracks and even the beginnings of ideas and when he told me, ‘Actually I worked with Gaga on this,’ and I was like, ‘Really? That’s awesome. Is it OK?’ and he [was] like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ You know, they write and produce together a lot. So, it was exciting. I kind of just lucked out on that one.” But, there is a lot more to the album than the few tracks featuring Gaga’s golden touch. Love? also is a complete work of art that in a way, Lopez says, she’s been working on for most of her life. “I’ve been making this album maybe for a couple years now,” she said. “It’s been quite a process, but I’ve been saying lately that I’ve been actually making this record since I was 13 years old — the first time I fell in love — because it’s true, all the thoughts and all the things that went into this album were questions and things that I’ve had over the years … Love is a very complex topic and I’ve been singing about it since my first album, and this was kind of the culmination of that.” Sure, J.Lo is not the same girl she was back then, and she knows that. “I wanted to pose some questions and get the dialogue going about love,” she added. “I wanted to make a great dance, rhythmic album, as well … and we did that. I had great producers … who helped me do that, helped take me and put it into this generation of music with all of that [and] we still were able to do that.” Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: Jennifer Lopez Related Artists Jennifer Lopez
Rihanna was spotted cruising the streets of Jamaica on a bicycle rocking a long red weave that scaled the length of her back and ended at her butt. She was shooting the video for her next single “Man Down” off her album “Loud.” “WELCOME TA JAMROCK!!! #projectmandown” Rihanna Tweeted! Spotted @ Rap-Up.com Rihanna ft. Britney Spears “S&M” (Remix) [AUDIO] Rihanna: “I Like To Be Spanked”
Wayne needs time to put finishing touches on the album, Young Money president Mack Maine told us. By Rob Markman Lil Wayne Photo: MTV News Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV is the most anticipated rap album of 2011 thus far, but fans will have to wait just a little bit longer to hear it. The release date has been pushed back from May 16 to June 21 to allow Wayne to add finishing touches on the LP, according to Young Money president Mack Maine. “He’s still perfecting a few things, he’s a perfectionist … changing a few lines,” Mack Maine said of Wayne’s recording process. “We also have a huge record that wasn’t done yet. We’re in L.A. right now. We have a little studio time and it should be done probably by Monday.” Just as Tha Carter III had an all-star lineup &8212; featuring the likes of Jay-Z, T-Pain and Robin Thicke &8212; its follow-up is expected to have guests of the same caliber. Unfortunately, waiting on the album’s contributors to turn in their features has added to the delay as well. “If you calculate all of that, by the time we would’ve finished mixing, we wouldn’t have met the [original] due date to turn in the album,” said Mack. “So we had to push it back.” As far as Tha Carter IV track listing that has been making its way around the Internet, Mack confirms that it isn’t final. “I’m pretty sure it can’t be all the way accurate, because I don’t even have all the features back on some of it, and two [of the] songs haven’t been done yet,” he said. Wayne’s video for “If I Die Tonight” featuring Rick Ross, which leaked online Tuesday and was quickly taken down, also isn’t finalized, according to Mack. The video was obtained by some email hackers but wasn’t complete, as Wayne and director Collin Tilley are still going back and forth with edits. Mack estimates that fans can expect a completed version of the clip within the next two weeks. Tha Carter IV ‘s album cover , which also leaked earlier this week, is real, however. The reveal wasn’t intentional and happened only a few hours after the Young Money camp approved the image, which features a picture of Wayne in kindergarten with tattoos on his face. “The same day it leaked out, we had just approved the cover that morning. Soon as we approved it, it leaked out within two hours,” the Young Money President said. And that’s not all. While trying to remain as tight-lipped as possible, Mack did dish on Tha Carter IV ‘s next single, which he compares to Weezy’s 2008 hit “Lollipop,” featuring the late Static Major. “It’s more along the lines of a ‘Lollipop,’ ” he said. “People call [them] crossover records and all of that, but [it will be] just one of those [records] that will be liked by the masses.” Related Artists Lil Wayne
The New West frontrunner tells MTV News, ‘A lot of people they just know me based off of verses, features.’ By Alvin Blanco, with reporting by Sway Calloway and Rob Markman Tyga Photo: Rich Sancho/ MTV News As MTV News’ New West Week comes to a close, the question is which of the myriad of MC talents coming out of the L.A. hip-hop scene is most likely to enjoy mainstream success. While the acts we’ve covered — Kendrick Lamar, Pac Div and Nipsey Hussle, to name a few — all have solid chances, the artist with the track record and best tools in place to succeed is Young Money’s Tyga. The Compton rapper already has certified hits under his belt. Even before making his YMCMB affiliation official, Tyga scored a hit with “Coconut Juice” in 2008. Then he made sure he wasn’t forgotten among the Young Money pack by dropping guest verses on hits like “BedRock” and “Roger That.” But it was last year’s collaboration with his buddy Chris Brown on their joint Fan of a Fan mixtape that spawned Tyga’s biggest hit to date, the Grammy nominated “Deuces.” Now Tyga is prepping his forthcoming album, Careless World, which he told MTV News is about 75 percent done. “You’re going to see more of a story and more into Tyga’s world and what I represent, the story that I’m trying to tell,” Tyga explained about the album. “I feel like a lot of people they just know me based off of verses, features, heavy rap songs, mixtape stuff. Which is cool because I love to do that — this is rap music — but at the same time, I make a lot of real good music also. “I don’t think a lot of people are on to that yet,” Tyga added. “I just dropped a mixtape, Black Thoughts 2, that was I say, maybe 25, 35 percent of what my album is going to sound like.” In the meantime, before Careless World gets its release later this year, Tyga is taking his music to the people. Although he isn’t a part of the Weezy-headlined I Am Still Music Tour, he’s currently on Diddy-Dirty Money’s Coming Home Tour . Diddy thought enough of Tyga to bring him on his tour, and on Thursday MTV News spoke to Young Money president Mack Maine, who told us he’s excited about pushing the Cali MC’s project forward. “I’m definitely looking forward, his buzz is up, it’s ridiculous,” Mack said. “We’re about to drop this single soon, it’s called ‘Far Away,’ featuring Chris Richardson and from there it’s basically, we need to capitalize. He also has another song that I’m waiting for Nicki to do her verse on. We’ll try to drop that single. From there, let’s just see when the people are ready for his album. But he got a lot of songs done so we’re definitely trying to put him out before the end of the year.” When Careless World does drop it will surely have plenty of YMCMB participation but Tyga assures it won’t be a scattershot compilation. “I just like to make the music organic,” Tyga said. “If I feel like, ‘This person on this will be real dope,’ then I’mma reach out and get the feature. But it’s all about making great music. If there’s features on every track but it’s great music, I mean hey … either you love it or you don’t.” Stick with us all week as MTV News turns the spotlight on the New West, the next wave of hip-hop acts helping restore faith in the L.A. rap scene. From groups like Odd Future to rising MCs like Dom Kennedy, we’ll bring you up close and personal to these artists as they carve their own lanes in the post-gangsta rap era. Keep it locked here for the next week for more on the West Coast up-and-comers! Related Videos The New West: An In-Depth Look At L.A. Hip-Hop ‘RapFix Live’ With Tyga Related Artists Tyga
Lil’ B & Just Blaze phoned up Green Lantern ‘s radio show and discussed the topic on everyone’s minds right now – Lil’ B’s new album title. Lil’ B maintains that the I’m Gay title is meant to force people to look deeper into the meaning of the lyrics on his album. Just Blaze, who was on the phone with Lil’ B, says it took him awhile to understand the rationale for the title, but he’s on board and we can probably expect at least one beat from the producer on Lil’ B’s album. Take a listen to the interview below! Spotted @ VladTV RELATED: Terrance Dean Speaks On Lil’ B “I’m Gay” Album & Mister Cee Gay Sex Scandal RELATED: GLAAD Responds To Lil’ B’s “Gay” Album Title
Star is focusing on music career after leaving treatment for eating disorder and self-mutilation. By Jocelyn Vena Demi Lovato Photo: Jesse Grant/ WireImage On Tuesday, fans were shocked to learn that Demi Lovato would no longer be the star of her hit Disney series “Sonny With a Chance.” She came to the decision after realizing that “being in front of a camera would make me nervous.” The singer recently left a treatment center to deal with some personal issues, including an eating disorder and self-mutilation. Now that Lovato is focused on staying healthy, she is also focusing on the next stage of her career. She took to Twitter late Tuesday to thank her fans for standing by her through her recent personal problems. “Thank you all so much for your support with the decisions I’ve decided to make with my career. I love you guys,” she wrote. ” ‘Sonny’ was a chapter in my life I will be forever grateful for. Thank you all for watching. Can’t wait to see the new format for ‘So Random’!” She even thanked her “Sonny” co-star Tiffany Thornton, who will stay on for the “Sonny” spin-off “So Random.” After Thornton tweeted , “I couldn’t be more proud of the woman you’ve become these past 6 months,” Lovato welcomed the warm words, tweeting back, “I love you so much T. and I miss ALL of you. But I’m especially thankful God gave me our everlasting friendship. Love you!” Lovato officially announced that her time on “Sonny” is over on Tuesday, but she’s been teasing her focus on music for the last few weeks. “Getting a healthy workout in then heading to … the studio,” she wrote last week. And the day before that, she revealed whom she might be hitting the studio with on this next album. “@Timbaland007 for real though … Are you ready?! Idk about you but I believe magic is gonna come out of this collab,” she said. “@Timbaland007 I was ready before I was born!! @Timbaland007 cannot wait!!!” In the past, Lovato has made it clear that she wants to go for a more urban sound on her next album, so working with Timbaland would make sense. “I’m now just taking that next step and learning how to make my music more radio-friendly but also stay very artistic, and for me that’s R&B,” Lovato told MTV News last August. “I can put my vocal stylings on songs that are R&B and it showcases my vocals more than just singing really loud on a rock song.” In fact, Timbaland wasn’t the only A-lister she had on her collabo wish list. “I would love for Drake to be on the album,” Lovato said . “It’s kind of like a pipe dream. I would also like to do a song with Trey Songz. It would be hot! Yeah, it would be really good.” Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: Demi Lovato Related Photos The Evolution Of: Demi Lovato Related Artists Demi Lovato
Gaga opens up about the Born This Way creative process in latest ‘Gagavision.’ By Jocelyn Vena Lady Gaga Photo: Tom Briglia/ WireImage This week’s “Gagavision” theme is “Music From Born This Way, ” as Gaga revealed more details about her May 23 album release. The video includes a possible preview to one of the album’s tracks, shots from her forthcoming HBO special and her thoughts on last week’s leak of her latest single, “Judas.” Perhaps a tease to one of the album’s tracks, the music for the “Gagavision” video includes a song that starts off with slow, dramatic church-organ keyboard notes as Gaga says, “My fans are my sunshine. They are the sunshine in the darkness of the arena. “Looking out into the darkness, I feel really fearless and strong and brave.” A montage of Gaga rehearsing and making phone calls and her fans holding up signs plays as the song’s synth tempo kicks in. Dressed like a space-age Cruella De Vil, Gaga heads off to do a promo. “The greatest challenge in writing Born This Way is I had to become confident and secure in myself,” she explained. “I had to leave my insecurity behind, whatever residual scars behind. I spent two years delving deep into my wombs; the blood transfusion.” The video even addresses the “Judas” leak that took place right before she released it to the masses on April 15. She likens it to a disembodiment, saying, “A slow death! Just put me out of my f—ing misery, just put that sh– out. They were tearing [the song] limb for limb. First it was the arm of the song, then the liver. … “I wrote it really quick,” she later says, while lounging fully clothed in an empty bathtub. “I mean, all of the songs on the album, to be completely candid, the creative process is approximately [a] 15-minutes process. It’s 15 minutes of vomiting my creative ideas in the forms of melodies, usually, or chord progressions and melodies and some sort of a theme, lyric idea. And then I spend days, weeks, months, years fine tuning. But the idea is, you honor your vomit.” The video ends with Gaga teasing her Monster Ball and the “polarizing” cover art for Born This Way . Fittingly, new teasers for her HBO special, which was taped at her Monster Ball shows at Madison Square Garden earlier this year, also hit the Net . The special airs May 7. In one promo, Gaga hits the streets of New York City dressed in a studded leather jacket and high platform (and heelless) ankle boots, as “Born This Way” plays in the background. It leads to shots of the madness at MSG leading up to the show, which is eventually teased in the clip. In the second, shorter preview, shots of her performance is teased while her new single, “Judas,” plays. Related Photos The Evolution Of: Lady Gaga Related Artists Lady Gaga
Gaga opens up about the Born This Way creative process in latest ‘Gagavision.’ By Jocelyn Vena Lady Gaga Photo: Tom Briglia/ WireImage This week’s “Gagavision” theme is “Music From Born This Way, ” as Gaga revealed more details about her May 23 album release. The video includes a possible preview to one of the album’s tracks, shots from her forthcoming HBO special and her thoughts on last week’s leak of her latest single, “Judas.” Perhaps a tease to one of the album’s tracks, the music for the “Gagavision” video includes a song that starts off with slow, dramatic church-organ keyboard notes as Gaga says, “My fans are my sunshine. They are the sunshine in the darkness of the arena. “Looking out into the darkness, I feel really fearless and strong and brave.” A montage of Gaga rehearsing and making phone calls and her fans holding up signs plays as the song’s synth tempo kicks in. Dressed like a space-age Cruella De Vil, Gaga heads off to do a promo. “The greatest challenge in writing Born This Way is I had to become confident and secure in myself,” she explained. “I had to leave my insecurity behind, whatever residual scars behind. I spent two years delving deep into my wombs; the blood transfusion.” The video even addresses the “Judas” leak that took place right before she released it to the masses on April 15. She likens it to a disembodiment, saying, “A slow death! Just put me out of my f—ing misery, just put that sh– out. They were tearing [the song] limb for limb. First it was the arm of the song, then the liver. … “I wrote it really quick,” she later says, while lounging fully clothed in an empty bathtub. “I mean, all of the songs on the album, to be completely candid, the creative process is approximately [a] 15-minutes process. It’s 15 minutes of vomiting my creative ideas in the forms of melodies, usually, or chord progressions and melodies and some sort of a theme, lyric idea. And then I spend days, weeks, months, years fine tuning. But the idea is, you honor your vomit.” The video ends with Gaga teasing her Monster Ball and the “polarizing” cover art for Born This Way . Fittingly, new teasers for her HBO special, which was taped at her Monster Ball shows at Madison Square Garden earlier this year, also hit the Net . The special airs May 7. In one promo, Gaga hits the streets of New York City dressed in a studded leather jacket and high platform (and heelless) ankle boots, as “Born This Way” plays in the background. It leads to shots of the madness at MSG leading up to the show, which is eventually teased in the clip. In the second, shorter preview, shots of her performance is teased while her new single, “Judas,” plays. Related Photos The Evolution Of: Lady Gaga Related Artists Lady Gaga
With their new film set to premiere at midnight, Bigger Than the Sound looks back at the Beasties’ authentic but odd history. By James Montgomery Danny McBride, Seth Rogen and Elijah Wood in the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right Revisted” video Photo: Capitol Back in the summer of 1992, I wasn’t really concerned with the Beastie Boys’ legacy. I wasn’t aware of the seismic shift they had undergone with Check Your Head or the to-the-brink-and-back journey they’d taken just to make the album. Instead, I was focused on getting my Dickies to sag just so and tracking down a pom-pom beanie like MCA wore on the album’s cover. So deep was my Beastie-mania that I was willing to wear a knit cap and khakis in July. In Florida. And I wasn’t alone (at least not in my high school). Because in 1992, everyone I knew lived and breathed the Beastie Boys, and their fantastically rattling comeback album Check Your Head. Of course, at the time, none of us really knew it was a comeback album; we just thought it was the coolest thing we’d ever heard — a fuzzy, funky think that sounded like nothing else on the radio — and, by proxy, the Beasties were the coolest guys on the planet (or, at least, the coolest guys in suburban Orlando). They dressed like skaters, they were obsessed with the ABA and creaky badasses like Richard Holmes and the Ohio Players, and they channeled the swagger of everyone from Columbo to Dolemite. They were, whether they knew it or not, the underground railroad of hip. If you wanted to know what was cool, and you wanted to know before anyone else, you went to the Beastie Boys. It’s only years later that I realize that prescient coolness is what has made the Beastie Boys what they are today: a band whose career rivals any other. They have been together in their current incarnation for nearly 30 years and have released a slew of albums, the overwhelming majority of which are very good (their latest, The Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, is due May 3), but it’s not their longevity or their back catalog that have earned them respect; it’s their unerring ability to continuously reinvent themselves, seemingly at will, and without ever getting snagged the way so many of their contemporaries have. In 1986, with License to Ill, they were party-hearty terrors. On 1989’s epochal Paul’s Boutique, they were stony sample-meisters. Check Your Head saw them zigging at a time when others were zagging; rather than join the debate over just how the ’90s would sound, they decided to head back to the ’70s ( Head remains a decidedly lo-fi thing to this day). Sure, 1994’s Ill Communication was in the same vein, but there also emerged a newfound consciousness, one they’d explore more fully with their series of Tibetan Freedom Concerts. In ’98, with Hello Nasty (and the accompanying “Intergalactic” video), they got a jump on the Kid Robot “designer toy” fetish that broke through to the mainstream late in the 2000s. And on 2004’s To the 5 Boroughs, they returned to their hip-hop roots and celebrated the city in which they live (though, to be honest, the less said about this album the better). In between all that, they released EPs that saw them dabble in hardcore punk and jazzy instrumentals (to name just a few), but never once did anyone bring up the question of authenticity. And there’s a reason for that — the same reason they’ve become the revered act they are today. No matter how they reimagined themselves, it always came from the same place: the heart. There is an unquestionable authenticity to everything the Beastie Boys do, because they’re not doing it to be contrary or successful; they’re doing it because it’s what they want to do. And it’s only now that people seem to realize just how influential that authenticity really is. At midnight Wednesday — on MTV2, mtvU, VH1 Classic and Palladia — they’ll premiere “Fight for Your Right Revisited,” a short film/ career retrospective that includes plenty of nods to their past — it tells the wholly imagined story of what happened after 1987’s legendary “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)” video — but also features cameos by a whole lot of “f— it, let’s do something funny” actors like Will Ferrell and Danny McBride, who were 19 and 11, respectively, when the original video premiered and probably couldn’t help but have been influenced by its sublimely stoopid sentiments, not to mention everything that came after. So, in a lot of ways, Ferrell and McBride are a lot like you or I. They were drawn to the Beastie Boys because they sensed in them something revelatory and real, and they stuck around because neither of those things ever changed. Of course, leave it to the Beasties to turn the convention of career retrospection on its ear. Rather than release some deluxe edition of License, they’ve instead made an incredibly insular short film that rewrites history with each frame. It’s deceptively brilliant, really. And the same can be said for the B-Boys themselves. Without really trying, they’ve fashioned the kind of anti-career that many aspire to, yet few ever attain. And no matter where they go from here, you’ll know it’ll be someplace else entirely. Even if they’re just doing it for themselves. Don’t miss “Fight for Your Right Revisisted” on Wednesday at midnight on MTV2, mtvU, VH1 Classic and Palladia.
With their new film set to premiere at midnight, Bigger Than the Sound looks back at the Beasties’ authentic but odd history. By James Montgomery Danny McBride, Seth Rogen and Elijah Wood in the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right Revisted” video Photo: Capitol Back in the summer of 1992, I wasn’t really concerned with the Beastie Boys’ legacy. I wasn’t aware of the seismic shift they had undergone with Check Your Head or the to-the-brink-and-back journey they’d taken just to make the album. Instead, I was focused on getting my Dickies to sag just so and tracking down a pom-pom beanie like MCA wore on the album’s cover. So deep was my Beastie-mania that I was willing to wear a knit cap and khakis in July. In Florida. And I wasn’t alone (at least not in my high school). Because in 1992, everyone I knew lived and breathed the Beastie Boys, and their fantastically rattling comeback album Check Your Head. Of course, at the time, none of us really knew it was a comeback album; we just thought it was the coolest thing we’d ever heard — a fuzzy, funky think that sounded like nothing else on the radio — and, by proxy, the Beasties were the coolest guys on the planet (or, at least, the coolest guys in suburban Orlando). They dressed like skaters, they were obsessed with the ABA and creaky badasses like Richard Holmes and the Ohio Players, and they channeled the swagger of everyone from Columbo to Dolemite. They were, whether they knew it or not, the underground railroad of hip. If you wanted to know what was cool, and you wanted to know before anyone else, you went to the Beastie Boys. It’s only years later that I realize that prescient coolness is what has made the Beastie Boys what they are today: a band whose career rivals any other. They have been together in their current incarnation for nearly 30 years and have released a slew of albums, the overwhelming majority of which are very good (their latest, The Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, is due May 3), but it’s not their longevity or their back catalog that have earned them respect; it’s their unerring ability to continuously reinvent themselves, seemingly at will, and without ever getting snagged the way so many of their contemporaries have. In 1986, with License to Ill, they were party-hearty terrors. On 1989’s epochal Paul’s Boutique, they were stony sample-meisters. Check Your Head saw them zigging at a time when others were zagging; rather than join the debate over just how the ’90s would sound, they decided to head back to the ’70s ( Head remains a decidedly lo-fi thing to this day). Sure, 1994’s Ill Communication was in the same vein, but there also emerged a newfound consciousness, one they’d explore more fully with their series of Tibetan Freedom Concerts. In ’98, with Hello Nasty (and the accompanying “Intergalactic” video), they got a jump on the Kid Robot “designer toy” fetish that broke through to the mainstream late in the 2000s. And on 2004’s To the 5 Boroughs, they returned to their hip-hop roots and celebrated the city in which they live (though, to be honest, the less said about this album the better). In between all that, they released EPs that saw them dabble in hardcore punk and jazzy instrumentals (to name just a few), but never once did anyone bring up the question of authenticity. And there’s a reason for that — the same reason they’ve become the revered act they are today. No matter how they reimagined themselves, it always came from the same place: the heart. There is an unquestionable authenticity to everything the Beastie Boys do, because they’re not doing it to be contrary or successful; they’re doing it because it’s what they want to do. And it’s only now that people seem to realize just how influential that authenticity really is. At midnight Wednesday — on MTV2, mtvU, VH1 Classic and Palladia — they’ll premiere “Fight for Your Right Revisited,” a short film/ career retrospective that includes plenty of nods to their past — it tells the wholly imagined story of what happened after 1987’s legendary “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)” video — but also features cameos by a whole lot of “f— it, let’s do something funny” actors like Will Ferrell and Danny McBride, who were 19 and 11, respectively, when the original video premiered and probably couldn’t help but have been influenced by its sublimely stoopid sentiments, not to mention everything that came after. So, in a lot of ways, Ferrell and McBride are a lot like you or I. They were drawn to the Beastie Boys because they sensed in them something revelatory and real, and they stuck around because neither of those things ever changed. Of course, leave it to the Beasties to turn the convention of career retrospection on its ear. Rather than release some deluxe edition of License, they’ve instead made an incredibly insular short film that rewrites history with each frame. It’s deceptively brilliant, really. And the same can be said for the B-Boys themselves. Without really trying, they’ve fashioned the kind of anti-career that many aspire to, yet few ever attain. And no matter where they go from here, you’ll know it’ll be someplace else entirely. Even if they’re just doing it for themselves. Don’t miss “Fight for Your Right Revisisted” on Wednesday at midnight on MTV2, mtvU, VH1 Classic and Palladia.
