‘You gotta have moves, whether it be in the bedroom [or] on the dance floor,’ Redfoo tells MTV News about just-released clip. By Jocelyn Vena LMFAO Photo: MTV News LMFAO shuffled their way through the “Party Rock” video, and now they’re hoping to make “the wiggle” the next national dance craze. The guys just dropped their video for “Sexy and I Know It,” and it features lots of metallic Speedos, NSFW wiggling and a few celeb cameos. Redfoo and Sky Blu enlisted the help of their usual Party Rock crew, as well as Simon Rex, Wilmer Valderrama and Ron Jeremy, as they dance their way through Venice Beach and a local bar proving they are sexy and they know it. The video was shot back in late August, and MTV News caught up with LMFAO in Los Angeles as they cast extras for the video. We wanted to know: Just what is sexy? “Sexy is confidence. It’s ‘I don’t care what other people think, but I want them to think I’m sexy at the same time,’ ” Redfoo explained. “It’s a Catch-22. I want to be seen. Sexy is you want attention and you gotta have moves. You gotta have moves, whether it be in the bedroom [or] on the dance floor — just the way you walk, the way you talk.” His party pal, Sky Blu, had this piece of advice for those hoping to prove their sexiness after checking out the clip: “You’ve got to cultivate sexy. Sexy is something that you’ve consciously or unconsciously throughout your life been working on. If you’re in the mirror doing a little helicopter after the shower, that’s sexy and I know it.” Like their previous clips, the video features lots of gyrating dance moves. “It has to become natural to the way you already move, the way you walk,” Redfoo said of their dancing skillz. “It’s the same smooth thang.” What did you think of the “Sexy and I Know It” video? Share your reviews in the comments! Related Artists Lmfao
Philly MC will talk his post-Roc career and State Property reunion at 4 p.m. ET on MTV.com. By Rob Markman Freeway Photo: Gregg Delman After celebrating the one-year anniversary of “RapFix Live” in grand fashion, MTV News’ live hip-hop show returns for year two with Freeway on Wednesday. Last week, Lloyd Banks, Maino, Diplomats capo Jim Jones, Consequence, the Outlawz, Reek Da Villian, Superstar Jay and DJ Love Dinero all crashed the couch and toasted to “RapFix Live” and the year that was. Now, Philadelphia MC Freeway will set off year two. In 2003, Free dropped his debut album on Roc-A-Fella Records and, in the label’s heyday, stood as one of the Roc’s most loyal soldiers. Through his career, Philly Freezer has earned a rep as one of the game’s most-skilled spitters, going head-to-head with rappers like Cassidy and Jaz-O. Post-Roc-A-Fella, the State Property MC carried on, releasing his sophomore album, Free At Last (though the record technically came out on the Roc, Jay-Z and Damon Dash had long disbanded), as well as a number of critically acclaimed independent projects like The Stimulus Package with producer Jake One. While a Roc reunion is highly unlikely, Freeway and his State Property brothers came together for a concert this past July and are now planning a comeback project. “When we got together, we had our meeting, our initial conversation about doing what we thought was necessary for us and for music, for everybody’s careers as State Property the group and solo careers,” Beanie Sigel said when he appeared on “RapFix Live” in July. Tweet questions for Freeway @MTVNews with the hashtag #RapFixLive . Catch Freeway on “RapFix Live” on Wednesday, September 21, at 4 p.m. ET on MTV.com! Related Artists Freeway
Our Nevermind You Never Knew 20th-anniversary coverage continues with part two of a three-part look back at Nirvana in their own words. By James Montgomery Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain in 1993 Photo: MTV News ” Nevermind was definitely an album we wanted to make. … We have no regrets, other than maybe the production was too slick.” That was Kurt Cobain in December 1993, after the initial impact of Nirvana ‘s sophomore album had subsided, and the band was trying to slip effortlessly into the promotional cycle for its follow-up, In Utero. Of course, it went about as well as you would expect. Such is often the case when a band attempts to move on from the shadow of a monolithic, moment-seizing record: It’s difficult to talk about anything else. When it was released, no one had any idea of what Nevermind would eventually become. In fact, in the Geffen offices, they were hoping it’d sell maybe 250,000 copies, and as such, shortages in record stores were common in the months following its release. But, as you’re probably aware by now, the album far exceeded initial expectations (it’s since sold more than 30 million copies worldwide,) and, in the 20 years since its release, Nevermind has gone on to become an album that not only lends itself to being mythologized, but deserves it as well. And yet, the album didn’t become a household name overnight. It slowly (almost methodically) ascended the charts, finally overtaking Michael Jackson’s Dangerous atop the Billboard albums chart in January 1992. And when it did, it signified not only the changing of the guard, but a new era for music. It was a rare moment: A good band was also the most popular. And 20 years later, we’re still marveling at that fact. But, again, Nevermind lends itself to mythology. And with its 20th anniversary just around the corner, we suspect you’ll be subject to no shortage of it. So rather than add another anecdote (or 10) to the pile, we figured it would be best to tell the story of Nirvana in the words of the people who knew it best: the band itself. We’ve spent the past few weeks mining the MTV News archives to find our definitive Nirvana moments — not just the iconic interviews, but the behind-the-scenes nuggets that show the band as they truly were: funny, irreverent and just a little uncomfortable with their newfound fame (a fact they’d go to great lengths to prove with In Utero ). Earlier Monday (September 19), we published Nirvana’s take on their early years , and now, we’re going to give you their view on everything that happened in the year following the release of Nevermind . Here, now, is a band at the epicenter of a true revolution, trying to make sense of everything that happens while, at the same time, attempting to remain true to the scene that birthed them. That struggle is just one of many reasons why, 20 years after they burst into the world, Nirvana remains one of the most fascinating rock bands of all time. 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 Artists Nirvana
Photos from London video set show Brit and real-life BF Jason Trawick making a getaway. By Jocelyn Vena Britney Spears and Jason Trawick on the set of her “Criminal” video shoot Photo: Eagle Eyes / Splash News Britney Spears has landed in London and she’s taking the city by storm. Since arriving in the U.K., the singer has been hard at work on the set of her “Criminal” music video , according to photos that hit the Web. The pics reveal there will be a cameo from a super special guy in her life. In one photograph , a smiling Spears holds a gun as she leaves a convenience store with her real-life boyfriend Jason Trawick behind her. Other photos show Spears inside the store tucking the gun in the waistband of her pants, and Trawick carrying groceries and pulling Brit by the arm. In a chat with AOL , the pop star explained that it was her idea to shoot the clip in London. “I’m shooting a video [and] I’ve never shot on location out of the country of America for a video,” she said. “So, it should be very interesting. It was partly my idea … to see if it could to happen, and they were like, ‘Yeah, it’s a great idea,’ so we did it.” The Femme Fatale singer also opened up about her busy career, including the European leg of her tour which kicks off this month. So, how does she stay tour-ready at all times? “Sometimes it is [a lot of work], but I genuinely love what I do and I get on a routine and a schedule to keep me motivated and inspired to have the energy I need for the show,” she said. “A lot of cardio, a lot of running and just try and eat clean.” Britney added that it’s all about balancing motherhood and career. “You just have to find your balance and niche in your life,” she said, crediting her mom and nanny with giving her a helping hand. “It’s a process you learn to figure out.” Are you excited for Britney Spears’ “Criminal” video? Tell us in the comments! Related Artists Britney Spears
Cee Lo Green, Chiddy Bang and many others also featured at weekend’s Austin City Limits Festival. By Gil Kaufman Kanye West performs at ACL on Friday Photo: Flanigan/ Getty Images AUSTIN, Texas — It was a weekend of epic beginnings and endings at the 10th annual Austin City Limits Festival, among them: Kanye West shut the lid on the operatic My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy tour (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles//kanye-west-essence-festival-performance.jhtml), Coldplay played one of the final American festival dates in the run-up to the release next month of Mylo Xyloto and perhaps most importantly for locals, Texans danced in ecstasy as the worst drought in Lone Star history got a brief reprieve thanks to some intermittent showers. Yes, there were three days of amazing music, ranging from folk to house, blues, rock, soul and hip-hop, but along with crowd-pleasing headline sets from such legends as Stevie Wonder and rockers My Morning Jacket and festival-closers Arcade Fire , what a lot of people will remember is the blessed rain. Friday The weekend got kicked off in style on Friday with electro rapper Theophilus London , who charmed the early afternoon crowd with the rolling pop of “Why Even Try,” the hard-spitting “Last Name London” and a brand-new trunk-rattler, “Big Spender.” Most fans show up to a festival like ACL looking to rock, but fey British ambient/dubstep king James Blake made them take a chill pill, sitting at his electric piano and keyboards and crooning wordless sounds amid droney synth washes and minimal, machine beats. Just after parched, wildfire-licked Austin got its first taste of rain in as long as anyone can remember, the Smith Westerns played some mellow humidity rock, with just enough energy to make you sway and bounce so a trickle of perspiration drips down your back during tunes like “End of the Night.” Outkast’s Big Boi had no such problem, fronting a 10-piece ATL soul rap revue that got asses shaking to “Rosa Parks,” a Parliament-Funkadelic-thick “Ms. Jackson,” and the triple-time sprints of “Ghetto Musick” and “B.O.B.” A short time later, dynamic duo Nas and Damian Marley wound up their main-stage set with a dancehall-spiced take on papa Bob’s iconic “Could You Be Loved,” which spread some loving vibes as the sun finally began to set. And with a psychedelic, pulsing cityscape backdrop, DJ Pretty Lights dropped some gut-shaking deep bass samples, mixing in stoned reggae beats and looped blues wailing for a soul-soothing set of head-bobbing “dance” music you didn’t have to sweat to. Kanye didn’t disappoint either, holding down the stage during all three parts of his relationship power-play ballet. He commanded the dramatically lit stage for 90 minutes, tearing through a roster of hits including “Runaway,” “Power,” “Jesus Walks,” “Monster,” Flashing Lights” and “Good Life,” occasionally joined by a troupe of ballet dancers, but mostly stalking the boards alone. Saturday Day two dawned hazy and new wave with New York band Twin Shadow’s guitar-heavy New Romantic psychedelia. VMA performers Young the Giant got an extra dose of energy from above when the skies opened up for a brief, torrential sun storm, making the most of it by pumping out their radio-friendly, impassioned rockers “Guns Out” and “Cough Syrup” to the soaked audience’s delight. Los Angeles’ Fitz and the Tantrums kept the sweaty audience raindancing during such Motown-esque jams as “Rich Girls” and “Don’t Gotta Work It Out,” and the gut-quaking bass of wildly popular DJ Skrillex sounded like thunder across the way, as he shouted along to the party-pumping refrain of his signature tune, “My Name Is Skrillex,” while mixing in bits of Robyn and Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock. Cee Lo Green, known for his outrageous stage costumes, kept it tame, dressing down in a black Adidas track suit with red piping while his all-female band modeled skintight red jumpsuits and minidresses. He didn’t dial down the funk, though, blasting through “Bright Lights, Big City” and “Freak” as the setting sun blazed away on the main stage. He also did some gender reassignment with the Pussycat Dolls’ signature hit “Don’t Cha,” dedicated “Satisfied” to the victims of the recent Texas wildfires and played a slow, beat- and turntable-heavy version of the Gnarls Barkley hit “Crazy.” Elastic talkbox freak funkers Chromeo dedicated “I Am Somebody” to their recently passed collaborator, DJ Mehdi . And with a large portion of the sold-out crowd down at the other end for a rare festival set from soul icon Wonder, My Morning Jacket cranked their energy up a notch, blasting off with the slowly building “Victory Dance,” then segueing into the fierce reggae rock jam “Off the Record” and the majestic interstellar overdrive anthem “Gideon.” As usual, lead singer Jim James was in fine falsetto wailing voice, working the whole stage as he shook his mound of neon-lit curly hair. The fierce Southern gospel rock set included such favorites as “Wordless Chorus” and ended with a three-song mini-set featuring former tourmates New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band. One of the givens at ACL is that you will get a chance to see a legend (or two), and this year’s Hall of Famer was Wonder, who soothed an exhausted crowd’s mind with a velvety lounge take on “Ribbon in the Sky” and a slow-dance grand piano stroll through “Overjoyed.” Then he picked it up like nobody can, pivoting into the sing-along “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” and the rubbery disco groove of “Sir Duke,” his keening vocals seemingly unchanged after half a century. They boogied hard to “Do I Do” and “My Cherie Amour” and lost their minds when he busted out the harmonica during “For Once in My Life.” Sunday Graffiti6 had the unenviable task of opening the final day, trying to draw a crowd with their Maroon 5-meets-Crosby, Stills and Nash blue-eyed acoustic pop soul, while downtown punkers-turned-rancheros Mariachi El Bronx cooked up some authentic really down South jams on tunes like “Cellmates.” But with their embroidered black suits, they won the race for the weekend’s most weather-unfriendly stage wear. Festival vets the Airborne Toxic Event pumped out muscular arena rock, including fiddle-assisted covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” and the Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law.” Philly’s Chiddy Bang proved their freestyle skills once again, as rapper Chidera “Chiddy” Anamege took requests from the audience and strung together verses about Texas, “Saved by the Bell” and, shockingly, weed. Canadian collective Broken Social Scene just had to play their syncopated rocker “Texico Bitches,” but the weekend’s most intense visual spectacle was courtesy of Australia’s Empire of the Sun. Lead singer Luke Temple emerged in a blue glittery tunic and towering feathered headdress, along with four dancers in pink catsuits and frilled masks accented by oversize light-up cardboard guitars. Pounding new-wave dance rock tunes like “Standing on the Shore” amid multiple increasingly outrageous costume changes, the set felt like the sexy psychedelic space musical Duran Duran never mounted. Like a lot of bands, Canada’s Arcade Fire said Austin is their second home, and they were welcomed to the festival’s closing spot like favorite sons and daughters by a massive crowd that seemed to spread to the horizon. Their cinematic tour through the stations of teenage rebellion — complete with movie theater marquee showing black-and-white flicks — included stops at such ravers as “Ready to Start,” “No Cars Go,” the widescreen shout-along rouser “Wake Up!” and the live rarity, “Speaking in Tongues.” They were not going to send them home gently into that good night, though, instead charging through “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” as a goodbye memento worth keeping more than that wicked farmer’s tan and nasty heat headache. Beginnings, endings and one hell of a middle, ACL had plenty of all three. Related Artists Kanye West Arcade Fire
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
Headliner Yeezy promises fans ‘new times’ at close of festival show, alluding to the Throne era. By Gil Kaufman Kanye West performs at Austin City Limits music festival Photo: Getty Images AUSTIN, Texas — Kanye West is no stragner to the drama . So, it was fitting that on Friday at Austin City Limits — the final night of his ongoing tour in support of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — he staged a passion play in three parts, complete with dramatic ballet sequences, a matinee idol-worthy entrance and monologues that dove into the artist’s twisted psyche. In other words, Kanye West closed out the first night of the fest in the soul-stirring way only he can: by commanding the stage almost entirely by himself and letting the dense tracks and shout-along verses from his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album do the heavy lifting. Some rappers need a huge posse onstage to support them, or a 10-piece band and large stage sets. Not Yeezy. Give him some flashing lights, a few dancers and an imposing Greek fresco-type backdrop and he’ll do the rest on adrenaline alone. As the dramatic intro to “H.A.M.” swelled over the speakers and some beats kicked in, dancers reminiscent of the “Runaway” video took the stage, diverting attention away from West, who emerged mid-crowd on a crane, soaring 50-plus feet over his fans for “Dark Fantasy.” Could he get much higher? It didn’t seem like it, but when he made his way to the stage for the insanely hyped triplet of “Power,” “Jesus Walks” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” he commanded the space like a four-star microphone general, working it alone as the blazing lights turned from blood-red to orange and pink for “Hell of a Life.” Enclosed in two laser pyramids that looked like the phantom zone from “Superman,” ‘Ye rapped about what he called the “true story” in the song’s lyrics, accenting the lines about falling in love with a stripper with primal scream grunts and dragging the microphone stand around as if it were a ball-and-chain one minute, a prehistoric club the next. The crowd kept whispering about a possible Jay-Z cameo (which didn’t happen), and Rick Ross also wasn’t able to make it for “Monster,” but with the stage bathed in cash-green lights, Kanye held it down just find alone, backed by a three-piece band that was dressed in Kraftwerk -like white jumpsuits. And, of course, when he got to the line about needing to see some hands at the concert, thousands of pairs went up instantly. For “Flashing Lights,” he turned the stage into an early-80’s disco, with, yes, flashing white and blue lights and search-beam lasers that scanned out over the crowd. The set-up already looked like an outtake from an Off the Wall video, so when the band chopped up a sample of Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing),” there were some knowing nods among fans of a certain age. Like the stripped-down thunder funk of “Good Life,” Kanye was mostly dressed down, rocking ripped jeans and a short white button-down shirt over a white tank. The elegantly funky dancers were back at the top of Act 2 for the piano-thudding intro to “Love Lockdown,” melding into a writhing ball of limbs midstage and performing a kind of hip-hop ballet to the song’s spare, insistent beat. As the tune melted into just Kanye’s anguished, echoing screams, one dancer remained, acting out his pain with exaggerated arm movements. Rihanna’s voice boomed at the beginning of “Run This Town,” which ‘Ye performed with an extra dose of swagger and fierceness as a sea of Roc diamonds went up in the air for a medley that included songs like “Touch the Sky” and early hits like “All Falls Down.” And the ear-piercing shout of “We want prenup!” in the middle of a ground-shaking “Gold Digger” seemed to surprise even Kanye, who couldn’t really have been too shocked about the audience’s intense familiarity with his lyrics. The second act ended with the visual feast of “All of the Lights,” which layered a multicolored searchlight explosion of visuals to machine beats cranked to 11. But Kanye didn’t like how the crowd sang the line that comes after “MJ gone,” so he made the band start over and — along with the alien-landing lights, complete with horizon-scanning beams and a strobe-splosion — it was one of the night’s high points. The set ended with “Stronger,” which was stripped back to just Euro jeep beats, hissing blasts of smoke from a series of columns all across the stage and “Tron”-like banks of red lasers. As the night drew to a close, ‘Ye slipped into his red jacket and matching jeans, standing at his sampler for the opening plinking notes of “Runaway.” The dancers were back, this time in black tutus, executing freeze-frame poses they held for long enough that it seemed as if they were moving in super slo-mo, like living sculptures that had crawled out of the ancient backdrop. “This is the last night of this show,” West said. “This is the last night … there will be new times, but we gotta remember these times before we’re … runaway,” he added, alluding to his upcoming tour with the Throne pal Jay . He stretched the song out, adding the line “If you love someone tonight, hold on real tight,” during a nearly 10-minute freestyle in which he admitted to being the “#1” d-bag . After a mellow run through “Lost in the World,” Kanye thanked his crew, dancers, managers and choreographer for making his twisted fantasy come true, ending the show with his usual ode to his late mother, Donda West. As he sang “hey mama,” over and over, he thanked the crowed for making his dreams come true and promised to keep sharing those dreams with them. Did you catch Kanye at ACL? Share your reviews of his set in the comments below! Related Photos Kanye West Turns All The Lights On At Austin City Limits Related Artists Kanye West
Kellz talks throat surgery, getting nasty again and Trey Songz’s dis in new radio interview. By Rob Markman R. Kelly Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty Images R. Kelly is ready to put the “R” back in R&B. After undergoing throat surgery in July, Kelly stopped by 107.5 WGCI’s Morning Riot radio show in Chicago for a rare interview in which he dropped the title for his next album, Black Panties, and talked about the shots Trey Songz has fired in his direction. “It was really scary,” Kellz said of his surgery. “At the end of the Love Letter Tour, towards the end, I started feeling it. I thought I had a cold, but, man, I had like a cyst as big as a golf ball on my tonsils. The doctor’s though, they cut it out, they took care of me really good.” While he is known for super sex anthems like “Your Body’s Callin’,” “Ignition” and “Half on a Baby,” R. Kelly took a gentleman’s approach on his 2010 album Love Letter. But don’t put him in a box. For his upcoming 11th solo LP, the Pied Piper is going to get nasty once again. “I just did the whole Love Letter joint and everybody thinking, ‘Oh that’s the direction he’s goin’ now,’ ” Kelly said on the Morning Riot on Thursday. “Nah, that was a moment in time, just like ‘Ignition’ and ‘Bump n’ Grind’ and all this stuff was a moment in time. Now this Black Panties album … it’s the new 12 Play .” In 1993, the 12 Play singles like “Your Body’s Callin’ ” and “Bump n’ Grind” helped propel Kelly to the top of the charts, while low-key album cuts such as “I Like the Crotch on You” showed a more explicit side that fans ate up. Kellz didn’t reveal much more about the new album, but did say that the first single, titled “10 Minutes” would be coming soon. At his peak, Kelly was untouchable when it came to male R&B singers. But after his infamous (in which he was found not guilty) and a few less-than-stellar albums, he wasn’t as flawless as he had been in the 1990s and early 2000s. New artists like Chris Brown and Trey Songz emerged as R&B’s leading men. Despite working together on Trey’s second album (R. Kelly produced “Grub On” on Trey’s 2007 Trey Day ). Since then the “Say Ahh” singer has been throwing shots at the R on songs and in interviews, for hopping on to current trends like using Auto-Tune, instead of standing as an innovator. Kellz shrugs it all off. “I was pretty numb. I don’t feel those type of things. It’s like I’m bulletproof when it comes to beef. I don’t deal with beef, I love steak,” he said about Trey’s shots, before paying his rival a compliment, sort of. “I know Trey Songz is a guy that if he keeps with the hits and he humbles himself a little bit more, he will definitely be one of the runners up.” Related Artists R. Kelly
Actor explains his Parade quote about not ‘living an interesting life’ during marriage. By Jocelyn Vena Brad Pitt Photo: Michael Tran/ Getty Images Brad Pitt made headlines this week when he opened up to Parade magazine about his ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston. “It became very clear to me that I was intent on trying to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn’t living an interesting life myself,” Pitt said about the tail-end of his marriage to Aniston, which lasted from 2000 to 2005. “I think that my marriage had something to do with it. Trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn’t.” He also lamented that he spent much of the ’90s “trying to hide out,” adding, “I started to get sick of myself sitting on a couch, holding a joint, hiding out.” But following the story’s publication on the Web, according to Reuters, Pitt issued a statement lamenting that people are taking his quotes the wrong way. “It grieves me that this was interpreted this way. Jen is an incredibly giving, loving, and hilarious woman who remains my friend. It is an important relationship I value greatly,” he explained in the statement released through his talent agency. “The point I was trying to make is not that Jen was dull, but that I was becoming dull to myself — and that, I am responsible for.” Aniston and Pitt divorced in 2005, after he began dating his “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” co-star Angelina Jolie, with whom he now has six kids. While he may have come off as critical of his ex, Pitt does say very favorable things about his current partner in the Parade story. “I’m satisfied with making true choices and finding the woman I love, Angie, and building a family that I love so much. A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss,” he said. “That’s the trade-off. But I’ll take it all. … One of the greatest, smartest things I ever did was give my kids Angie as their mom. She is such a great mom. Oh, man, I’m so happy to have her.” Pitt is currently making the rounds promoting his film “Moneyball” and spoke to MTV News at the Toronto Film Festival, where he remained more tight-lipped about whether he has a cameo in Jolie’s directorial debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey.” “I will say nothing,” he declared. “Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.” Related Photos The Evolution Of: Brad Pitt The Many Looks, Movies And Girlfriends Of Brad Pitt
Pop singer hints that the studio effort will include dubstep influences. By James Dinh Rihanna Photo: James Devaney/WireImage After teasing details about her upcoming album earlier this week, Rihanna continued delivering details about the record on Friday (September 16) when she tweeted that her sixth studio album will drop this fall. When one of the Barbados beauty’s Twitter followers asked, “When’s the next album due?” Rihanna exuberantly replied, “THIS FALL!!!!!” With the singer’s celebratory party anthem “Cheers” currently riding high on radio airwaves, Rihanna hinted that the forthcoming LP may include dubstep influences as heard on her 2009 effort Rated R. “You KNOW how I been lovin Dubstep since Rated R,” she tweeted . Don’t expect the songstress to take a break from the biz anytime soon either. Asked if she can take some time off, the 23-year-old chart topper wrote , “Yes, when I’m tired!!!” Collaborators for the forthcoming project began dishing details on the LP months ago. Back in July, producer Verse Simmonds, who worked on the Rihanna’s reggae-infused hit “Man Down,” talked to MTV News’ Mixtape Daily about the album’s progress. “From what I understand, she’s closing the album up now, and we did two records for her that she really, really loved, and I’m really excited about them as well,” Simmonds said. “They are records that we wrote and produced as the Jugganauts.” Simmonds admitted that he was “99.999 percent” his Jugganauts’ contributions will make the final cut, adding that his tunes on the LP will not sound similar to “Man Down.” Are you excited for Rihanna’s new album? Tell us in the comments. Related Artists Rihanna
