Steve Angello’s Size Records will release Vangeli and AN21’s album, including single ‘People of the Night.’ By Akshay Bhansali Max Vangeli and AN21 Photo: The Windish Agency and Size Records House-music producing partners Max Vangeli and AN21 ascended the ranks in the dance music world through notable remixes and a knack for the blockbuster DJ swagger required to captivate thousands of people with a pair of decks at any given time. And while renditions of Ellie Goulding’s “Starry Eyed” and Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up” remain in their arsenal, the duo are on the precipice of new material, set to be unleashed by a mammoth single bearing co-production by a titanic name. “People of the Night,” which the BBC’s Pete Tong debuted about a month ago, is anthemic and features a soothing vocal by Eleanor Bodenham from the band Lover Lover, a blessing delivered by the track’s production partner, dance music legend Ti
‘Scottie Pippen, Tim Duncan’ is ‘an ode to the streets,’ MC tells Mixtape Daily. By Rob Markman, with reporting by James Smith Pill Photo: Warner Bros. Mixtape Daily Main Pick Artists : Pill and DJ Scream Representing : Atlanta Mixtape : The Diagnosis Real Spit : Pill has already proven he’s sicker than the average MC. After causing a stir with his pair of breakout 2009 mixtapes 4180: The Prescription and 4075: The Refill, the Atlanta rap rookie garnered all sorts of attention that would boil over when he appeared on the cover of XXL magazine’s 2010 Freshmen cover . Pill followed up with 1140: The Overdose and then made a power move earlier this year when he signed with Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group and appeared on the label’s Self Made Vol. 1 compilation. Pill’s latest mixtape, The Diagnosis, is anchored by the hustle-focused, basketball-inspired single “Scottie Pippen, Tim Duncan,” on which he linked with DJ Scream to tell tales from the bottom. On “Send One Down,” Pill worked with Trae Tha Truth for a God-calling mellow tune. When it comes to Young Pillionaire’s music, it isn’t necessarily thugging for the sake of thugging; more often than not, there is a message behind the bullying bars. If judged by the title alone, one would think that “New Clothes and New Shoes” would be filled with empty rap rhetoric and boasts of overpriced diamonds and exaggerated shopping sprees. Pill goes another route: Instead of glorifying his drug sales, he explains the reason behind his hustle. On “One of These Days,” the rapper ponders his dreams, wondering when they will actually come true. With The Diagnosis, it seems that Young Pill is that much closer to realizing his dreams. Joint to Check For
‘MTV First: Lady Gaga’ airs at 7:49 p.m. ET on MTV and Logo, and continues live on MTV.com. By Jocelyn Vena Lady Gaga Photo: WireImage Lady Gaga has some news for all her Little Monsters. The Mother Monster herself will sit down with MTV News and Sway Calloway on Thursday night (August 18) during “MTV First: Lady Gaga” to premiere her highly anticipated music video for “Yo
Friends and family gather in New York for a peaceful demonstration to honor fallen college student. By D.L. Chandler Students in New York’s Grand Central Terminal honor Danroy Henry on Friday Photo: Claire Finnegan Although much of the criticism levied towards Watch The Throne has been focused primarily on the braggadocious rhymes from Kanye West and Jay-Z , the pair tackled serious fare several times throughout the album — most notably on the track “Murder To Excellence” in which Jay-Z dedicated his rhyme to the memory of a college football player on the cusp of his 21st birthday. Danroy Henry, forever immortalized in verse by Jay-Z’s opening line on the track, was a student at Pace University in suburban Westchester County, New York and a member of its football team. During a celebratory night with friends at a local bar last October after a Pace win, Henry reportedly ran two officers down with his car who then ended up on the hood of his vehicle and began to open fire, killing Henry and injuring two passengers. Further insult to the Henry family came when Pleasantville police officer Aaron Hess was given an officer of the year award. In February, Hess was cleared of any wrongdoing by grand jury although the Henry family is still pursuing justice in the case. Friends of Danroy — affectionately known as DJ — Henry gathered Friday (August 12) at New York City’s Grand Central station to stage a peaceful gathering in the memory of their fallen friend and also cleverly timed their call against police brutality with the release of Watch The Throne as well. Organized partly by Claire Finnegan, sister to one of DJ’s teammates Patrick, the gathering of friends honoring DJ’s life numbered to about fifty people according to Ms. Finnegan. “DJ was really one of the best guys you’d ever meet. He was a good kid and so upstanding,” shared Ms. Finnegan in a phone interview with MTV. “He was one of those guys who would give you anything he had. He was just that good of a guy.” Ms. Finnegan further shared that their gathering was disrupted by police officers although an off duty cop was said to have shown support to the group’s cause. With golden balloons adorned with the Jay-Z line “This is to the memory of Danroy Henry” and “Watch The Throne” on the adjacent side, the gatherers all timed the release of the helium filled balloons into the air much to the chagrin of the police officials inside the station. Although the memorial was met with some resistance, Ms. Finnegan vowed that more public demonstrations are to come and informed MTV that Henry’s parents have started the “DJ Dream Fund” inn Henry’s home state of Massachusetts which will strive to provide sports-related resources to children and to remember DJ via his love of athletics. For more information regarding events regarding Danroy Henry, please visit Justice For DJ . Related Videos Welcome To Jay-Z And Kanye West’s ‘Watch The Throne’ Week Related Artists Jay-Z Kanye West
Friends and family gather in New York for a peaceful demonstration to honor fallen college student. By D.L. Chandler Students in New York’s Grand Central Terminal honor Danroy Henry on Friday Photo: Claire Finnegan Although much of the criticism levied towards Watch The Throne has been focused primarily on the braggadocious rhymes from Kanye West and Jay-Z , the pair tackled serious fare several times throughout the album — most notably on the track “Murder To Excellence” in which Jay-Z dedicated his rhyme to the memory of a college football player on the cusp of his 21st birthday. Danroy Henry, forever immortalized in verse by Jay-Z’s opening line on the track, was a student at Pace University in suburban Westchester County, New York and a member of its football team. During a celebratory night with friends at a local bar last October after a Pace win, Henry reportedly ran two officers down with his car who then ended up on the hood of his vehicle and began to open fire, killing Henry and injuring two passengers. Further insult to the Henry family came when Pleasantville police officer Aaron Hess was given an officer of the year award. In February, Hess was cleared of any wrongdoing by grand jury although the Henry family is still pursuing justice in the case. Friends of Danroy — affectionately known as DJ — Henry gathered Friday (August 12) at New York City’s Grand Central station to stage a peaceful gathering in the memory of their fallen friend and also cleverly timed their call against police brutality with the release of Watch The Throne as well. Organized partly by Claire Finnegan, sister to one of DJ’s teammates Patrick, the gathering of friends honoring DJ’s life numbered to about fifty people according to Ms. Finnegan. “DJ was really one of the best guys you’d ever meet. He was a good kid and so upstanding,” shared Ms. Finnegan in a phone interview with MTV. “He was one of those guys who would give you anything he had. He was just that good of a guy.” Ms. Finnegan further shared that their gathering was disrupted by police officers although an off duty cop was said to have shown support to the group’s cause. With golden balloons adorned with the Jay-Z line “This is to the memory of Danroy Henry” and “Watch The Throne” on the adjacent side, the gatherers all timed the release of the helium filled balloons into the air much to the chagrin of the police officials inside the station. Although the memorial was met with some resistance, Ms. Finnegan vowed that more public demonstrations are to come and informed MTV that Henry’s parents have started the “DJ Dream Fund” inn Henry’s home state of Massachusetts which will strive to provide sports-related resources to children and to remember DJ via his love of athletics. For more information regarding events regarding Danroy Henry, please visit Justice For DJ . Related Videos Welcome To Jay-Z And Kanye West’s ‘Watch The Throne’ Week Related Artists Jay-Z Kanye West
LP will be released September 20. By Jocelyn Vena Demi Lovato Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty Images Come September 20, Demi Lovato is declaring she’s Unbroken. The singer took to Twitter and Facebook to formally announce that as her forthcoming album title. On Thursday, Lovato teased her followers with a string of tweets that read, “Do you guys want to know my album title….??!!!? Are you ready because I’m about to announce it………. In…….,” she wrote. She then launched into a tweeted countdown before revealing, “#UNBROKEN !!!!!!!!!!!!” and tweeting a glammed-up photo of herself in a long black skirt and fur jacket, wearing red lipstick. She then started the hashtag “#Unbroken920.” She made a similar announcement on Facebook , adding, “I’m happy to announce the title of my new album: Unbroken!” The title is a reference to her personal strife over the last year. Lovato was released from treatment back in January after seeking help for cutting, eating disorders and bipolar disorder. She launched her comeback single, the equally empowering “Skyscraper,” earlier this summer. The track, she says, hit her on an incredibly emotional level. “I doubled over,” she told Elle of recording the emotional song. “Tears streaming down my face. It was a sight to see.” She’s been spotted in the studio working on tracks with Missy Elliot, Timbaland and production team Rock Mafia (who have also worked with Miley Cyrus). She’s set to perform at the VH1 Do Something Awards later this month for her first public performance since opening up about her personal issues. With so much anticipation for her latest venture, she is now looking to the future. “I’m not going to be perfect, but … if I can make it through the day, that’s all that matters,” Lovato said . “It’s a daily journey, and it’s definitely going to be a struggle that I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life.” Related Photos The Evolution Of: Demi Lovato Related Artists Demi Lovato
‘I didn’t know what I was doing,’ she says of first foray into acting. By Jocelyn Vena Rihanna on the set of “Battleship” Photo: Splash News Rihanna certainly knows a thing or two about military couture; anyone who has seen her “Hard” video knows that. But in “Battleship,” her fatigues are anything but high-end. In a chat with UGO.com , the singer opens up about her butt-kicking role as Raikes, saying that her character knows nothing about the glamorous things in life, only the dangerous things. “It’s really cool, it’s easy. You don’t have to think about what you want to put on, or how cute you look,” she says of wearing the uniform in the Peter Berg-directed action flick. “She doesn’t like boys. She doesn’t like girls either. She’s just about her weapons and her work.” Rihanna has always had a tough-girl persona, so when it came time to make her film debut, she knew that this girl was the right one to play. And she made sure she did her research. “We worked with real military people, you know, people in the Navy, people who have fought in Iraq before. They pretty much came and drilled me. This one man, Donald, he pretty much drilled me, yelled at me, cursed me, ‘Ow!’ Made me do pushups. Everything,” she recalled. “Like, my best friend was there the second time we worked together, and I said to her, ‘OK, I’m about to do acting class, but you’re going to want to kill this man, so just stay in the bedroom. Don’t listen to anything he’s saying to me right now, just don’t kill him, Melissa, just stay in the bedroom.’ “And I remember she just kept walking around, and she would just glance at me, ‘Are you OK? Did he just say ‘f— you’ to you?’ But I mean, it really got you in the mentality, that’s the things they really go through, you know, when they first sign up,” she continued. “It’s not a walk in the park.” Her first encounter with Berg was equally jarring — Rihanna describes the sequence of events as “weird.” “And [Peter Berg] just walked out and said, ‘Hi, come in,’ and I’m like, ‘Where is Christa, my manager? Where is my manager?’ She wasn’t there, and I walked in and all I saw were these little alien mock-ups, these little dolls. And he just started saying, ‘Yeah, these are the thugs, he’s a thug,’ ” she said of the meeting. “I laughed and then I realized that he wasn’t laughing, and I was like, ‘This is weird. Why are there pictures of aliens all over this room?’ “And it was just crazy because he was just really super enthusiastic about it, and he was so sure that I could pull it off and I didn’t even know that he was the director of the film, I didn’t know anything,” she added. “I didn’t know what I was doing, where I was going, why.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Battleship.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Photos Five Important Moments In The ‘Battleship’ Trailer Related Artists Rihanna
The two lyrical MCs fantasize about a cocoa-skinned beauty in ‘Boyz N the Hood’-inspired video. By Rob Markman Common Photo: Arnold Turner/ WireImage Ghetto dreams do come true. On Thursday, Common dropped the video for his Nas-assisted single “Ghetto Dreams” and, apparently, when the rappers go to sleep at night, it’s video actress Bria Myles who prances around their black-and-white subconscious. The Matt Alonzo-helmed visual starts with both rappers sitting on a couch nodding off while watching the 1991 classic “Boyz N the Hood” on T.V. The scene playing on the screen is the one in which Chris (played by Regi Green) tells Doughboy (Ice Cube) that church is the best place to pick up women. “I give y’all a hint,” Chris says, “Everybody’s been there.” Then the No I.D. beat drops and the dream sequence begins with Myles emerging from bed wearing a tank top and a pair of derriere-revealing gym shorts. Both MCs are now sitting on a grimy staircase, where Common begins to rap the lyrics to the first single off of his upcoming The Dreamer, The Believer album: “I want a bitch that look good and cook good.’ The chocolate-skinned beauty acts out the song’s lyrics, flipping pancakes in the kitchen, smoking a marijuana-filled joint and counting her money as Common’s verse progresses, calling out each action. “I wrote it about someone in the neighborhood that got a dream of reaching a higher level and they’re in that process,” Com recently told MTV News. “Their woman is really like the correlation and the parallel and the symbol to that progress. It was coming from me, but it was also the voice of many others.” In the video, Nas shares a similar affection for the kind of multifaceted girl Common describes in the song. As the Queens MC’s verse rolls in, he sits on the same staircase, dressed in a jacket, white shirt and tie, spitting his verse. “Had explicit experiences I shouldn’t mention/ For me, getting women turned from sport to addiction,” Nas raps, as Alonzo cuts back and forth between performance scenes and Myles applying makeup as she gets ready to attend a Sunday service — or so the viewer is led to believe. By the time the beat fades out, the dream is over. It’s at this point that the two MCs give each other a look that seems to say they realize that although they may be fantasizing over the perfect love, in the end, they’re just two dudes on a couch. What do you think of Common’s “Ghetto Dreams” video? Tell us in the comments! Related Artists Common Nas
Slow groove features crafty verses by Weezy and a memorable Drake refrain. By Alvin Blanco Lil Wayne recording “She Will” Photo: MTV News Jay-Z and Kanye West are not the only rap duo with clout. Lil Wayne and Drake have their own collaboration in the works, and fans just got a bit of a preview with “She Will,” the latest single from Weezy’s forthcoming Tha Carter IV. Earlier this week, Tunechi released a video, shot by DJ Scoob Doo, that showed behind-the-scenes footage of him recording “She Will” with Drake providing feedback over the phone. The final product, released on Friday (August 12), features a bass-heavy, reverb-bloated slow groove provided by producer T-Minus. The song’s title makes it seem like it’s an ode to a, er, willing woman, and indeed portions of it are. But the “How to Love” rapper/singer also drops savvy bars that don’t necessarily match the theme. “What goes around comes around like a hula hoop/ Karma is a bitch, but just make sure that bitch is beautiful/ Life on the edge, I’m dangling my feet/ I tried to pay attention but attention paid me,” raps Wayne on the first verse. Drake doesn’t drop a verse on the song but performs its chorus, part singing and part rapping, “Do it for the realest n—as in the f—ing game right now she will/ Maybe for the money and the power right now she will,” on a portion of the memorable refrain. Birdman recently told XXLMag.com that Lil Wayne and Drake’s collaboration is definitely a go, though it will have to wait until after their upcoming solo efforts. Drake’s sophomore set, Take Care, is due in stores October 24, while Weezy’s much delayed Tha Carter IV will finally be available on August 29 . The latter’s track list was also recently released, revealing featured performers including T-Pain (“How to Hate”), John Legend (“So Special”) and Bun B, Nas, Shyne and Busta Rhymes on “Outro.” Drake, along with Jadakiss, appears on another song on Tha Carter IV titled “It’s Good.” Related Artists Lil Wayne Drake
DJ explains to Mixtape Daily how he re-created the sample for Jadakiss and Styles P. By Rob Markman Kanye West and Jay-Z Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage Behind the Beats: Statik Selektah When the Throne’s “Otis” premiered on New York radio in late July, rap fans weren’t the only ones who took notice. MCs like the LOX’s Jadakiss and Styles P wanted in on a piece of the action as well, so they sought out the Otis Redding-sampling instrumental. Only problem is, with all the secrecy that surrounded the recording and subsequent release of Watch the Throne and its singles, most knew that ‘Ye was keeping the beat he produced very close. Luckily for the Yonkers, New York wordsmiths, their friend DJ Statik Selektah is a wizard on the beat machine. “I was literally on the way to my Shade 45 show, and I saw Styles and Jada on Twitter going back and forth like, ‘I’m trying to get the instrumental, I’m trying to get the instrumental,’ ” Statik told Mixtape Daily . “Everybody knows how crazy it would be if they got it.” Statik, who has produced for Bun B, Nas and fellow Bostonian Termanology, was leaving his Showoff Bassment studio space on his way to his radio gig but decided to take a few minutes to lend a helping hand to Kiss and Styles. Read how Jadakiss and Styles P came up with their version of “Otis.” The first order of business was locating Redding’s 1966 version of “Try a Little Tenderness,” the sample which Hov and Yeezy’s “Otis” is built upon. “I’m not gonna front, I didn’t know what Otis Redding song it was, but I went on Google and just typed it in and it came up,” Statik admitted. “I looked up the song, brought it up and just through the song, found that part of the song that they used and just put it in [software program] Serato and then looped it.” After chopping up and recording the sample, he added an extra note to mirror Kanye’s original production, and five minutes later, he had his own version of “Otis.” While the beat was close to Yeezy’s musical concoction, there was one thing missing, Statik admits. “He added an ill 808 under there,” Stat said of the main difference between his and the Throne’s version of the beat. “That’s how you know there are a lot of fake Otis instrumentals because there is no 808 on any of them.” He then emailed the beat to Styles and Jadakiss. “He sent it over nice and looped up, so then once we got it, [it took] maybe like 24 hours [to record],” ‘Kiss said. Related Videos Welcome To Jay-Z And Kanye West’s ‘Watch The Throne’ Week Related Artists Kanye West Jay-Z Statik Selektah
Breaking Sports Video
