I wouldn’t take anything Catfish and Paranormal Activity 3 co-director Ariel Schulman says at face value , but for the record: “When we first interviewed with the president of Paramount, he actually said, ‘If you tell me right now that Catfish is fake, you’ve got the job.’ And we just went real silent. And then I said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that.’ Because it was real. I think he figured that if we could create that authenticity dramatically, then we could do it again for this. Ultimately, we convinced them of exactly that. Catfish is completely real, but I think we have a knack for identifying the authentic moments in home video, and it plays like a narrative.” [ Huffington Post ]
‘Fly Together’ artist will appear on ‘RapFix Live’ Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET. By Rob Markman Red Cafe Photo: Scott Wintrow/ Getty Images Bad Boy Records has a rich tradition. Since its inception in the early 1990s, label CEO Sean “Diddy” Combs has introduced some of hip-hop’s most influential artists. Of course, there was the Notorious B.I.G. , the Lox, Ma$e and Black Rob. Now, Diddy is looking to launch the next generation of Bad Boy spitters like MGK and Wednesday’s “RapFix Live” guest, Red Caf
‘I just wanted to make something super jammin’,’ K.R.I.T. tells MTV News of producing T.I.’s first post-prison single. By Rob Markman T.I. Photo: Chris McKay/ Getty Images Since breaking through with 2010’s K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, Big K.R.I.T. has been on rap’s fast track. As an MC, he has worked alongside Bun B, Ludacris and David Banner, and last week, he landed his biggest production credit yet with T.I. On “I’m Flexin’,” Tip’s first single since being released from Prison last week, the Meridian, Mississippi, producer gave the Grand Hustle CEO a rocked-tinged, Southern-fried banger. “Tip got out and he reached out to my folks to see what we’re trying to do, as far as Southern hip-hop is concerned,” K.R.I.T. told MTV News on the black carpet for the taping of the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. “It’s just a blessing. He reached out and wanted to work. I sent the record, he liked the record, he jumped on it, and it is what it is. I’m glad it came out in a timely fashion.” Though T.I. had been in a halfway house since September 15 and allowed to work in the studio, he officially satisfied his sentence on Thursday; “I’m Flexin’ ” was released the next day. “I just wanted to make something super jammin’, something organic and vintage-sounding, as far as Southern hip-hop is concerned,” Krizzle explained. “I felt like when he heard it, he knew exactly where I was trying to go with it. And he killed that sh–, so it worked out.” “The record is hot,” DJ Drama, T.I.’s longtime collaborator , told MTV News about “I’m Flexin’ ” days before it was released. “Big K.R.I.T. deserves it. He’s been working for a long time. So they’re both fans of each other, so sh– is definitely gonna be a nice sound for the ear.” K.R.I.T. also appears on a small portion of the song’s chorus, but when asked if he would appear on the remix with a full verse, the MC/producer let out a mischievous laugh. “I got the beat,” he said with a wide, boy-like grin. “So we’ll see.” What do you think of T.I.’s “I’m Flexin’ “? Share your reviews in the comments! Related Artists T.I. Big K.R.I.T. DJ Drama
It looks like Lil Wayne is going to be making it rain on the competition for a while. Weezy F. Baby’s Tha Carter IV broke Jay and Yeezy’s Watch The Throne iTunes sales record by moving more than 300,000 digital units. Jay-Z and Kanye previously held the record by moving 290,000. Not only did Wayne beat out their iTunes numbers, he totally obliterated their first week sales by selling an estimated 925,000-950,000 copies of his album in the first week. Maybe he’ll actually wear some man pants when he celebrates. We doubt it, though.
The bald/ beautiful Amber Rose wasn’t always so bald and wasn’t always so beautiful (unless you’re one of those people who believe all children are cute). A photo of Amber in Elementary School surfaced and it shows Amb rocking thick bifocals and oily hair. Usually Amber would be the child I picked on… Follow Me On Twitter @ Shamika_Monroe Amber Rose Disses “Watch The Throne” & Kanye West’s Sex Skills Wiz Khalifa Helps Amber Rose Record Her New Single
Ambition track brings duo back together after calling a truce on Twitter. By Alvin Blanco Wale Photo: Getty Images NEW YORK — Wale and Kid Cudi ‘s reconciliation will be certified with a new song. The Maybach Music Group rapper’s sophomore album, Ambition, is dropping November 1 and will include a song called “Focused,” which features Cudi. While previewing his album for select media outlets, Wale dropped hints about the collaborator — a friend of his that lived in Brooklyn while he was living in SoHo — on the song he was about to play last. “We’re 23 years old at this time, we’re trying to figure it all out,” Wale told MTV News. “We went from not having sh– to having money at our disposal, so it kind of f—ed up our friendship. He doesn’t smoke as much anymore, but his name is Scott.” That “Scott” is Scott Mescudi, a.k.a. Kid Cudi. The two rappers started gaining notoriety in the hip-hop world almost simultaneously a few years ago, with Wale even appearing on “Is There Any Love,” a bonus track from Cudi’s Man on the Moon: The End of Day debut. However, the pair had an infamous falling-out , which, according to Wale, was rooted in a lack of communication. “The last time me and him spoke was Governor’s Island maybe three years ago,” Wale said. “It was a weird exchange. … When you don’t talk to somebody for a long time and you see them on TV and you’re trying to figure them out through music … we bumped into each other, and we spoke, and it was just weird. It was already animosity for me, because I was like, ‘Yo, this is my guy and it’s just weird now.’ Just weird. “I can’t say that word enough,” Wale continue. “So [later on], it was Drake’s birthday party in D.C.; he was there. I’m getting off the elevator and I see him. So he was like, ‘What’s up?’ I was like, ‘What’s up?’ And that was it. Next thing I see is the Complex interview. That was maybe like a year after that.” After that Complex interview, many thought the two would never be friends again. Nevertheless, earlier this year, they reconciled via Twitter. Wale recalled not believing it was Cudi who called him to make up before their Twitter truce. “The main reason why I didn’t believe it was him was because his voice was really light, and I remember it always being raspy,” Wale said. “He was like, ‘I don’t smoke weed anymore, bro. My voice is changing. I’m about to hit you on Twitter right now. This is really me. I saw it was him. I was like, ‘Sup, man, how you been?’ He said, ‘I been good, man. I just wanted to get right to it: I know I’ve been acting kind of f—ed up and weird,’ and this that and a third and all that other personal sh–. He threw that out there, and we just made amends. The next morning, he called me like, ‘I just wanted to let you know I wasn’t high or anything when I called you. I really meant it.’ ” Wale then further extended the olive branch by saying he had a track he felt Cudi would be perfect for. “I never really thought we capitalized off what we had,” Wale said. “I sent him the beat, and we made this record I’ve been trying so hard to keep for myself for a long time.” “Focused” features Wale rapping, with Cudi supplying a chorus in his sing-song, Mr. Solo Dolo type of delivery over a synth-loaded uptempo track. “It’s a testament to where I am lyrically, spiritually, all of that, because this song almost never happened, as y’all know,” Wale said of “Focused.” “It feels like the record that ‘Is There Any Love’ was supposed to be. When they kept talking about me and Cudi in every magazine, this is the record I felt like they needed to hear — the one that everybody was going to get behind, and it was going to go top 40 and not be corny. This is like the best top 40 non-cheesy record that you’re ever going to hear in your life. That’s how I feel about it.” Wale recently dropped a new mixtape called The Eleven One Eleven Theory, which temporarily crashed Hulkshare’s site upon its release. The project features a song called “Chain Music,” that will also be on Ambition. What are you expecting from Wale and Cudi’s collabo? Let us know in the comments! Related Artists Wale Kid Cudi
Ambition track brings duo back together after calling a truce on Twitter. By Alvin Blanco Wale Photo: Getty Images NEW YORK — Wale and Kid Cudi ‘s reconciliation will be certified with a new song. The Maybach Music Group rapper’s sophomore album, Ambition, is dropping November 1 and will include a song called “Focused,” which features Cudi. While previewing his album for select media outlets, Wale dropped hints about the collaborator — a friend of his that lived in Brooklyn while he was living in SoHo — on the song he was about to play last. “We’re 23 years old at this time, we’re trying to figure it all out,” Wale told MTV News. “We went from not having sh– to having money at our disposal, so it kind of f—ed up our friendship. He doesn’t smoke as much anymore, but his name is Scott.” That “Scott” is Scott Mescudi, a.k.a. Kid Cudi. The two rappers started gaining notoriety in the hip-hop world almost simultaneously a few years ago, with Wale even appearing on “Is There Any Love,” a bonus track from Cudi’s Man on the Moon: The End of Day debut. However, the pair had an infamous falling-out , which, according to Wale, was rooted in a lack of communication. “The last time me and him spoke was Governor’s Island maybe three years ago,” Wale said. “It was a weird exchange. … When you don’t talk to somebody for a long time and you see them on TV and you’re trying to figure them out through music … we bumped into each other, and we spoke, and it was just weird. It was already animosity for me, because I was like, ‘Yo, this is my guy and it’s just weird now.’ Just weird. “I can’t say that word enough,” Wale continue. “So [later on], it was Drake’s birthday party in D.C.; he was there. I’m getting off the elevator and I see him. So he was like, ‘What’s up?’ I was like, ‘What’s up?’ And that was it. Next thing I see is the Complex interview. That was maybe like a year after that.” After that Complex interview, many thought the two would never be friends again. Nevertheless, earlier this year, they reconciled via Twitter. Wale recalled not believing it was Cudi who called him to make up before their Twitter truce. “The main reason why I didn’t believe it was him was because his voice was really light, and I remember it always being raspy,” Wale said. “He was like, ‘I don’t smoke weed anymore, bro. My voice is changing. I’m about to hit you on Twitter right now. This is really me. I saw it was him. I was like, ‘Sup, man, how you been?’ He said, ‘I been good, man. I just wanted to get right to it: I know I’ve been acting kind of f—ed up and weird,’ and this that and a third and all that other personal sh–. He threw that out there, and we just made amends. The next morning, he called me like, ‘I just wanted to let you know I wasn’t high or anything when I called you. I really meant it.’ ” Wale then further extended the olive branch by saying he had a track he felt Cudi would be perfect for. “I never really thought we capitalized off what we had,” Wale said. “I sent him the beat, and we made this record I’ve been trying so hard to keep for myself for a long time.” “Focused” features Wale rapping, with Cudi supplying a chorus in his sing-song, Mr. Solo Dolo type of delivery over a synth-loaded uptempo track. “It’s a testament to where I am lyrically, spiritually, all of that, because this song almost never happened, as y’all know,” Wale said of “Focused.” “It feels like the record that ‘Is There Any Love’ was supposed to be. When they kept talking about me and Cudi in every magazine, this is the record I felt like they needed to hear — the one that everybody was going to get behind, and it was going to go top 40 and not be corny. This is like the best top 40 non-cheesy record that you’re ever going to hear in your life. That’s how I feel about it.” Wale recently dropped a new mixtape called The Eleven One Eleven Theory, which temporarily crashed Hulkshare’s site upon its release. The project features a song called “Chain Music,” that will also be on Ambition. What are you expecting from Wale and Cudi’s collabo? Let us know in the comments! Related Artists Wale Kid Cudi
SMH. This has to be a joke right? Lil Jon and DJ Kontrol decided to put their special touch on Beyonce’s “Best I Never Had”; so they remixed it and threw Shawty Putt on the record. Listen below: That actually wasn’t half as bad as we thought it would be. What did you think? Do you Hate It Or Love It?!?!
David Guetta, Kaskade, Steve Angello talk to MTV News about why they couldn’t get enough of the Brit’s VMA-nominated ‘Rolling in the Deep.’ By Akshay Bhansali Adele Photo: Paul Bergen/ Redferns Now in its seventh year, the Tomorrowland Festival kicked off again in Boom, Belgium, this past weekend, and MTV News was there for the entire spectacle. The dance music event started small but over the years it has ballooned into one of the most popular electronic dance music fests in existence. The Tomorrowland of 2011 had a fairy-tale theme and was made up of 14 colorfully dressed stages, which included set pieces like enormous replicas of mushrooms and trees; two of the stages were even dominated by an oversize skull and a sun. TL accommodated 30,000 campers on its “Dreamville” grounds, bringing the total draw for the weekend to upwards of 180,000, a figure that beat out Miami’s Ultra Music Festival. (And what American festival can claim a Church of Love, where couples are encouraged to get some … quality time ?) But perhaps what set this colossal European festival apart from the others this year was the sheer awesomeness of the talent flown in for it. Blockbuster dance music brands like David Guetta , Swedish House Mafia and Ti
‘Before that came out, there was nothing else on the radio that sounded like it,’ producer told MTV Radio last year. By James Montgomery, with reporting by Sasha Hamrogue Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse Photo: Dave Hogan/ Getty Images Last year, when Mark Ronson was in New York doing press for his upcoming Record Collection album , he couldn’t avoid questions about Amy Winehouse and her long-in-the-works follow-up to 2006’s Back to Black album. But to his credit, Ronson happily answered each and every one and, in the process, had a moment to reflect on not only the success of Black, but on the rather seismic shift it created in pop music. Of course, in the wake of Winehouse’s death on Saturday, Ronson’s words took on newfound meaning. Because no matter how Winehouse is remembered , her music will always be her lasting legacy. “I am really proud of the sound of Amy’s record, and, it’s hard to remember, but before that came out, there was nothing else really on the radio that sounded like it,” Ronson told MTV Radio in August 2010. “And then it kind of influenced things and became quite regular to hear something that would sound like that. I don’t think there’s anything that was as good as it, or as raw as Amy’s vocals and her songs.” Ronson also spoke about how the duo planned on following up Back to Black, pointing to a then recent session he had just completed with Winehouse — a cover of Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” that appeared on Quincy Jones’ Q: Soul Bossa Nostra album — as a possible hint at things to come. And despite the fact that he had spent most of his time trying to distance himself from the crackling retro leanings of Black, he knew that, when he worked with Winehouse, the best way to proceed was to keep things simple. “If Amy’s record had sold 300,000 copies and mine had sold 100,000 as opposed to significantly more than that, we’d probably both be quite happy coasting along doing the same sound. … [A]nd that’s a sound that I’m genuinely fond of; but the fact that it did get so big sort of forced me to change it up,” he said. “But who knows, because Amy and I recorded a song quite recently for this Quincy Jones tribute record; we did a cover of Lesley Gore, and there was no point in dragging my Roland synths into an Amy Winehouse session. There’s a kind of production arrangement that supports her voice. … And after coming off my record, where the main edict was ‘No covers, no horns,’ to go back and cover a Lesley Gore song with the Dap-Kings and Amy felt like regressing a bit, but it wasn’t, because it just sounds good and that’s what she’s supposed to sound like.” Ronson also talked about the expectations Winehouse was facing with the follow-up to Black, expectations he thought were impossible to manage. And, in doing so, he struck a tone that seems eerily prescient in retrospect. “First of all, we’re in a situation where the record industry basically loses about 10 percent in sales every year, so she’s five years between records, and if you’re talking numbers-wise, then no, [she] probably [won’t sell as many records],” he said. “But I still think she’s fully capable of writing another batch of brilliant songs and making a great record, and hopefully Salaam [Remi] and I will be involved in it because I think we all made a great record together last time. But you can never really count on anything being a given, so we’ll see.” Related Photos Amy Winehouse: A Life In Photos Related Artists Amy Winehouse Mark Ronson
