While Soulja boy is apologizing to the military men who put their lives on the line for our freedom everyday, he should be apologizing to us as well. While the one side of Soulja is an American Dream from putting up songs on Myspace to international stardom, there’s also another side which is Soulja still putting songs on youtube that make Rebecca Black seem lyrical. Check More Out At Hiphopwired.com
‘Our energy is in the same place,’ Matt tells MTV News of his headlining tourmates on Honda Civic dates. By Vaughn Trudeau Schoonmaker, with additional reporting by Morgan Schwartz Photo: Getty Images Matt and Kim have been recording material at the brand-new Converse Rubber Tracks recording studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. MTV News went there to catch up with the indie/pop duo, and while they mostly kept quiet about any new songs, they did talk to us about their recent Sidewalks Tour as well as their new opening-act gig on the Honda Civic Tour with Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance. The animated Brooklyn-based musicians couldn’t seem to contain their excitement about joining Blink and MCR. “This year has been just a nonstop year,” Matt gushed. “We didn’t want to stop!” Kim said of their headlining Sidewalks Tour. “We wanted to add more dates, we wanted to keep going.” Matt and Kim will begin touring with Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance this month, and they plan to bring it, knowing that some fans at the venues may not be familiar with their music yet. “At our shows, it’s not just like one type of audience member,” Matt explained of the kinds of crowds they’re used to seeing. “It’s people who are into all different kinds of music.” As for playing in front of the fanbases of two different bands on the tour, Matt and Kim aren’t fretting. “Even though musically we might sound a bit different than those two bands, our energy is in the same place,” Matt said, referring to the three groups’ shared love of stage-diving, crowd-surfing and moshing. “There’s a big difference between playing for, you know, 3,000 people at our show to playing to a 20,000-person place, where people might not know any of your songs,” Matt admitted with a smile. “But I feel we play a simple enough music, so upbeat and melody-driven, that on a first listen, people can almost be singing along to the songs by the end.” Fans can catch Matt and Kim on the Honda Civic Tour with Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance beginning September 7 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. What are your thoughts on Matt and Kim as the opening act? Share your comments below! Related Artists Matt and Kim My Chemical Romance blink-182
Fueled by Ramen will mark the occasion with two nights of concerts in New York, and MTV.com will stream Wednesday’s show live! By James Montgomery Paramore’s Hayley Williams Photo: MTV News Fifteen years ago, Fueled by Ramen began life in the dorm room of John Janick, a student at the University of Florida. These days, thanks to a catalog that includes releases by Fall Out Boy , Paramore , Panic! at the Disco , Jimmy Eat World and Yellowcard (to name just a few), an unusually strong commitment to their roster of artists and a harnessing of social media that borders on masterful, FBR headquarters is now located many stories above Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, in a space shared with the very major Atlantic Records. Needless to say, things have improved slightly since those dorm-room days. And on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the label will celebrate both their journey and their birthday with a two-night stand at New York’s Terminal 5, a double bill that will include the likes of Paramore, Cobra Starship and Gym Class Heroes. Wednesday night’s show will stream live on MTV.com , beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET, but to kick off the celebration, we asked some of Fueled by Ramen’s biggest acts to think back to the day they inked their deals with the label — starting with Wednesday night’s headliners, Paramore. “We were playing a lot of local shows, it was around 2004. The guy we were working with in Franklin [Tennessee], he was kind of our manager at the time, and he was like, ‘This guy, he has this label,’ ” frontwoman Hayley Williams laughed. “A couple people from [FBR] came down and watched us play older songs and newer ones — I think we played ‘Hallelujah’ for them, ‘Here We Go Again,’ I don’t know, like a total of five songs — and thank God they liked it. We were really excited. From then on, I was like, ‘OK, what are we going to do?’ and we recorded most of those songs, and they showed up on our album, which was on Fueled by Ramen!” The signing story of another of the label’s breakout stars, Panic! at the Disco, is a little less traditional. Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz discovered the band online and rushed to their hometown of Las Vegas to add them to FBR’s roster. Of course, given the label’s strong Web-based presence, it would become the blueprint for the way they’d do business moving forward. “We started doing demos ourselves, just on our laptop, and posting to our personal websites, like MySpace or PureVolume, and just tried to send out links to anybody that was in a band that we were fans of in hopes they would listen. And somehow, we got lucky enough, and Pete contacted us, so that was our first introduction to Fueled by Ramen,” Panic! drummer Spencer Smith explained. “Pete drove out and bought us Del Taco and listened to the songs and said that he wanted to sign us as we were driving him back to his hotel. So it all just happened within two weeks, I think, from him listening to the songs.” Help MTV celebrate Fueled by Ramen’s 15th anniversary this Wednesday, September 7, as we present a live party featuring some of your favorite FBR acts, including Paramore. Check out MTV.com at 6:30 p.m. ET Wednesday to catch all the action!
I won’t speak to the quality of his songs (particularly this one), but Marcus Foster has great taste in guest cameos that will get his music videos noticed. Here he features Kristen Stewart in the new video for “I Was Broken.” And by “features,” I mean “plants her in front of a fan and asks her to turn around.” But hey.
Unbroken track with legendary duo is a jam about ‘staying up all night long,’ Demi tells MTV News. By Jocelyn Vena Demi Lovato Photo: MTV News Demi Lovato is ready to launch the next phase of her music career. She dropped her moving ballad “Skyscraper” earlier this summer and now fans are ready to hear what else the singer has up her sleeve when she releases her album Unbroken in September. While the album will feature a number of collabos with artists like Jason Der
An energetic Weezy is backed by a full band as he runs through his set for Sunday night. By Rob Markman Lil Wayne rehearses for the 2011 VMAs Photo: John Shearer / Wireimage.com LOS ANGELES — Fans were promised a rock-star-like Lil Wayne VMA performance , and judging from his stage rehearsal Saturday (August 27) at the Nokia Theatre, Weezy F. will deliver for Sunday’s big show. “We’ve been brainstorming and taking from things that we put together on the road, so I think they can just expect a new-and-improved Wayne, a different Wayne,” Weezy’s musical director Gil Smith told MTV News. “You know, he always comes different: One day he’s a rock star, one day he’s a skater; he’s singing R&B. I think we can expect a little bit of everything in this performance.” Backed by a full band, the Cash Money Billionaire ran through his set, which included a heavy-metal take on one of his songs. The energetic MC bounced around the stage as he worked out the particulars, perfecting his set. After the awards show, Wayne’s C4 will be released at midnight on iTunes and other digital retailers before the physical CD version is dropped Tuesday. “The MTV Video Music Awards are one of the most watched and respected shows in the industry,” Ronald “Slim” Williams, CEO of Cash Money Records, said in a statement. “Wayne is one of the most respected and prolific artists in the industry. By pairing the release of Tha Carter IV with the VMAs, it will certainly add to the overall anticipation and excitement for fans everywhere for what will surely be an unforgettable evening.” The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live Sunday from Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following the Selena Gomez-hosted pre-show at 8. See the list of nominees, revisit last year’s highlights and vote for Best New Artist by visiting VMA.MTV.com . Related Videos 2011 VMAs: Behind The Scenes Related Photos 2011 Video Music Award Nominees 2011 MTV Video Music Awards Performers Related Artists Lil Wayne
Miami MC says the dancers in his performance on Sunday night will ‘create Pandora’s box.’ By Rob Markman, with reporting by Jim Cantiello Pitbull rehearses for his 2011 VMA performance Photo: John Shearer/ WireImage Pitbull gets pretty demanding on his hit “Give Me Everything,” , but for his 2011 VMA performance, Mr. 305 looks to turn the tables and offer fans a taste of Miami. “I did get the most beautiful women from Miami to come over and create Pandora’s box,” Pit told MTV News. “So if you’re bringing your wife, your girlfriend, boyfriend to the show, you might lose ’em.” MTV News was present at Mr. Worldwide’s VMA rehearsal on Thursday at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, and the rapper comes through as promised. Pit and collaborators Ne-Yo and Nayer ran through their number, flanked by approximately 60 curvaceous female dancers. “We have some backup dancers: one or two or 60,” Ne-Yo teased . “And two of the best-dressed men in the business. What more can you ask for?” Lindsay Lohan’s lawsuit hasn’t dampened Pit’s party plans. The troubled actresses filed suit against the Cuban pop sensation, claiming that his lyrics on “Give Me Everything” were defamatory. But during the run-through, Mr. 305 didn’t bite his tongue as he freely rapped the line in question without censoring himself. “I got it locked like Lindsay Lohan,” Pit spit. On Thursday, Pit addressed the suit in a video on his Planet Pit website, inviting La Lohan to join him at the VMAs . “We’ll be performing [‘Give Me Everything”] at the VMAs and, as a matter of fact, I’d like to send out an invitation to Lindsay Lohan,” Pitbull said. “Hopefully she can come with me to the VMAs, and we can figure this out.” According to TMZ , however, the actress has declined. Still, Pit’s offer stands. “I said it, I meant it, and if she takes it, great. If she doesn’t, cool. But she will have her tickets at will call,” he told MTV News. In the meantime, the show goes on, and if the bilingual hit-maker’s practice run is any indication, Pit plans to leave everything he’s got on the stage, proving that it’s better to give than receive. Que rico! The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live Sunday, August 28, from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following the Selena Gomez-hosted pre-show at 8. See the list of nominees, revisit last year’s highlights and vote for Best New Artist by visiting VMA.MTV.com . Related Photos 2011 MTV Video Music Awards Performers VMA 2011: Rehearsals VMA 2011: Behind The Scenes Related Artists Pitbull
This year’s top nominee has yet to win a Moonman, but she did nab a husband! By Jocelyn Vena Katy Perry at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards Photo: Steve Granitz/ FilmMagic At Sunday’s VMAs , one very kooky, colorful California Gurl is poised to rule the night: Katy Perry tops the nominees with a whopping nine nods for “E.T.,” “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” “Teenage Dream” and “Firework.” “It’s always exciting to be a part of the VMAs because there’s so much spontaneity,” she told MTV News. “I just remember growing up seeing craziness ensued with the VMAs. I wasn’t allowed to see it, but I done watched it!” While Perry has yet to win a Moonman, the show has played an important role in her career and personal life in other interesting ways. Let’s take a look back at Perry’s short-but-memorable history with the Video Music Awards and look forward to what she can expect Sunday night: 2008 Kinga Burza, the director of Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” video , warned MTV News that the up-and-coming pop star would soon be a force to be reckoned with. “She’s fresh, original, intelligent and talented, with a star-like charisma, which will have boys and girls all around the world cooing for more,” Burza said. And she was right. Perry made her VMA debut that year, singing along with the night’s house band, Travis Barker and the late DJ AM . That night, “I Kissed a Girl” was up for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Female Video and Best New Artist. She went home empty-handed, but the show was the first time (and certainly not the last) that she and host Russell Brand crossed paths. 2009 The VMAs returned to New York City, and Perry had become a household name. She was nominated for Best Female Video for “Hot n Cold” and opened the show with a rocking performance of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” alongside Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. Although she didn’t take any prizes home, she did manage to nab Brand , who hosted the show for a second year. Perry said she saw a different side of the comedian during and after the show. “I really appreciate his sense of humor,” she explained. “It’s real dark, it’s real wrong and it’s really funny.” Explore our “Katy Perry: By The Numbers” infographic: 2010 Perry hit the white-hot VMA carpet in Los Angeles, and was by then one of the biggest pop stars in the world. Her relationship with Brand had escalated to an engagement, and her sweet and sassy “California Gurls” video , featuring Snoop Dogg, was nominated for Best Female Video and Best Pop Video. “I like the idea of this being like a board game,” she said of the video in 2009. “It’s kind of like Candy Land. That was probably one of my favorite games to play growing up. I like to bring back those pure childhood moments and give them a little bit of a naughty twist, of course.” 2011 Perry is coming up on her fourth VMA appearance, and this could finally be her year. She’s back in her home state of California, she’s tied the knot with Brand, and she’s broken all sorts of records with the songs from her Teenage Dream album , including becoming the first female artist with five #1 singles from the same album. Considering she’s up for hardware in categories like best Female Video (“Firework”), Video of the Year (“Firework”) and Best Collaboration (“E.T.”) featuring Kanye West, to name a few, her chances of bringing home a Moonman or two are looking good. The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live Sunday from Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following the Selena Gomez-hosted pre-show at 8. See the list of nominees, revisit last year’s highlights and vote for Best New Artist by visiting VMA.MTV.com . Related Videos The 2011 VMA Nominations Live Related Photos So Hot, Never Cold: Katy Perry At The VMAs 2011 Video Music Award Nominees
Odd Future’s Tyler, the Creator talks about his achievements on “When I Was 17.” By Kara Warner Tyler, The Creator Photo: MTV News This week’s new episode of “When I Was 17,” airing Saturday (August 27) at 11 a.m., is all about three outspoken rising stars in the hip-hop and rap communities who also happen to be VMA Best New Artist nominees. The most outspoken and unpredictable of the three is Odd Future standout Tyler, the Creator , who revealed that his 17th year featured two career-making moments, the release of his album and his first-ever “concert” performance. “When I was 17, I released The Odd Future Tape. That was my first album as a collective,” Tyler said, adding that the release led to the group’s first-ever performance. “My first performance was a talent show. I didn’t set us up for it, Hodgy did,” he recalled. “I was really excited because I’d never performed before.” Evidently, Tyler went all out during the show and at one point ended up dropping his pants for a not-so-receptive crowd. “I was jumping around, pulled my pants down. During parts of the songs, I would go in the crowd and just wild out and go crazy,” he said. “The guy who put it together, his mom and other family members were in the front. I didn’t know that they were heavy church people.” Unsurprisingly, the group’s performance did not receive an encore at that particular venue. “We were talking about 666 onstage and stuff,” Tyler said. “And then they just cut the music and were like, ‘Hey, get the f— out of here.” Tyler isn’t looking back with any regrets, of course. He’s got two huge VMA nominations to think about, Best New Artist and Video of the Year. “I’m really excited,” Tyler told MTV News of his Video of the Year nod. “Shout out to Ron Artest. If I lose to any of those wackass videos, I’m gonna be mad because they all suck — except for Adele’s.” The Cali rapper/ producer/ director was more willing to discuss his fellow Best New Artist nominees. “The Best New Artist thing, that’s cool,” he said. ” Wiz [Khalifa] is a really good dude and I’ve been a fan of his music, so if he wins I’ll be pretty excited. I wanna win that for sure, but Wiz is awesome, I’ve been listening to him since ’08,” he said. “Even Kreayshawn , she’s cool. So if she wins that too, I’ll be pretty stoked. But you know, I wanna win, I’m just gonna keep it 100.” “When I Was 17” — this week featuring VMA nominees Big Sean, Tyler, the Creator and Kreayshawn — airs Saturday at 11 a.m. on MTV. The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live Sunday, August 28, from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following the Selena Gomez-hosted pre-show at 8. See the list of nominees, revisit last year’s highlights and vote for Best New Artist by visiting VMA.MTV.com . Related Videos Preview: Tyler, The Creator, Big Sean And Kreayshawn On ‘When I Was 17’
Paul Rudd, in the title role, walks away with much of the critics’ praise in this ensemble comedy. By Terri Schwartz Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks in “Our Idiot Brother” Photo: Big Beach Films Even with strong performances from the ensemble cast in “Our Idiot Brother,” the Sundance darling is being heralded as Paul Rudd’s movie. Reviews for the comedy, which opened on Friday (August 25), are heralding Rudd’s turn as one of the best of his career. And although the response has been generally positive, critics did take issue with some of the other idiotic parts of the movie. Some found the script’s approach to the characters too formulaic: Rudd’s character might be an idiot, but he is actually a commendable guy when compared to his three jaded sisters, his hippie ex-girlfriend and his wine-drinking mother. Others thought the movie was a bit unconvincing despite its well-meaning message. Still, the jump from “My Idiot Brother” at Sundance to “Our Idiot Brother” in wide-release seems to imply a more inclusive element to the film that resounded with critics. So will “Our Idiot Brother” charm you? Here’s what the critics had to say: The Idiot Brother “Though the ensemble cast is uniformly strong, this is Rudd’s film. His inherent likability and genial manner are ideal for the character. He plays laid-back especially well. (His aging surfer dude in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ was a variation on Ned.) Watching Rudd bring dimension to what could have been a clownish caricature is the best reason to see this good-natured family comedy. ‘Our Idiot Brother’ is as irresistible and easy to love as a golden retriever.” — Claudia Puig, USA Today The Characters “Peeking out from a curtain of shaggy hair and a beard, Rudd invests Ned with every ounce of the effusive, natural warmth that has become his trademark. And like so many movies in his career, he makes Our Idiot Brother much more tolerable than it deserves to be. Screenwriters Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall play up Ned’s innocence by making his sisters thoroughly unappealing: Emily Mortimer plays a dowdy, sad-sack hausfrau married to a pompous documentarian (played with withering contempt by Steve Coogan); Elizabeth Banks flails in a misguided brunet pageboy as a ruthless Vanity Fair reporter; and Zooey Deschanel lends spaced-out self-absorption to a lesbian tempted by a similarly navel-gazing male artist.” — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post The Script “You want to laugh at this, except the movie is forcing you to do so. Adultery and dysfunction are cute problems. Deschanel’s character shares a loft with her girlfriend (Rashida Jones, underutilized again and still the best thing here) and a gang of bohemians who don’t get up to anything interesting. Though Deschanel’s compulsion to play another Quirky Performance Artist is satisfied. Banks (shrill careerist) and Mortimer (neurotic wimp) conform to type, too. Ned makes their relationships harder than they already appear to be. He’s a gimmick, and yet without him the movie is just Hanna-Barbera and Her Sisters. Either way, it’s all emotionally counterfeit, and that bogusness infects the comedy.” — Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe The Direction “Efficiently directed by Jesse Peretz, (Ms. Peretz’s brother, evidently quite capable), Our Idiot Brother is a thin, unconvincing movie made likable by the charm and skill of its cast and by a script (by Ms. Peretz and her husband, David Schisgall) peppered with wit and insight. … A handful of scenes — a visit to a cultish self-help seminar, a family game of charades with Mom (Shirley Knight), a profile interview gone off the rails — are sharp, funny and surprising. But the filmmakers mostly look for humor in obvious, picked-over places. Can we please have a moratorium on private-school interviews? Like yoga classes (which this movie blessedly leaves alone), they are hard in real life and suspiciously easy in movies.” — A.O. Scott, The New York Times The Final Word ” My Idiot Brother might have made Ned more of a symbol and less of a person. Where the filmmakers, and Mr. Rudd, go right is making him such a round and sympathetic figure, rather than the desperate, pathetic and/or slapstick character he might have been in different hands. Our Idiot Brother — not My or Your or Their idiot brother — is goofily funny, and silly, and in many ways follows the currents of contemporary comedy into the gulf stream of inanity. And yet Ned turns out to be a strangely moving figure, a comic foil worthy of affection, perhaps even respect.” — John Anderson, The Wall Street Journal Check out everything we’ve got on “Our Idiot Brother.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
