Tag Archives: Year

Rick Ross Proves He’s Bawse As Hottest MC In The Game

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Even without his own album, Rozay owned 2011 and topped our Hottest MCs in the Game list. By MTV News staff Rick Ross Photo: MTV News / Getty Images When Rick Ross experiences a personal moment of triumph, a hearty grunt typically marks the occasion. Built up from the bowels of his belly, Rozay’s baritone call has become as ubiquitous as his titillating one-liners — not that a simple ad-lib is the only thing that earned Rick Ross the #1 spot on MTV News’ Hottest MCs in the Game VII list, his first time up top. Rozay was on pace to release his fifth studio album until he faced a pair of “minor setbacks,” as he so poetically dubs the two seizures he suffered in October. ” God Forgives, I Don’t was slated to come out in 2011, and he had the two seizures, and we thought it was going to make him fall back completely — but he came back and hit us with Rich Forever, ” MTV News senior hip-hop writer Rob Markman pointed out during the Hottest debate. Want to join the debate? Just hit us on Twitter using the hashtag #HottestMC! The truth is, Rozay’s 2011 reign didn’t hinge on an album release. The Bawse set things up properly in February of last year when he signed his Maybach Music Group record label over to Warner Music Group and scooped up newcomer Meek Mill (this year’s #7 Hottest MC ), Wale (#10) and later Stalley. Musically, Ricky Ro put his team in position to dominate with the label compilation Self Made, Vol. 1. Rather than taking all the shine, Ross passed the baton to Meek, who delivered “Ima Boss” and “Tupac Back.” Wale contributed the rhythmic gem “That Way,” and even ousted MMG spitter Pill logged serious miles on the LP. HOT STREAK Album: Self Made, Vol. 1, with Maybach Music Group Selected Mixtapes: Rich Forever Singles: “You the Boss” (featuring Nicki Minaj), “I Love My Bitches” Street Bangers: “9 Piece” (featuring Lil Wayne), “Stay Schemin’ ” (featuring Drake and French Montana), “Yella Diamonds” Key Guest Appearances: DJ Khaled’s “I’m on One,” Meek Mill’s “Ima Boss,” Lil Wayne’s “John,” French Montana’s “Shot Caller” remix, Drake’s “Lord Knows” Meteoric Metrics: Ross established his Maybach Music Group brand as its CEO when he notched two #1 rap albums with Wale’s Ambition and MMG’s Self Made, Vol. 1 Business Ventures: Despite having a solo deal with Def Jam, Ross bossed up and took his MMG label to Warner Music Group, signing Wale, Meek Mill and Stalley. Tours: Rozay joined Wayne on his I Am Still Music Tour Monumental Moment: Ross is no stranger to success as a solo artist, but after he signed his MMG label to Warner, he truly became a boss! Forecast: To be able to dominate 2011 without a solo album released is an amazing feat for Ross. With God Forgives, I Don’t on the way and a possible collabo mixtape with Drake, the Double-M-Genius may be going for the repeat. “You wouldn’t even know that he didn’t have an album out [early last year], because he was all over the radio,” said Rahman Dukes, director of hip-hop news at MTV News. Whether on his own singles (“You the Boss,” “I Love My Bitches”) or on tracks that he was featured on, the M-I-Yayo MC turned in multiple unforgettable performances. “Ima Boss” was technically Meek’s song, but the casual listener may have missed that fact. Lil Wayne’s “John” was basically a remix of the 2010 Ross track “I’m Not a Star,” and on the summer anthem “I’m on One,” Rozay flexed his muscle alongside Drake and Weezy. “Rick Ross makes raw records, he makes street records. When he gets on a verse, his beat selection is impeccable,” MTV Jams’ Tuma Basa said, before pointing to Ross’ star-making ability with Meek and Wale. “He’s making other people hot, and these are people, without Ross, may not have been on this list. They’re on this list thanks to Ross.” It’s deeper than rap with the Double-M-Genius. Beyond the studio, the Bawse proved his worth in the boardroom as well. “I don’t think any artist did a better job of branding than Rick Ross,” said MTV RapFix blog editor Nadeska Alexis. “He was just a marketing genius this year, and you gotta give it to the man.” Ross meets all the criteria to be considered the Hottest MC in the Game. His impact is irrefutable: Even without a solo album, he maintained a healthy and consistent buzz throughout the year, notching a #1 rap album with his Self Made compilation. Lyrically, Rozay has grown from his “Hustlin’ ” days and become one of the game’s most celebrated spitters, and his swag is through the roof. Check his big-boned, shirtless confidence, immaculately groomed beard and top-of-the-line designer-sunglass collection. If that weren’t enough, the rotund Rozay cemented his #1 spot in January when he dropped his free 19-song Rich Forever mixtape. While there is no SoundScan or Billboard chart that can measure its impact, with Rich Forever, Ross proved in this era of overdone crossover singles that rap still rules. “Rick Ross, I think, provides hope to that MC, to that kid growing up who just wants to rap and make street music and say, ‘You know what? In this world where hip-hop has become pop, you can still just rap,’ ” Markman said. Insert Rick Ross grunt here! What do you think of our list? Sound off on MTV News’ “Hottest MCs in the Game VII” using the hashtag #HottestMC! Related Videos ‘Hottest MCs In The Game VII’ Related Artists Rick Ross

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Oscar Roundtable: Meet This Year’s Best Documentary Feature Nominees

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

I’m thrilled and honored to welcome you to the first of several virtual roundtables featuring Oscar’s nominee class of 2012 — commencing today with those behind the five films nominated for Best Documentary Feature. They are (in alphabetical order):

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Berlinale Dispatch: A Chinese Epic and an Indonesian Zoo Tale Vie for the Jury’s Favor

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Today is the next-to-last day of competition screenings here at the Berlinale , which means people are speculating about a possible winner – to the extent that speculation is ever possible. This year’s jury is headed by Mike Leigh, and at dinner the other night some friends and I were playing the “WWMLL” – What Will Mike Leigh Like? – game. Voting for prizes is a democratic process, but the jury president can set the tone. Even so, it’s hard to say, rummaging around in the Berlinale 2012 bag, what Leigh and co. might possibly go for. The critics’ favorites so far seem to be Christian Petzold’s Barbara , an unusual, slow-building drama set in 1970s East Germany, and Miguel Gomes’ Tabu , an inventive melodrama that uses old-school movie conventions – and sensuous black-and-white cinematography – to weave a story of love and loss. But critics’ favorites and a jury’s choices don’t necessarily align. At this point, the field is fairly open. I’m wondering what a Mike Leigh-led jury will think about Postcards from the Zoo , by the young Indonesian filmmaker who goes by the name Edwin. Postcards is a gentle story, with a loose-jointed, somewhat impressionistic narrative structure, about a young woman, Lana (Ladya Cheryl), who spends her life in a Jakarta zoo, though she doesn’t officially work there. She helps bathe the zoo’s baby tiger; she knows many facts about the zoo’s giraffes, which she shares authoritatively with the zoo’s visitors; and, one day, she takes up with another zoo denizen, a magician-cowboy who turns her into his assistant and accomplice. (She dons an Indian-girl outfit and takes her place in his knife-throwing routine.) During this meandering journey of self-discovery, Lana also becomes a massage girl at a spa, serving men who nonchalantly stop in for full-service satisfaction, complete with a happy ending (if they’re willing to pay for it). The picture is gorgeously filmed – the early section really is a series of postcards, a gentle meditation on the zoo’s peaceful, inspirational nature, including shots of a mother and baby hippo idling in a pool, and a droll little sequence in which Lana muses aloud about why one of the tigers won’t eat. (She surmises that he feels sorry for the hens that become his dinner.) Postcards , Edwin’s second feature, is so low-key that its emotional effects don’t really linger – the picture is inconsequential, but it’s also reasonably enjoyable, particularly for its pensive, low-key aura. Wang Quan’an’s White Deer Plain, on the other hand, is anything but low-key. This nearly-three-hour Chinese epic includes no real battle scenes and very little pageantry, but it does something that’s perhaps harder to pull off: It wrestles with the changes and hardships that the country endured between 1910, the end of Imperial China, and 1938, the time of the Japanese invasion. The story, an adaptation of a controversial historical novel by Chen Zhongshi, uses the power struggle between two village families – a struggle that’s intensified by the woman, played by an expressive actress named Kitty Zhang Yugi, who enters their midst – as a means of talking about sweeping and painful change in China during the first half of the last century. The picture is gorgeous to look at — well, not the famine sections, but pretty much everywhere else. Wang has a weakness for showing, over and over again, the shimmering golden wheat fields that play a key part in the story, and they are beautiful. The human characters, unfortunately, often take a backseat to the scenery. They’re cogs in the machinery of the country and in that of the movie, too – perhaps that’s intentional, but it does keep White Deer Plain from being as involving as it might be. So who knows, from what we’ve seen so far, what the Berlinale 2012 jury will go for? (The group also includes François Ozon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anton Corbijn and Charlotte Gainsbourg, as well as Asghar Farhadi, the director of last year’s Golden Bear winner A Separation .) A Hungarian picture that screened this morning, Bene Fliegauf’s   Just the Wind, draws its subject matter from recent real-life horrors, in which several Romany families were murdered in their homes, the targets of racial hatred. The picture is harrowing, yet it’s also somewhat detached – Fliegauf often works harder than he has to, maybe, to underscore the fear and anxiety visited upon the community in the wake of these murders. But the picture is topical, and that’s sometimes a quality that makes a jury sit up and take notice. We’ll see what happens on Saturday, by which time I’ll have bid the Berlinale adieu for another year – though before that, I’ll be checking back in with a look at Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod’s Bel Ami , featuring the Pale One himself, Robert Pattinson. Read more of Movieline’s coverage from the 2012 Berlinale here . Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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John Carter Producer: Pixar Backlash to Blame for Cars 2 Oscar Snub?

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Last summer’s Cars 2 marked a notable footnote in the history of Pixar Animation , just not a good one; despite opening to the studio’s sixth-highest worldwide take to date, the sequel to 2006’s Cars earned middling reviews, prompted critics to deem it a commercial cash-grab, and eventually – maybe most shockingly, given the studio’s track record – became the first Pixar film not to nab an Oscar nod for Best Animated Feature since the category was inaugurated. Could it be, as Pixar producer Lindsey Collins suggests, that Cars 2 was Oscar-snubbed because of anti-Pixar backlash? Speaking with press today in Phoenix, Arizona for John Carter , which she produced for longtime Pixar collaborator Andrew Stanton, Collins assessed why Cars 2 was overlooked in favor of five other animated films ( A Cat in Paris , Chico and Rita , Kung Fu Panda 2 , Puss in Boots , and Rango ). “The fact that [ Cars 2 ] was a sequel — in a way it’s funny, because obviously from a franchise standpoint people love sequels,” Collins explained. “And certainly from a franchise standpoint Cars 2 did insanely well, such that we can’t even count it as a good metric to tell us whether or not to do sequels.” Sequel status aside, Collins surmised a larger reason was working against the John Lasseter-directed pic, which was the first Pixar film to earn an overall “rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes. “I think it had the fact that Pixar has dominated going against it,” she added. “At a certain point there was going to be somebody who was going to take the fall a little bit. It was going to be like, ‘Eh, we don’t like that one.’” Then again, Cars 2 ’s nomination miss could also be chalked up to the relatively deep field of animated films in the running for Oscar this year – many of which surprised Collins and defied her own expectations of the competition. “I see every single one of these things because my kids drag me to them all, and to me it felt like God, there are some great animated films this year. I actually had one of those, ‘There’s two hours of my life that I’m never going to get back’ [thoughts], and then you walk out like, ‘Actually, that was quite good!’” Among the “great pictures” not spawned from Pixar that Collins had praise for? “I loved Rango ,” she admitted. “There were actually some great pictures this year.” As for the cold critical reception and accusations of crass commercialism Cars 2 received, Collins maintains that Lasseter “truly, truly loves” the sequel — and Pixar, she says, supports the films its stable of directors want to make. “John loves that world, he loves those characters. We got accused of being very commercial with it and it’s kind of funny, it’s so ironic because if you’ve met John Lasseter there’s not a disingenuous bone in that man’s body.” Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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Chris Brown Was Rihanna’s Special Birthday Guest & Featured On Birthday Cake?

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

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  I am just waiting for Rihanna and Chris Brown to walk down the red carpet together and u will also right after u read this…Rihanna celebrated her birthday early this year and guess who was her special guest …  Monday night and Chris Brown was definitely in attendance.About 100 of RiRi’s closest friends including Kelly Rowland and Bruno Mars enjoyed a Caribbean-themed party with a brass band, Caribbean food, champagne and cigars. Oh and Rihanna’s birthday cake featured her likeness straddling a giant joint! Check out the video below. Also the two were spotted leaving a West Hollywood studio where they were said to have been recording a track together. While some reports state that they were working on a song about love and forgiveness that will be released later this year, it is believed that Chris will actually be featured on Rihanna’s Birthday Cake remix which will be released next week on her birthday (Feb 20). MTV caught up with the producers of the track ‘Da Internz’ and they confirmed that the feature on Ri’s ‘Birthday Cake’ will shock the world. “We got the Rihanna ‘Birthday Cake’ coming out in a week. And the feature on there is gonna shock the world” Read more: Chris Brown Hops On Rihanna’s ‘Birthday Cake’?, Spotted At Her 24th Birthday Bash | Necole Bitchie.com

Chris Brown Was Rihanna’s Special Birthday Guest & Featured On Birthday Cake?

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Taylor Swift Not Ready To ‘Put Down’ Speak Now Tour

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

‘I loved this show so much … that I didn’t necessarily want to put it down,’ she tells MTV News of taking the tour to Australia and New Zealand. By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Sway Calloway Taylor Swift Photo: Getty Images Taylor Swift will launch the next leg of her highly successful Speak Now Tour next month, and she’s excited by all the possibilities the trek will bring this time around. “We’re going to Australia and New Zealand, because we are never done touring,” she joked to MTV News during “MTV First: Taylor Swift,” when she premiered her new video for the “Hunger Games” track “Safe & Sound.” “I’m really excited about going back to Australia and New Zealand because, well, New Zealand, it’s the first time I’ve ever been there, and the Australian fans have been so good to me,” she continued. “And this will be my third time going back there. I loved this show so much, the Speak Now Tour, that I didn’t necessarily want to put it down. I hope they like it. I love going there. It’s always really wonderful. The people are so nice.” The last time she hit the road, she was joined by a laundry list of A-listers, including T.I. , Flo Rida, Usher and Paramore leading lady Hayley Williams, to name a few. And she still can’t believe all those people agreed to perform with her. “It’s been crazy. Between all the guest artists that have come out and come onstage and surprised the audience, that was, I think, my favorite part of touring this year, because the audience never knew what they were going to get,” she said. “And I loved that experience, and even walking around L.A., people come up to me, these girls will come up to me [like] ‘I was at the Staples show where Justin Bieber came out’ [or] ‘I was at the one where Ellen and Nicki Minaj came out,’ and it’s just really fun, because you start to realize that concert meant something to them, and that’s nice.” Not only did all those famous faces perform with Swift, but she also had one of the top-grossing tours of the year . “That’s the fans doing that,” she said. “I’m kind of blown away by that.” Did you check out the Speak Now Tour? Share your reviews in the comments! Related Videos MTV First: Taylor Swift Related Artists Taylor Swift

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Claire Sinclair and Marston Hefner: It’s Over!

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Playboy Playmate of the Year Claire Sinclair finds it necessary to be candid and open up about her recent alleged attack from boyfriend Marston Hefner … a lot. Sinclair opened up about the whole dispute to E! News today, having already spoken to the network about it at length regarding Sunday night’s altercation. She says she’s just trying raise awareness of domestic abuse and to help others, but you get the sense she’s also trying to raise awareness of … Claire Sinclair. In any case, they broke up apparently. In any case, she describes Marston Hefner’s assault on her as such: “We had just freshly moved into the apartment, and I know Marston was a little stressed out about it, and Marston has been unstable throughout the whole course of our relationship… and we got into an argument about something really silly.” “It escalated and it became violent. Initially, he kicked me and I went backwards, I fell. Then he punched me and grabbed me up, and I scratched him to defend myself.” “It was very shocking,” Sinclair said, showing off a bruise on her arm. As for Marston’s dad, Hugh Hefner, and Playboy Enterprises, the 2011 Playmate of the Year claims neither have reached out to her after all this occurred. “Nobody, no support at all. Nobody’s empathetic or concerned. It’s more like, cover it up and protect the image, you know what I’m saying?” “In one aspect, I’m ridiculously offended by the way things are being handled, on the other aspect, I understand. It’s family.” “And they’re looking out for their name, and I understand that but they need to at least, recognize what has happened and apologize for what has happened.” The 20-year-old Claire Sinclair also shared that this isn’t the first domestic dispute in their two-year relationship and is currently no longer with Marston. Marston Hefner has not responded to requests for for comment.

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Taylor Swift Is A ‘Hunger Games’ ‘Fangirl’

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

But in a real-life Hunger Games, Swift tells MTV News she’d be ‘the person who runs and hides.’ By Kara Warner, with reporting by Sway Calloway Taylor Swift Photo: MTV News MTV News kicked off the week in a big way Monday with the exclusive premiere of the video for Taylor Swift’s “Hunger Games” soundtrack song “Safe & Sound,” which was followed by a lengthy chat with the country superstar about everything from her love for Suzanne Collins’ best-selling book to her adorable cat Meredith. Swift also took Twitter questions from fans, one of which came from @SafeandSound4Taylor, who asked the Grammy winner what she would do if she were in the real-life Hunger Games. “I’ve thought about this, because reading the books, you’re so sucked into it that as you go about your life, you sit there, and you’re like, ‘Could I climb that tree?’ ‘Could I make a weapon out of this?’ ‘If I had to forage for food, what would I do?’ Honestly, I think I would just be the person who runs and hides,” she admitted. “I kind of freeze. You know how you have fight, flight or freeze, those three reactions to something scary? I just freeze.” Swift said she would try to run and hide somewhere, and if she had to kill anyone, she hoped it would be in an indirect way, similar to a few of the deaths Katniss inflicts almost accidentally in the books. When asked how writing a song for the movie came about, Swift said she received a call directly from the studio and subsequently devoured the books. “I immediately read the book in, like, two days and fell in love with it,” she said. “I fell in love with the characters, fell in love with the world that Suzanne Collins had created. I was just so immersed in it.” She also revealed that when she was first asked to pen a song for the soundtrack, she thought she’d be writing something encouraging and upbeat. “When I got the call, I thought from what I’d heard about the movie, ‘It’s an action movie, right? We’re probably going to be writing a song that’s like, “We’re going to win!” ‘ And then I read the book, and I thought, ‘No, we’re going to have to write sort of a death lullaby, it’s so different from what I thought.’ ” Swift seemed just as excited about seeing the finished film as we are and expressed curiosity in seeing scenes from the actual Games, which we haven’t yet been shown via sneak peeks or trailers. “They have never shown footage of the Games,” Swift said. “I’m dying to see that. Everyone wants to see pivotal parts. The relationship with Rue and Katniss and also Peeta and Katniss and their relationship developing, and none of the Games have been shown yet, so I’m so excited for the movie. I’m a fangirl!” Stick with MTV News as we roll out more from our exclusive interview with Taylor Swift about her “Hunger Games” soundtrack song! For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV First: Taylor Swift

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Grammys 2012: Winners, Losers And Everyone In Between

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Adele, Nicki Minaj, Dave Grohl and more make Bigger Than The Sound ‘s look back on music’s biggest night. By James Montgomery Adele backstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards Photo: Christopher Polk/ WireImage How you felt about Sunday night’s 54th Grammy Awards probably had a lot to do with whether or not you were Adele . Or Dave Grohl. Or Nicki Minaj . For different reasons, of course. If you were Ms. Adkins, you undoubtedly loved the show, because you won darn-near everything (and slayed in your comeback performance ). If you were the Foo Fighters’ frontman , you also undoubtedly loved it, not just because you won darn-near everything, but also because you appeared to be having a thoroughly awesome time whilst doing so. Grohl was the secret-MVP of the telecast, thanks to his Slayer T-shirt, rambling acceptance speech, that shot of him totally feeling Deadmau5’s performance, and everything that happened in the last three minutes of Paul McCartney’s night-closing jam, especially the 45-second stretch where he stood directly behind McCartney during “The End,” grinning like a new enrollee at Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp. If you were Minaj, well, let’s just say that eventually, after spending years convincing yourself it wasn’t that bad, you’ll end up watching the footage on YouTube and discover it was actually worse. From arriving on the Grammy carpet with a dude dressed like the pope to an odd, over-the-top, obtuse-to-the-point-of-self-parody performance of “Roman Holiday” (your move, Gaga) — with a Best New Artist loss to a guy dressed like a social-studies teacher thrown in at some point in-between — it was not a great night for you. Nor was it much fun for Lady Gaga , who, despite bringing a scepter to the show (inspired!), was essentially an afterthought. Or Katy Perry, whose performance never truly seemed to get on track. Or Mumford & Sons, who went winless in four categories on Sunday night, meaning they didn’t get to leave their seats once during the three-and-a-half hour show. There were, of course, artists who managed to shine from beneath Adele’s and the Foos’ respective shadows. Jennifer Hudson, whose tribute to the late Whitney Houston was both nuanced and emotional (a tricky thing to pull off), surely only added to her ever-growing legend. Taylor Swift displayed class and sass — and maybe grew up a little bit before our very eyes — with her performance of “Mean.” The Civil Wars appeared to be genuinely likeable people. Shoot, even David Guetta, Chris Brown and Lil Wayne managed to make it out of that whole “EDM Tribute” debacle relatively unscathed. But what about the viewers at home? Well, I’m sure the folks who were outraged last year when Arcade Fire beat Eminem for Album of the Year — folks like Steve Stoute, the marketing exec/music vet who was so upset by incident that he penned an open letter to the Grammy governing body that compared Em to Bob Dylan — really liked the show a lot. So, too, one can assume, did dudes who like Dubstep (more often than not, these are the same people). It was, after all, the first Grammy telecast in recent memory that went almost entirely by the books, giving the year’s best-selling artist three-quarters of the year’s biggest awards (Album, Record and Song of the Year). Was that a result of Grammy voters bowing to public pressure to make the show more representative of the actual whims of music-buying community, or was Adele’s 21 the rare album that so seized the collective conscience that anything less would seem outrageous? I’m inclined to think it was the latter. But still, at the end of the day, peering up and down the winner’s list … these were very much the people’s Grammys. On the other hand, if you were someone who was slightly inspired by Arcade Fire’s AOTY win (even though you’d never admit to your kickball team/artesian cheese monger/barista girlfriend), well, there’s a pretty good chance you’re feeling conflicted about the Grammys. On one hand, you love everything Adele stands for — and in opposition to — and you’re happy she won. On the other, well, dude, you were sort of rooting for Bon Iver … especially if his wins might have symbolized some profound change in the minds of Grammy voters. Alas, we ended up with more of the same … though, in a pinch, we’ll take Best New Artist. In short, the 54th Grammys were the show we’re always complaining about whenever we’re complaining about the Grammys. Predictable. Poorly paced. Pandering. By the same token, they were perfectly representative of the year in music, which is all the Steve Stoutes of the world were asking for in the first place. And so, once again, the awards remain caught between those two extremes. And in a year where both sides could at least agree on Adele, that doesn’t exactly bode well for the future. Then again, I suppose that no matter what happens, there will be some segment of music fans who will be upset. If the 54th Grammys taught us anything, perhaps it’s that you really can’t win. But you most certainly can lose. Just ask Nicki Minaj. What did you think of the 54th Grammy Awards? Leave your comment below! Related Videos 2012 Grammy Awards Red Carpet Highlights Related Photos 2012 Grammy Awards: Backstage And Audience 2012 Grammy Awards: Main Show

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Selena Gomez and The Scene: It’s Over!

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are still going strong, as the couple were spotted out just last night on a date in Los Angeles. But the 19-year old singer has called it quits with the other steady presence in her life, telling Facebook followers over the weekend that she and backup band The Scene won’t be playing together for a bit. “My band and I are going our separate ways for a while,” Selena wrote. “This year is all about films and acting and I want my band to play music wherever with whoever. We will be back but, it will be a good while. I love them and I love you guys.” Gomez and The Scene released “When the Sun Goes Down” last year, an album that peaked at number-three on the Billboard 200 chart. But it’s true that Selena’s film career is taking off: she’ll voice a character in Adam Sandler’s animated Hotel Transylvania later this year; and then star alongside James Franco and Vanessa Hudgens in Spring Breakers , a movie about a group of college girls who take over a fast-food joint in order to finance their Florida spring break.

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