Nikki Nelson/WENN.com

From Essence

On Thursday night, America declared Candice Glover the winner of American Idol.

With so much excitement in the air, Glover is still in shock she earned the top spot. “I’m still trying to process it,” she told reporters according to People. “I don’t even know my name! It feels amazing, though, to finally have gotten to this point after working so hard for so long.”

Glover auditioned twice in the past, both times being turned away by judges in the preliminary rounds.

On Thursday night’s finale, Glover proved why she is America’s newest star. The diva sang “Inseparable” with Jennifer Hudson—earning a standing ovation from the audience.

Awww, good for her! You can read more about Candice’s night over on Essence.com, including what runner-up Kree Harrison told her after she was announced the winner.

American Idol sometimes has trouble continuing to keep the spotlight on their winners and sometimes, you don’t hear much from them once the their album is released or soon after that. As great of a singer Candice is, do you think she’ll reach superstar status while still under the Idol contract?

Travis Wade/WENN.com

Well, look what we found!

Kelis is known for her loud and eccentric style making you love her when you’re not always sure why. But a few days ago, she very quietly dropped a song on Soundcloud  titled “Jerk Ribs.”

Now, we are not even going to take a guess at why she named it “Jerk Ribs,” especially since she repeats “Call On Me” during the chorus. Then again, artists come up with song titles all the time that are never in the song. But we can tell you that she’s giving a mix of dance, funk and traces of calypso in the beat.  There are whistles and steel band sounds all through it.

So what’s it about? The best we can tell it is about Kelis’ love of music and always hearing and feeling the melody in everything, including music and possibly love.

Oh and even better news? Kelis tweeted that her album is done and sounds like “love and summer balled up into one.”  We haven’t had a Kelis album since 2010 when she released Flesh Tone to not so rave reviews.

So check out “Jerk Ribs” below and tell us what you think! Are you ready for the return of Kelis?

Brian To/WENN.com

Kelly Rowland should be really excited: she’s been busy hosting red carpet shows for major awards shows and she’s prepping for a new album.

Rowland’s new album, Talk A Good Game, is due out in June and much like her last album, she has some heavy hitters putting their stamps on songs with hopes of her cranking out hits.  Her first single, “Kiss Down Below” was produced by Mile WiLL Made It (or just Mike Will) and is slowly picking up steam.  Also confirmed on the album? Tracks produced by Boy Wonder, The Dream and Pharrell, who, as usual, also lends his voice in vocals.  Kelly says the album will be very soulful and straight up R&B music.

But that’s not all. Kelly told Billboard that one of the songs on the album produced by Pharrell will feature her Destiny’s Child sisters, Beyoncé and Michelle. But don’t get it twisted: this is not a reunion.  As Kelly simply put it:

“It’s not a Destiny’s Child track, it’s me featuring Beyoncé and Michelle.”

Kelly told not only Billboard but Power 105.1′s The Breakfast Club that the album is really about her getting to a very honest place. She has no problem “going there” in order to reveal her feelings about a lot of subjects, whether it be life, relationships or sex.

Hopefully, Talk A Good Game will give Kelly the musical boost in the United States she seems to be seeking.  While her 2011 single “Motivation” was a hit, the album it was featured on, Here I Am, has still only sold about 270,000 copies.

Good luck to the gorgeous Kelly Rowland!

Are you a fan? Why do you think she isn’t a bigger artist at this point?

Alberto Reyes/WENN

It’s always a good thing when the possibility of good music is on the way.

Soul singer Chrisette Michele took the end of 2012 to give us a slight taste of what she’d be offering on her full length album when she released her mixtape, Audrey Hepburn: An Audiovisual Presentation. It gave a sort of different sound but as Chrisette stated, it showed insight to where she was in her artistic process.

Fast forward to February when Chrisette dropped “A Couple of Forever,” the song that is to be her first single from her album Better which should be out in April. ‘Forevers’ is the song that showcases the kind of singing her core fans have grown to know and love. While it is a very slow and mellow tune for a first single, it also shows Chrisette’s range. It also features a “Stairway to Heaven” sample.

In the video, released earlier this week, Chrisette continues to show off her new “Rich Hipster” look which includes a blond gumby haircut and a plethora of tattoos. In fact, she’s even showing herself being tatted again in the video (we’re not sure if she’s actually being inked again but it wouldn’t surprise us).

Her love interest in “A Couple of Forevers” is her guitarist Justin Lyons (also known as “Guitar Slayer”) and was directed by celebrity photographer Derek Blanks.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Fans are known to make outlandish claims defending the supremacy of their chosen idol. When debates get heated and tempers flair, it’s time to face the facts. As the song goes, “Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.”

Album sales don’t come as easily as they used to. Purchasing an album is a commitment only the best artists can persuade audiences to make. Compiled below are the best selling black artists in Pop/R&B and Hip-Hop, as tallied by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). How does your favorite measure up to the best?

At the Billboard Music Awards in 1995. Image: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Hip-Hop #5 – Notorious B.I.G.

17 million units

A gift for storytelling and a penchant for humorous, violently detailed narratives of Brooklyn street life launched the Notorious B.I.G. to stardom and paved the way for the return of East Coast rapper after the Dr. Dre era. His untimely death in 1997 raised his impact to mythic proportions.

Image: Raw-Hollywood.com

Watching Brandy unveil her video for “Put It Down” on 106 & Park this week, it’s easy to see why the world fell in love with her in the first place.  In her early thirties, she still has the sweet likeability of an innocent 15 year old that makes you want to smile with her.

That makes this that much harder.

She looks gorgeous in the video. Her close-ups are undeniable proof the woman hasn’t aged since Never Say Never  in 1998. But, it wasn’t “Thriller.” And to warrant three months of hype – the song hit the blogosphere in April – it needed to be “Thriller.”

“Put It Down” is the lead single for Two Eleven, the singer’s comeback album slated for release in October. I want Brandy to win. When I heard the single, in April, I was fully on board. But, she’s not going anywhere if she doesn’t pick up the pace. By the looks of things, she and her team are living in 2001.

“Put It Down” dropped on April 26 , but was not available on iTunes until May 8. For twelve days people downloaded her song illegally. Hardcore fans may have gone back to buy the single, but the rest of us kept it moving as illustrated by the song entering Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart at number 98.

Filming for the video started on July 10^th. What was Brandy doing for three months? She received a lot of attention for her July performance at the BET Awards. Brandy’s tribute to Whitney Houston was arguably one of the best performances we’ve ever seen her do. This would have been a good time to release a video. The purpose of content is to extend the conversation around your brand. It’s a great tool for prolonging buzz. But, it would be another month before we saw a glimpse of the clip.

For two weeks the four-minute clip was parceled out. Video stills on August 1, a trailer five days later, and a preview the week after online and on 106 & Park. It was a valiant effort to sustain interest in the song. But keep in mind a whole summer has taken place, countless dramas have unfolded, and Brandy is still talking about “Put It Down” repeatedly. It was the equivalent of someone who keeps interrupting your conversation talking about the same thing. If you’re not bringing anything new to the table, your content is worthless. Audiences can see through repackaging.

When a brand struggles in an area, it is a smart business move to look at what other brands dominating that area of the industry are doing and learn from their success. I want Brandy to learn from Rihanna. Rihanna has mastered the changing nature of the music industry and content in general. She doesn’t have a number one album, the classic measurement of an artist’s success, but she is the best-selling digital artist of all time. Rihanna’s last single, “We Found Love,” premiered on September 22, 2011 and was available for digital download on the same day. The music video was shot in late September, and premiered shortly after on October 19.

I don’t know what the personal issue is for Brandy, but the handling of this single reflects a strategic problem many brands, especially older ones, struggle with. Old models don’t work. The news cycle is too quick and our attention spans are too short.

The level of success Brandy once had now requires that she provide more new content, more often. When done correctly it will extend the work she puts into her music and performances. For her second single, let’s hope she gets it right.

Cortney Cleveland is a freelance writer and content strategist in New York City. You can follow her on Twitter @CleveInTheCity and visit her personal column The Red Read.

allhiphop.com

I know – hearing anything about Eve and music makes you both happy and tired. Happy because we need at least one other good, popular female rapper out (Nicki is still somewhat of a rapper). But tired because we are tired of hearing about the coulda, shoulda, wouldas of new music from her.

But as Eve told Time.com, we should blame Interscope Records, her former label, for all the delays:

“Oh my god. I need another word for frustration. I’ve completely gone past frustration 100 times. It’s like with anything that you create—you just want to put out. Because it’s been so long for me, music has changed so much. It’s beyond frustration. I just really can’t wait till this record is out.”

Her split from Interscope in 2010 not only signified a change in label, but also a change in lawyers, management and everything else.  Eve says the delays were never on her end and that she’s been finished with the album , Lip Lock, since the beginning of the year. But now, Eve says the stars are aligned and she’s ready to go! She’s actually scheduled to perform at Essence Music Festival this weekend and is promising to give the crowd a taste of her new music.

That’s great to hear and see that Eve is ready to get back to work in the music industry but is it too little too late? Fans can be so fickle so even though the delays may not have been her fault, we all become “over” artists when they don’t seem to care as much about their craft anymore.  When we heard Eve on the remix of Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad,” we just knew that she was back to stay – the voice even sounded like it did when she was actively part of Ruff Ryders. But then…nothing.

Eve is hopeful that Lip Lock will be released in the fall. Will you support it?  Do you lose interest in an artist if you don’t hear music from them in a while or does it make you more excited for upcoming projects?

Source

stylebistro.com

Hey loves!  I hope you’ve been having a great weekend! I’ve got some music news, wedding news, movie news and more for you! Of course, a celebrity is throwing shade to their peers…surprise surprise. Check it out!

Read the rest of this entry »

*Waits for the bandwagon fans to start running back*

If you ever doubted that D’Angelo would get back into tip-top shape, both musically and physically, kick yourself. In his first real magazine spread since he last did press for the Voodoo album, D’Angelo is looking as he should: a little older, but a lot of fine. Despite the shocking mugshots we were exposed to after his run-ins with the law over the last few years (my corneas still burn), these few images today of the man behind the neo-soul music we bumped so hard are definitely pleasing to the eye. Thanks GQ!

The singer gets all suit and tie fresh on us for the shoot, and even gives us a bit of that wonderful gaze (and those lips!) that we like to see. I could do without the cigarette in the first shot, but it’s not something I would kick him out of the bed for (as long as he didn’t bring the cigarette into the bed…). As you can tell, I’m glad he’s looking delicious, but I’m more glad to hear the new music he plans to drop soon. His few features on songs with folks like Common and Q-Tip, as well as his own song “I Found My Smile Again” during his reclusive period were nice, but I need an album, boo! Until we can get that in stores, don’t forget that D will be a headliner at this year’s Essence Fest, so you’ll have a chance to see this brown sugar in real time and jam like it’s 1995 again. Pick up the June issue of GQ to get your fix of this beautiful man, and find out what he has to say about the music industry, and how the “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)” video hurt him as a musician. Here’s a quick excerpt courtesy of the illustrious men’s magazine that is GQ:

“One time I got mad when a female threw money at me onstage, and that made me feel like f-cked-up, and I threw the money back at her. I was like, ‘I’m not a stripper.’”

On the last day of the eight-month tour, Questlove says D’Angelo told him, “Yo, man, I cannot wait until this f-cking tour is over. I’m going to go in the woods, drink some hooch, grow a beard, and get fat.” Questlove thought he was joking. “I was like, ‘You’re a funny guy.’ And then it started to happen.That’s how much he wanted to distance himself.”

Source: Gregory Harris/GQ

Source: Gregory Harris/GQ

What do you think of D’Angelo’s look? Still got it or no thanks?

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The “So Fly” and “Refill” singer sat down with the magazine as its cover girl to talk about her new album, what it was like growing up in a musical family, her proudest moment so far, and more. She pressed her curls and went for ’50s retro chic while batting her uber-long lashes for the shoot. Loving the looks and the color in this spread, and of course, we just love Elle in general.

When asked about her musical upbringing:

“Yes my mother and father were both songwriters. Growing up in a musical family was like going to school before school. Everything I saw was a lesson in itself. I was able to be a fly on the wall. My mom had a lot of friends that were working actresses and musicians and I was just always around, like, taking lessons.”

She also talked about the naysayers who weren’t so sure her voice would take her far, and encouraged her to start off the Ne-Yo, Keri Hilson route by being a songwriter first:

“I’ve always wanted to be a singer since I was a little kid but I went through a phase right after high school where I wasn’t very confident in my ability to be an artist. I had a lot of people especially in college tell me, “Oh, you should be a songwriter first like Neyo. Get your feet in the game as a songwriter.” like, they kind of didn’t want to say, “I don’t know if you have it.” I just took that and I said, “You know what? I’m gonna do it my way.” Ironically I got an artist deal before a publishing deal so…”

And as for her proudest moment, it came when she had the chance to meet…a 10-year-old?:

“Let’s see… My proudest moment in music so far has to be [when] I was interviewed by a 10 year old. She did her school project on me and that was one of the proudest moments actually of my life because I said, “If I’m making a difference for 10 year olds I’m doing something right. I’m very proud of that.”

Great answers, awesome chick. Be on the lookout for her upcoming release, Perfectly, Imperfect, and check out her mixtape, Conversational Lush in the meantime. And check out the rest of her interview with AMMO on their website.

Are you a fan of Elle Varner? Are you feeling the shoot?

Images courtesy of AMMO Magazine.

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