Archive for August, 2010

Hip-hop’s favorite e-spouses, Nicki Minaj and Drake, are no longer together. Only a day after announcing their union on the social-networking site, Minaj tweeted that she and Drizzy have called it quits.

“Dear Barbz, My husband Drake and I have decided to have our marriage annulled. We’ll maintain joint custody. Luv, HB,” the Young Money Barbie wrote on Saturday. When asked by Twitter fan MissBrownBear who they were sharing custody of, Minaj “All our SONS.”

Hip-hop fans began buzzing on Friday when both MCs wrote on their Twitter pages that they had wed.

“Please refer to @nickiminaj as Mrs. Aubrey Drake Graham and dont stare at her too long. She’s finally mine. ,” Drake tweeted. Minaj also wrote “Yes, its true. Drake and I tied the knot.”

While the duo’s tweets made headlines, the missives were apparently just in good fun. Minaj’s announcement comes after reps for the artists denied that they had ever made it to the altar.

Regardless of their marital status, Minaj and Drake have always been tight. Last year, Minaj said that she and her Young Money labelmate are “super-close.” “Before all of this started, I would tell him, ‘You’re a star.’ And he’d be like, ‘You’re a star.’ And we’d kinda been each other’s biggest fans,” Minaj told MTV News. “To see his dreams come into fruition, it makes me very happy.”

Earlier this year, Drake said on MTV2′s “Sucker Free Countdown” that “I’ve always really, actually, really had a crush on her, always really loved her, and she’s always just looked at me as, like, her little brother.”

However, Minaj said that Drake was playing up their relationship for the entertainment factor and denied rumors that the MCs are more than just friends.

“Drake does not have a crush on me,” Minaj said later on “Sucker Free.” “Drake knows how to get you guys’ attention.”

Many fans were disappointed by Minaj’s announcement that she and Drizzy are not married. TreyGivesMePPP tweeted to the rapper, “barb you just broke my heart! DRICKI FOREVER!” fashioning catchy portmanteau for the duo.

But Minaj gently reminded her followers that they will have to share her eventually.

“Barbz 1 day mommy will have to fall in love,” Minaj tweeted. “Don’t b selfish.”

In fact, he probably spent most of it recording music, since he announced via Twitter (of course) on Sunday that he plans to release a new track every week between now and the holidays. “I know y’all need the music so I’m dropping 1 new song every weekend until Xmas,” he wrote. “It may be my song, it may be a new Jay song, etc.”

Yeezy said he’s calling his new-music express “G.O.O.D. Fridays” because “y’all know every Friday y’all gone have a new joint from our family. We look at the game completely different now … It’s about the fans. No more holding back. That’s why I dropped ‘See Me Now’ … it wasn’t about me, it was about the Summer the BBQs etc.”

So far, fan reaction to “Now,” which features Beyoncé and Charlie Wilson, has been mixed. Some have likened the sound to that of West’s debut, College Dropout, and others have said it needs a harder beat and feared that ‘Ye was overshadowed by the power vocals from his big sis, Beyoncé.

In addition to the much-discussed Justin Bieber/ Raekwon remix he’s just finished, West also dropped the Jay-Z/ Swizz Beatz remix of his upcoming album’s first single, “Power,” last Friday, which seems to have marked the official kickoff of his G.O.O.D. Fridays initiative. That song also had a mix of supporters and detractors, who weighed in on the strength of the beats and verses on MTV’s Rapfix blog.

Kanye’s clearly been burning it, saying he’s been staying up until 5 a.m. every night working on a slew of new tunes, including songs for Clipse member Pusha T’s solo album, Raekwon, Mos Def, Swizz Beatz and Pharrell. “Swizz looked at me the other night and said, ‘Man are you getting sleep?’ And I told him, ‘I can’t sleep … my people need this new music,’ ” he tweeted.

He also mentioned on Sunday that he’s working on a movie based on his album. Monday morning (August 23) he offered the tantalizingly vague update “working on the movie … unicorns and RZA beats yo.” A spokesperson for the rapper could not be reached at press time for more information on the movie or confirmation on the G.O.O.D. Fridays release plan.

West will perform at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. The appearance marks his VMA return after a notorious onstage dustup with Taylor Swift, but it appears the rapper is taking the incident in stride. West closes “See Me Now” with the ad lib, “Uncle Charlie, by the way. And I’mma let you finish, but I got Beyoncé on the track.” The rapper will be joined at the VMAs by fellow performers Justin Bieber, Drake, B.o.B and Florence and the Machine, as well as in-house DJ Deadmau5 and host Chelsea Handler.

In an interview last week on Sirius’ Shade 45, Tip confirmed that he’s developing an animated series called “Lil Homies.” He’ll serve as a producer on the show, and he’s also considering lending his vocal talents to the project.

“I’m actually working on a TV show right now as a producer,” he told Shade 45′s Angela Yee. “[It's] a cartoon … called ‘Lil Homies.’ I may do, like, voice over [work] … like a narrator.”

T.I. said that “Homies” still is without a network, but he’s pushing ahead with the series regardless, even saying that he’d use his producer clout to cast Yee as “a neighborhood freak.”

If and when the series hits TV, Tip will join a long list of rappers who have crossed over to the animated world: Outkast’s Andre 3000, whose series “Class of 3000″ ran on the Cartoon Network in 2006; T-Pain, who served as executive producer of (and lent his voice to) “Freaknik: The Musical” earlier this year; and Danger Mouse and MF Doom, who released an album and an EP (2005′s The Mouse and the Mask and ’06′s Occult Hymn) that featured beats taken from Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” programming, and more than a few cameos by “Adult Swim” stars.

West joins Drake and Best New Artist nominee Florence and the Machine as the first announced performers for the 2010 VMAs.

Kanye has appeared at every VMA show since 2004, winning Best Male Video in 2005 (for “Jesus Walks”), and Best Special Effects in 2008 (“Good Life”). The show will mark West’s return to the VMA party after infamously crashing Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video last year.

In the year since then, Kanye has gradually reemerged in the public eye, appearing for impromptu performances in unusual venues, opening an instantly popular Twitter account and releasing his new single, “Power,” and an accompanying video “painting.” In an interview with Hot 97 on Wednesday night, Kanye played a new song with Beyoncé called “See Me Now” and revealed that his new, yet-untitled album would be out on November 16.

Drake, who will make his VMA debut this year, is also nominated for two awards: Best Hip-Hop Video (“Forever”) and Best Male Video (“Find Your Love”). His Young Money cohort Nicki Minaj, who is nominated for Best New Artist, is confirmed as one of the first wave of presenters. Selena Gomez, Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Trey Songz and Ne-Yo will also serve as presenters during the festivities.

The 27th annual MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on September 12 at 9 p.m. ET. Fans can go to VMA.MTV.com (or text VMA to 97979 if they are Verizon subscribers) to vote for the winners from now through September 12.

Faced with accusations of financial improprieties – Jean promised detailed information will be released, “I guarantee you that in the next two or three days, what I want you to do is look at the statement from my accountants and everything. So everything is clear as far as I am concerned, I spoke to my accountants on the phone,” he said.

Jean also addressed accusations he hasn’t spent enough time in Haiti itself, especially when those charges come from actor Sean Penn, who’s been managing an earthquake survivor camp in Port-au-Prince since early spring. He said, “I just want Sean Penn to fully understand, that I am a Haitian born in Haiti and I have been coming to my country ever since a child.”

Jean commended Penn’s efforts to help Haitians who’ve been living in tents since the country was shattered by a massive earthquake in January, but said before making public comments about him, the actor should make an effort to get in touch with him personally.

Not that Jean didn’t recognize that running for president in Haiti would open him up to intense scrutiny. “I told my wife when we were going into this it is called combat sport. So Wyclef Jean’s life has always been in the open.”

The former Fugees frontman has backed the economic vision for Haiti presented by ex-US President Bill Clinton — boosting the garment industry, tourism, agriculture and education. And he sees himself as an advocate for the country’s struggling youth. “I had to take a position in office so that the youth population in Haiti, which is over fifty percent of the population, we can start to provide a way to get them out of the mess that they are in,” says Wyclef.

Jean must still be cleared for his run by Haiti’s provisional electoral council, which is set to announce August 17th which candidates will appear on the ballot.