Pharrell Williams takes some time away from his ferosh new collaboration with Daft Punk and Nile Rodgers to interview his friend Usher Raymond. They discuss growing up, Michael Jackson and working with Sean Combs, among other things.
The full interview debuts soon on the YouTube series "Artist Talk." Watch a preview AFTER THE JUMP ...
Believe it or not, it's been almost six years since Cassie's self-titled debut. Now the recording artist slash model has just reintroduced herself to fans with "King of Hearts." The video to the catchy electro-pop track features a scantily-clad Cassie—wearing Versace and little else—surprising critics with a new range and new sound.
"After the first album came out, there was a lot of criticism," the Bad Boy bombshell told Rod 2.0 in a short phone interview two weeks ago. "I had a few bad performances and [some] people had a lot to say. I've taken the time to work on myself."
Taking that time off could pay dividends. Cassandra Elizabeth Ventura has been working on her second album for the past four years. The new music has been eagerly anticipated. And given Cassie's new look and new sound, it'll definitely make some noise.
Listen to the interview:
Cassie Interviewed by Rod McCullom for Rod 2.0 by RodMcCullom
ROD 2.0: I just returned from Rome, I was there about two months ago. In one of the clubs they were playing “Me & You.” The kids love you in Rome!
CASSIE: (LAUGHING) That’s crazy! I can’t believe people are still playing that in clubs but I love it.
R20: King of Hearts hadn’t dropped yet. But this was an Italo-disco version of the track. You know that style.
CASSIE: Oh yes. But that’s one place I haven’t even been yet. I would love to! I don’t even know what their club scene is like. I bet it’s really cool.
R20: You haven’t been to Rome?
CASSIE: No, unfortunately.
R20: You’ll love it and they’ll love you. You have so many projects going on right now. What are you most excited about?
CASSIE: I’m most excited about the new music. About releasing it and people hearing it. I’m anxious and excited but have to be patient. I’ve been working for a while on this project. I have to keep my wits about me and stay focused. But I’m really excited for people to hear the music.
R20: I’m really a big fan of King of Hearts. It sounds like a change for you but it’s a good change.
CASSIE: Thank you! King of Hearts is an extension of where I am—and where I started, as far as my sound. But it’s a grown up version and just a little bit different. It gives me a little bit more. I’m so proud of it and the sound. It’s going to work well with my audience and everybody. Especially the clubs.
R20: We were just talking about Europe. It could be huge over there if it isn’t already.
CASSIE: Oh yea. I was just in Paris for Fashion Week—
R20: We know! (LAUGHS)
CASSIE: (LAUGHS) And we dropped [King of Hearts] out there officially. There was a party and there was so much great energy. It fit right into what people are playing so I’m excited about it.
R20: I love the video. The video is remarkable.
CASSIE: Thank you so much.
Watch the video AFTER THE JUMP ...
Continue reading "LISTEN: Cassie Talks Music, Fashion and "King of Hearts" to Rod 2.0" »
The High Funkstress of Fierceness Janelle Monae made her network television debut last night on the Late Show With David Letterman. Monáe's new album The ArchAndroid dropped yesterday and her jazz, funk and gospel fused arrangement was just as amazing as the performance—which ended with her spinning around, taking off her jacket and donning a cape a la James Brown.
In other Janelle Monáe news: The Atlanta-based singer will tour with Erykah Badu and Pharrell Williams' N.E.R.D. Read the reviews at ArjanWrites and Creative Loafing. Also: The Atlantic is hosting a week-long virtual discussion on all things Janelle Monáe.
Alyssa Rosenberg writes today:
"[Monáe] really does feel to me like an entirely different generation. Part of it is her highly realized, mature aesthetic, a tuxedo she considers a uniform paired with science-fiction imagery and themes: her music is rooted even farther in the future than the time she's actually operating in. And part of that sense comes from the confidence Monáe and her Atlanta contemporary, the rapper B.o.B., whose first album, B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray, dropped just weeks before The ArchAndroid, both project."
Monáe is signed to Sean Combs' Bad Boy label and Didy was behind stage during the performance. Letterman coaxed him to come out, watch the performance WHEN YOU JUMP ....
Continue reading "VIDEO: Janelle Monáe's "Tightrope" Performance on David Letterman" »
PREVIEW THE ARCHANDROID ♫
Two weeks ago we previewed the album art and now a listening preview for The ArchAndroid, scheduled for a May 18 release. The new CD includes the fabulous "Tightrope" ft Big Boi.
Let me know which tracks you like. Oh and if you didn't catch the fabulous "Tightrope" video the first time around, watch it ON THE FLIP SIDE ....
Continue reading "LISTEN: Preview Janelle Monae's "The ArchAndroid"" »
Attorneys for "internationally renowned entertainer Sean 'Puffy' Combs" respond to gossip blogger Sandra Rose's latest round of gay-baiting—claims of "rough" homothug sex between two music moguls—with this cease and desist. The letter begins:
"This law firm represents the internationally renowned entertainer Sean 'Puff'y' Combs. The article you have published on your website SandraRose.com, titled 'Not So Blind Item' (the 'Article') is laden with scandalous and false information about Mr. Combs, is libelous per se and portrays Mr. Combs in a false light. For the record, Mr. Combs is not homosexual."
Most likely an empty threat—see: Ovie Mughelli—but denying a blind item? And sitting "at home [with his boyfriend] to watch movies and hold hands"? LOLz
Speaking of singers on the "Tightrope" : Not sure have your heard Janelle Monae's single by the same name or seen the video but it is ferosh. It's a great track especially with the go-go beats and the young Stevie Wonder/early Motown falsetto. The costuming in the video also has an early 60s Motown aesthetic
ArjanWrites has been raving about the Atlanta-based, Grammy-nominated Monae for years and reports:
"L.A. Weekly's Andrea Whiting saw Janelle Monae strut her stuff a few days ago at West Hollywood's Viper Room and has some very, very nice things to say about one of my favorite singers. 'The girl is brilliant, but I'm not sure anyone knows what to do with her quite yet: she's not as dramatic as Lady Gaga, not as easy to categorize as Beyonce's little sister trying to be a hipster, and probably more talented than both.' "
Watch Janelle Monae's "Tightrope" and a behind-the-scenes featurette AFTER THE JUMP ...
Does protocol demand the Joint Chiefs of Staff remain impassive and unemotional during presidential addresses? Joe Jervis notes thePentagon brass "lept to their feet to applaud" the president's threat to destroy Iran's nuclear ambitions (below) while they remained grim-faced during the mention of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (above).
Rob Smith is a black gay Iraq War veteran. Writing at the Huffington Post, the New York City-based writer and After Elton contributor say it was "incredulous" the "supposed military leaders watched our president with absolute revulsion as he announced his steps to end" the failed policy.
I'm a gay Iraq war veteran, and I believe President Obama has been the greatest ally to LGBT people and gay veterans that we've ever had in a President. The risks he takes by simply including us in his plans to move forward with America continue to be vastly underestimated by most people, though I believe he will do much more, as evidenced by his words last night. To those supposed leaders of the United States military who watched our president with absolute revulsion as he announced his steps to end this, to those men whose faces brought back the memories of every time I was called a "faggot" while I served and forced to keep any affirmative response bottled up, thus "out" myself and lose all that I had risked everything for, I have this to say: gay veterans aren't worthless. I'm not worthless. The blood I shed was the same as every other soldier's, the tears I cried were the same, the bullets that I dodged the same; the life that I risked is the same. I'm not worthless or perverted or sick, and neither is any other gay person in this world, veteran or not. I was a gay soldier.
In 1999, at 17, I entered the United States Army from a small town in Ohio, needing to find both a way in life and a way to finance the college education I so desperately needed to rise above my lower-middle class roots. My burgeoning sexuality was but a small thought in my mind, not really knowing what "gay" was, let alone whether it really described me, but that question would be answered in my mind during my formative years, which just so happened to be spent in the U.S. Army...
I'll tell you what serving in the military under DADT did to me: It made my sexual orientation a secret shame which was never to be discussed under threat of dishonorable discharge and revocation of my benefits. It kept me distant from my fellow soldiers, for if I were to slip up and say a little too much about the real me for even a second, I couldn't trust that they wouldn't turn me in and end my career in a matter of weeks. It stunted my emotional and sexual development as a gay man so much that I was in my mid twenties before falling in love for the first time, something that happens for most people in their late teens. It sent me into the wrong places looking for the romantic affection that my heterosexual fellow soldiers were able to openly practice, discuss, and experience without the threat of disciplinary action. Most hurtful of all, being constantly reminded through DADT that my sexual orientation was bad, wrong, and perverted instilled a feeling of worthlessness in me that took years to undo following my honorable discharge from the military.
Smith, who previously was on VH1's I Want to Work for Diddy, co-hosts the After Elton's Mocha Lounge vlog.
You may recognize up-and-coming model and acting hotness Lamar James from that fierce Sean John runway show. Or from those huge Rocawear billboards with Naomi Campbell in Times Square. Or from the commercial for the controversial Nike Hyperdunk campaign. Lamar aka "The Superswagger" is now blogging about life as, well, as superswsagger. It's a cyber postcard of the life of an "It Boy." Flying on Gulfstream jets, behind the scenes at a magazine editorial, hanging out with Diddy, random hotness from South Beach and other tropical destinations. You know, La Dolce Vita.
Many images there and at Lamar's MySpace. I'll let the the pictures speak for themselves ...
Those lips and that Clorox white smile.
The blog is co-written by Lamar's girlfriend Alexandria—also very stunning and a Victoria's Secret model. You'd better hold onto him, girl. The SuperSwagger is a Super Stunna.
And speaking of hot boys on hot beaches ...
· California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes a bill that would have made Harvey Milk’s birthday a statewide “day of significance,” insisting it should “continue to be recognized at the local level.” Anti-gay and conservative groups supported Schwarzenegger’s veto.
Milk, the nation's first openly gay man to hold prominent political office, was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. One year later, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were shot to death by fellow supervisor Dan White.
· Schwarzenegger did, however, sign a bill into law (AB 1894) that requires health care plans operating in the state to pay for routine HIV testing. According to the California Office of AIDS, about 40,000 Californians are HIV-positive but are not aware of their status.
· Study: The AIDS virus "has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought. Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908. Previously, scientists had estimated the origin at around 1930. AIDS wasn’t recognized formally until 1981 when it got the attention of public health officials in the United States."
· An employee of Sean Combs' Sean John brand is disciplined for cyber stalking rapper, fashionista, designer and super producer Pharrell Williams: "The unnamed wannabe music star reportedly stole Pharrell’s contact details from their employer and started sending emails to the star asking to work with him. Eventually the NERD frontman traced the begging emails back to P Diddy’s office.The staff member was disciplined by the company, although Diddy was apparently not aware of the issue."
· Financial bailout? "Congressional leaders from both parties said they were hopeful that a new version of the rescue plan could be cleared late this week after its stunning defeat that sparked a historic sell-off on Monday" Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are expected to return to Washington and vote for the bill.
· Sarah Palin's approval ratings plummet. Before McCain chose the Alaska governor as a running mate, Palin "had an 82 percent approval rating in her state. Since then, however, [her] approval rating has dropped to 68 percent. Support stayed steady with Republicans, but dropped 24 points with Democrats and 18 points with independents."
· Complaints of racial profiling rapidly multiply in Seattle. The president of the Seattle-King County branch of the NAACP held a news conference to cite numerous "instances of unequal and disrespectful law enforcement targeting black youth. One example: [Marcus] Whitehurst, who is black, was pushed up against the patrol car, told he was nothing but 'garbage' and advised that he was 'not welcome in this neighborhood.' His white friends were allowed to stand there, untouched."
· Anti-gay bishops, Uganda welcomes you! Christian bishops from around the world meet in Uganda as part of a movement "that threatens to split the 70-million-strong Anglican Church. ... The conservative anti-gay clergy formed the Global Anglican Future Conference Movement (GAFCON) in 2008 after the mainstream Anglican church refused to condemn the 2003 consecration of [openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson.]. 'We are telling people in homosexual relations that we appreciate you as human beings, but it's not a rightful relation,' GAFCON chairperson and Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh told Deutsche Presse. 'The right relationship is that between a man and a woman.' "
Since the online previews were not very generous, here is an oversized scan of one of the first full page ads for Sean John underwear featuring Nelly. The campaign is lensed by celebrity photographer Randee St. Nicholas and this full page advert was spotted on the back cover of the September issue of Giant. Should be in your mailboxes soon.
If you're into the new chemically-fortified Nelly, you'll love it. If you're a fashionista or advertising junkie ... meh. Let's look forward to the second phase of the print campaign. Hopefully that does not includes channeling the Lifestyles of the Rich, Bored and Shirtless in the Hollywood Hills.
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