Today is a big day for music fans ’round the world spanning two very different genres. First there’s the long-anticipated release of Kid Cudi’s concept album WZRD, featuring beats by producer Dot Da Genius and guitar riffs by the Rager. The self-titled album can be downloaded digitally at iTunes, or a physical copy can be purchased over at Amazon. Celebrate the release by heading over to Complex and checking out their online cover story that delves deep into the perfect collaboration.
Next up is a taste of what’s to come for fans of the one and only Mr. A-Z. Before dropping his third studio album on April 17, Jason Mraz is releasing a four-track live EP titled Live Is A Four Letter Word and it can be yours today: the digital-only EP is now available on iTunes. The songs were recorded from his performance at Spreckels Theater in San Diego.
Kid Cudi fans, here it is, at long last, the mastered version of “Dose of Dopeness.” Fans of Cudder have been waiting four years for this track to release, ever since he performed it at an intimate session that got posted to YouTube way back in 2008. The Dot Da Genius-produced banger carries a vibe similar to J-Kwon’s “Tipsy”, but obviously it does enough to distance itself from anything you’ve heard before. This is classic Cudder; in fact it was originally invented in ’08 when Cudi was about to blow up with another Genius-produced song “Day ‘N’ Night.” The beat is fire and the raps have an introductory swagger. In “Dopeness” Cudi talks, “Some people call me Cudi, some people call me Scott; it don’t matter what you want to call me as long as you call me something.” And at the very end he even teases the name of his debut album: “Where are we going? The moon.” Listen to and download the stellar track below. Cop the official album artwork (designed by Dat New Cudi’s DP) above.
You can expect to hear a whole lot more from Kid Cudi and Dot Da Genius soon. Their collab album WZRD drops February 28.
It has been confirmed that Ryan Murphy and company will not be putting on a Glee concert this year. After spending the past two summers entertaining Gleeks around the nation in the Glee Live! In Concert! tour, the McKinley High students are taking a well deserved break (a two-and-a-half-month hiatus, to be exact) between season 3 and (the still not yet announced) season 4 of the hit FOX musical dramedy. But fear not die-hard Gleeks; Glee producers are planning a one-off benefit concert to take place this fall at the Hollywood Bowl to raise money for the arts education charity Glee Give a Note. Though ratings have been on a decline this year, Glee co-creator Murphy has made it apparent that he has exciting plans for the future of the show. Expect FOX to make an announcement concerning Glee‘s fate this spring.
Fans of everything Jason Mraz, your time is near. The singer songwriter recently took to his blog to confirm that his fourth studio album will release earlier than previously reported on April 17–that’s less than two months away! Love Is A Four Letter Word contains a total of 12 tracks (just like his previous albums), including the popular single “I Won’t Give Up” and other songs he introduced to fans while he toured around the world. In addition to the album, Mraz will release a live digital EP appropriately titled Live Is A Four Letter Word that contains four tracks recorded from his performance at Spreckels Theater in San Diego, two of which are live versions of songs featured on the in-studio counterpart. The EP drops even sooner on February 28. Jump after the break to view the full tracklisting for both the album and the EP; below that watch the beautifully directed music video for “I Won’t Give Up.” And as a bonus, you’ll also find new live performances from the Today show and the Late Show with David Letterman. Continue reading Jason Mraz confirms ‘Love Is A Four Letter Word’ April 17 release date, tracklist & album cover, drops “I Won’t Give Up” music video→
Singer songwriter Adele came out on top at this year’s Grammys with six wins in the following major categories: Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album (21), Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Short Form Music Video (“Rolling in the Deep”), and Best Pop Solo Performance (“Someone Like You”). Other notable winners include Kanye West with four trophies for Best Rap Album (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (“All of the Lights”), and Best Rap Performance (“Otis”); Foo Fighters took home five Grammys for Best Rock Album (Wasting Light), Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song (“Walk”), Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance (“White Limo”), and Best Long Form Music Video (“Foo Fighters: Back and Forth”); Lady Antebellum won Best Country Album (Own the Night), Chris Brown’s F.A.M.E. won Best R&B Album, and Bon Iver was crowned Best New Artist and also won Best Alternative Music Album (Bon Iver, Bon Iver).
Check out this steampunk-tastic music video for David Guetta’s popular electronic dance track “Turn Me On.” It features the French DJ as a mad scientist intrigued by robots and the Trinidadian raptress plays “a mixture of the past, present, and the future” (according to the clip’s director Sanji) as she is part human and part robot. The music video makes great use of CGI and blends it with live action and this results in an eerie and enjoyable video to accompany the track. When you’re done watching jump after the break to go behind the scenes with Guetta and Sanji. Continue reading Music video: David Guetta — Turn Me On (Featuring Nicki Minaj)→
Following “Otis“, “Ni**as In Paris” is Kanye West and Jay-Z’s second single off their collaborative effort Watch The Throne. For the music video, ‘Ye and Jay spliced together footage from their recent Watch The Throne tour and edited in sexy models, jungle cats, and an insane amount of strobe lights to create a psychedelic, if not headache inducing, trip. West, who directed the clip, had to include a “Viewer discretion is advised” warning at the front of it for people with photosensitive epilepsy… so there’s that. If you think you can handle it, mash play and see what it was like to experience the WTT tour through the trippy, admittedly creative mind of Mr. West. If you can get past all of the lights, that kaleidoscope effect is actually pretty neat and effective.
You’re gonna be hearing them on the radio before you know it, so you might as well get to know Karmin ahead of time. You should already know who they are; vocalist Amy and keyboardist Nick–collectively Karmin–are the ones who made it big through YouTube by posting infectious cover tracks including a selection from Chris Brown’s catalog. After going viral they signed with Epic Records and in October they released their first single off their debut album. “Crash Your Party” is on its way to one million hits. Next week, they will be performing on SNL and to prepare for it they’ve release another new single to get the people buzzing. It’s called “Brokenhearted” and it sounds like Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj had a baby…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Regardless of how you might think something like this will resonate with you, take a listen above and prepare for Karmin to dominate the radio waves in the coming months. Their debut album is set to release later this year.
As promised, Kid Cudi and Dot Da Genius released final versions of “Teleport 2 Me” and “Brake” on iTunes on Cudi’s birthday January 30. In it’s final, full release, “Teleport 2 Me” has been renamed to include Cudder’s girlfriend’s name Jamie and “Brake” remains pretty much unaltered. Here are handy links that’ll direct you to iTunes: “Teleport 2 Me, Jamie (Featuring Desire)” / “Brake” (The songs will go international (UK, Germany, France, Japan, Australia and New Zealand) on February 13.)
After the break you’ll find larger, individual album art squares that correspond to each song. According to Mr. Mescudi, the collabo album WZRD drops February 28. And don’t forget “Dose of Dopeness” is on its way.
Kid Cudi simply could not live up to his promise of delivering his next album (tentatively titled WZRD) on his birthday, January 30. His collaborator and producer Dot Da Genius broke the unfortunate news of delay on Twitter. “We are in the final stages of mastering but we really had to take time and pay attention to the sonics as this is new territory for us,” explained Dot. He continued, “I know it’s late notice, we were trying to keep the date but got wrapped up making this album perfect for y’all.” He dropped the date February 28 as a “rough” estimated time of release. To make up for the delay, Dot did share some good news: full, mastered versions of “Brake” and “Teleport 2 Me” will show up in iTunes on the 30th of this month, along with a track Cudi fans have been waiting to hear for a long time now called “Dose of Dopeness.”
Cudi then took to his Tumblr to share the full tracklisting for the upcoming album. There is only a single featured artist on the renamed track “Teleport 2 Me, Jamie.” See below:
1. The Arrival
2. High Off Life
3. The Dream Time Machine
4. Love Hard
5. Live & Learn
6. Brake
7. Teleport 2 Me, Jamie (Feat. Desire)
8. Where Did You Sleep Last Night
9. Efflictim
10. The Upper Room
Jason Mraz is–at long last–ramping up anticipation to his long awaited fourth studio album title still TBA. The followup to September’s “The World As I See It” is a lullaby with the theme of love called “I Won’t Give Up.” According to Atlantic Records this song is the lead single off Mraz’s upcoming album so it should give fans a hint as what’s to come when all the tracks release May 8. The mellow love song is acoustic in nature and does not feature Mraz’s signature horns that were so prominent on his last effort We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The chorus goes like this: “I won’t give up on us, even if the skies get rough. I’m giving you all my love. I’m still looking up.” His voice remains angelesque.
In an interview with Billboard, he shared some insight into the making of the new album and how it will differ from his previous ones. “This new album has less horns, it’s got more piano and guitar textures. A lot more vocal landscapes,” he says. “That, to me, has always been my favorite part of making music; the singing and what voices can do and the voices singing in harmony. It’s not a departure in the sound of the genre in any way, it’s just different tones, different textures. Musically, I think people are going to like it. It’s personal. It’s melodic. And it’s mellow. There’s a couple of up-tempo tunes, but mostly the rhythm of the heartbeat kind of takes precedence on this record. Medium-tempo tunes; which I love. It feels more like the pace of life. At least, based on my life and what I’ve been doing.”
He also has plans to change up the way he performs when he’s on tour. “I’m actually hoping in the future to try to pull off the record with a smaller band, but with more singers. The real basics: drums, keys, guitar, bass. But have everyone be a singer. I think our audiences, our listeners, have been mostly attracted to that throughout the years. They come and they sing. Most of our audience sings along.”
Watch the lyric video for “I Won’t Give Up” that’s embedded above and download the song at iTunes. You can expect a traditional music video for the track to release next month, around the same time the song hits the radio. Also, according to various sources Mraz is fine tuning an “electric” full-band version of “I Won’t Give Up” and it may land a spot on the album (perhaps as a bonus track). To reiterate, May 8 is the day it comes out, so mark your calendar!
On January 7 Beyoncé gave birth to her first child with husband Jay-Z, Blue Ivy Carter. Two days later, the rapper released a song featuring their newborn credited as “B.I.C.” Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D. lent a helping hand, too. In “Glory” Jay celebrates his new baby girl: “The most amazing feeling I feel, words can’t describe what I’m feeling for real / Maybe I paint the sky blue / My greatest creation was you.” At one point Jay reveals that Beyoncé suffered a miscarriage in the past, but he manages not to linger on that topic and finishes strong with audible cries emitting from baby Blue. Listen to the beautiful track above and head over to Jay’s blog Life+Times to read the official announcement of BIC’s birth. He must’ve been in an empire state of mind when he cobbled together that blog post; the song is tagged with NYC’s landmark lit up blue.
