With last year’s class acclimating themselves with the real world (some better and more successfully than others), XXL returns with the much anticipated Class of 2010. If you remember, an early version of this list was leaked online which was later proven as inaccurate. Thanks to the world’s greatest confessional, also known as Twitter, look for these names to grace the cover.
1. Nipsey Hussle
2. Wiz Khalifa
3. Freddie Gibbs
4. Pill
5. Jay Rock 6. Big Sean 7. Fashawn 8. J. Cole
9. OJ the Juiceman
10. Donnis
That’s all I have confirmed thus far, but when taking an overall analysis of Hip-Hop and the newcomers who have made/will be making an impact the next 11 and a half months, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out who’s missing. Then again, there could be some surprises too. FYI, the class took their school portraits on January 18 at a photo shoot at Industria Studio in New York.
FYI - Nicki Minaj & Drake both declined to be on issue. Count them out
MTV changed its logo for the first time in roughly 30 years on Monday.
It was a minor change with major symbolism. The network — known more for its scripted reality show programming these days than the music videos and industry it revolutionized — dropped the “Music Television” tagline from the Frank Olinsky-designed original.
With the new look, MTV had those “Jersey Shore”-watching millennials in mind. Via the press release:
“It represents a new visually defined MTV, stimulating its past, present and future and embracing its diversity. Everything from Jersey Shore, to the VMAs to collaborations with the MoMA. The logo is part of MTV’s re-invention to connect with today’s millennial generation and bring them in as part of the channel.”
And with that, “Music Television” can officially rest in peace.
Courtesy of NME — Frances Bean Cobain sings as part of a “gang” on Dresden Dolls side-project
Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s daughter Frances Bean is to make her singing debut on a track also featuring My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, Andrew WK, and Weird Al Yankovic.
Seventeen-year-old Cobain sings on “My Space,” which will appear on the eponymous debut album by Evelyn Evelyn, who are made up of Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer and Seattle musician Jason Webley.
Other acts on the track include Tegan & Sara, ex-Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay, Margaret Cho, Eugene Mirman, and various members of Mindless Self-Indulgence, reports Twentyfourbit.com.
The album Evelyn Evelyn is due to be released on March 30.
In December, Courtney Love lost custody of Frances Bean Cobain.
Saturday, January 23, 2010 - by Shawn Oliver It’s sort of hard to believe that all the hype from CES is already over and done with. Larger companies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to introduce and showcase new products at the show, and now all anyone wants to talk about in the tech world is Apple. Must be nice to be Steve Jobs (or an investor). The company that gave the world the iPod and iPhone is planning a media event on the 27th of this month, and while the world tends to believe a tablet or slate of some sort is planned, there has been no definite proof of that to this point.
We really have no idea what’s next from Apple; we just know that it’ll be something to unleash one’s creative side according to a tagline in the invite. According to an inside source close to the going-ons involved in all of this, a new tablet of some sort may not be the only thing on deck for next Wednesday though. We have been led to believe by an inside source that AT&T will lose their iPhone exclusivity on the same day, though it’s not yet clear what other carrier (or carriers) will be stepping in to also carry the phone. For anyone who has followed the saga, you may notice that you haven’t seen AT&T fighting to extend their original exclusive agreement of late. In fact, they have spent most of their time fighting Verizon’s negative ad campaign.
This may not be all that surprising. Inside of AT&T, we are hearing that the iPhone is causing more trouble than ever before. On some level, having the iPhone is hurting AT&T’s image. Because they are the only company to carry it, and it’s such a data hog, it’s largely to blame for AT&T’s network troubles. We don’t remember hearing about AT&T’s “horrible network” before the iPhone–do you? The iPhone itself doesn’t really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very well, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail whenever the 3G bands aren’t optimal and the phone attempts to step down to EDGE. It seems that AT&T is tired of taking the heat for this, and at this point, they may be smart to just let another carrier take some of those customers who are most inclined to complain.
We also heard that when AT&T loses their grip on the iPhone, they’ll be introducing a bunch of other new smartphones with new platforms in order to “compensate.” At CES, it was announced that new Windows Mobile, Android and webOS-based phones were destined to land on AT&T, but few details were provided as to when. Now, it seems the puzzle pieces are beginning to slot together. It’s possible that AT&T recently went searching for deals with other phone makers in order to proactively bolster its smartphone lineup for when this day-of-doom would come. AT&T has gained a huge amount of subscribers from being the only operator with the iPhone, and if it loses that advantage, it’ll need some other cutting-edge, high-brow phones to keep people’s attention.
One big happy family soon?
It’s hard to say what’ll happen if a carrier like Verizon gets the iPhone. Will existing iPhone users on AT&T run in droves to switch, regardless of the early termination fee? Will existing AT&T iPhone users stick with their plan? Maybe Apple will simply see a new influx of iPhone users, as customers who were always wary of AT&T finally make the jump now that the phone is a on a network with better perceived quality? We still have to take all of this as rumor for now, but we have very good reason to believe that we’ll see AT&T quietly (or perhaps not so quietly) lose its grip on the iPhone come Wednesday. What happens after that is anyone’s guess, but we would expect the overall iPhone market share in the US to surge quite significantly if it’s made available on a CDMA carrier.
Ever-Shifting Release Date Prompts Lil’ Wayne Leak…
Only the details are different, but another big-name release is now leaking. Lil’ Wayne’s upcoming Rebirth, recently pushed to early February, is now an easy grab online. Billboard blames Amazon for accidentally shipping pre-orders way ahead of schedule, based on an earlier in-store of December 21st. That may be true, though constantly-shifting release dates meant that lots of pre-release product was floating around, the ingredients for a near-certain leak.
Either way, Wayne label Motown Universal is faced with a very difficult set of choices. A shift back into December is probably impossible at this stage, though the long stretch into February almost guarantees that fans will jump online to get a free copy. That could soften the sales tally, though Wayne has stared down leaks before. Despite a pre-release leak in mid-2008, Tha Carter III scored first-week sales of more than one million, and 3.3 million to date.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, Marshall has sold a combined 32.2 million albums in the 2000’s. Men lie, women lie— well, you know the rest. Read ‘em in weep haters.
1. The Beatles, 1, 11,499,000 units sold
2. ‘NSYNC, No Strings Attached, 11,112,000 units sold
3. Norah Jones, Come Away With Me, 10, 546,000 units sold 4. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, 10,204,000 units sold
5. Eminem, The Eminem Show, 9,799,000 units sold
6. Usher, Confessions, 9,712,000 units sold
7. Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory, 9,663,000 units sold
8. Creed, Human Clay, 9,491,000 units sold
9. Britney Spears, Oops! … I Did It Again, 9,185,000 units sold
10. Nelly, Country Grammar, 8,461,000 units sold
Snoop is having a big album release party with Travis Barker on December 8th in Los Angeles called “Decade” – celebrating 10 years of Barker’s Stars and Straps company and Snoop’s 10th studio album release, Malice In Wonderland.
We – on behalf of the Cashmere Agency – are offering 2 pairs of tickets to your readers to attend the party as well. How to win? If you reside in the Southern California area, simply put your name and legitimate email address in the c-section below (put your email in the slot where it’s required only). We’ll randomly pick two people before the day is out to win. It’s that simple.
2008 was the year of free streaming music. When MySpace Music entered the fray a little over a year ago, it seemed like the music labels had finally relented, and were willing to experiment with free streaming music to users. The future looked bright.
2009 is the year of reckoning. The European launch of Spotify, which offers users free streaming music on demand, was an affirmation of the trend. Soon Spotify would launch in the U.S., too, the company said.
Things are changing.
Spotify is now saying that they must delay their U.S. launch. They don’t want to launch here with a paid-only model, and the big labels are signaling that they won’t have it. From the NYTimes last month, quoting Sony Music: “We like Spotify as our partner in Europe, but we would like them to move more toward a paid subscription environment.”
And that isn’t the only bad news. MySpace Music is “almost certainly” going to severely restrict free streaming to users, say multiple sources, and move to a paid model. “They are spending $20 million/month on streaming royalties, and that just isn’t sustainable,” said one source with knowledge of MySpace’s relationships with the labels. Other sources have said that MySpace’s royalty payments are much lower, but don’t deny that the service is a cash hole.
MySpace won’t comment on this story, but they have a deadline to all this. The Google search deal is up next year, and $300 million/year in revenue will evaporate. Changes need to happen soon. The last payment of $75 million is due on June 20, 2010.
