wiz khalifa-rolling papers

Hot on the heels of his smash hit single Yellow & Black, Pittsburgh’s self styled rap artist Wiz Khalifa has announced his latest ‘official video’ for the track Roll Up, another track form his debut album Rolling Papers due for release on March 29th.

Khalifa started rapping in the third grade of high school and by the age of fourteen was already recording his own songs with a deal with Rostrum Records on the cards.

In 2005 Wiz released his first mixtape, “Prince of the City: Welcome to Pistolvania.” The mixtape was quickly accepted by the local scene and began to gain buzz outside of Pittsburgh.

With that excitement growing by the day, it was the perfect time for a proper commercial album. Wiz soon recorded “Show and Prove,” which Okayplayer.com claimed was “arguably the best album of the year.” The accolades began piling up and Khalifa was receiving significant co-signs from XXL, Rolling Stone, and VIBE, alike. A deal with Warner Bros. Records soon followed.

After a falling out with Warner Bros in 2009, Khalifa simply worked harder to get his independent recordings heard producing three highly acclaimed mixtapes: “Flight School,” “How Fly,” a collaborative mixtape with New Orleans rapper Curren$y, and “Burn After Rolling.” The album “Deal Or No Deal” followed in the Fall and debuted at the top of the iTunes “Hip-Hop” chart, and has remained in the top 50 to date.

By 2010 Khalifa had established himself as one of raps rising stars and certainly one to watch for in the future. Now signed to Atlantic Records the rapper has grown in popularity on a daily basis, a big star on the social media websites where he has amassed 3,000,000 friends on Facebook and over 1,300,000 following his Twitter account.

Khlifa’s first release on Atlantic, Yellow & Black received over 55 million views and already Roll Up is close to four and a half million views.

His highly anticipated debut album Rolling Papers is released on Atlantic Records on Monday March 29th and promises to be something really special.

If you fancy taking part in this amazing experience, the details are below:

Extras wanted: Do you want to star in a special live video performance with
Tinie Tempah?

Groups of up to 4 mates that love Tinie are needed to come down to a shoot in London on
Wednesday 30th March

You must be 16 or over and available all day. This is an amazing opportunity to be part of something big alongside
Tinie himself.

The shoot is unpaid and it will be a long day (12-11pm) but there will be a few surprises along the way.

You have 48 hours to apply so hurry! Places are limited and on a first come first served basis.

Visit the Tinie Tempah website to apply.

FLO RIDA - photo zach wolfe

Hip hop sensation Flo Rida is preparing to release his new dance floor smash Who Dat Girl featuring Akon on March 28th through Atlantic Records.

Taken from the mini album Only 1 Flo (Pt1), Who Dat Girl is the third track to be released as a single following the massive success of Club Can’t Handle Me featuring David Guetta and the previous hit Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1).

Fresh from Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball where Flo performed not only his own club anthems but the top 10 hit, ‘Higher’ with pop starlets, The Saturdays, the megastar is back and ready to continue to reign the charts.

Already having clocked up over 7million YouTube hits, Who Dat Girl is well on its way to the top of the UK singles chart and finds the genre-busting rapper team up with R’n’B superstar and producer, Akon, creating a perfect blend of Flo’s signature stop-and-go flow, melodic sensibility and massive hooks.

The video will help promote the single, featuring party goers painting each other in luminous body paint, as you do.

On discussing the influence of ‘Who Dat Girl’, Flo says he wanted to showcase the experiences his glittering success has brought him since the release of his first two chart topping albums, Mail On Sunday and R.O.O.T.S.

The single Who Dat Girl is released on March 28th and is taken from the mini album Only 1 Flo (pt1) which is available now.

Lupe Fiasco - LASERS

Back on October 15th 2010 a wonderful demonstration of the strength of people power occured when hoards of Lupe Fiasco fans stormed the Atlantic Records HQ in New York demanding that they release the rappers third album.

A few months on and the wait is finally over, first came the release of the excellent single The Show Must Go On released to critical acclaim on February 21st and picked up by Zane Lowe on Radio 1 as his ‘Hottest Record’ while the accompanying video has reached in excess of 7million views since being posted.

The sensational new album is called LASERS, an acronym for ‘Love Always Shines Everytime: Remember to Smile’ and finds Lupe Fiasco aiming his wares at a bigger mainstream audience with this radio friendly crossover album, while hopefully retaining his credibility with his hard core fans.

LASERS is a collection of hit singles in the waiting from the opener Letting Go feat. Sarah Green to the final track Never Forget, a collaboration with John Legend, the album provides endless sing out loud moments as you practise your moves around the house.

This is a collection of  the most substantial melodic and thought provoking songs that Fiasco has ever conceived, throwing his pop sensibilities into the mix with collaborations on record and production alongside the likes of Trey Songz, John Legend, Skylar Grey, Jerry Wonder and The Neptunes.

As you would imagination from a rap artist of Lupe Fiasco’s standing the album brims with political comment, never more evident than on the tracks Words I Never Said, State Run Radio and All Black Everything.

Fiasco takes a swipe at Barack Obama on Words I Never Said as well as unloading his frustration with the media and politics in general, Fiasco makes it clear that he did not vote for the US President.

Fiasco takes a different angle on All Black Everything saying, ” I just started thinking, what if things had gotten off on a totally different foot? What if they just came over to Africa and said ‘We want you guys to work for us?’”

It will be interesting to hear State Run Radio played on our own state run BBC radio, it is an infectious track that has to be released sometime in the future as a single. Whether they notice that it is about stations that constantly play the same handful of records, over and over again, remains to be seen!

Lupe Fiasco – The Show Goes On

Lupe Fiasco releases the sensationl new album LASERS today (March 7th) on Atlantic Records

Black & Yellow - Wiz Khalifa

Following the unprecedented success of his single Black & Yellow in the USA, Wiz Khalifa releases the track in the UK today (March 7th) via Atlantic Records.

No longer one of hip-hop’s best kept secrets, Wiz Khalifa is currently one of the hottest names in rap, thanks to the phenomenal success of the track Black & Yellow that has so far clocked up over 40million views on YouTube.

Black & Yellow is taken from the upcoming album Rolling Papers, which is released later this month on March 28th.

Despite being relatively new to a UK audience, tickets for the Pittsburgh native’s forthcoming gig at West London’s Shepherds Bush Empire on May 17 sold out in less than 40 minutes, whilst his May 18 gig at East London venue XOYO, had to be upgraded to the Kentish Town Forum to satisfy demand.

The track, Black & Yellow, is inspired by Wiz’s love for the American Football team – Pittsburgh Steelers (who recently lost the super bowl to the Green Bay Packers) and is enjoying massive radio support in the UK with play listings at the Capital Network and Kiss as well as A-listing at Radio 1 and A-listings at Choice FM and Radio 1Xtra. The remix features Snoop Dogg, Juicy J and T-Pain.

Wiz Khalifa has just been announced as the cover star on the next issue of Rolling Stone magazine, an accolade if ever there was one!

DDM-AssOnTheFloor

The Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs led collective Diddy-Dirty Money will release Ass on the Floor as the next single from their acclaimed debut album, Last Train to Paris. The Swizz Beats produced smash song has been an avid favourite amongst fans, radio listeners and partygoers the world over and will be released in the UK on 18th April.

Sampling Major Lazer’s‘Pon De Floor, Ass on the Floor is a bubbling, feel good number, vocally led by Dirty Money song birds Kalenna and Dawn, choral chants from Swizz Beats with a single, emotive rap verse from Diddy who croons: “How could you ever doubt me?/ when I stood by you proudly/  I would have gave my last breath/ now you can’t breathe without me.”

Diddy-Dirty Money comprises of Combs, singer songwriter Dawn Richard, a founding member of girl group Danity Kane, and songwriter Kalenna Harper.

On Ass On The Floor the trio dish up a stunning,  infectious and massive track that is equally suited to radio airplay as it is on the club scene, a floor filler wherever you may be. It is already a massive hit on YouTube, clicking up over 1,750,000 hits in three months. It is going to be a monster hit.

Diddy-Dirty Money – Ass On The Floor

Diddy-Dirty Money’s last single, Coming Home sustained a top 10 UK chart position for 4 weeks and continues to ride the official UK singles chart.

An electro hip-hop soul funk experience blending elements of UK grime, Mediterranean techno and the 808s of American hip-hop, the Last Train To Paris album represents a sound Combs calls “train music,” new dance music for the new decade.  Along with T.I., the album features an array of mega music stars including Lil Wayne, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Drake, Chris Brown, Grace Jones, Trey Songz and Bilal.  Among the illustrious roster of producers are Danja, Polow Da Don, Sean Garrett, Tricky Stewart, The Dream, Swizz Beats, Rodney Jerkins, D’Mile and Mario Winans.

n dubz

In a groundbreaking move N Dubz have created a music video for the track Took It All Away, taken from their latest album Love. Live.Life, on a PlayStation games console.

The video for the song has been created using PlayStation’s LittleBigPlanet 2 game and has been directed by N Dubz and Partizan music video director Henry Schofield.

LittleBigPlanet 2 gives users unprecedented access to animate and create, pushing the boundaries of what it means to game. Since its creation LittleBigPlanet has always had a relationship with hot music acts including collaborations with Lily Allen, The Horrors, Scissor Sisters, The Script, Tinchy Stryder and Chipmunk.

The idea for the Play.Create.Share video was to create the biggest and best N-Dubz video of all time taking cues from the band’s previous music promos, elements of the LittleBigPlanet2 world such as key character Sackboy™ and some of the classic formulas used in hip hop videos.

Speaking about the collaboration, Dappy said:  “We have always been huge fans of PlayStation and the opportunity to be immortalised within LittleBigPlanet2 and create a world first between music and gaming is a big a deal for us.”

The collaboration can also be viewed on www.youtube.com/littlebigplanetuk where there is a special competition for fans of the band to create their own LBP2 music videos for ‘Took It All Away’, win the chance to meet the band and see them play at their April arena tour.

Incredibly the single has been in the Top Ten of the US Billboard hip hop chart for over three months and has achieved sales of 2 million in his homeland.

Set to be a sensation in 2011, Khalifa will visit the UK for two London shows in May, Shepherds Bush Empire on 17th and XOYO on 18th, the bad news is that they are already sold out!

Wiz Khalifa – Black & Yellow

sugarhill gang

Ultimate Boogie Nights present a triple header Christmas show featuring some of the pioneers of hip hop, disco and funk at the Indigo2 on December 17th.

Topping the bill are The Sugar Hill Gang in their original formation, the trio are credited with being the band that bought rapping into the mainstream with their 1979 single Rappers Delight.

The band were instrumental in making hip hop music accessible to the masses and their reign continued with infectious jams such as Apache (Jump On It) – as made popular through a dance skit in actor Will Smith’s early 80’s comedy ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ – and the classic track‘8^th Wonder’ which rapper Busta Rhymes samples in ‘Woo Ha’.

Discovered as a sixteen year old in the washroom of the Philadelphia International Records HQ, Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King burst onto the disco scene with her gold certified single Shame, the single was most recently acknowledged by the singers induction into the official Dance Music Hall of Fame.

Back in the seventies she went on to record more disco hits including I Don’t Know If  It’s Right,  I’m In Love and Love Come Down.

The quintessential 80’s funkmeister Tom Browne came to prominence with the release of the single Funkin’ For Jamaica in 1980, featuring the vocals of Tonni Smith. The song was later re-worked by Mariah Carey for her Glitter album in 2001.

Tom’s other Funk smashes include the South African inspired Fungi Mama and smooth grooved Bye Gones, while boasting 10 albums under his belt spanning from 1979 with Browne Sugar in 1979 through to R ‘N’ Browne in 1999. As a live instrumentalist as well as singer, the great detail and finesse is Tom’s music is absolutely brought to life when heard live.

After the live entertainment the party will continue until 2am with DJs playing disco, funk and club classics to keep you in that old school spirit.

Ultimate Boogie Nights December 17th at the Indigo2 at the O2, tickets from SeeTickets.com

Perhaps best known for his work as a hip hop artist, on the debut album Everything in Moderation, BYOB displays a refreshing style in a mad mix of energy, cheeky lyrics and musical chaos.

Despite some explicit lyrics on a few of the tracks the album is packed chock full of potential hit tunes  that kicks off with the popular Lady GaGa favourite Best Shoes, a cracking dance track that has already earned national radio support.

There is a general feeling of fun throughout the album, tongue in cheek lyrics are demonstrated early on in the fabulous tracks Chillin’ and followed with Peaches, a nice re-working of the Stranglers hit nicely marrying grime with pop music and bringing the track bang up to date.

BYOB – Peaches

The stand out track on a brilliant debut album is the iconic dance track Save My Life, the track is probably the best known on the album having again been supported by Radio 1 and is included in two versions, the album version which closes the collection along with the superb J Majik & Wickaman collaboration.

Other stand outs are the mellow Sunshine Highway and the two tone-esque Out To Play, a track that might easily have been written and performed by Madness with its cheeky lyrics and vocals and catchy refrain;

” ‘Cos me and the boys yeah we’re out to play, just grab a couple of drinks and we’re on the way, I don’t really care about the time of day, ‘Cos I ain’t gotta work in the morning:”

The humour is continued on the track Prescription, a song about prescription drug addiction to the tune of Walk Like An Egyptian, with those lyrics changed to “Taking drugs that are on prescription.”

Overall this is an assured debut album, a well produced work that manages to amalgamate a mix of various styles of music stamped with the BYOB trade mark, while appealing to the masses.

Everything in Moderation by BYOB is released on Loaded Records on October 25th.