Four hundred fans were originally picked from the 2,000 hopefuls who applied on Facebook to what was billed as a ‘live video performance, but what began as an intimate performance for 400 fans was transformed in a matter of seconds into the most exclusive concert that Tinie Tempah has ever played.

It was the surprise of a lifetime for 21 year old fan Katie Hobbs from Southampton when 399 fans cleared the floor in a ‘flash exit’, leaving her to enjoy a completely dedicated, one-on-one performance of Wonderman, Tinie’s latest single.

Katie Hobbs said: “This has been the most amazing day of my life. Getting an exclusive gig from Tinie was simply incredible. I had absolutely no idea what was happening and before I knew it I was getting a solo performance from my favourite act. It doesn’t get any better than that!”

Commenting on his most unusual gig to date, Brit award winner Tinie Tempah said: “I owe my success to my fans, and being able to interact with them when I play live is the greatest feeling. I’ve played all sorts of gigs in all sorts of venues but never one like this before. It’s definitely my tiniest gig ever, but it’s also one of my best.”

The Tinie tie-up was created as part of O2’s Thinking of You campaign, aimed at showing how O2 values its customers. The campaign also follows a long history of O2’s support for live music in the UK with its high profile sponsorship of The O2 and O2 Academy venues.

This is how the event unfolded:

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.

wakaflockaflame

Already a million seller in the US, Waka Flocka Flame will release the single No Hands in the UK on April 18th through Warner Bros Records/Asylum/Brick Squad.

The single has become an internet phenomenon racking up over 25 million views and growing daily and features Roscoe Dash and Wale.

Waka will release his debut album Flockaveli will be released in the UK in the Spring of 2011, having already reached number six on the US Billboard Top 200 and features two further American hit singles in the shape of O Let’s Do It and Hard In Da Paint.

Born Juaquin Malphurs in Queens, N.Y., Waka Flocka certainly had all the connections to forge into music at a young age. He grew up around the corner from Ja Rule, lived near LL Cool J’s grandmother and even had a cousin who used to hang around the Lost Boyz in the mid-1990s.

But when his mother relocated the family to Georgia when Waka was eleven, he shied away from music. And after his youngest brother died in automobile accident when Waka was just fourteen, he moved even further away from it.

Waka was eighteen when his mother began managing the career of Gucci Mane, and it was this association that drew the rapper into messing around with music himself, creating a friendship with local producer Tay Beatz.

Waka recalls “I was going through so much at the time, I had so much stress and so many issues. I couldn’t release my emotions physically, so releasing them verbally was the only option I had.”

The result was the 2008 mixtape Salute Me or Shoot Me Vol 1, it’s popularity earned Waka a place in Gucci Mane’s 1017 Brick Squad clique.

But it has not all been plain sailing for the artist and in 2010 he was shot several times at a car wash in Atlanta during an alleged robbery attempt. In February the same year Method Man criticized Waka’s lack of lyricism in crafting his style of music and in May 2010 he endured a short rift in his relationship with Gucci Mane after the rapper parted ways with Waka’s mothers management company.

These incidents have earned Waka Flocka Flame a reputation as one of the most controversial artists in the industry, however the singer does not feel it is a reputation that he deserves, he says;

“People have definitely gotten the wrong impression of me so far, I don’t know why they think I’m so controversial. I guess people just don’t know the real me yet. It’s up to me to change their minds.”

Waka Flocka Flame – No Hands

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

Flo Rida_Turn Around 54321

MOBO and twice nominated Grammy artist Flo Rida releases his killer new single Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1) today, November 29th as he sets out to continue his domination of the UK charts.

Blending Flo Rida’s effortless fresh rap and r&b style with infectious dance music and hands in the air pop, Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1) follows hot on the heels of the singers recent collaboration with David Guetta with UK and US chart topper Club Can’t Handle Me. Flo Rida is also in the current charts with his collaboration with UK girl band The Saturdays with the single Higher.

Flo Rida – Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1)

Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1) also provides a taster of whats to come on Flo Rida’s third studio record, the much anticipated 8 track mini album Only 1 Flo (Pt1) which will be released on December 13th.