Akon

Music Writing (and Yes, a Few GIFs) We Loved This Week

Rub your hands together for this round-up of music stories Voice music writers are reading this week. Have one that should be on our radar? Get in touch.

Pazz & Jop: Riff Raff Is Keeping It Surreal

He's believable as a hip-hop star because nothing he says is true

Q&A: French Montana On Meeting Diddy, Working With Rick Ross, And The State Of New York Hip-Hop

​French Montana, flush from having just inked the dotted line with P. Diddy's Bad Boy label, has just stepped out of the Who's Up Next barbershop in Miami's South Beach area. But while Bad Boy is plotting something of a resurgence, having also this year snapped up rapid-fire white rap firebran ... More >>

Usher

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #5: Artists for Haiti, "We Are The World 25 For Haiti"

F2K10 is a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Track our progress here. ​In 2010, when pop musicians are struggling to have half the visibility of the latest news-cycle-spawned entrant into Google Trends, it's hard not to see charity endeavors as ego extensions. Recall "Just Stand Up!," ... More >>

The Hood Internet

Download Two New jj Songs, Featuring a Sample of The xx and a T.I. Cover

let them​Mysterious Swedish duo jj have released a new single entitled let them via Sincerely Yours, featuring two tracks in the group's signature airy style, complete with semi-cheeky hip-hop influence on the A-side, an interpolation of T.I.'s "Let Them Talk." The B-side, "I'm the One/Money o ... More >>

Daddy Yankee . . . In Space!

Reggaeton gets increasingly interstellar; Latin-pop sci-fi freaks rejoice

Michael Jackson's Estate Signs $250 Million Contract With Sony, Thus Beating Jay-Z By $100 Million In Establishing the Most Absurdly Lucrative Deal, Ever

Image Courtesy of: Jean-Marc Giboux/Liaison​$250 million is by far the record for a recording artist, living or dead--the closest thing, Jay-Z's $150 million dollar deal with Live Nation, isn't really anywhere close. The fact that Jackson isn't alive to fulfill the contract is incidental--the ... More >>

Tales From Aventura Land

An enchanted evening with the Latin-pop superstars, and the ladies who adore them

Perhaps You'd Like to Stay at the Roger Smith Hotel, Courtesy of Matisyahu?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, midtown's preeminent social media-savvy and James Knowles-curated boutique hotel, the Roger Smith, is running a special promotion in the month of January. Please welcome #Rogersrooms and Matisyahu! Confused? So are we:

F2K: The 50 Worst Songs of the '00s

Since this archive page mysteriously disappeared over at its original home, consider this your new bookmark/placeholder/friend on late, lonely nights. Confused? More here. ​It's super-cute to peruse decade-end lists and pretend to be enthusiastic about true artists like Arcade Fire, timeless m ... More >>

French Montana, Jadakiss, Snoop, and Don Henley, Together at Last in the "New York Minute" Video

Your usual Jadakiss correspondent here at SOTC is enjoying a well-deserved, hopefully Internet-free vacation, so it falls to me to discuss this here video for Bronx/Akon product French Montana's "New York Minute," a hallmark of tics both conventional (immediate cameo from someone in The Wire) ... More >>

On Young Dro's "On Fire"

To the list of goofy, outsized obsessions in the Grand Hustle camp, let us now officially add Polo--meaning the sport, the clothing you wear while you play the sport, and the heretofore unknown acronym that doubles as the title for Young Dro's forthcoming record, P.O.L.O. (Players Only Live Once). ... More >>

When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Clipse Edition

Malice, of the Clipse, started a blog last week, kicking things off with an entertaining video in which he sent up his own lifestyle: the camera's opening shot, of Pyrex and baking soda, turns out to be the beginnings of a delicious waffle batter; later, the rapper runs through some of his tougher ... More >>

Please Let the Auto-Tune Jokes End: A Brief History of the Pitch-Correcting Software's Legacy

If Auto-Tune hit its peak as a joke delivery device last week amidst the spectacle of a weirdly robotic Katie Couric involuntarily singing an "O Superman"-reminiscent lament for melting polar ice caps, it also hit its nadir at about the same time, when a tape surfaced of an Auto-Tuned Martin Luthe ... More >>

On Busta Rhymes's "Number One" Featuring Akon and T.I.

A week or so ago, Sean Fennessey somewhat mischievously asked "Does Busta Rhymes Have A Classic On The Way?", a question that was brilliant in the sense that the more you thought about it, to more it started to look like it might be true. Back on B.S. was actually going to be a good album--"album ... More >>

Pink: Not Dead, Again

Funhouse is the most energetic divorce record probably ever

I Knew M.I.A. Was Pregnant Before You

Remembering When New Kid Jordan Knight Tried to Take Home a Boston Globe Reporter

Status Ain't Hood Podcast 38

The Singles Column: Coldplay, DJ Khaled, Ting Tings

Grading the iTunes Hits

Michael McDonald: Mystery White Boy

Live at the irony apocalypse

The Grammy Awards: A Running Diary

Michael Jackson's Nigh-Unstoppable Thriller Gets the 25th-Anniversary Treatment

Mr. Roboto

T-Pain triggers the long-prophesized Rise of the Machines

Ugly, Dirty, Redundant, and Toxic

Tales of disgust, depression, and ballot regret we're already feeling

The American Music Awards: A Running Diary

The VMAs: A Running Diary

Things I Learned Watching High School Musical 2

Is the Summer-Jam Dead?

NBC's Live Earth Special: A Running Diary

Status Ain't Hood's Quarterly Report: The Summer's Best Singles

Summer's Here Kids

Sweltering jams for the imminent doldrums

Noise From The Front: The Pyrotechnical Special

For the week of July 4-10, 2007

Beauty in the Beast

The mellow and wonderful travails of Nick Lowe, the eternally heartbroken heartbreaker

The Motormouth of the South

DJ Khaled is taking over, 200 words a minute and one guest-star at a time

Daddy Knows Best

At least one Yankee sounds like he'll be enjoying himself this summer

Live: Hot 97's Summer Jam

Hot 97's Summer Jam: A Preview

Evaluating This Year's Potential Summer Jams

Late-Night MTV: Total Anarchy

Hits of iTunes

Shop Till You Flop

Welcome back to Gwen's dollhouse, as garish and luscious as ever

Flow Charts

Akon's singer-who-awkwardly-raps routine was stolen and perfected by the ladies he covets

Raw Shit and Rubber Duckies

A summer's day in Newark, where famous MCs roam but unknown MCs make better drama

Alicia Keys Ruins Everything

The Quarterly Report: The Summer's Best Singles

Life After 50

Nondescript voice raps like he means it; spawns disciples