Jimmy Iovine

Live-Blogging The 2012 Grammys: Tributes, Tribulations, Skrillex, And The Return Of Adele

via Cats Who Look Like SkrillexWill this cat win Best New Artist?​Welcome to Sound of the City's liveblog of the 54th Annual Grammys, coming to you live from a couch in Astoria. There are quite a few questions lurking around tonight's ceremony. Will Adele sweep the three major categories in wh ... More >>

Here Is A Cake Shaped Like A Pair Of Those Beats By Dr. Dre Headphones You've Probably Seen Around Town

​Snapped at last night's opening party for The Beats Store, an emporium devoted to Beats By Dr. Dre, the headphone line that sprung from the collective mind of the aforementioned rapper-producer and Interscope-Geffen-A&M honcho Jimmy Iovine. (Both Dre and Iovine were present at the bash, as wa ... More >>

Radio Hits One: T-Pain Escapes Lead Single Purgatory

The Revolver cover.​On Thursday Jive Records announced that T-Pain's fourth album rEVOLVEr would be out on December 6. That same day, the rappa ternt sanga's single "5 O'Clock" reached a new Hot 100 peak of No. 25 . The timing wasn't exactly coincidental. The track, on which T-Pain is supporte ... More >>

100 & Single: The Erratic Chart Fortunes Of TV-Crowned Idols, From Kelly To Scotty

​Scotty McCreery—winner of the 10th edition of American Idol, and owner of the new No. 1 title on Billboard's album chart, Clear as Day—sets a handful of chart records this week that certainly sound impressive. As Billboard reports, McCreery is the first country act to debut at No ... More >>

Matt Pinfield, The Believer

Down on the upside with rock evangelist

50 Cent Is Done With The Album-Releasing Game

.bbpBox96091851756552193 {background:url(http://a0.twimg.com/profile_background_images/232923796/twitter-bg.jpg) #000000;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webki ... More >>

American Idol Goes Really, Really Country

Michael Becker/FOX​Oh boy, here we go. I can't possibly overemphasize how not excited I was to watch this Idol finale: Two perfectly decent singers who stick entirely within their genre--the exact same genre, even--and who both ran out of interesting tricks and wrinkles weeks ago. TMZ had a st ... More >>

American Idol Somehow Fits Three Singers Into Two Long Hours

Michael Becker/FOX​This week's endless two-hour American Idol was the annual show where the three remaining contestants all return to their hometowns to wave out of car windows at screaming children. It's an annual Idol ritual, and it really goes a lot way toward proving just how completely al ... More >>

American Idol: Jacob Lusk, You Were Too Good For This Show

Michael Becker/FOXFarewell, Jacob. ​It always happens. My end-to-end favorite contestant has never, ever won American Idol. They usually do pretty well, but they always flame out within a few weeks of the finish line because of some combination of nerves, bad choices, mass bad taste, and the f ... More >>

American Idol: No Judging, Please, We're Only Being Paid Gobs Of Money To Do So

Michael Becker/FOX​Hey, remember when enough people would get voted off American Idol and the show would go down to a much saner 60-minute running time? That was nice. Now, with only five people left, we still get a 90-minute show, with all the contestants singing twice. Maybe Fox is just dete ... More >>

American Idol: Casey Abrams Gets Sent Packing, This Time For Good

Michael Becker/FOX​ For the second time, Casey Abrams got voted off American Idol, and I honestly don't have a thing to say about it. I liked him at first, and then I got sick of him yelling and scatting at me. He ended things nicely, screaming and grunting while running around and singing "I ... More >>

American Idol Breaks Out Its Copy Of Carole King: Her Greatest Hits

Michael Becker/FOX​ The same week NBC attempts to take on American Idol by launching the loud, flashy The Voice, Idol makes one of those baffling decisions that only Idol can make: Devoting an entire 90 minutes to saluting the deeply, overwhelmingly annoying singer-songwriter Carole King. I h ... More >>

"American Idol" Drags Itself Into The 21st Century

Michael Becker/FOX​Last night's episode of American Idol started as this gramatically ridiculous question flashed on the screen: "Do you remember when they were just a face in the crowd?" No, I don't. I don't remember when they were all just one face. That would've been some weird David Cronen ... More >>

How Your Cover Sausage Gets Made: The Likely Inspirations For Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" Cover

​Late Friday night Lady Gaga released the cover for her forthcoming big deal of an album Born This Way, and reaction to it was fairly swift, and mostly "huh?" The cover, as you can see at left, features Gaga as a half-woman, half-motorcycle, and the more vocal Gaga fans out there tried to spin ... More >>

"American Idol" Season 10: Ozzfest, Bleep-Outs, And The Persistence Of Will.I.Am

Michael Becker/FOX​About five minutes after Pia Toscano's shock elimination last week, rumors surfaced that she'd signed a big deal with Interscope. Now, a major label deal is pretty much what all these kids are competing for in the first place, and this is the first time I can ever remember a ... More >>

American Idol Season 10: The Kids Honor People Who Are A Bazillion Years Old

Michael Becker/FOXC'mon, dude, you probably never even had detention. ​ Gwen Stefani was on this week's American Idol because somebody paid somebody so she could hawk the clothing line that she apparently still has. But this wasn't Ska Week or New Wave Week or Neptunes Week, as awesome as eve ... More >>

American Idol Elton John Week: Who Knew? Probably A Lot of People! But Not Thia Megia and Her Horrific Zombie Smile!

Michael Becker / FOXJames Durbin makes the piano catch fire for no reason This week is Elton John week on American Idol, and it's the same week Elton John is hosting and playing musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Why so much Elton John all of a goddamned sudden? Did God hear "Rocket Man" on his ... More >>

American Idol Season 10, Top 11: The Freaky Rictus Smile of Thia Megia

This person has no idea what Motown is. Photo courtesy Michael Becker/ FOX. ​Since last we spoke, Karen Rodriguez has gone back to MySpaceLand, Steven Tyler's wardrobe has grown impressively more absurd, and Jacob Lusk has bodied the fuck out of Heart's "Alone." I missed the last week of Ameri ... More >>

American Idol, Season 10, "Idols" Week: Ryan Adams Shout-Outs And Soaring Volcanoes

Please, Jacob Lusk, stick around as long as possible. CREDIT: Ray Mickshaw/FOX.​This was the first week we really got to see a lot of Interscope honcho Jimmy Iovine, whose role on American Idol is supposedly to mentor all the kids, but it's already clear he's only going to show up for five-min ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? Bowling With Titus Andronicus and the Joy of the Work

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! Please, this holiday season, spare a thought for these mill ... More >>

Ten Reasons Why Dr. Dre's Detox Will Be Great

Does this man have another classic in him?​Dr. Dre's long, long awaited Detox has received its latest release date, this time via a press release from Interscope's London office guaranteeing that hip-hop's most-awaited album will touch down on "February 2011." The project's first single, "Kush ... More >>

A Very Long Conversation with Comedian Reggie Watts About Williamsburg, Touring with Conan, and Brian Eno Birthday Parties That Is Totally Worth the Read

Any attempt to describe what Reggie Watts does onstage will inevitably fail to convey the dizzying heights of absurdity the man regularly achieves, but here it goes. First, the Seattle-via-Montana transplant constructs backing tracks via carefully controlled beat-boxing and judicious use of loopin ... More >>

Hm, Dr. Dre Will Be DJing at Best Buy Later Today

​This is your new Virgin Megastore in-store, I suppose. The brand new Union Square 24-hour retail outlet will host Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine , will.i.am, Major Lazer, and David Guetta for some sort of series of live appearances, starting at 4pm today. Asking "why?" is futile and probably pointless ... More >>

On Charles Hamilton, Joe Budden, Asher Roth, and the Perils of Internet Oversharing

Welcome to rap's online overdose

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Luke

Private Enemy

Two New York rappers dreamed of stardom. MF Doom got it. MF Grimm didn't.

The Royal She

Self-referential hip-hop queen mixes surface glam and soul-baring confessions

MCs Are Paid, Not Born

Straight out the thug factory, rhyming for only a year, and ready for his cover story in Vibe

A Fistful of Mighta Been

How the Miramax of Music Soundbombed

Crossover Dream

Class Trumps Race in Eminem's '8 Mile'

The Nerd Behind the Mask

2Bad for 2Pac

Cum on Feel the Webnoize

The Music Industry Turns to the Tech World for a Boost