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By Rahman Dukes

After almost a year of addressing and dodging his old job as a prison guard, Rick Ross' Deeper Than Rap album finally hit shelves today. Lawsuits, controversies and a heated rap battle with knockout king 50 Cent filled Ross' plate, but in the end, the MC packaged it all nicely into his best work to date.

The hip-hop community was looking for 50's next chess move against Ross, which Fif threatened to deliver on Ross' album-release day, but the blow never came. The Bawse seemed totally removed from the beef and focused on his big day, which included an in-store signing at a local chain store in North Miami called BrandsMart. Many supporters came out to show Ricky love, copping his new CD and meeting him in person.

As I sat back and watched Ross signing copies of the album for fans, flanked by pal DJ Khaled and his Carol City Cartel clique, I couldn't help but wonder if I were watching the making of the next rap superstar. Only time will tell. For the duration of his battle with Fif, real heads knew the victor would be based on two things: good music and record sales. Ross gets a point for the endless hits he's been putting out these past months, but the real deciding factor will come next Wednesday, when SoundScan releases the numbers.

I'm putting my money on another #1 debut.

Tags album release, Deeper than Rap, Rick-Ross

Old people, rejoice! “American Idol” is taking us back to the good ol’ days of bellbottoms and key parties and dinosaurs. It’s DISCO NIGHT on “American Idol” and I’ll be live-blogging every groovy second of it.

MTV News’ disappointment in “Idol” selecting a genre that’s as dated as Paula Abdul’s pop culture debut is well-documented. But it’s no fun if all we do is complain so let’s look at the bright side of tonight’s (Absurd! Heinous! Disastrous! Pointless! Obsolete! Despicable! God-awful!) theme.

First of all, Paula will be choreographing the group number in tomorrow night’s results show. I don’t recall Paula ever doing The Hustle with MC Skat Cat, so I’m not entirely sure why she chose disco week to jump back on the choreography horse, but hell, I’m still excited for it.

Second of all, Lil Rounds might actually choose a good song for her voice! Who am I kidding? She’s going to pick Bette Midler’s disco version of “Strangers in the Night” just to prove that deep down inside she’s really a sassy white woman with an affinity for bad wigs.

Lastly, disco night will force the contestants to pick uptempo tracks. Last week’s movie night was a non-stop barrage of ballads. And, thankfully, Bryan Adams has never released a disco tune. Oh crap, I’m just remembering that he did do disco when he was 19 years old. (If someone sings “Let Me Take You Dancing” I might have to stab myself.)

There I go with the negativity again.

Before I threaten self-mutilation again, let’s get to the live-blogging.

7:50 pm – Missed last week’s “shocking” use of the Judges’ Save? Catch up real quick with the latest “Idol in 60 Seconds” recap.

7:53 pm – 7 minutes to go. Don’t mind me. I’m bidding on Adam Lambert crap that wackadoodles are selling on Ebay. This floor mat might be my favorite, not only because of the grammatical error but also because something tells me ONLY boys would be allowed in Adam’s room.

8:00 pm - The show is opening with a crazy intense super-tease that feels like it belongs on "Survivor." My heart is racing. The Judges' Save was "Idol history," according to history. Yeah, it was historically stupid. We all know Matt is going home again this week.

8:01 pm - Vince Neil is in the audience! He loves the Judges' Save! I also imagine he's a fan of Adam Lambert's voice-work, since Lambert is ripping off hair metal vocalists every week.

8:02 pm - So, this is odd. Even though last week's show ran crazy long, and even though we still have seven singers, the show is still going to be an hour long.

8:03 pm - Interesting! They cut the pre-performance interview taped pieces. Good call producers!

8:03 pm - Also, they're having Lil Rounds kick off the show, which means she'll probably get kicked off tomorrow. Good call producers!

8:04 pm - Lil Rounds is singing Chaka Kahn's "I'm Every Woman." I have two things to say. 1) Her skin-tight catsuit makes it look like she is hiding every single woman in her pants. Baby got back. And 2) She may be every woman, but her hairy armpits make her more like every man. Wow. Doesn't she know that hairy pits ruined Paula Cole's career 10+ years ago?

Read more...

Tags American Idol, Best, funny, jim cantiello, Live Blog, MTV News, performances

Before Susan Boyle busted into her version of "I Dreamed a Dream," when the "Britain's Got Talent" crowd was still laughing at her, she confessed that she wanted to be a singer in the mold of Elaine Paige, a famous British theater actress and chanteuse. We all know what happened next: Boyle blew everyone away and became an overnight, worldwide sensation.

But what most Americans didn't know is who the heck this Elaine Paige woman is. Apparently, she's beloved in Britain. And, according to People magazine, Paige wrote in her blog that she'd love to sing a duet with Boyle. That's sweet and all, but if Boyle is going to make it as a recording artist in the States, she's going to have to pick a much more well-known duet partner. We at MTV News really want Boyle to make it, so here's our suggestion of eight artists Boyle would be wise to start crooning with.

Katy Perry: By her own admission, Boyle has never been smooched. Who better to duet with than the woman behind the international hit "I Kissed a Girl"? Hey, maybe she'd even like it.
Read more...

Tags Celine Dion, Jonas Brothers, Katy Perry, Madonna, Melinda Dolittle, Paula Potts, Paula-Abdul, Susan Boyle, Usher

FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST: President Obama is nearing the end of his "First 100 Days." While important policy decisions, both foreign and domestic, are at hand, the president and his team must also think hard and be cautious of what kind of "personality" the White House will be perceived to have by everyone watching. Every decision Obama makes has the capacity to make him look strong, weak, timid, hawkish, radical, compromising, and the list goes on. In addition, in 2009, which he has forecasted to be a "difficult year," it is more than likely that he will be called all of those things, but will have to stay focused and strong in his decision-making.

Continue reading Kim's opinion of President Obama's decision-making at HuffingtonPost.com.

Tags huffington post, Kim-Stolz

By Joel Hanek

Chanel, everyone's favorite rapping receptionist, steals the show on "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory." She's always present when the wackiness ensues at the Fantasy Factory, but it seems like she can never get enough screen time. (For those unfamiliar with the show, she's just like the smoke monster on "Lost" but much cuter and she doesn't murder people. OK, bad analogy.)

So to get our Chanel fix, MTV News correspondent Tim Kash caught up with Rob Dyrdek on the red carpet for the premiere of the new Justin Timberlake-produced "The Phone" and asked Rob about the Internet sensation that is Chanel. Rob describes Chanel as a "young, beautiful, talented, sweet girl" who is sometimes just misunderstood. Read more...

Tags chanel, fantasy factory, Rob Dyrdek

By Rya Backer

As a production assistant, my duties on the 29th floor vary. A lot. So when it was confirmed this morning that Depeche Mode would be headlining Lollapalooza, I was brought back to a few weeks ago, when I did nothing for days but watch archived interviews with the British new-wave act — a task that had to be taken care of for MTV News Canada.

After watching hours upon hours of the band, or just the lead singer, Dave Gahan, talk about everything from fashion to their feelings on Erasure, I feel like I kind of know the guys, and there's so much to know about them. Let's just say their "Behind the Music" episode was deep — rife with drugs, bandmembers hating each other and subsequently quitting, and worlds of other gory rock-and-roll cliché details. But they've also sold more than 100 million records, and their sonic style is credited with influencing bands as diverse as Franz Ferdinand, Radiohead and Linkin Park.
Read more...

Tags Depeche Mode, Lollapalooza

By Melanie Wolfson

When it was announced last month that original Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin would be leaving the band, an open invitation was sent out to those who were willing to try out for his place.

With the first round of auditions held last week, there appears to be a front-runner in the race to become the newest Pumpkin: System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan. Read more...

Tags Jimmy Chamberlin, john dolmayan, smashing pumpkins

By Kathleen Newman-Bremang

Justin Timberlake better watch his back when he climbs Mount Kilimanjaro with fellow musicians Lupe Fiasco and Kenna. If Timberlake doesn't make it back down the massive mountain, we'll know who to blame. Fiasco jokingly warned the New York Daily News that [If things go bad out there], everybody's dying!

"I'll go psychopath, freak out and murder everyone for the sake of none of us suffering!" he said. "It would be like the ending of a Stephen King movie by the time the rescue helicopter comes."

Calm down JT fans, Fiasco hasn't gone completely insane. The rapper promised that he only has Timberlake's best interests in mind.

"I wouldn't euthanize Justin unless he was really suffering," he laughed.

Read more...

Tags Justin Timberlake, lupe fiasco

By now we've all seen the clip. Perez Hilton asks Miss California if more states should follow Vermont's lead and legalize gay marriage at Sunday night’s Miss USA Pageant, and she responds with something about "opposite marriage" and thinking that marriage should be between a man and a woman, alienating every gay person out there ... including two of the pageant judges.

And by now we've seen Perez Hilton on countless news chat shows explaining how he personally helped take Miss California down by denying her the crown for an answer he (and a lot of viewers) found offensive.

Typically, a televised beauty pageant doesn't achieve this kind of media attention, unless a contestant falls on her skinny ass, either literally or figuratively. And all the other questions posed to the pageant contestants were just as politically charged: Kelly Monaco asked about the bailout, that "Deal or No Deal" model asked about Hillary Clinton's request for a boatload of moolah for Afghanistan, Brian Graden asked about the Chris Brown/ Rihanna situation.

Read more...

Tags gay-marriage, Miss USA Pageant, Perez-Hilton, The Early Show

NEW YORK — Last night, I hit the release party for Asher Roth's Asleep in the Bread Aisle LP, the debut full-length from the young, much-hyped rapper.

Considering he's already had a mixtape out, The Greenhouse Effect, as well as a plethora of tracks all over the Internet, I almost did a double-take when I saw an "Asher Roth Release Party" invite in my mailbox — but hey, these days people seem to come to "release parties" for the party rather than the release.

And a party it was! It was held in a three-floor penthouse at the Rivington Hotel on the Lower East Side, packed with bloggers, label reps and other industry peeps — not to mention kegs and college-style party cups that each displayed the Asher Roth crown logo. Asher and his "Roth Boys," Brian Langley and Thomas Boyd, arrived at around 11 p.m. or so, and situated themselves at the back of the second floor, where a small bathroom looked out onto downtown Manhattan. Read more...

Tags Asher Roth, Party