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You don't see a whole lot of hip-hop supergroups any more. Why is that? Is it because most artists already have a posse of their own and feel a stronger need to promote within the family than on the outside? Or is it because they tend to go horribly awry? The Firm couldn't deliver despite a great lineup and spectacular buzz, and Gravediggaz could only manage one album's worth of greatness. Remember the promising-but-flat Def Squad, or the stillborn collaboration between Jay-Z, Ja Rule and DMX? Whatever the case, there was at least one trio of stars who managed to deliver when they formed like Voltron and delivered one of the last great releases of the '90s gangsta era. On this day in 1996, Westside Connection — consisting of Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC (aka the Gangsta, the Killa and the Dope Dealer) — dropped their debut album Bow Down.

Prior to their full-length debut, the three Los Angeles-based members of Westside Connection appeared on a few tracks together (most notably on the song "Westside Slaughterhouse," from Mack 10's 1995 self-titled debut). The trio's debut album was immediately gobbled up by the hip-hop community, as it not only featured some great interplay between three great lyricists but also sported some top-shelf Dr. Dre-biting late period G-funk (especially on the title track and the media evisceration "All the Critics in New York"). Strangely, Bow Down also represents one of the main mile markers of the beef between the group and Cypress Hill (there are several references throughout the album, though "King of the Hill" is the clearest diss).

Bow Down went on to sell nearly two million copies, though Westside Connection didn't put out a second album until 2003 (and Mack 10 left the group shortly thereafter). Still, "Bow Down" remains a stellar keepsake from the gangsta era, and the video shows all three members in their west coast finest.

Tags Ice-Cube, Mack 10, The Dope Dealer, The Gangsta, The Killa, video, WC, Westside Connection

For reasons even I don't entirely understand, I have been reading a lot of old issues of Spin magazine recently. Most of the best issues in my personal archive (which is vast, by the way — a combination of issues I kept and ones I acquired when I worked at Spin from 2004 to 2007) are from 1996, 1997 and 1998. It's the '97 issues that most blow my mind, as they are filled cover to cover with the last gasp of the grunge era, lots of coverage about how Diddy was killing hip-hop and, perhaps most importantly, a full-court press over the electronica revolution that was supposedly in the process of changing the way we listen to rock music (especially in the "alternative" universe).

A bit of context: After grunge fell apart in the wake of Kurt Cobain's suicide, record executives, trendspotting fans and music writers were desperately digging around for the next big thing in the rock world. Rap metal wouldn't have its big pop moment for another year or two, and the bands left over from the early '90s alternative revolution were either breaking up (Soundgarden), willfully becoming more obscure (Pearl Jam) or stumbling over their own success (everybody else). That left a void in the alternative market, and because of the rise of intelligent dance music (which was really just club-based subgenres that used more pop elements, like verse-chorus-verse structures, organic instruments and actual vocals), everybody thought this new wave of cyber artists would completely re-arrange how we listened to music in the future.

Of course, the breakout electronica acts of the era (the Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and the like) didn't have the kind of longevity that pop pundits (and dance apologists) were hoping for (in fact, all three of those acts had re-entrenched themselves as rave devotees after taking some time to do more traditional rock-type tours). No matter how close some of the albums came to true rock and roll transcendence (especially the Prodigy, which seemed to bring enough guitars and punk fashion into the mix to make them into a stadium-filling rock act), nobody managed to truly make dance music into the kind of rock replacement some thought was inevitable.

However, that's not to say that the electronica revolution didn't have some lasting effects. Indeed, the bands who attempted to create the elusive mix of dance music and rock traditionalism were often rewarded with stunning, mind-bending results. For all their faults, U2's Zooropa and Pop both managed to balance twitchy beats with their more traditional approach to songwriting. Of course, Radiohead's OK Computer became one of the best-regarded rock records of all time, and electronica-embracing collections from Smashing Pumpkins, Blur and R.E.M. were all flawed-but-fascinating experiments. Plus, the move toward an interest in dance music simultaneously facilitated the resurrection of post-punk, which gave rise to the millennial rock of the Strokes, the Killers, Interpol and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Even the Rolling Stones threw some scratching onto the barstool blues of their '97 album Bridges to Babylon.

I was so convinced that electronica was going to be the wave of the future (and I was so obsessed with being ahead of the curve) that I invested gobs of allowance money on Spin-endorsed dance records. Some of them fell way, way short (I'm looking at you, Roni Size/Reprazent's New Forms), but many of them were excellent (and still sort of hold up). Dance music is finding a peak again, but it has managed to cross over in the mainstream while staying true to itself (considering how entrenched most of these modern DJs are, it's more like the mainstream has gone to them). Because of that, they don't really make any attempts to appeal to anybody not dancing right in front of them. For a look into the way rock music was supposed to go circa 1997, check out albums like Prodigy's The Fat of the Land, Chemical Brothers' Dig Your Own Hole, Underworld's Beaucoup Fish, Tricky's Pre-Millennium Tension, Portishead's Portishead, the Crystal Method's Vegas, Aphex Twin's Richard D. James, Moby's Play and Leftfield's Leftism. If you need an immediate fix, dig the video for Chemical Brothers' "Elektrobank," which features a drop-in from Def Squad member Keith Murray.

Tags Chemical Brothers, video

"Personally, I think it's not a big deal. Lea is 23 years old and has every right to do that. I mean, come on! We're obviously not in high school. It's tongue-in-cheek that we're in high school. People are starving, [Dallas] Cowboys are losing — there's more important things to worry about in the world."

-"Glee" star Mark Salling, dismissing the controversy that has built up over the sexy pictorial in the current issue of GQ that features "Glee" stars Lea Michele, Corey Monteith and Dianna Agron. The super-sexy photos — which feature a particularly sexed-up Michele wearing an extremely short skirt and sucking seductively on a lollipop — seemed par for the course for most magazines looking to move a few units, but the Parents Television Council (fresh off their condemnation of the latest Miley Cyrus video) declared that the photo spread in question "borders on pedophilia" (despite the fact that everybody involved is of age and are only teenagers in the fictional reality of "Glee").

The photos have fiercely divided people — including the stars themselves. Aragon blogged about the reaction after people bristled about the overt sexiness. "In the land of Madonna, Britney, Miley, 'Gossip Girl,' other public figures and shows that have pushed the envelope and challenged the levels of comfort in their viewers and fans ... we are not the first," she wrote. "Now, in perpetuating the type of images that evoke these kind of emotions, I am sorry. If you are hurt or these photos make you uncomfortable, it was never our intention."

What did you think of the photos of the stars of "Glee" in GQ? Let us know in the comments!

Tags Glee, Quote

By Sangeetha Shanmugham

Having seen Kings of Leon six times in concert, I thought I had the Followill brothers all figured out, but apparently I couldn't have been more wrong. One half of the Tennessee-based rock band (brothers Caleb and Jared Followill) paid a visit to the MTV Newsroom for a conversation with Rock Editor James Montgomery yesterday, and I was prepared to be disappointed. After all, I had a certain perception of the band, and seeing how they really were made me nervous. (Thankfully, I was wrong about that too.)

Instead, they reminded me why their albums dominate my iPod, why I spin them every morning on my commute, why I sacrificed a pair of gorgeous Gucci shoes for some concert tickets and why they are clearly in for the long haul in a tumultuous music industry landscape.

The brothers' usually quiet demeanor dropped when they admitted that they consciously wanted to make Come Around Sundown into an album that "rocks." I feared turning into a puddle when Jared added that they just wanted to make memorable music regardless of the label they were signed to. When asked why the group chose "Radioactive" as the first single from Come Around Sundown, Caleb let us see his self-critical side as he confessed to being upset about it because he had thought that the vocals weren't his best work and that he may have let his fans down.

Most importantly: Are they swoon-worthy in person? Yes! Do they know that? Not really. Mainstream musicians love to tell us that they do what they do because they love it. Usually you can see right through it, but not with these Nashville natives — they clearly care about it and they make you care about it. Maybe it was the fact that they were so polite, maybe it was because they looked every bit as gorgeous as they appear on screen or maybe — just maybe — they meant every word of it.

Tags kings of leon, video

Every day a multitude of stars wander through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

Most of Jay-Z's life has been lived in public, and the stories of his rise to fame and fortune have been told over and over again (both in the media and in his frequently autobiographical lyrics), but the legendary rapper (born Shawn Carter) has never seen a book about his life published. That all will change on November 16, when Jigga drops "Decoded," a tome that combines stories about his growing up with his lyrics (many of which are being formally written down for the first time, as Jay always keeps his words inside his skull). In the lead-up to the book, Jay has partnered with Bing for a mind-bending Internet scavenger hunt that kicked off last night with a party at the Delano Hotel in Miami. Clues are slowly being released that lead to lyrics people can track down in the real world, and the lucky few who manage to crack the code will be eligible to receive a grand prize of an autographed copy of the book and a trip to Las Vegas to see Jay and Coldplay in concert on New Year's Eve. Think you can figure it out? Good luck.

Hova wasn't the only star pleasing the people, as Selena Gomez took the stage for a concert in London and French dance rock sensation Phoenix took the stage at New York's Madison Square Garden for a sold-out show that featured a guest appearance from fellow countrymen Daft Punk. Click here for these photos as well as the entire "Spotted" archive, which features over 500 candid shots of stars like Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Katy Perry, Adam Lambert, the Jonas Brothers, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, the Black Eyed Peas and 50 Cent!

Tags Jay-Z, photo, Spotted!

Conan O'Brien's "Live CoCo Cam" just wrapped up its 24-hour broadcast day, and it did it in news-worthy fashion. After a morning full of interns playing Twister and a visit from a mariachi band, the live stream concluded with a dance party (featuring a battle between a taco and a bear that would have fit right in as a part of that new Chris Brown video) and a wacky puppet show that concluded with the announcement of the guest lineups for the first week of "Conan" episodes, which kick off on Monday, November 8.

The first episode will feature Seth Rogen, a musical performance from Jack White and the winner of the "First Guest Poll" hosted at O'Brien's official Web site. The options there include the obvious (Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Jack Nicholson), the sublime (the entire case of the live action "Fat Albert" movie) and the ridiculous (Pope Benedict XVI, reclusive writer Thomas Pynchon). Nicholson currently leads the voting (with Gaga not terribly far behind), so it will be interesting to see exactly how they decide to deliver on this particular poll (though you can almost certainly count on Robert Smigel getting involved in some way).

The rest of the week features some pretty big names as well. The second show (Tuesday, November 9) will have Tom Hanks, "30 Rock" star Jack McBrayer and a musical performance by Soundgarden. Show number three (Wednesday, November 10) will have "Mad Men" star Jon Hamm, actress Charlyne Yi ("Paper Heart") and the first television performance by Fistful of Mercy (the supergroup the brings together Ben Harper, Dhani Harrison and Joseph Arthur). Finally, the final show of the first week (Thursday, November 11) will feature Michael Cera, "Modern Family" star Julie Bowen and a stand-up set from comedian John Dore.

That's a pretty big first week, featuring a healthy mix of familiar faces (O'Brien seems to be constantly talking to Hanks and White) and new experiments (the interview with Yi should be interesting and delightfully off-kilter). And as if the first show needed any more anticipation, it also creates a buzz around whoever will win their poll. After 24 hours, the "Live CoCo Cam" was both thrilling and exhausting, but it certainly got the buzz up about one of this year's biggest television events.

Who are you most looking forward to seeing on the first week of "Conan"? Let us know in the comments!

Tags Conan O'Brien, Late Night, Talk Shows

Chris Brown is a strange creation who seems to constantly be straddling the line between the old school and the future. His music — especially his current hit "Yeah 3X," whose video just premiered this morning on MTV — is straight from the 23rd century, a twitchy club banger full of electricity and space-age sounds. But Brown's approach to the video is totally throwback, as "Yeah 3X" casts him as a dance-happy ringleader in a colorful alternate universe where everybody is popping and locking all the time.

Not only does Brown possess a sweet singing voice and knows his way around a beat, but people often forget what a tremendous dancer he was (the Michael Jackson comparisons that came early in his career were mostly for his ability to move and not necessarily for his ability to sing or generate hits). "Yeah 3X" shows off all of Brown's best moves, which combine classic break moves with the more modern "Step Up" style stunt dancing (incorporating enough flips to fill a floor routine at a gymnastics competition). In the clip's key scene, Brown squares off against another dancer in a twitchy pas de deux in front of some sort of business establishment called "Popin Pete's."

"Yeah 3X" is the first single from Brown's upcoming album F.A.M.E., which is due in stores some time in early 2011. It's Brown's quick turnaround follow-up to 2009's Graffiti and is also hot on the back of "Deuces," Brown's mixtape duet with Tyga and his biggest single in years.

What do you think of Chris Brown's video for "Yeah 3X"? Let us know in the comments!

Tags Chris Brown, photo

By Jenny McCoy

Today, Kings of Leon arrived in the MTV Newsroom just in time for me to turn into an 11-year-old girl. (Greasy hair from incessant twirling and sweaty feet? Check!) But before we get into the details of their visit (wherein they talked about hipsters, money and their great new album Come Around Sundown), here's an overview of my KOL fan stats: I bought my first KOL album in the summer of 2008, I now know and like every song they've ever made and when I saw them play in Miami in 2009, singer Caleb Followill made eye contact with me several times even though I was in the upper deck of the arena.

But let's get back to the present. When I heard they were coming to the MTV Newsroom, my transition from 25-year-old professional to rabid teeny bopper was almost immediate. Naturally, as a rabid teeny bopper who still enjoys a good beer, my first thought was, "How can I get them to go out for beers with me?"

As I waded back into reality, my next thought was, "How can I get them to even know I'm in the same room? Maybe with my attire?" And so the Kings of Leon attraction-getting T-shirt brainstorm produced the following options for slogans that I should be wearing across my chest.

» "My Sex Is On Fire"

» "Marriage Isn't Always Forever (Caleb)"

» "I Could Use Somebody (Like Caleb)"

But as the day got closer, I decided to go with my normal striped shirt and skinny jeans combo and just shoot for an after-interview shot. When the time came for me to snag the best Facebook profile picture of all time, MTV News Rock Editor James Montgomery (who conducted the interview with Caleb and brother Jared) calmly introduced me as a hardcore KOL called "Megan," a name I've heard many times but never when I'm being addressed.

So next time, rather than be clever, I think I'll wear a t-shirt with this simple message: "James, My Name Is Jenny."

Tags kings of leon

On Wednesday (October 20), the "Live CoCo Cam" came online. The premise? A single camera mounted in a stairwell at the offices of Conan O'Brien's new show "Conan," which is set to premiere on Monday, November 8 at 11 p.m. on TBS. At 1 p.m. yesterday, they began broadcasting, beginning with a brief introduction and an '80s-style aerobics session (complete with neon leg warmers). Along the way, there was band member Richie "LaBamba" Rosenberg working on a jigsaw puzzle and interacting with many of the writers and production staff who happened to be walking by (many of them carrying signs that said "Hi" to any number of friends and family members), a recitation of an epic poem, O'Brien eating an apple, the promised dancing taco, a staring contest and a visit from George Lopez and Dog the Bounty Hunter. It has been funny and surreal, to say the least.

The "Live CoCo Cam" will continue to broadcast until 1 p.m. Eastern today, and this morning has already featured another round of aerobics (this time courtesy of a group of people in bear costumes, which was more than a little unnerving), a staff member crashing out in a Disney princesses sleeping bag and a transfixing rainbow disco ball. Conveniently, O'Brien's official Web site has been archiving all of the highlights, so you can relive all of the best middle-of-the-night madness in case you missed any of it. Though it's only supposed to run until this afternoon, the "Live CoCo Cam" could easily become a regular feature that would have no trouble sustaining itself, especially considering the liveliness of O'Brien's staff. Who wouldn't want to check in during the middle of any given day and find out what wackiness is happening? Once again, O'Brien has found a way to make the mundane seems surreal and the bizarre appear normal, which is the essence of his comedy — and why we remain so excited for the upcoming premiere of "Conan."

What has been the highlight of the "Live CoCo Cam"? Let us know in the comments!

Tags Conan O'Brien, Genius, Late Night, Talk Shows

Though the promise of fame and fortune seems entrancing, it's obviously not all it's cracked up to be. Consider the case of Mandy Moore, who was given the spotlight when she was only 15 years old. Her debut album So Real got her to Platinum status, a spot opening for the Backstreet Boys and a hit single in "Candy" (which came bundled with a heavy rotation video that featured the not-yet-of-age Moore behind the wheel of a Volkswagen). But despite her early success, Moore was critically eviscerated and quickly grew tired and bored of the pop star lifestyle. She never really did fit in with the Christina Aguileras and Jessica Simpsons she was often lumped in with, and that was never more evident when she released her third album Coverage on this day in 2003.

Moore has said that she never really got behind any of the music she did in the early part of her career, and while she was still signed to a major label, she slowly tried to break out of the pop starlet universe. Coverage represented her purest expression yet, even though it was an album full of covers. But her song selection was telling, as she focused on classic pop and rock songs from the '70s and '80s, including takes on songs by Todd Rundgren, Carole King, Elton John, Joni Mitchell and Cat Stevens. In fact, her cover of XTC's "Senses Working Overtime" might event top the original. Moore's music has evolved since the release of Coverage (her marriage to alt-country genius/madman Ryan Adams also helped), but her breakout began with her cover of John Hiatt's "Have a Little Faith in Me."

Tags Mandy Moore, video