Yesterday MTV News was on hand to see 50 Cent meet Nelson Mandela. Today, it’s a trip to a platinum mine. Joseph Patel is not allowed to complain about his job. Ever.

50 Cent was supposed to do a 90-minute set last night in Johannesburg, but the people at the sold-out Coca-Cola Dome wanted more. So he and the G-Unit obliged, performing an extra 40 minutes, even taking requests (not that they were audible). Women threw their bras onstage, and 50 stripped down to his skivvies, just for a second.

Despite the late night, we were out the door early this morning, flying 45 minutes northwest of Johannesburg on a little private jet 45 to a region of the planet none of us ever thought we’d see. And then … more traveling: 40 kilometers by car and a journey 150 meters below the earth’s surface. The reason? Platinum mines. A day after meeting Nelson Mandela, 50 Cent wanted to learn about where his platinum plaques came from. (Kidding! Sort of.) Read more…

Newsroom favorites, The Roots, have a new album, Rising Down, coming out on April 29. It’ll be either their 10th or 11th album, depending on if you count the live album and/or retrospectives and CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY’VE PUT OUT THAT MANY ALBUMS?? (Also, the album is quite good).

Anyway, we’ve always called them the Hardest Working Band In Show Business and that’s for a reason. They’re about to hit the road for five months. Seriously. Like from now through August. Starting tonight, they’ll be playing a bunch of colleges, then they do a series of old-school theaters and outdoor amphitheaters with Erykah Badu (whose new album is so very good), and then a bunch of summer festivals in strange places that probably don’t get A-list acts too often. If you’ve never seen them before, you have no excuse.

Plus, they’ll be doing three TV appearances in the next couple of weeks. April 13th with Jon Stewart’s “Night of Too Many Stars” (Comedy Central), April 15th with Steven Colbert as “The Colbert Show” comes to Philly for pre-Primary Week (Comedy Central), and April 28th for “The Late Show With David Letterman.” Whew.

Questlove spoke about what it’s going to be like performing with Erykah Badu. The loudest hip-hop band in the world just might become the quietest.

Yes, that’s a tuba in the background.
So, where can you see The Roots? Full tour itinerary after the jump.

Read more…

Our favorite psyche-out, proggy hard-rock dudes, The Mars Volta, have announced additional dates on their tour that kicked off last week. Even MORE dates are due soon, in support of their latest (excellent) album, The Bedlam in Goliath. But for now, their current tour listed after the jump.

Read more…

Moody trip-hoppers Portishead will be playing eight songs from their upcoming album, Third (due April 28), live on Current TV on April 11. The performance will actually take place in the English town they took their name from and thus will be called, “Portishead In Portishead,” according to the NME.

The promotion is similar to what Lollapalooza headliners Radiohead did for Current TV on New Year’s Eve, performing their entire album, In Rainbows, in their English studio.

We’ve got more on how Third came to be, and why it won’t take 10 years for the next album to make. We’ve heard the album - ever since it leaked on the internet a few weeks back - and it’s good. Especially “Machine Gun.” Yeah.

[UPDATE: Oh, and here’s some exciting news - for me, I guess, not for you - about Portishead coming to MTV]

More from MTV News superproducer Matt Elias’ interview with The Breeders. We in the office are all in love with Kim and Kelley Deal.

Their new album comes out on Tuesday (April 8). And they talk about it here.

One thing that didn’t make it into the piece, though, was Kim talking about the song, “We’re Gonna Rise,” and how she was inspired by Newsroom friend and TV On The Radio’s singer, Tunde Adebimpe. It’s cute. (I emailed this clip to Tunde and he said that he screamed like a little girl, and thanked me for giving him a Hannah Montana moment - you’re welcome, dude).

Went outside for a few minutes this afternoon and heard Metallica blasting really loud. They’re playing “Rock Band” the video game out in Times Square. Some sort of promotion for the mothership (i.e., MTV). It’s actually pretty cool, considering the circus that is usually Times Square. I thought, “Hey, I should take some pictures” but realized I didn’t bring my camera today.

Luckily, Multiplayer’s Stephen Totilo did it for me.

Here’s a first-look sneak peek at the new video for Madonna’s “4 Minutes” featuring Justin Timberlake.

The full-song is ACTUALLY NOT 4 MINUTES LONG! It’s 4:03. What’s up with that?

[UPDATE: The full video premieres on MTV.COM and MTV Hits at 12:01am on April 6.]

Did anyone seriously expect someone named ‘Ramiele Malubay’ to win “American Idol“? That would be like someone with the middle name of Hussein becoming President of the United States!

This week’s “Idol” courtesy, our in-house one-minute man, Jim Cantiello.

Please, commenters, understand that I’M KIDDING.

“It’s April already, yo.”

“Word, B, you know what that means?”

“Nah, what?”

“20th Anniversary of Yo! MTV Raps!!! Word is bond!”

“Say word!”

yo.mtv.com

Ok, ok, ok. 99.9% of you have never heard of Klaus Dinger, but I’m at the office late and have the keys to the blog still and so I’m gonna see if I can sneak this through, because what’s the use of doing a blog if you can’t get the occasional sure-to-be-ignored item in the blotter?

Klaus Dinger died on March 21 of heart failure at the age of 61, but wasn’t publicized until today. Dinger was a member of German “krautrock” band Kraftwerk for a brief time in the early 1970s (before the band delved into electronics), but is more known for — along with another erstwhile Kraftwerk member, guitarist Michael Rother — forming the band Neu!, who released three influential (and totally genius) albums between 1972 and 1975, that influenced bands like Stereolab and Sonic Youth.

We are pouring one out for Dinger and Neu! and all the crazy things those nutty Germans inspired, and listening to this mesmerizing bootleg of the Dinger/Rother-era Kraftwerk lineup, “Live at Gondel Kino, Bremen, Germany,” from June 1971, a heavy, hynotic classic-rock masterpiece. It’s floating out there in the ether, if you want to have a look.