Yesterday, for no apparent reason other than he was stoned and had just bought a Web cam, Snoop Dogg launched his very own online show, "Snoop Dogg TV," a mind-blowing, decidedly, uh, "free-form" series that revolves around him smoking spliffs, lounging in what appears to be someone's rec room, and singing along to R&B tracks being played on his computer.

It is sort of insane. It is sort of compelling. And it is quite possibly the most amazing thing ever foisted on these Interwebs of ours.

So far, Snoop has broadcast four episodes of "Dogg TV" (or, more specifically, two very-long episodes broken up into four segments of indeterminate length and subject matter ... usually whenever the Web cam conks out), which means that it's not too late to get on the bandwagon before this thing turns into another Shiba Inu cam.

And to get you up to speed on what you've missed so far, I've compiled a handy episode guide, which you can read after the jump. Read more...

So John Mayer. He's a Red Sox fan. I'm a Red Sox fan. But I'm not a John Mayer fan.

Actually, that's not true. I'm not really a fan of dude's music, but I gotta give it up to him - he's a really funny guy. I remember this piece he and Kanye did in the studio back in 2005 and it got me open to the potential of "John Mayer, Funny Man."

Anyway, I was up at 6am like the rest of Red Sox Nation, to watch the Sox take on the A's in Tokyo, Japan on "Opening Day," part of baseball's attempt to internationalize the game by having America's pastime kick off in, you know, a foreign country. While I was watching on television, John Mayer was actually there. With pretty good seats, it turns out.The best part is his DIY play-by-play announcing.

See? John Mayer, Funny Guy.

So sometime last year, on the eve of releasing Graduation, Kanye West decided to forgo the typical press listening sessions for his new album. Ye wanted an "event" and, well, because it's him, he got it. There were fruit-smoothie cocktails, delicious munchies, and his DJ, A-Trak played records for the revelers. When it came time to play the album, Kanye gave a short speech, and then played the album to a visual montage of short films. They weren't music videos, more like visual references - clips from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Tron - plus some animation featuring the Graduation bear, etc. It was like a laser-light spectacular with Kanye West instead of Pink Floyd.

Anyway, over at Kanye's blog (not like he's sitting up Wordpressing all night, but he actually curates himself), he's dropping these videos, one by one, for those non-media, non-NY-living folks to check out. Some are cool, some are yaaaawn, but mostly they're worth checking out. Here's a couple for you, after the jump. You should also turn off the lights.

Read more...

Oh, Curtis.

MTV News' Chris Harris slaves away every week to decipher the numerical glory that is the Soundscan album sales chart, but this Curtis Jackson guy could very well have a future in the same game. Especially if this rap thing doesn't work out for him.

Anyway, in a video he released last night, Fitty "buries" Fat Joe in a tearful ceremony that makes reference to Joe's woeful sales numbers this week (Frankly, we in the newsroom were a little surprised at the number - 46K - but maybe we are just stuck in old-world thinking and Fat Joe actually has a master plan. Or a hot single), and also gives props to Ricky Raaawwws. Plus some other stuff that had Shaheem Reid making that excellent belly-laugh he does so well.

We'd embed it here but 50 says some of the bad words that we just can't broadcast if we want to keep our jobs, so we'll link to it right here, via our friends at Nah Right.

No doubt, Fat Joe has a busy cadre of photoshop experts, Final Cut editors and savvy web-videographers at the ready to respond.

Dear US Weekly,

Hi, how are you? Things must be pretty crazy over there, what with you giving career advice to Eliot Spitzer's call girl, digging up baby photos of this year's "American Idol" contestants and publishing Marissa Jaret Winokur's "Dancing With The Stars" diary (for some, that's a busy month, for you, just another Wednesday). But if you've got a minute, there's something we’ve got to ask you.

Right now, on your web site, you've got a story about Pete Wentz's suicide attempt. We think it's great that you went with the photo of him wearing the Clark Kent sunglasses, and wow, we love that you inserted the phrase "Shocker" into the headline for maximum impact. Really, nice work. But here's our question: Why is this news?

Okay, okay, we get why it's news. Perhaps the question should be "Do you realize this news happened nearly three years ago?" Wentz nearly overdosed on Ativan back in 2005, while he and his band were finishing up their From Under The Cork Tree Album, and he's spoken about the situation at length since then, to pretty much anyone who'd listen (a quick Google search reveals this Rolling Stone Q&A and this interview with Dose.ca … but maybe your Google is broken). In fact, his suicide attempt became such a widely discussed topic in the MySpace/Messageboard community that Fall Out Boy even slighly named a song on their Cork Tree album about it -- "Seven Minutes To Heaven (Atavan Halen)" [sic].

And one more thing, this interview you're quoting, the one he did for Half Of Us? Turns out he did that almost one year ago. We know because the series was done as a part of a series that ran on mtvU in April, 2007. It just seems odd to us that you'd choose to report on this now -- and give it a sensationalistic headline -- now.

Maybe it's because Wentz mentions listening to Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah," and that one dude on "American Idol" totally covered Buckley's version a couple of weeks ago? Or perhaps you've run out angles for the "Audrina Patridge Nude Pics" story? Or is this part of some new editorial venture: "US Weekly Presents: News of the Past!"

If you're looking for other stuff to report on from 2005, well, we heard Ang Lee's getting ready to release a film about gay cowboys(!)

Shocking, we know.

Anyway, hope all is well with you otherwise.

Sincerely,
James Montgomery
MTV News

On his blog, Mobb Deep's Prodigy - days away from starting his 3 1/2-year prison term for gun-possession - has authored the funniest thing on the internet right now.

[Nah Right courtesy of HNIC2]