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Madonna Working With Nicki Minaj And M.I.A.?

Posted 10/28/11 12:47 pm EST by in Madonna, MIA, Music


Madonna has long made a career of being in just the right place with just the right people at just the right time. And it sounds like she's at it again on her upcoming untitled 12th album. Though Madge's spokesperson gave a "no comment" when asked by MTV News to confirm the news, the popular Madonna fan site MadonnaTribe reported this week that the Material One has recorded nine songs so far for the disc, including the lead single, "Give Me All Your Love," which will feature … wait for it … Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.

The album, which she is reportedly recording with old pal William Orbit (Ray of Light) as well as dance veterans Martin Solveg and Benny Benassi, is slated for release early next year and unconfirmed rumors continue to bubble up that Madonna will play the new single when she performs at halftime at next year's Super Bowl on February 5.

Orbit has kept things close to the vest, but did recently tweet a tantalizing message that appeared to confirm the Super Bowl appearance. "I hesitate to make a comment about anything musical," he wrote. "Ya'll might think is a cryptic tease. But will say: \o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/." The obvious cheerleader reference has been taken by Madonnaphiles to either be a confirmation of the appearance at the big game or a hint that the gig will feature some cheerleaders spelling out the singer's name in the stadium while she plays her new song.

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Will Kid Rock's 'Born Free' Be Anything Like M.I.A.'s 'Born Free'?

Posted 8/30/10 2:30 pm EST by in Music


On Monday (August 30), Kid Rock announced that his upcoming album will be called Born Free, and that it will be hitting stores on November 16. In keeping with the decidedly blue-collar path he cut with his 2007 comeback disc Rock N Roll Jesus, Kid won't be rapping on the new album (so says an accompanying press release), instead drawing inspiration from "American classic rock." Bob Seger, Sheryl Crow, Zac Brown and Trace Adkins are all confirmed to appear on the album, not to mention T.I. and Martina McBride, who — in a decidedly WTF twist — both appear on a track called "Care."

The first single off Born Free is, appropriately enough, the title track, which hits radio on September 14. While we're totally pumped to hear it (our flags are already unfurled), we'd be remiss if we didn't point out the fact that M.I.A. already released a song called "Born Free" earlier this year, and — thanks to the accompanying video's rather virtuoso use of violence — it created quite a stir.

And while we're (pretty) sure the similarities aren't intentional, that didn't stop us from thinking about the video Kid Rock will undoubtedly release for his take on "Born Free" and how it will differ from M.I.A.'s version. We thought so much about it, in fact, that we decided to throw together a list. Here's all the (presumptive) ways "Born Free" will differ from, well, "Born Free."

» Nameless troops shall not gather up terrified redheads for slaughter, but rather, scour the city for buxom blondes, who will all be whisked away to Cabo for a totally awesome weekend sponsored by American Badass Lager.

» Bizarre cameo by former Detroit Tigers great "Sweet Lou" Whitaker.
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Funny Or Die Takes Down M.I.A. With 'Paper Planes' Parody

Posted 7/27/10 10:30 am EST by in Music


It hasn't been the easiest year for M.I.A., the envelope-pushing international alt-dance sensation. Though she released what many people believe is her most accomplished album yet in /\/\/\Y/\, she has gone through a series of rough patches, including a minor feud with New York Times writer Lynn Hirschberg over a story and a number of concert-related issues (including a show in Los Angeles that had to be canceled and a recent performance in New York marred by sound problems). She has been taking shots on all sides, which is unfortunate considering she was coming off her biggest success with the smash single "Paper Planes."

The Funny or Die folks are the latest to take a shot at M.I.A. in a new video that parodies the lyrics of "Paper Planes." Jumping off the image of the singer painted in the Hirschberg piece (which posits M.I.A. not as a revolutionary but as the sheltered wife of a millionaire with limited understanding of the politics she preaches), the video takes a handful of brutal shots at M.I.A.'s lifestyle. Actress and comedian Lindy Jamil Gomez plays M.I.A., and she delivers a fairly convincing impression of the singer while also sending up her attitude.

The strikes are pretty brutal. The chorus of the song has been transposed to "All I wanna do is invest my money/ All I wanna do is/ Check out my Monet," and in a particularly savage verse, the singer in the video sings, "We love tasting wine/ Oak and fruit and a little bit of pine/ Let's play 'Cranium'/ Spelling backwards is a lot of fun/ This is why I care/ Give my baby to the au pair/ This is what I feel/ Yeah, my rock is totally real." It's funny, but also pretty brutal, so here's hoping that M.I.A. doesn't have access to Gomez's phone number.

What do you think of the parody of "Paper Planes"? Let us know in the comments!

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M.I.A.'s New Album Was Made In A Cave: The MTV News Quote Of The Day

Posted 7/13/10 4:00 pm EST by in Music


"I built a room under the house that was kind of like a cave; you had to go down into it. And then I just sort of made it as creative as possible for me — I was just sort of making the furniture and making the pictures, covered all the walls with stuff that I made, so it feels like every step of the way, I was working on the layers of this sort of environment."

-International indie dance anarchist M.I.A., commenting on the environment in which she constructed /\/\/\Y/\, her third album that just hit the streets today. The new album contains the bracing new single "XXXO" and the sharp, frosty "Born Free," which drew some controversy because of its violent video.

M.I.A. — neé Maya Arulpragasam — is coming off her biggest success, as she saw her single "Paper Planes" become a big hit and a cultural phenomenon. To follow that up, M.I.A. said she wanted to create her most personal work yet. "I wanted to make something more personal, and more organic, and real, and that connected to my life. And when you're in L.A., it's set up for you to move on up and go into these big studios and do crazy sh--," she told MTV News. She also said her new family life greatly informed the way /\/\/\Y/\ was made. "It was made at home in a commune environment, just because at the moment, that's what was possible to me. I had a child, and the baby monitor only goes for 200 meters or whatever, so I couldn't go further than that."

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Nicolas Cage, 'Jersey Shore' Cast Stake Their Claim On The 'Late Night Lineup'

Posted 7/12/10 10:30 am EST by in Music


There are still a handful of shows on hiatus this week (Jimmy Kimmel, won't you ever come back to us?), but there are so many must-see appearances on this week's shows that it's almost a relief that a handful of hosts are still on vacation. While this column is normally devoted to the best in music on late night shows every week, the clear highlight comes courtesy of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" star Nicolas Cage, who will be appearing on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on Monday (July 12) and who will almost certainly be a fantastic 10 minutes on the couch. (Just to remind yourself of Cage's potential, go back and watch "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" or take a spin through the best scenes from "Wicker Man" again.) Letterman will also welcome M.I.A. on Tuesday (July 13) and Bret Michaels on Thursday (July 15).

Over on NBC, Jay Leno will open the doors of "The Tonight Show" to "The Client List" star Jennifer Love Hewitt on Tuesday, the always reliable Tracy Morgan and Flo Rida on Wednesday (July 14), "Inception" star Ellen Page on Thursday and "True Blood" star Stephen Moyer on Friday (July 16). Jimmy Fallon is back, and he is featuring performances from Big Boi (Monday), Kelis (Tuesday) and M.I.A. (Wednesday). He will also spend time with Cage (also on Tuesday) and Hewitt (Thursday). George Lopez's break is over, so he'll be welcoming the stars of MTV's "Jersey Shore" to his program on Monday.

But if you really want to get all your crazy out in one sitting, you'll have to tune into Friday's edition of "Live with Regis and Kelly," as they'll not only be featuring Nicolas Cage but also Snooki, DJ Pauly D and the Situation from "Jersey Shore." Can you fathom what those green room conversations might be like? Only one way to find out.

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M.I.A. Learned From The 'Born Free' Controversy: The MTV News Quote Of The Day

Posted 6/22/10 4:30 pm EST by in Music


"It was just interesting at the time, for me, to see how the Internet works. Because I tweeted [a video purportedly showing the execution of Tamil separatists in Sri Lanka] a couple months before, and nobody really gave a sh--. And when there's tomato ketchup and fake blood, people are like, 'Oh my God, this is shocking!' And it's like, 'It's ketchup!' [So] I think it's interesting how we react to fiction and how we react to realism on the Internet."

-International dance and electronic music sensation M.I.A., discussing the controversy that rose up over the violence in the video for "Born Free." The clip, which premiered a few months back, features a narrative about a holocaust that takes out redheaded people. The song comes from her new album /\/\/\Y/\, which is set to hit store shelves on July 13. Though many of her critics dismissed the "Born Free" clip as a piece of sensationalism, M.I.A. insists that you need to see past the sensationalism and look at the real issues.

"Thinking about 'Born Free,' what, a month on, is interesting because, last week, I guess in [Texas,] they shot the Mexican kid," she said, referring to the 15-year-old shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent earlier this month. "Or, think about the boat that went into [Gaza] with all the activists. ... Since the video came out, there's been events. This is not some weird, crazy conspiracy theory, this is mainstream media. I wish I was talking about way more underground theories, but [I'm] not, this is just me digesting what I see in the mainstream."

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Lady Gaga, M.I.A. And Eminem: This Week's Deep Cuts

Posted 6/4/10 6:10 pm EST by in Deep Cuts


With Memorial Day having opened the week, the work on the Newsroom Blog this week was slightly more abbreviated than usual. But that doesn't mean that the coverage wasn't fast, furious, hot and heavy day-in and day-out. So before you head to Atlantic City to check out the opening date of Kings of Leon's latest tour, stand in line for your third screening of "Marmaduke" or experiment with making ceviche, scroll down and catch up with all the action you might have missed. It's a nice cross-section of greatness, featuring the music world's lamest feud, hip-hop's craziest collaborations and the what is probably the first time you've seen T.A.T.U. referenced in half a decade.

» The MTV News 2010 Summer Songs Poll closed earlier this week, with Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" standing tall at the end. She was so excited about the win — which was driven by her passionate flock of fans — that she tweeted about the victory.

» The strange exchange of words between international pop genius M.I.A. and New York Times writer Lynn Hirschberg came to its apparent conclusion, but not before a formal correction and a dis track. It shot straight to the top of the charts as one of the lamest music-related feuds in history.

» Justin Bieber premiered another new video this week, this time for "Never Say Never," his tag-team with Jaden Smith that appears on the soundtrack to the upcoming film "The Karate Kid." It's a fun clip, but it doesn't hold a candle to that "You're the Best Around" montage.

» Also in Justin Bieber news: He performed a free show live in Rockefeller Center in New York and attracted some extremely devoted fans.

» "American Idol" runner-up Crystal Bowersox stopped by the MTV Newsroom to talk about her experience on the show, what her album might sound like and her former life as a person who sold ice cream out of a cart.
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M.I.A.'s Unveils Busy, Flashy, Attention-Grabbing New Album Cover For /\/\/\Y/\

Posted 6/3/10 12:30 pm EST by in Music


In the midst of all of the chaos surrounding the ongoing feud between poly-national pop star M.I.A. and New York Times writer Lynn Hirschberg (which spawned a fantastically strange dis track but also appears to have swung in her favor) is the fact that the 34-year-old star has a new album coming out. The new record — essentially called Maya but stylized as /\/\/\Y/\ — is set to drop on July 13 and is already making a splash with the singles "Born Free" (which came accompanied by a brutally violent, controversial video based around a ginger genocide) and "XXXO." M.I.A. inspires interest from a number of different circles, as her music is eagerly gobbled up by people in the dance, hip-hop and indie worlds, which means the anticipation over new music — only her third album and her first since 2007 — is palpable.

Part of M.I.A.'s charm is her extremely unique visual sense, which has translated to a pair of album covers that have pushed the envelope and expanded horizons in a medium that has almost entirely been forgotten. Her first album, Arular, mixed together various images from graffiti, while her 2007 release Kala wrapped a black-and-white head shot of the singer with a technicolor wonderland that looked like the last transmission from a drugged out planet somewhere in the Day-Glo nebula. The cover for /\/\/\Y/\ just appeared online, and it's a typically busy, trippy, disorienting piece of art.

There's one huge element that jumps right out: The fact that M.I.A.'s face is almost entirely obscured by what appear to be YouTube players. Only her eyes are fully peaking out from behind the graphic mess. Does she feel scuttled by the Internet, or is it merely a statement about 21st century privacy? Or is it something else entirely?

What do you think M.I.A.'s new album cover means? Let us know in the comments!

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M.I.A. Makes A Bid For The Lamest Feud Of All Time

Posted 6/1/10 1:05 pm EST by in Music


M.I.A. has been in the news an awful lot in the past week, but it's not because of her excellent new single "Born Free," the controversial video for said track or her hotly-anticipated album /\/\/\Y/\. Rather, she has been on the lips of music fans and media followers alike, as her feud with writer Lynn Hirschberg has continued to escalate. Following what she thought was an unfair profile in The New York Times, M.I.A. tweeted Hirschberg's personal phone number last week. And just to let everybody know that she means business, M.I.A. released the dis track "I'm a Singer" over the weekend.

Here's the thing: Not only is "I'm a Singer" a pretty weak track (both as a dis and as an M.I.A. song), but it's also totally unnecessary. Hirschberg has no real recourse (she has already called M.I.A.'s tweeting of her phone number "unprofessional" and "unethical"), and, ultimately, she's just a writer. There's no need for a beatdown.

In fact, in extending the feud a few extra days (and however much it cost to record "I'm a Singer"), M.I.A. has jumped onto the list of the lamest celebrity feuds of all time. Like M.I.A., some of those pit musicians against the media (remember The Source co-owner Benzino's lame jabs at Eminem early in his career?), while others are over disagreements over the actual work (Ice-T calling Soulja Boy's music "garbage" or former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker's limp protest against Michael Jackson's "Christ-like" poses during the 1996 BRIT Awards). Sometimes it's about family (the constant dust-up between Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean Cobain) and sometimes it's out of left field (Lynyrd Skynyrd took offense to Neil Young's "Southern Man," which lead to "Sweet Home Alabama" and a general sense of mutual respect). Sometimes it's even about patriotism, like when Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines criticized George W. Bush and the war in Iraq, which prompted Toby Keith to absolutely lose his mind (he famously used a doctored photo of Maines standing next to Saddam Hussein as a backdrop during concerts).

(Click here for more photos of lame feuds, including those involving Courtney Love, Eminem, Ice-T and LL Cool J!)

Which celebrity feud do you think is the lamest? Let us know in the comments!

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ACL Lineup 2010: Muse, M.I.A. And The Rest Of The Highlights

Posted 5/18/10 10:00 am EST by in Music


Of all the major multi-day festivals that take place in this country every year, Austin City Limits is by far the most esoteric. For starters, it's always really late in the season (most people hang up their festival spurs after Seattle's Bumbershoot wraps up around Labor Day, but the 2010 version of Austin City Limits doesn't kick off until October 8). Like its host city, its lineup is hard to pin down, usually consisting of a handful of festival regulars, a metal band or two, some friendly jammers, at least one legend and whatever else the organizers can cram onto the stages over three days.

This year is no different, as the lineup (which was announced this morning) features Muse, M.I.A., the Strokes, Phish, Vampire Weekend, LCD Soundsystem and, um, the Eagles. There's truly something for everybody, though if you're a regular guest at any of the summer festivals, you probably will have seen most of the bands on the complete lineup by the time October rolls around. Still, any excuse to visit Austin (a sort of parallel universe wonderland where you can pay for sandwiches with a song) is a good one, so here are the six top-shelf highlights for Austin City Limits 2010.

Spoon
Sure, you'll probably see Spoon accidentally four or five times between now and October, but expect greatness when Spoon frontman Britt Daniel gets in front of his hometown crowd and unleashes the best of the tracks both from the band's more recent releases (this year's excellent Transference, 2007's career-defining Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga) and some deeper cuts (if there was ever a place to break out the best slabs of tuneage from Girls Can Tell or Kill the Moonlight, Austin would be the place).

M.I.A.
Most artists seem to lose their footing on the festival stage, as everything is usually too big, too fast and too chaotic to really put on a high level show. But that criteria fits M.I.A. just fine, as her festival performances tend to be the ones that define her. Case in point: At the 2009 Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, she got on stage with an ear infection and still managed to tear the place down.

Muse
There's a reason why Muse got booked on seemingly every festival bill in the universe this year: Their brand of stadium-sized, prog-leaning rock is perfect for a communal gathering of weirdos. Read More...

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