Dolla feat Lil Wayne - Make A Toast

The hook is pretty decent, but some of the lyrics are pretty bad. This could grow on me. 6/10

Click below to listen (not the original video)

Young Jeezy - Crazy World

Jeezy is back with another bangin single. It will have to be really censored to get airplay, but I think it still will. 8/10

Click below to listen (not the original video)

Soulja Boy Tell Em - Bird Walk

Sounds like every other Soulja Boy Tell Em track. Although this one is a little better than most of them. 6/10

Click below to listen (not the original video)

Novakane feat Lil Wayne & Paul Wall - Shawty Said

I heard this track a few weeks ago, and didn’t review it for whatever reason. Paul Wall sounds good on the new version, but still not feelin this single. Plus he’s jackin from Lil Wayne. 5/10

Click below to listen (not the original video)

Gorilla Zoe - Lost

At first, i wasn’t really diggin this track, but it’s grew on me, and now I think it’s decent. 7/10

Click below to listen (not the original video)

Elton John Mulling Mark Ronson Collaboration

Elton John may enlist producer Mark Ronson to work on his next studio album, which is being penciled in for release in late 2009 by Universal.

“They like each other and know each other well. There’s been lots and lots of conversation, but nothing is finalized yet,” a source close to the artists tells Billboard.

The as-yet-untitled album will be the follow-up to 2006’s “The Captain & The Kid,” which has sold 151,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

As usual, John is busy with numerous projects. His collaboration with the Killers and the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant, “Joseph, Better You Than Me,” is available through the new (RED)WIRE digital service, and will see wide release on Dec. 16.

Meanwhile, John is the first guest on Elvis Costello’s new show, “Spectacle,” which premiered tonight (Dec. 3) on the Sundance Channel. And his New Year’s Eve show at London’s O2 Arena will be broadcast live on ITV1.

As previously reported, John and Billy Joel will reprise their successful co-headlining tour beginning March 2 in Jacksonville, Fla.

Staind Frontman Aaron Lewis Eyeing Solo Album

Staind frontman Aaron Lewis anticipates having a “kind of endless” supply of songs when he hunkers down to record his first solo album in the spring.

“”I can write songs on the acoustic guitar, in an acoustic-type manner, extremely easily,” Lewis tells Billboard.com. “It’s not a difficult thing for me. I was making ‘Outside’ up as I went along for that first original recording of it. There’s a handful of songs that are already there that just have to get revisited, and I don’t think I’ll have any trouble coming up with more.”

Lewis says he’s blocked off April and May to work on the album, which he hopes will come out when the cycle for Staind’s latest album, “The Illusion of Progress,” comes to an end. Lewis plans to record it at his home studio in Massachusetts and to produce it himself, but he says that plan could well change.

“I’m very open-minded,” he explains. “If we get to a point where I’m just like, ‘Y’know what? To take these songs to the next level I gotta get (Staind producer) Johnny K to come up here and help me out a little bit,’ then that’s what I’ll do. But as it stands, I’m gonna attempt to do it myself.”

Recording the album will be sandwiched into what’s shaping up to be a busy 2009 for Lewis and Staind as they continue to promote “The Illusion of Progress” and its second single, “All I Want.” After wrapping up its 2008 schedule on Dec. 18, the quartet will hit Europe beginning Jan. 18 in Belfast, Ireland.

Lewis is planning solo acoustic tours both before and after that jaunt, and Staind will return to Europe for festival dates in the early summer after playing a couple weeks of overseas shows for the U.S. Armed Forces.

Another trip through North America is also likely. “I’m sure there’ll be another one,” Lewis says. “I know that (in) late summer there will definitely be a big tour put together of some sort. We’ll try to put something really good together for that.”

Various Artists - Music From The Motion Picture - Cadillac Records

Product Information, Audio Previews, Reviews and More On:
Various Artists - Music From The Motion Picture - Cadillac Records

“The soundtrack to the film history of Chess Records falls somewhere between a dawn-of-rock’n'roll tribute album and a new Beyoncé album, either of which should give it pretty decent sales for a few weeks (the single-disc version features three new Beyoncé tracks; the two-disc deluxe edition adds two more). The songs are performed in “Walk the Line” fashion by the actors: Mos Def does Chuck Berry (”No Particular Place to Go”), actor Jeffrey Wright channels Muddy Waters (”I’m a Man”), and, most notably, Beyoncé leaves Sasha Fierce at the club door for a reverent turn as Etta James (”At Last,” “I’d Rather Go Blind”). Ms. Knowles sounds wonderful and Mos Def acquits himself nicely, but “Cadillac Records” will truly succeed if fans are moved to check out the originals. —Jeff Vrabel”

Neil Young - Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968

Product Information, Audio Previews, Reviews and More On:
Neil Young - Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968

“Neil Young’s “Archives” project is poised to become the new “Chinese Democracy,” but the wait helps get gems like this out of his vault. This album captures Young fresh out of Buffalo Springfield and five days shy of his 23rd birthday on the weekend before the release of his solo debut. It’s an intimate performance in which the songs—including winning takes of “On the Way Home,” “Mr. Soul,” “The Loner,” “Trip to Tulsa” and, of course, “Sugar Mountain”—aren’t necessarily the stars of the show. That spot is reserved for a chatty and cheerful Young and his between-song raps about everything from the length of his hair to songwriting (he decides he needs more “happy” material) and using his first royalty check to buy a 1934 Bentley “with big lights and everything.” It’s the kind of recording that makes you wish you were there—but also makes you feel like you are. —Gary Graff”

Hottest 25 Women In Music - Beyonce

Beyonce - #16

Next Page »