Mor Music Group Blog: May 2014

Friday, 30 May 2014

Ed Sheeran Premieres New Single On Beats By Dre

Ed Sheeran debuts his new track "Don't" from his upcoming "X" album in a Beats by Dre advert. Video after the cut.

Sic'Nis (Succeed-In(g) Impossible Circumstances Needs Intellectual Strength)

By Bemi (Founder Mor Music Group)

Sic’Nis is a beautiful, and talented artist. The first time I met her, her disarming charm, and infectious smile caught my attention – a star in the making.

She is a free spirit, and radiates positive energy – the type of person you wouldn’t mind getting trapped in an elevator (lift) with for a whole day, or stranded on a deserted island with. Seriously, I challenge you to go on Sic’Nis’ Facebook or Twitter page if ever you are having a bad day, the tweets, and status updates will brighten up the most miserable day.

Music icon, and Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin recieved an honorary degree at Harvard University yesterday. Also honored at the Harvard graduation ceremony were former US President George H.W. Bush, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Aretha Franklin performed the national anthem (whilst playing the piano) at the ceremony. Video of Aretha's performance after the cut.

Last night at a performance in Lisbon, Portugal Bruce Springsteen joined the Rolling Stones on stage to perform "Tumbling Dice".

50 cent's new album "Animal Ambition" is scheduled for release on June 3rd. You can have a listen to the entire album via streaming (after the cut).

This week Forbes released its annual list of Most Powerful Women; Shakira, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga made the list. The list also includes women from politics, finance, media, and other sectors.

Check out the video for Miguel's track "Simple Things" (video after the cut).

First Video From Jennifer Lopez's Upcoming Album

Check out the first video from J Lo's upcoming album. Its the video for "First Love" (video after the cut).

According to Elle.com Jay Z had to be coerced into acting in the "Run" movie trailer.

Iggy Azalea has enjoyed much success in 2014. The Australian female rapper made history this week.

By now you must have heard of the leaked video showing some One Direction band members smoking pot. There were concerns about how the leaked video would affect the squeaky clean image of the pop band. Well the band released a statement regarding the incident.

Late Maya Angelou with Common

Iconic poet, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou passed away yesterday at the age of 86.

John Mayer recently did a cover of his label mate Beyonce's "XO". Have a listen after the cut.

Rapper Devine The Dude raps whilst taking control of directing his video with a Gopro camera mounted on a remote control Quad Copter drone. Its really cool! Check out the video after the cut.

Apple has officially confirmed the much talked about purchase of Beats by Dre's headphones, and music streaming service for a whopping $3 Billion.

Dave Chappelle Is Back With Music And Comedy

After a long break from mainstream comedy, Dave Chappelle is back! He had huge success back in the 2000s, and walked away from a lucrative television show at the peak of his career.

Now he's resurrecting his highly successful 2004 Dave Chapelle's Block Party, an event where stand-up comedy was combined with musical performances. This year Dave Chappelle is recruiting top performers like Janelle Monae, The Roots,

2NE1 is the girl group everyone is raving about. They've got half a billion views on their YouTube channel. Check out their interview with Billboard.com after the cut.

Iggy Azalea

K.Michelle

Last time it was Forbes Magazine creating drama by comparing Australian rapper Iggy Azalea with Nicki Minaj. Now its hip-hop star K.Michelle calling out Iggy for rapping in an American accent, and speaking with an Australian accent - implying Iggy is fake.

The World Music Awards took place yesterday (Tuesday May 27) in Monte Carlo. The awards are based on music sales, and votes by fans. It airs today (Wednesday May 28) on NBC from 8 - 10 pm Eastern time in the US. It will also air in 180 countries across the world (check your local listing). Pictures from the event after the cut.

Last week, we reported The Lifetime Network (in the US) is planning to shoot a biopic based on the life of Whitney Houston. Well the late singer's family do not approve, and are looking into legal options to block the movie production from commencing.

BRIT Award winner Sam Smith will perform in the first-ever live music advert in the UK.

The Rolling Stones recently resumed their world tour after taking two months off to mourn the death of frontman Mick Jagger's long-time partner L'Wren Scott.

Yesterday Billboard.com launched the first-ever real-time charts via Twitter. This will chart the most shared songs on Twitter in real-time. So the more a song gets retweeted or shared on Twitter, the higher it climbs up the Billboard real-time charts.

Its also has an emerging artist chart for up-and-coming artists. Great news for unsigned artists out there as their music can be tracked by Billboard. Record labels can now monitor songs by up-and-coming artists via Twitter, and if the real-time charts are impressive, an artist could get signed. Fans can also discover new artists via Twitter. More information after the cut.

Solange Gets A Boost In Record Sales Thanks To 'Elevatorgate'

Solange just proved any publicity is good publicity. According to HipHopDX her digital sales increased from 600 to 2000 the week the elevator video leaked. A lot of people didn't even know who she was prior to the incident. Check out one of her songs after the cut.

Okay we are still trying to figure out why Alesha Dixon is making headlines in the UK for throwing water over fellow Britain's Got Talent Judge David? Hasn't this stunt been pulled before on X Factor UK (Sharon Osborne did the same thing to a fellow judge on the show).

This week, our student vlogger Laura talks about BBC Radio 1's Big weekend. Check out Laura's vlog after the cut.

Kylie was diagnosed with cancer back in 2005 (and has fully recovered). Hence, the cancer campaign is a cause close to her heart. Her fans were able to purchase individual notes on the track before the video was released. In addition, each winning bidder's name was included in the video.

Check out the video for "Crystallize" after the cut, and you can view the donors' names at the end of the video.

Dr Dre with business partner Jimmy Lovine

A few weeks ago, we heard hip-hop may have its first billionaire thanks to Apple's plan to acquire Beats Electronics. Well, the deal hasn't happened yet. According to Billboard.com, an Apple insider said one of the reasons maybe the premature celebration by Dr Dre and Tyrese on YouTube. Apple executives were reported to have been outraged by the video which leaked the news of the deal (earlier than the official announcement).

According to Buzz60, Solange is planning to write a tell-all book about Jay-Z, and Beyonce's relationship.The book will also include details of Jay-Z affairs, and the estranged relationship with their father (Matthew Knowles).

The Black Keys album "Turn Blue" comes in at No.1 on Billboard 200 (top-selling albums across all music genres). Michael Jackson's "Xscape" album takes the No.2 spot.

Billboard Singles Chart

Izzy Azalea

John Legend retains his No.1 spot (on Billboard's Hot 100) with "All Of Me". "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX takes the No.2 spot. Another Iggy Azalea track "Problem" by Ariana Grande featuring Iggy Azalea comes in at No.3. Its a great week for the Australian rapper!

Check out the video for "Fancy" after the cut.

Lana Del Rey Releases New Single

Check out Lana Del Rey's new single "Shades Of Cool" after the cut.

Queen guitarist Brian May (in an interview with BBC Wales) confirmed a Queen album scheduled for release this year. The album will include unreleased recordings of lead singer Freddie Mercury. Last year, Brian May revealed there were unreleased recordings of Freddie Mercury, and Michael Jackson collaborations in the band's archives.

The New York Post has always had catty words for 'Kimye'. For example here's a quote from the paper about the couple "You have love and class and talent, and above all, high name recognition among the coveted 18-24 demographic". Checkout the short article which went viral after the cut.

We report this with a bit of sympathy for 33 year old Macaulay Culkin. He was once the most famous kid in the world; and raked in millions of dollars after the huge international success of Home Alone, and other movies in the 1990s.

Well Macaulay decided to be a rocker, and is currently touring the UK with his band. According to reports, he had drinks thrown at him (and the rest of his band members) after a disastrous performance in Nottingham.

Tiny with Mayweather Tiny with T.I

It seems rapper T.I is getting more media attention for his drama than his music. Early this year, there were rumours of Tiny, and T.I breaking up thanks to cryptic messages the two left on social media. Next was T.I's confrontation with Real Housewives of Atlanta star (and soon to be jail bird) Apollo Nida (click here).

Over the weekend, T.I had a brawl in Las Vegas with heavy weight champion Floyd Mayweather (click here for TMZ video of the brawl). Since the brawl, Mayweather has apologized for calling Tiny a b*tch, and denies an affair with her. Whilst Tiny put out a statement on social media, and T.I posted a proof video to show he didn't get a black eye from the brawl.

On Friday Shakira released the video for "La La La". The song is on the World Cup album, however it is not the official World Cup song. The video already has about 31 million views on YouTube (in 3 days), while the official song by Jennifer Lopez (which was released about a month ago) has 33 million views on YouTube. Check out Shakira's video after the cut.

We don't recall an official World Cup song generating so much negative attention since the tradition of naming an official FIFA World Cup song started back in 1966. Jennifer Lopez, and Pitbull's official World Cup song "We Are One (Ole Ola)" has recieved a lot of negative reviews from soccer fans and music critics (since its release in April).

Nicki Minaj Iggy Azalea

Lil Kim

Last week Forbes Magazine made a controversial statement via their article titled “Hip-Hop's Unlikely New Star: A White, Blonde, Australian Woman,” and claimed Nicki Minaj's music career was on the decline, and Australian Iggy Azalea is the current top female rapper.

Lana Del Rey performing at the pre-wedding dinner

Lana Del Rey performed at Kanye and Kim's pre-wedding dinner last Friday. More pictures after the cut.

Coldplay's "Ghost Stories" comes in at No.1 on the albums chart. Coldplay gave an incredible performance on Saturday at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend - video after the cut.

Sam Smith tops the UK Singles Chart this week with "Stay With Me". Check out the video of him performing the song yesterday at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (in Glasgow) after the cut.

Afropop Friday - video 2

Our second, and last Afropop video is for "Khona" by Mafikizolo featuring Uhuru. Have a great weekend, and we'll be back on Monday. Check out the video after the cut.

Its Afropop Friday! Every Friday we bring you Afropop videos. Afropop/Afrobeats is a music genre growing popular across the globe. Our first Afropop video is for "Fatasi" by DJ Xclusive featuring Terry G. Video after the cut.

Late West coast rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in 1996. The police officer who was first to arrive at the scene has now revealed the rapper's last words.

Quincy Jones produced three Michael Jackson albums - "Off The Wall", "Thriller", and "Bad". So we can pretty much conclude he knew Michael quite well (in terms of his music). Jones feels the recently released "Xscape" album is all about the money, and he expressed how it bothers him Michael's unfinished tracks were released to the public.

Friday, 30 May 2014

Thursday, 29 May 2014

Wednesday, 28 May 2014

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Monday, 26 May 2014

Friday, 23 May 2014