Daddy Yankee and Enrique Iglesias have held fast at the top of the Billboard Latin music charts for a second week running.
Yankee's album El Cartel: The Big Boss beat a challenge from Vicente's Fernandez' Historia De Un Idolo, Marco Antonio Solis' Le Mejor... Coleccion, Alacranes Musical's Ahora Y Siempre and last week's number two Zion's The Perfect Melody, now in the fifth spot.
Iglesias' track Dimelo is meanwhile top of the singles chart beating a surge from Juan Luis Guerra and 440's Que Me Des Tu Carino, which shot from 11th to 2nd. Marco Antonio Solis' Ojala is third, Cuisillos' Mil Heridas is fourth and Daddy Yankee ft. Fergie's Impacto is fifth.
World Entertainment News Network
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Daddy Yankee and Enrique Iglesias
Hip Hop Isn't Dying!
Hip hop sales are down. But why? Countless articles have said the problems with hip hop stem solely from its content. Not true.
Hip hop first and foremost is a musical art-form. Right now, hip hop just isn’t living up to musical standards. It’s just plain bad.
read more
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The Worst Lyrics in Hystory
Some of these are just terrible. Includes the classic breasts/mountains Shakira combo.
read more
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Daddy Yankee: “El Cartel: The Big Boss”
In the three years since “Gasolina” introduced the world to reggaeton, the genre has been saturated with copycats of Daddy Yankee’s rapid-fire style.
Unfortunately, even Daddy Yankee sounds like he’s imitating Daddy Yankee.
His new album, “El Cartel: The Big Boss,” is track-heavy with more than 20 songs but too many of them sound like “Gasolina” sequels. Some are catchy and even likable, but too few sound original.
The album features collaborations with several names from the English-speaking pop world, including Akon, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls and will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.
Of those, the remix to “Impacto” featuring Fergie is especially awful. Despite landing in the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Latin Rhythm chart, it sounds like a paint-by-numbers Daddy Yankee song, complete with a hyper beat and repetitious call-and-response lyrics.
The songs on which Daddy Yankee (born Ramon Ayala) has a chance to shine are those where he switches up his super-fast flow for some singing and more innovative rhyming.
Unfortunately, these occasional moments of authenticity can’t keep “El Cartel” from being a disappointing album. Too bad — it comes at a time when some people are already planning reggaeton’s funeral.
The Associated Press
Daddy Yankee Biography
With over 15 years of upward growth in the entertainment industry and the Latin music scene, Daddy Yankee has developed to be one of the most respected and influential reggaeton artists.
Yankee’s carefully crafted lyrics and his free-style abilities have allowed him to share his views and reach the masses, regardless of his intentions. From love to socially-saturated comments on the everyday Puerto Rican culture, many of his songs have remained solid in the club scene and are considered reggaeton classics.
Daddy Yankee’s constant focus and rapid development have allowed him to collaborate with artists such as NAS (they recorded “The Profecy” together) and a track with mix tape legend and acclaimed Dj Tony Touch for his “The Peace Maker” album. Daddy was also invited for a cameo appearance in Terror Squad’s video “100% Percent” while his “Posicion” track was also included in “One Tough Cop” soundtrack.
Without a doubt, Daddy Yankee's record sales confirm his success and popularity within Latin Music. All of his albums, "El Cartel de Yankee"; "El Cartel de Yankee II"; "El Cangri.com" and "Los Homerunes", have all received platinum status. In 2002, “El Cangri.com” was the biggest selling album in Puerto Rico, his hometown and one of the most prestigious markets within Latin Music.
2003 was one of the most important years in Daddy Yankee’s career. Shortly after “Los Homerun-es” album achieved record-breaking sales, one his life-long dreams came true… a full house (12,000+) danced along with him in Puerto Rico’s historic Roberto Clemente Coliseum. The fans went wild as the press acclaimed his ability to bring the house down with his outstanding ability to free-style and his energetic stage performance. The show titled “Ahora Le Toca Al Cangri” quickly turned into Yankee’s most important and a historic moment in reggaeton music.
Without a doubt, his fan’s support along with his personal desire to share his vision with upcoming artists have been key in his development as “El Cangri’s Inc.” and “El Cartel Records” founder and lead producer.
Currently, Daddy Yankee has been touring Latin America and The United States gathering thousands of fans in each region. Just recently in Colombia, Yankee performed in front of over 60,000 screaming fans. Also, his energy and dedication to his career have allowed him to record over 130 tracks in as many as 70 feature reggaeton albums.
Finally, in July of 2004, arrives Barrio Fino, the most anticipated album launch in Reggaeton music. Being a loyal Salsa fan since childhood, this album allowed Daddy Yankee to collaborate with one of Puerto Rico’s legendary salsa’s singers, Andy Montañez in “Sabor A Melao” and is by far, his most complete album. His goal with the Barrio Fino is to not only maintain his place within the reggaeton music scene but to also introduce the genre and cross-over within the competitive Anglo market.
Daddy Yankee’s “Barrio Fino” album will be supported with a tour and performances in countries like the United States, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Panamá, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela and Santo Domingo to name a few.
Daddy Yankee
Reality Wanted - June 15, 2007 - The summer hit SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE kicked into high gear this week, with the first performances by the Top 20 finalists on Wednesday and special performances last night by R&B singer Lloyd and Season Two winner Benji Schwimmer.
The three couples who received the fewest votes after Wednesday’s performance show were: Sabra Johnson and Dominic Sandoval; Faina Savich and Cedric Gardner; and Ashlee Langas and Ricky Palomino. After each of the six dancers performed a solo routine, the judges eliminated Langas and Palomino, as individuals, from the competition, ending their quest to become America’s favorite dancer. Langas, 19, is a Contemporary/Jazz dancer from Tyler, TX, and Palomino, 25, is a Contemporary dancer from Phoenix, AZ. Lloyd performed the hit single “Get It Shawty” from his album “Street Love,” which recently went gold, and Schwimmer returned to the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE stage to perform a routine to “Tu Vuo’ Fa L’Americano” from “The Talented Mr. Ripley” soundtrack.
Next week, the competition revs up on television’s hottest show when the remaining 18 finalists (Jimmy Arguello, Kameron Bink, Cedric Gardner, Anya Garnis, Jaimie Goodwin, Lauren Gottlieb, Neil Haskell, Sabra Johnson, Hok Konishi, Pasha Kovalev, Shauna Noland, Jessi Peralta, Dominic Sandoval, Faina Savich, Lacey Schwimmer, Jesús Solorio, Sara Von Gillern and Danny Tidwell) compete as couples once again on a special two-hour performance show Wednesday, June 20 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). The following night, the judges will send two more dancers home, and reggaeton star Daddy Yankee will perform “Impacto” from his new album “El Cartel: The Big Boss” on the live results show Thursday, June 21 (9:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX.
The third hit season of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE is dominating the competition. The series boasts the highest-rated Adults 18-49 telecast for a summer series so far this year. SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE-WED is No. 1 in its time period among Adults 18-49, Total Viewers, Adults 18-34, Teens and all key demos, while SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE-THU ranks No. 1 in its time period among Adults 18-49, Adults 18-34 and Teens, and No. 2 in Total Viewers.
With his rapid-fire freestyle flow and clever lyrics, Daddy Yankee helped pioneer the sound of reggaeton. His grassroots success story has taken him from the barrios outside San Juan, Puerto Rico, to being named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world by TIME magazine in 2006. Born Ramón Ayala in Rio Piedras, he began rapping at friends’ parties in the Villa Kennedy housing project in San Juan. He made his recording debut on the “One Tough Cop” soundtrack in 1998. Several subsequent albums, including the hit “Los Homerun-es” (2003), plus dozens of collaborations with other artists, made DY a star in his homeland. 2004’s “Barrio Fino” and its “Gasolina” track, produced by Luny Tunes, were sensations around the world. “Barrio Fino” became the first reggaeton album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Latin chart and won the Latin Grammy for Best Urban Music Album. In 2005, “Ahora Le Toca al Cangri! Live,” featuring performances in English and Spanish, brought together Latin, reggae and rap. In 2006, the live CD/DVD set “Barrio Fino en Directo” rocketed to No. 1, was certified gold in the U.S. and was the biggest-selling Latin album of the year. “El Cartel: The Big Boss,” released earlier this month, features such diverse guest artists as Fergie and Will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas, Jim Jones, Nicole Scherzinger from The Pussycat Dolls, and Akon.
Daddy Yankee is founder and CEO of his own record label and management company and host of a nationally syndicated radio show. “Talento de Barrio,” his first film as actor and executive producer, is slated for U.S. release later this year. DY was the first reggaeton artist to offer free concerts for the children of the housing projects of Puerto Rico. He is a spokesperson for the American Red Cross in the U.S. Hispanic community and later this year will launch his own charitable organization, Fundación Corazón Guerrero.
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE was created by Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and comes from 19 Entertainment Ltd. and dick clark productions. It is executive-produced by Simon Fuller, Nigel Lythgoe and Allen Shapiro.
Paris Hilton ordered to return to court
Hours after Paris Hilton was sent home under house arrest Thursday, the judge who put her in jail for violating her reckless-driving probation ordered her into court to determine whether she should be put back behind bars.
read more | digg story
Record exec to academic: stop criticizing us or I'll tell your university
Andrew Dubber, who is on faculty at the University of Central England, blogged a link to a story critical of RIAA lawsuits. Paul Birch, a British record exec wrote him an angry letter, telling him that he wasn't allowed to post that kind of thing to his personal blog, because he works for a university that is funded by the government.
read more | digg story
Hip-Hop Culture is not Black Culture
for blacks, who traditionally saw cultivation as a key to equality. Think of the days when W.E.B. Du Bois "(sat) with Shakespeare" and moved "arm in arm with Balzac"; or when Ralph Ellison waxed universal and spoke of the need "to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life."The historian Paul Fussell notes that for most Americans, it is difficult to "class sink." Try to imagine the Chinese-American son of oncologists -- living in, say, a New York suburb such as Westchester, attending private school -- who feels subconsciously compelled to model his life, even if only superficially, on that of a Chinese mafioso dealing heroin on the Lower East Side. The cultural pressure for a middle-class Chinese-American to walk, talk and act like a lower-class thug from Chinatown is nil. The same can be said of Jews, or of any other ethnic group.But in black America the folly is so commonplace it fails to attract serious attention. Like neurotics obsessed with amputating their own healthy limbs, middle-class blacks concerned with "keeping it real" are engaging in gratuitously self-destructive and violently masochistic behavior.Sociologists have a term for this pathological facet of black life.It's called "cool-pose culture." Whatever the nomenclature, "cool pose" or keeping it real or something else entirely, this peculiar aspect of the contemporary black experience -- the inverted-pyramid hierarchy of values stemming from the glorification of lower-class reality in the hip-hop era -- has quietly taken the place of white racism as the most formidable obstacle to success and equality in the black middle classes.As John H. McWhorter emphasizes in his book "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America," "forty years after the Civil Rights Act, African-American students on the average are the weakest in the United States, at all ages, in all subjects, and regardless of class level." Reading and math proficiency test results consistently show this. Clearly, this Inostalgie de la boue/I , this longing for the mud, exacts a hefty price.A 2005 study by Roland G. Fryer of Harvard University crystallizes the point: While there is scarce dissimilarity in popularity levels among low-achieving students, black or white, Fryer finds that "when a student achieves a 2.5 GPA, clear differences start to emerge." At 3.5 and above, black students "tend to have fewer and fewer friends," even as their high-achieving white peers "are at the top of the popularity pyramid." With such pressure to be real, to not "act white," is it any wonder that the African-American high school graduation rate has stagnated at 70 percent for the past three decades? Until black culture as a whole is effectively disentangled from the python-grip of hip-hop, and by extension the street, we are not going to see any real progress.
read more | digg story
Monday, June 18, 2007
Daddy Yankee redefines himself with second CD
Success seems to be working a reverse aging process on Daddy Yankee. He looks younger than he did two years ago, when his song "Gasolina" was igniting pop music and he was poised on the edge of a musical explosion.
Gone are the sunglasses, the nervous energy, the wary, too-cool-to-react slump. Now his face gleams enough to light up the darkness of downtown Miami's Pawnshop Lounge on a recent weekday afternoon. His broadened shoulders - courtesy of work with a massive personal trainer/security guard who trails him - bulk up a positively preppy, bright white polo shirt.
The only hip-hop ornaments are the diamonds `round his neck and in his ears. "No, I don't use sunglasses anymore, man," he says. "Because people need to see my attitude, that I'm relaxed and confident in everything that I'm doing."
Tuesday saw the release of "The Cartel: The Big Boss," the follow-up to Yankee's 2004 star-making CD "Barrio Fino." Expectations are high in the Latin music industry, the reggaeton scene, the hip-hop world, the press. Can he match "Gasolina's" success? Top it? Cross over? Or will he repeat himself? Was he a one-hit wonder? Is reggaeton over? Can he light it up again? Move it forward?
If he's feeling the heat, Yankee doesn't show it.
Success may have made him more confident, but as he learned coming up in Villa Kennedy, a poor housing project of San Juan, Puerto Rico - where he started as a teenager selling his own tapes on the street and got a bullet in his leg that still makes him limp - you don't ever let the stress show.
"I'm very excited every time I'm on a magazine cover, launching a new album," says the 30-year old rapper, laying back on a couch. "It's like a rebirth for me. I have new strength, new vibe, new attitude. But I've always been like that, because in the barrio you learn to be like that. Because it's your life. You got to be calm like a dove, smart like a snake."
And you have got to have a good time when you can.
Daddy Yankee, real name Ramon Ayala, is exulting in the creative freedom that his status has given him. On "The Cartel: The Big Boss," he delves into salsa, R&B, dancehall, electronica, soul, Afro-Cuban rhythms - as well as straight-up reggaeton.
The first single, "Impacto," an invigorating electro-urban track produced by mega producer Scott Storch, boasts a gyrating guest turn from Fergie, the sexy female star of Black Eyed Peas. Rappers Akon and the Peas' Will.i.am step in to produce and celebrate hot mamas and rhyming prowess (and cultural unity). But there's also a heavily Afro-Cuban influenced song about his relationship with God, and a salsa hip-hop track about immigration.
Yankee rattles on easily in recently learned English during this interview, unabashedly checking his pronunciation or sometimes asking for translation help.
"You don't feel pressure when you're enjoying yourself," Yankee says. "I was having fun in the studio. When it comes to music you can't put pressure on yourself or the inspiration won't come. Simple as that.
"People are gonna see a new Daddy Yankee in terms of singing. I got hip-hop, dancehall, conscious music, R&B in Spanish. I moved in every direction in this album, not only straight reggaeton."
Musical experimentation and mainstream guest stars are in part a shrewd commercial calculation. With interest in reggaeton leveling off and the genre being criticized as repetitious, the man who exploded the music onto the pop culture scene needs to expand his audience and his sound.
"The Cartel: The Big Boss" is getting an intensive bicultural push from El Cartel Records, Yankee's own company, and Interscope, the American hip-hop powerhouse, including major promotion at Wal-Mart and a Pepsi ad campaign in Latin America.
"There is anticipation because of the success he had on his last record, breaking down so many barriers and taking this urban Latino flag into the Anglo world on so many levels," says Jose Tillan, senior vice president of music programming and talent strategy for MTV Tr3s, the network's U.S. Hispanic channel, which made Yankee its artist of the month in May.
"People are waiting to see what's gonna happen, what he's gonna do different to make himself stand out from the crowd again."
But Tillan says Yankee's curiosity and enthusiasm are genuine.
"He's very inquisitive," says Tillan. "If he's interested, he starts going deeper because he really wants to understand new things. I don't think he's doing "Gasolina Part 2." I think it's someone experimenting, trying new stuff and incorporating it into the genre that made him big."
When Yankee taped a concert for MTV 2's high profile "Two Dollar Bill" series in New York last summer, he performed with Miami Latin-funk jam band Spam All-Stars, a world away from reggaeton musically and stylistically. He spent a week rehearsing with them, and even jumped in to perform at one of the group's weekly shows at Hoy Como Ayer, a tiny Little Havana club.
Leader Andrew Yeomanson - DJ Le Spam - says Yankee got right into the group's loose, multi-rhythmic groove.
"There was a lot of jamming, a lot of freeform stuff, and he'd really enjoy that," Yeomanson says. `He'd tell us, `This is great - we're having fun.' You could tell they were enjoying the grooves and being creative."
With musical confidence has come business confidence.
Yankee started with reggaeton in his teens, when it was a purely underground scene derided by authorities and media in Puerto Rico, and ignored by the Latin music industry. He created his own label because no one else would put out his music, and reaped the benefits with the best-selling "Barrio Fino."
Now he has 30 people working for him, including his brother and his wife, Mirredys Gonzalez. (They've been together for 14 years, and have two girls, 11 and 10, and an 8-year-old boy.) Instead of being signed as an artist to Interscope, home to Eminem and Gwen Stefani, he negotiated a partnership with El Cartel and the American company.
The sense of street competition of his youth is now at a global, cross-cultural level.
"The reason I'm targeting the North American market is I wanted to challenge myself for this album," he says. "I want to prove to the world that we got the skills to beat any artist in the world, and even though we're speaking Spanish, do not underestimate what we're about."
His ambition stretches beyond music.
Last year, Yankee partnered with the Puerto Rican government in a campaign to benefit schools on the island. He has bought land to build an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and has launched a charitable organization, Fundacion Corazon Guerrero (Warrior Heart Foundation), a job training and rehabilitation program for ex-convicts.
"We're gonna help the people that no one wants to help," Yankee says. "I grew up in the barrio and it was a vicious cycle. They were coming out of jail and in two months they were going back. They had the best attitude - but no one wanted to hire them because of their records. So that's what my foundation is about, to give them an opportunity."
Just as success has given him the confidence to stop hiding behind gangsta shades and to expand into new kinds of music, it's also making him feel that he can do more about the hard life he came from than criticize it, glorify it, or boast about rising above it.
`It's not only making music. When you're in the barrio everybody says this: `If I had a million dollars I would help everybody.' And all the people once they have millions of dollars they don't do (anything).
"I got plenty right now, and I can spend a couple million to help my people and I'm still good."
More than good. "At the end of the day, when you help people you help yourself. You help yourself because it keeps you grounded. It gives you a satisfaction like nothing in the world can give you."
100 Most Beautiful Women In the World According To Lesbians
Let's face it: Maxim doesn't cater to lesbians. In fact, you could say it flies in the face of all that we hold dear, especially when it declares Lindsay Lohan the hottest of them all, as it did when it published The Maxim Hot 100 List last month. So we asked you, our readers, to create your own list of hotties, and you came out in droves to nominate the women you think deserve to be on the AfterEllen.com Hot 100 List. Thousands of votes later, we have the results.
How is our list different from Maxim's? Eight of the top 10 women on our list aren't mentioned anywhere on the Maxim list (Angelina Jolie and Lena Headey are the exceptions), and only four of the women who made Maxim's top 10 (Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel and Lindsay Lohan) appear somewhere on the AfterEllen.com list.
Clearly, what straight men and lesbians find sexy in a woman is a little bit different.
"Hot" for lesbians and bisexual women comes in all ages, sizes, colors and styles, as the diversity of women on our list demonstrates — from Tina Fey (No. 7) and Helen Mirren (No. 31), to Ellen DeGeneres (No. 50), America Ferrera (No. 30) and Queen Latifah (No. 55). There's even a conservative Republican in the mix (Angie Harmon, No. 82), proving we can still find a women sexy even if we don't agree with her alternative lifestyle choice.
The list also shows that we like women who like us — slightly over half the women on the AfterEllen.com Hot 100 List have played queer characters at one time or another. Eight of the women (nine, if you count Drew Barrymore) are openly lesbian or bisexual; they're noted with an asterisk (*) next to their name.
But there is one thing all the women on the list have in common: They're more than just pretty faces. Many of these women aren't just women we like, they're women we want to be like — women we admire as well as desire.
On our list, heat has depth. And Leisha (No. 1) beats Lindsay (No. 79) by a mile.
Now, on to the AfterEllen.com Hot 100 List! The women are listed in ascending order according to your votes. We've provided photos and descriptions for the first 20 women, and after that, just names and photos. At the end, you can add your comments telling us what you think about the women who ended up on the list. Enjoy!
Video: Michelle talks Akon on The Factor
It is Akon, Bill. Ay-kahn. Not Eichorn or Acorn. Just trying to be helpful. Michelle gives a shout-out to Debbie Schlussel and Laura Ingraham, who were both instrumental in Verizon’s decision to sever its relationship with Akon.
Read More
Daddy Yankee - Gasolina Music Video and Lyrics
Gasolina by Daddy Yankee , Music Video and Lyrics Daddy Yankee Gasolina Lyrics(Who’s this?)(Da-Ddy!)(Yan-Kee!)unito mambapa’ que mis gatas prendan los motores…Zumbale mambo pa’ que mis gatas prendan los motores…Zumbale mambo pa’ que mis gatas prendan los motores…
read more | digg story
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Music Related Sites
Hip-Hop.net - Hip hop music, daily news and culture. Promote and share your music, photos and everything hip-hop. Exclusive artist interviews, pre-releases and videos.
Free Mp3 Downloads and so much more - Music and Mp3 Downloads, Celebrities and Entertainment.
Musical Bar - Bringing you free MP3 downloads daily.
News Blogs
RnB Music Blog - Your source for hip-hop and Rnb.
Tomsj-Space - A blog covering stories and comments about the pop music celebrities, their life and the songs they sing.
What a Shame?! - Get the latest gossip news!
Celebrity Sites
Furtado Frenzy - Your ultimate source for Nelly Furtado!!
Hayden Panettiere - Your #1 resource for Hayden.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
