LOS ANGELES — At a 24,000-square-foot studio near downtown Los Angeles, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes and Ciara are preparing to film the video announcement for a tour no one saw coming. This summer, the trio — along with legendary producer Timbaland — will hit the road for Elliott’s first headlining arena tour, appropriately titled “Out … Read more
The opening track on folk-pop singer-songwriter Lizzy McAlpine’s third album, “Older,” is only one minute and 40 seconds long. In that time, “The Elevator” carries the listener into McAlpine’s internal world, climbing a steady piano melody toward a drum-led instrumental before the song meets an abrupt end — depositing the listener at the second track, … Read more
LOS ANGELES — In the first nine months of 2023, Sean “Diddy” Combs triumphantly performed at the MTV VMAs, released an R&B album that garnered a Grammy nomination and was a suitor to buy the BET network. But several lawsuits filed late last year raised allegations of sexual assault and rape against Combs — one … Read more
LOS ANGELES — Jelly Roll, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney, and Cody Johnson are the leading nominees for the 2024 CMT Music Awards, celebrating the best in country music videos. On Wednesday, CMT announced the nominees for their fan-voted awards show, where the five artists are tied with three nominations each. Ballerini will also … Read more
NEW YORK — For almost two decades, the 2002 killing of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay stood as one of the hip-hop world’s most infamous and elusive crimes, one of three long-unsolved slayings of major rap stars. Now Jay’s case is the first of those killings to go to trial. Opening statements are set for Monday … Read more
Marlena Shaw, the jazz and R&B vocalist whose “California Soul” was one of the defining soul songs of the late 1960s, has died. She was 81. Shaw’s daughter, Marla Bradshaw, announced the singer’s death Friday in a video posted on Facebook. A cause of death was not given. “It’s with a very heavy heart for … Read more
LOS ANGELES — Coco Jones was so obsessed with fine tuning her skills as a singer that she tried to mimic Beyoncé’s Olympic-style training of singing while running on a treadmill. Jones didn’t own a treadmill, but her father and former NFL player, Mike Jones, had an elliptical machine she often used as an alternative. … Read more
NEW YORK — She’s Barbie. He’s just Ken. And now, it’s Christmas. On Wednesday, Ryan Gosling — the Ken to Margot Robbie’s “Barbie” in the film — released the “I’m Just Ken” EP alongside collaborators Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt. It features the original Grammy-nominated, ‘80s-style power ballad from the movie, also titled “I’m Just … Read more
