Aventura "All Up 2 You"
best video moment
thu 10/1/2009
Artist: Aventura featuring Wisin y Yandel and Akon
Song: All Up 2 You
Album: The Last
Director: Jessy Terrero
What to watch for: Aventura team up with Wisin y Yandel for an Ocean's Eleven-esque caper that involves cash, danger and… Romeo's ex-girlfriend. After the guys grill Romeo about the motivation behind the operation, he insists it's all business. That is, until he enters an elevator and locks eyes with his former flame.

All Up 2 You or I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)?
song showdown
fri 7/17/2009
"But it's all up to you, hey, all up to you, hey, all up to you."
Artist: Aventura
Song: All Up 2 You
Album: The Last
Produced by: Nesty "La Mente Maestra", Victor "El Nasi" and Marioso.
Aventura find a way to make a slow jam into a party banger. But even the "Kings of Bachata" can't escape the Auto-Tune on a single that also features Akon and Wisin y Yandel.
OR
"I know you want me (want me), you know I want cha (want cha), I know you want me, You know I want cha (want cha)."
Artist: Pitbull
Song: I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)
Album: Rebelution
Produced by: Lil Jon
Mr. 305 flips 75, Brazil Street by Nicola Fasano vs. Pat Rich to deliver his biggest hit yet. Latin euro dance ftw.
ve a maria
daily dos
thu 6/18/2009
RBD alum Dulce María joins Akon in the video for a remix of "Beautiful."
start ur engines
daily dos
wed 4/1/2009
Akon puts on a cheerleading outfit in a new video, "Win It Now (Rah Rah Rah)."
gun powder ink
daily dos
fri 3/27/2009
Dulce Maria of RBD is hooking up with Akon to record a remix of his hit track "Beautiful."
hush hush
daily dos
tue 2/24/2009
Akon, Young Jeezy and E-40 tell XXL magazine how the recession is affecting their lives. Young Jeezy: "I’m cutting back on the extra stuff… Wants and needs are two different things, nah mean? So I’m focusing more on what I need."
Akon, Common, Fall Out Boy, Keyshia Cole and Kevin Rudolf
the music press
mon 1/5/2009
- Senegalese-American singer-rapper Akon returns with Freedom, an album filled with "extremely breezy, Caribbean-tinged songs that are less hip-hop than lucid pop," according to The Boston Globe. "[H]is best songs [are] light, expertly constructed and just a touch insipid," writes The New York Times. Rolling Stone calls Freedom "pure melodrama about love and love lost, delivered in a hooting style over synth-swamped beats that are closer to early Peter Gabriel than to 2008 hip-hop."
- Rapper and actor Common drops Universal Mind Control, his eighth album. Spin magazine loves its retro sound: "While we're used to Common in the role of poetic prophet or self-righteous rhyme slayer, Universal Mind Control is primarily a rhythmic celebration, paying tribute to Afrika Bambaataa and Jonzun Crew jams." The Los Angeles Times applauds his new direction: "Common tries to break away, taking on a harder, naughtier persona and dipping his typically dusty grooves in executive producer Pharrell's cold chemical wash. For part of the album, the techno gambit blows fresh air into Common's paisley pondering."
- American pop-punkers Fall Out Boy release their fifth album, Folie à Deux (Madness For Two). "For all the negatives said, written or blogged about Fall Out Boy (and trust us, there are a lot), it's damn near impossible to fault the Chicago-born band for their creativity, ingenuity and willingness to try just about anything," gushes Alternative Press. The Onion's AV Club gives the album an "A" while underscoring that the band is overshadowed by bassist Pete Wentz's tabloid escapades: "While the adulation of millions of kids has made the Chicago quartet a platinum-selling arena act, the group inspires equally passionate disdain from non-fans, who made 'Wentz' slang for 'douche.'"
- California R&B singer-songwriter Keyshia Cole is back with a new hairdo and a new album, A New Me. USA Today calls it "sexier [and] more playful," featuring "much less pain than on previous works." Entertainment Weekly thinks she's "chosen an odd way to escape" the Mary J. Blige comparisons, since Cole "turns her focus from heartbreak to happiness only a few years after Blige promised she was done with drama." Allmusic digs the change of pace: "Cole pushes herself into new territory and becomes a more versatile songwriter and vocalist in convincing, frequently thrilling, fashion."
- Miami based producer and rocker Kevin Rudolf releases In The City, an album that "cribs tricks from both rap and rock 'n' roll, not in the pursuit of a bastardized Limp Bizkit-type hybrid, but with the intention to produce a crossover rock record with modern hip-hop tools," according to the BBC. Despite the album's flaws, hip hop webzine Rap Reviews enjoys Rudolf's Cash Money Records debut: "In the City offers good production, excellent melodies, and – of course – the same song, ideas, and kinds of guest appearances many times over. Still, I'd recommend it as a blueprint for potential."
the gloves are off
daily dos
thu 12/18/2008
Akon was sentenced to 65 hours of community service after pleading guilty to tossing a teenage fan off stage during a concert last year.
dream a little dream
daily dos
fri 11/21/2008
Listen to Akon, Snoop Dogg and DJ Drama take a break from reality on a new track, "Day Dreaming."
Christina Aguilera vs. Lady GaGa
versus
tue 11/18/2008
| name | Christina María Aguilera. | Stefani Germanotta. |
| hometown | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.. | Yonkers, New York. |
| born | December 18, 1980. | May 20, 1986. |
| early start | Mouseketeer on The Mickey Mouse Club. | Pop art performer from New York's Lower East Side. |
| the look | Platinum blonde hair and racy outfits. | Platinum blonde hair and racy outfits. |
| influences | Etta James, Madonna, Whitney Houston and Nina Simone. | David Bowie, Blondie, Madonna and Queen. |
| breakthrough track | Genie In a Bottle. | Just Dance. |
| killer collabo | Lady Marmalade with Pink, Lil Kim, Missy Elliott and Mya. | Starstruck featuring Flo Rida. |
| backed by | Manager Steve Kurtz. | Singer-rapper Akon. |
| produced by | Linda Perry, Mark Ronson and Scott Storch. | RedOne, Rob Fusari and Martin Kierszenbaum. |
| in their own words | "This person [Lady Gaga] was just brought to my attention not too long ago. I’m not quite sure who this person is, to be honest. I don’t know if it is a man or a woman."- Christina Aguilera. | "A lot of people have been saying that [Aguilera] is copying my style with her new song. I guess it bears somewhat of a resemblance, but I wouldn't say she is copying me." - Lady GaGa. |
| Something to brag about | Won Grammys for Best New Artist in 2000 and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2004. | Wrote tracks for Britney Spears, Pussycat Dolls and New Kids on the Block. |
| most recent release | Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits. | The Fame. |
| the critics | Allmusic: "After Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera was the most popular female singer of the late-'90s teen pop revival. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Aguilera was a technically skilled singer with a genuinely powerful voice, belting out her uptempo dance numbers and ballads with a diva's panache." | The New York Post: "Lady Gaga is the future of pop… [T]he 22-year-old hometown girl is out to prove that she deserves to inherit Britney Spears' pop princess crown. While it might seem like Gaga popped up out of nowhere, she's anything but an overnight sensation." |
| webprops | 504,390 friends on official MySpace. | 64,938 friends on official MySpace. |
| best video moment | Bumping and grinding in Dirrty. | Bumping and grinding in Poker Face. |
