Fantasia Barrino is out with the music video to her new single ‘When I Met You’, off the ‘American Idol’ season three winner’s fifth studio album ‘The Definition Of…’, out now on RCA Records. The throwback clip features Fantasia’s daughter Zion playing a young Fantasia and features plenty of imagery in tribute to the late Whitney Houston. The treatment concludes with Fantasia and her husband Kendall Taylor. Watch it via YouTube below.
RYLI ‘Tell Me’
RYLI is out with her new track ‘Tell Me’, which premiered last week. The R&B newcomer’s vocals are complimented by the synth driven soundscape created by the song’s producers, Unscripted. “‘Tell Me’ was literally written off of the top of my head in Los Angeles, California,” RYLI told Saint Heron about the track. “I sat down with the producers named Unscripted, and we all started vibing. They played me one track before ‘Tell Me’; however, as soon as I heard the ‘Tell Me’ beat, I was like, ‘That’s it! That’s the record!'”
The Virginian born/New York based artist released a music video for her track ‘One Night’ in December, and fans can expect even more from the artist soon. RYLI is currently preparing her debut EP, ‘ENTER’, which is due out this May, followed by her debut album coming out this summer. Listen to ‘Tell Me’ via Soundcloud below.
Natalie La Rose ‘Somebody’ Video Ft. Jeremih
Natalie La Rose is out with the music video to her debut single ‘Somebody’, featuring Jeremih. Discussing the song being influenced by ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ by Whitney Houston with Billboard, the 26-year-old Dutch R&B singer said, “I’m a huge fan of ’80s music and grew up listening to that. I heard this beat and told Flo Rida we should write to it. He came up with ‘I wanna dance with somebody,’ and we switched up the lyrics a little to make it more nowadays.” Watch it via YouTube below.
K. Michelle ‘Maybe I Should Call’ Video
K. Michelle is out with the music video to her new single ‘Maybe I Should Call’, off the American R&B artist’s second album ‘Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart?’, out December 9th on Atlantic Records. The video, inspired by a true story and directed by Iren Sheffield Brown, can be viewed via YouTube below.
Corinne Bailey Rae ‘Bluebird’ Video
Following hot on the heels of The Cure + James McCartney performing ‘Hello Goodbye’ and Alice Cooper’s rendition of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ from ‘The Art of McCartney’ comes an interpretation of a Paul McCartney classic from songstress ‘Corinne Bailey Rae’. On the album, she delivers her own beautiful version of ‘Bluebird’. ‘The Art of McCartney’ will be out on November 18th. Watch a video for ‘Bluebird’ via YouTube below.
Usher ‘Good Kisser’ Video
Usher is out with the music video to his latest single ‘Good Kisser’, off the American R&B singer’s upcoming eighth studio album on RCA Records. Watch the Christopher Sims directed video via YouTube below.
Chris Brown: I Can’t Focus On Wife-ing Rihanna
Chris Brown spoke via phone with the Kyle and Jackie O Show on 2Day FM in Australia, where the R&B star opened up about his relationship with Rihanna as well as his 24th birthday. Talking about celebrating his birthday solo, meaning without Rihanna, Brown said, “Yeah, Imma do it solo. I mean, at the end of the day, shawty doing her thang, she on the road … It’s always gonna be love. I’m just gonna do me. I’m a grown man. Just gotta fast forward.”
Brown added that despite their split, the pair will always share a love for each other. “The way I look at it is, I am always going to love that person,” Brown explained. “But people have differences and people have different wants and needs. And at the end of the day, she’s a young girl. I can’t really be focused on wife-ing somebody that young. At the end of the day. And I’m young too. So I can’t focus on that right now. I just need to fast forward and be a man and be the best Chris Brown I can be, instead of worrying about whoever else is going to be in my side pocket.”
Meanwhile, things with Chris and ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran could be back on, as the Las Vegas Sun reports she was spotted at his birthday party in Las Vegas at The Mirage’s 1Oak nightclub on Saturday. Additionally, Us magazine reports that Tran was on hand for Brown’s Hollywood birthday party the prior evening at Emerson Theatre.
The interview at Soundcloud has since been removed.
Ne-Yo Talks ‘R.E.D.’ And A&R Role At Motown
Ne-Yo did a live set recently that included performances of ‘Lazy Love’, ‘Jealous’, ‘Don’t Make ’em Like You’, ‘Unconditional’ and ‘Let Me Love You’. The singer also sat down for an interview, discussing the name of his latest album ‘R.E.D.’, how the album was divided for his R&B and pop/dance fans, taking on the role of an executive at Motown, how there will always be a song for him to write thanks to love, and the delicate balance between his job and being a father, and songs off the new album.
“The name of the new album is ‘R.E.D.’ It’s an acronym standing for ‘Realizing Your Dream’. I called the album that because that’s where I am in my life right now. I’m realizing every dream. I decided at age 9 that music was going to be my life, and every dream and aspiration I set for myself from 9 to now, pretty much every single one of them have all been realized, and all through the power of music, so this album is a celebration of that fact.”
Discussing his mindset when recording the LP, Ne-Yo explained, “When I went in to start recording this one, this is actually the first album that I paid attention to the fact that I have two very dominant fan bases. I have my die-hard R&B fan base here, and I have my die-hard dance and/or pop fans here, and then we have the people that rest in between those two points. With this album I needed to make sure that everyone who calls themselves a Ne-Yo fan had something to latch onto. This album is almost split down the middle. There’s an equal amount of R&B songs and equal amount of pop and/or dance songs, and then those songs that fall into the middle of those two points. My last album with ‘Libra Scale’, I went really, really heavy with the conceptual. Really really heavy with theme. With this one I decided to just go back to the basics and just try to do quality music and making sure every Ne-Yo fan had something to latch onto with this album.”
Talking about his new role as Senior Vice President for A&R at Motown Records, Ne-Yo said, “I’m excited about the position because it allows me to help out the hundreds of thousands of young artists I come across every single day. At the other side of the same card, it’s definitely a learning experience. The language of an executive and the language of an artist are not always the same language. Another thing that Motown is doing right now is artist development, which is something that record labels just don’t do anymore. That’s kind of one of the things that attracted me to the job, the position in the first place. With an artist, it’s about the vibe and the energy and the emotion and the passion. With the executive, it’s about the numbers and the bottom line and staying out of the red. It definitely is something that I’m getting better at, I’ll say that.”
The mini concert and interview can be viewed at soundcheck.walmart.com. Check out additional pictures from Ne-Yo’s appearance after the cut. (more…)
Trevor Jackson Shoots Music Video With Zendaya Coleman
Trevor Jackson is out with behind the scenes footage from his ‘Like We Grown’ music video shoot, featuring ‘Shake It Up’ star Zendaya Coleman. The track is from the singer and actor’s upcoming debut album on Atlantic Records.
“I get to play the girl in the music video, so it’s kind of like the girl he’s trying to get after, so it’ll be pretty cool. I’m excited,” Coleman said of her role.
Describing their scene together, Trevor said, “What do I do? I walk to her. I gotta get to know her. I’ve gotta talk to her. I’ve gotta know this girl somehow, some way. That’s what we’re shooting right now. I’m choppin’ it up with her. She ends up giving me the digits and the address.”
Previewing the following scene, director Mike Ho said, “It’s the party. It’s nighttime. All of her friends are here. She’s up against the wall waiting for him to arrive, thinking he’s not showing up because it’s so late, but he ended up making a surprise visit and comes up and that’s how he surprises her.”
Before shooting the next scene on the roof, Trevor said, “We’re doing the night scene where I bring the beautiful Zendaya up on this balcony as you can call it, and we’re gonna have a little bit more intimate scenes in it and then we’re gonna do the dance scene after this.”
For her part, Coleman said, “Obviously I’m really excited to be a part of this video. I’ve known Trevor for a while now and he’s a really good friend of mine. He’s really great, so here I am. He asked me to be in the video and I’m really excited to be here, so it’s gonna be great.”
After wrapping up, Trevor said, “We just finished the video. I’m tired but I am excited man. We worked really hard to get this video done.”
Watch it via YouTube below.
Update: Check out photos from the music video shoot after the cut. (more…)
Solange Knowles ‘Losing You’ Video
Solange Knowles is out with the music video to her latest single ‘Losing You’, off the American R&B singer’s EP ‘True’, out November 27th on Terrible Records. The Melina Matsoukas directed treatment was shot at multiple locations in the township of Langa in Cape Town, South Africa in September. Watch it via YouTube below.
