Jay-Z Shares Sneak Peek Of Watch The Throne

Hov played more than a dozen tracks from his collabo with Kanye for MTV News on Thursday night.
By Alvin Blanco


Jay-Z
Photo: Scott Wintrow/Getty Images

NEW YORK — Jay-Z and Kanye West's forthcoming album may be called Watch the Throne, but soon enough fans will be listening, not just looking, and it will have been worth the wait. On Thursday night, MTV News was among the shortlist of media outlets invited to get an early listen to the power duo's collaborative project.

The listening session was held in the Mercer Hotel, where the New York Post previously reported that parts of the album were recorded. Though it was originally set to begin at 8 p.m., Jay-Z walked into the hotel lobby closer to 9 (word is he was at a Yankees game hoping to see Derek Jeter get his 3,000th hit). The group of journalists followed the rapper up to a suite that had been transformed into a recording studio. Seated in the rear of the room, wearing a Yankees snap-back hat and crisp, white shell-toe Adidas, Hova balanced a MacBook Pro in his lap. After asking those in attendance to introduce themselves, he got right into playing selections from the album, loudly.

Standout tracks included a pair of songs that feature Odd Future crooner Frank Ocean. Jay-Z relayed that he reached out to Ocean after hearing his Nostalgia, Ultra mixtape and wanted him to contribute to his next solo album. After their initial work went well — Ocean appears on one of two songs Jay-Z revealed he has recorded for the solo LP — Hova invited the crooner to get down on Watch the Throne too. The only other guest on the album is Beyoncé, who appears on the resounding "Lift Off," which sounds like it was tailor-made to be performed in large stadiums.

On another particularly interesting song, Jay-Z and Kanye deliver verses directed to their hypothetical unborn sons. (Note: Jay-Z's press representative asked that lyrics from songs not be quoted.) The Brooklyn MC recalled that Yeezy first recited his verse to him at New York's Museum of Modern Art. "I told him I wasn't going to get on it," Jay-Z told MTV News of the song, adding that he thought Kanye's verse, running down his myriad past mistakes, is one of his best ever. "The honesty of it, it's just really cool."

Throughout the album, Yeezy holds his own when rapping alongside Jay-Z, a lyricist of the highest caliber. Other standout tracks that feature the duo trading rap bars include a song whose beat features a chopped up Otis Redding vocal sample that many requested be played again. Another song called "Living So Italian" also got a favorable response from the room.

Jay-Z played over a dozen songs and said that he hoped to finalize the track list by this weekend. He also admitted that the album is actually on its third iteration. Initially, he and Kanye were looking to make a grandiose project with elaborate songs, but they felt that doing so would take away from its enjoyment, so they chose to pare it down sonically.

"It's just so big and so much, you don't want that sh-- screaming in your house," Jay-Z said, referring to their early single, "H.A.M." "If we don't make records that we like and represent the culture, we would be over."

The room didn't start thinning out until near midnight, and as the session winded down, Jay-Z started playing additional tracks, including a song whose lyrics seems to hint that it was produced by No ID. Nodding his head along to the knocking grooves, he also played a song that features Swizz Beatz that he said probably won't make the final cut.

Back in January, MTV News' Sway sat down with West, who teased the Watch the Throne project, saying, "We going to the South of France at the end of this month just to record new ideas." And late last year, when we caught up with Jigga, he explained the long history between him and 'Ye. "Kanye, he's really like a brother to me, I've seen him from the beginning to where he is now, and to see him as a producer and how he's grown as a producer and and artist, you know, for me, on another level it's enjoyable."

While pre-order receipts of Watch the Throne indicate that it will be shipped on "2011-08-02," Jay-Z and his representatives did not provide a solid release date for the highly anticipated album beyond saying fans would hear it "soon." Keep watching.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1666969/jay-z-watch-the-throne-preview.jhtml

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Watch: ?The Iron Lady? Releases A First Teaser Trailer

Back in February we got our first look at the first promo pic released of Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher from the upcoming biopic The Iron Lady. Today we get to check out Meryl in action as Margaret in a short teaser clip released for the film. The video below may be [...]

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Jerry Springer is caught in the Casey Anthony media frenzy and, he says, for no reason

Springer dismissed a report that his TV show is offering $1 million to Anthony and her parents as “100 percent fabricated.” The host of “The Jerry Springer Show” said Friday his syndicated program does not feature “known people” such as Anthony. The 25-year-old woman was acquitted Tuesday of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008. [...]

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Justin Bieber's Grammy Performance Will Be 'A Crossover,' Usher Says

The 'O.M.G.' singer looks forward to sharing the stage with his protégé on Sunday night.
By James Montgomery


Usher
Photo: Amanda Edwards/ Getty Images

HOLLYWOOD — At Sunday's 53rd Grammy Awards, Usher will be pulling double duty as both a nominee and a performer. Of course, given the massive year he just completed — with the success of his smash single "O.M.G." and as a mentor to rising phenom Justin Bieber — Ush's Grammy plans seem rather fitting.

Especially since he'll be performing with Bieber (and Bieber's pal Jaden Smith), a move that's just as much about celebrating Usher's successes as it is the successes of his young protégé.

"Having been through [the Grammys] so many times, you couldn't want for anything more than for your young protégé to have the opportunity to have one, so, in support of him having his moment, I wanted to be here," Usher told MTV News on Thursday, hours before his performance at the (Belvedere) RED launch party in Hollywood. "And also to be there to perform, to kind of tell the story of how we came together. This music business has definitely been good to both of us, and this year we have a lot to be happy for."

And just how will the dynamic duo tell that story? Well, Usher wasn't about to reveal all the details, but he did say that he's hoping their performance will show another side of Bieber ... a side most tend to overlook.

"The performance will be fun," Usher explained. "We want to get up there and just do what we do. Be comfortable, and have a great time. ... This is kind of a crossover for Justin. Having performed on so many different stages, this is the way that I wanted him to be seen and an opportunity to show the industry — a lot of the industry, that didn't believe [in him] — some of his other talents. He's going to play acoustically, and also, we'll get down a little bit."

And though Ush is up for a pair of Grammy awards on Sunday — Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best Contemporary R&B Album for Raymond v. Raymond — he's most looking forward to sharing the stage with Bieber and giving fans a look at where the young artist will be heading next.

"I'm very proud, man. I definitely saw it from the beginning, but thanks to the team that we have around us, it was made to happen. And that story has only just begun," Usher said. "The story of Justin Bieber doesn't stop with screaming girls; we need screaming fans all around the world ... a cultural experience that's much more than just fanfare. And that's what this is. That's what the Grammys will be; that's what my next phase for Justin is. This is the way I found him: I found him with a guitar in his hand, so I want him to be seen that way."

Don't miss "Snooki & Sway: Live From the Grammys," a red-carpet live stream kicking off Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And stick with us all Grammy night for coverage of the red carpet, the show, the afterparties and beyond!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1657728/usher-justin-bieber-grammy-performance.jhtml

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Britney Spears, Taking Back Sunday Video Worlds Collide Thanks To Director

Chris Marrs Piliero explains why the cat in 'Faith (Never Let You Down)' comes across an Easter egg from 'I Wanna Go.
By Jocelyn Vena


Photo: Warner Bros.

Taking Back Sunday's video for "Faith (Never Let You Down)" is a social commentary about the fleeting nature of Internet fame, as illustrated by a fake cat trying to make it in Hollywood. It also happens to be the latest installment in the kooky videography of music video auteur Chris Marrs Piliero.

"It was an idea that I had floating around in my head, and when I listened to the song ... the meaning of the song clicked in my brain," the director said of the clip, which follows his cheeky video for Britney Spears' "I Wanna Go."

"People just love cat videos," he explained. "And I just thought it would be fun to see what it would like if a cat had the brain to be like, 'Sh--, I'm a big deal.' "

In the video, Taking Back Sunday post a clip of their cat online, and soon "OMG, WTF TBS Cat" goes viral. The cat eventually hops on a bus to L.A. (with a quick nod to Guns N' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle"), finds fame, disses the TBS guys, fails to make it as an actor, winds up in porn and eventually can't handle the pressure. Then, of course, TBS Cat heads back home.

Was that cat as difficult in real life as he was in the video?

"I was like halfway into the shoot, and he was throwing out demands," Piliero recalled, laughing. "It got to the point where no one was allowed to make eye contact with him on set. I had to sit him down and have a heart to heart with him."

Along with the GNR homage and a few other pop-culture references, the video includes a cute Easter egg for Britney fans: One of TBS cat's discarded audition scripts is for the fantasy Spears sequel, "Crossroads 2: Cross Harder," which is also on the marquee in "I Wanna Go."

"I made the TBS video right after the Britney video," he said. "I felt like the cat could exist in the same world as the 'I Wanna Go' world, so I thought it would be a fun little Easter egg. Also, [frontman] Adam [Lazzara] from TBS texted me after watching the Britney video, and I didn't even realize that during the paparazzi fight when she swings the mic around — that is something that Adam does all the time, which is something I was very conscious of — but I didn't realize the scene happened in front of a store called Keaton's, and his son is called Keaton!"

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Michael Jackson Doctor Conrad Murray's Trial To Be Televised

Judge rules that camera will be allowed in the courtroom for manslaughter case.
By Gil Kaufman


Conrad Murray
Photo: AFP/ Getty Images

For what promises to be one of the most bizarre and riveting legal proceedings in years, a Los Angeles judge ruled on Monday that a television camera will be allowed in the courtroom when Michael Jackson's doctor goes on trial for involuntary manslaughter.

Reuters reported that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor, approved the presence of a camera in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray as long as it does not interfere with the proceedings in the closely watched case.

The judge asked for the "absolute least-intrusive placement" of a TV camera in the courtroom, but blocked cameras from documenting jury selection.

Pastor also announced that he would bump up the opening date of the trail by four days to March 24, at which point jury selection will begin. Murray, who faces up to four years in prison if convicted, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the trial is expected to last around six weeks.

Cardiologist Murray was hired to be Jackson's personal physician in the run-up to the King of Pop's planned 50-date comeback series of shows at London's O2 arena in the summer of 2009. The doctor told police that he provided Jackson, 50, with sedatives and the surgical anesthetic propofol in order to combat the singer's chronic insomnia. He said he did so on the morning of June 25, 2009, when Jackson died of what a coroner deemed acute propofol poisoning.

TMZ reported on Tuesday (February 8) that Murray's lawyers plan to argue that Jackson was already in weak health before he died and that it's unfair to blame propofol for his passing. Unnamed sources close to the case told the gossip site that at the time of his death, Jackson's body was already failing him in part because concert promoter AEG Live had "driven [him] over the edge" with a rigorous rehearsal schedule for the shows.

Murray's lawyers reportedly plan to call witnesses to say that Jackson was not showing up for rehearsals and when he did he showed "clear signs" of frail health. They also reportedly plan to argue that it was Jackson who administered the final, fatal dose of propofol to himself while Murray was out of the room.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1657464/conrad-murray-trial.jhtml

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