web analytics

Tag: Mary J. Blige

  • 2010 MTV Video Music Awards Play By Play

    Chelsea Handler
    We’re live! Ok, well, I’m kind of lying. I’m blogging this while watching the West Coast MTV feed, so it’s really the earliest I can watch this show. But those of you on the East Coast have already seen it. So you can either watch with me, or reminisce with me, whichever you prefer.

    Refresh every 15 minutes or so as I’ll be updating the blog as much as possible.

    I don’t know Chelsea Handler’s work well, but she has a little bit of buzz because of her talk show on E! and I guess that’s what happens when you get some buzz. You host the VMAs.

    – An Eminem performance to start the show? You sure are not very predictable MTV.

    – What I find hilarious about Not Afraid is that baseball players and fighters everywhere use it as their batter walk-up/entrance music. Don’t know they it’s about an addict who is trying to make a comeback? Or are they saying they’re former addicts?

    – I wonder if MTV knows that Recovery is a terribly overrated album?

    – I swear, if Chris Brown shows up on stage with Rihanna for Love The Way You Lie, I’m never watching MTV again.

    – Ok, he didn’t make it on stage. Thank the lord.

    – So far, Chelsea’s monologue consists of making fun of Taylor Swift, black rappers, Justin Bieber, and The Jersey Shore. In other words, it’s pretty lame.

    – At least one thing that Ellen DeGeneres got out of being a judge on American Idol is that she’s a presenter on the VMAs. I’m not sure that was a step forward in her career. Did Oprah ever do the VMAs?

    – Lady Gaga won the first award for Bad Romance and she walked up on stage wearing a peacock hair-do, looking eerily similar to Ellen DeGeneres’ faux hawk.

    – Is it bad of me that I’m rooting for Paramore to win the best rock video all because of my girl Hayley Williams? Damn, they lost. 30 Seconds To Mars won.

    – Kim Kardashian just introduced Justin Bieber. Too bad her boyfriend Miles Austin is sad that his Dallas Cowboys lost on Sunday Night Football. Ok, it’s not that bad that they lost. In fact, that made me kind of happy.

    – Justin Bieber is lip-syncing the hell out of Baby. He’s pulling a Joey McIntyre on us since his voice is probably changing on him these days. It’s about time.

    – He segued into Somebody To Love and I was just waiting for Usher to try and steal his swag. I also find it cute that whenever Bieber’s done with his performance, he ends with a drum solo just to show that he knows a little bit of music.

    – Don’t you just hate it when people use the word “myself” when they’re supposed to use the word “me”? I’m looking at you Trey Songz.

    – Remember when I jokingly said that I was waiting for Usher to steal Justin’s swag? Guess who’s performing next? I’ll give you a clue. His name starts with a U.

    – My man can still dance his tail off. He definitely owes a lot to MJ for the way he moves, but at least it’s not a complete jack like Chris Brown.

    – If Nicki Minaj doesn’t make it in rap music, she has a career in modeling for Apple Bottom jeans. Holy cow, you could see it from the front. She might as well change her name to Nicki Badonkadonk.

    – Florence Henderson is in a new group called Florence Henderson + The Machine? Isn’t she too old? What? It’s just Florence + The Machine? My bad.

    – Lady Gaga just won Best Pop Video and is wearing an outfit that reminds me of Missy Elliot’s rubber ball suit. She won for this video:

    – Taylor Swift is singing a song that might be inspired by the Kanye West fiasco from last year that I still believe to this day was party rehearsed. She should’ve gone the Justin Bieber route and lip-synced. She must be going through puberty too. Or else, her voice just isn’t very good.

    – Mary J. Blige is making my ears happy after Taylor Swift made them so sad.

    – And the Best Hip Hop Video goes too… B.o.B.! Woohoo! Ok, you knew Eminem really won.

    – Take J-WOWW’s boobs and Nicki Minaj’s rear end and you have a pretty cool comic book character.

    – Bruno Mars is on stage lookin’ like a Filipino Richie Valens with his hair all blown out. Finally. All it took was a red-headed white girl who can’t dance with a big voice and B.o.B. to join each other on stage to put together a performance that I really liked. You go Haley.

    – First Selena Gomez and now Victoria Justice? Disney Channel is making it hard for 14-year old boys I tell you.

    – Justin Bieber finally won an award and if you just started watching, you’d know it was his first. He couldn’t find his way to the stage and nearly went the wrong way after receiving it. Come on, he’s going through puberty! Cut him some slack.

    – Cher is on this show, damn near naked in 2010.

    – Gaga says the name of her new album is called Born This Way. Well, that sure is going to help dismiss those rumors that she has a pilly packer.

    – Kanye’s performing a song with a hook that goes, “Let’s have a toast for the douche bags, let’s have a toast for the assholes, let’s have a toast for the scum bags, everyone of them that I know.”

    – He also did some live beat mixing on stage. He was definitely the most intriguing performer of the night. I think he was even on pitch more than Taylor was. Check out the audio of the song below. Good night!

    Photo of Chelsea Handler shared through the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

    Update: Found Kanye’s performance. Here’s hoping it stays up.


    2191223439
    Uploaded by yardie4lifever2. – See video of the biggest web video personalities.

  • Chart Chat 12/30/09: Prelude to the Year-End Wrap Up

    Hey folks, I’ve been out of pocket for just about a week. Not having internet service beyond a Blackberry isn’t fun. However, we’re back and 2010 promises even bigger and better things:

    This week’s chart is the 52nd of the chart year, so get your pads and pencils ready. We’ll be talking about the top sellers of the year very soon. In the meantime…

    Susan Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream” logs a fifth week at the #1 spot on the charts, with 510,000 units sold. This brings it’s total to a shade under three million units. It’s the longest running #1 album of 2009.

    Mary J. Blige pops in at the runner-up spot with “Stronger with Each Tear”. This album didn’t have the buzz that her previous two albums had, which explains the sharp dropoff in first week sales. “Stronger” checks in with 330,000 units scanned in its’ first week. 2007’s “Growing Pains” debuted with 629K and ’05’s “The Breakthrough” bowed with 727K. I’m giving the album its’ second listen now and while it’s not bad, it definitely sounds like Mary on autopilot.

    The chart’s only other debut comes from Lil Wayne’s Young Money collective. Despite the star power of Weezy as well as artists like Lloyd, Nicki Minaj and Drake, their “We Are Young Money” compilation debuts at a so-so #9 with 142,000 copies sold.

    Eminem’s “Relapse” gets a huge boost thanks to it’s “Refill” re-release with extra tracks. The album lands at #11 with 128,000 copies sold, bringing its’ total take to 1.7 million copies.

    Each of this week’s Top 16 albums sells over 100,000 copies. It’s worth noting how femme-centric the Top 10 is. In addition to Boyle and Blige, the top ten also hosts Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Lady GaGa, as well as female-targeted male artists like Justin Bieber and Michael Buble. Next week, expect a chart overhaul as the more adult-oriented artists take a tumble down the chart (Boyle might even cede her #1 chart perch to Blige or Alicia Keys) and more youth-oriented artists rise up.

    Here are this week’s Top 20 albums:

    1) Susan Boyle “I Dreamed a Dream”
    2) Mary J. Blige “Stronger with Each Tear”
    3) Andrea Bocelli “My Christmas”
    4) Alicia Keys “The Element of Freedom”
    5) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
    6) Lady GaGa “The Fame”
    7) Justin Bieber “My World (EP)”
    8) Carrie Underwood “Play On”
    9) Young Money “We Are Young Money”
    10) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
    11) Eminem “Relapse”
    12) Lady GaGa “The Fame: Monster (EP)”
    13) Michael Jackson “This is It”
    14) Owl City “Ocean Eyes”
    15) The Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”
    16) Glee Cast “Glee: The Music Vol. 2”
    17) Various Artists “Now 32”
    18) Rihanna “Rated R”
    19) John Mayer “Battle Studies”
    20) Soundtrack “Alvin & the Chipmunks 2: the Squeaquel”

  • New Releases 12/21-22/09: Mary J. & More!!!

    I’m pushing this out a little earlier than usual for one reason:

    Mary J. Blige’s “Stronger with Each Tear” is available on amazon Mp3 for $3.99 for today only! Four bucks for a Mary J. album-ANY Mary J. album-is a pretty good deal. I broke my longstanding embargo on buying digital for this, figuring you couldn’t beat the price. Although “Stronger” appears to be on the average side of Mary albums, hell…it’s only four bucks!!

    Also out today (or tomorrow):

    Didn’t buy Eminem’s “Relapse” yet? Want to embarrass yourself by buying the work of a past-his-prime rapper and giving it to your kid, whose probably already moved on to someone else? Well, knock yourself out. “Relapse: Refill” hits stores this week, and if what I’ve heard of the unreleased material is any indication of what the entire album sounds like, stay the hell away. When you haven’t had anything new to say in almost a decade, it’s probably time to hang it up, and the fact that Eminem is in his mid thirties and still slinging poop rhymes and gay-baiting means that, despite his considerable skill, it looks quite unlikely that I will ever pick up another Eminem album for the rest of his career.

    The only other notable release is the “We Are Young Money” compilation from the Lil Wayne-led campaign. Weezy has already done his part for promotion by getting arrested late last week for marijuana possession. Artists appearing on this compilation include Drake, Nicki Minaj, Pleasure P, and Lloyd. In other words, yawn…

    With that, we close up shop on new releases for 2009. January 2010 will bring new music from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Vampire Weekend and Ke$ha, as well as reissues from The Jackson 5 and Maxwell. As always, you can get a full list of this week’s releases here!