• Funkmaster Flex Verbally Attacks Jay-Z on Hot 97 — Twice

    Funkmaster Flex is not happy with Jay-Z. Fed up with recent misconduct revolving around Jay's Life+Times website, Flex has now ripped into the Brooklyn rapper twice on Hot 97 this week.The problem stems from an interview Flex did with L+T about an app he designed. Flex claims that one of Jay's reporters asked several questions about said app but did not use any of the material.Later, Jay released a similar app, which obviously ticked Flex off.Skip ahead to Jan. 15 when an L+T reporter emailed Flex requesting an interview about a Dipset reunion. That was when he decided to hop on Hot 97 and sound off.

  • 'Rock Band' Video Game to Return with 'New Experience,' According to Survey

    The "Rock Band" video game franchise appeared to be dead in the water, but a new survey from Activision indicates the company could be returning with "Rock Band 4."The game expounded on the massive success of "Guitar Hero" in the mid-2000s by creating a full band experience from "instrument" controllers, including guitars, drums and vocal microphones.The first version dropped in 2007 and earned roughly $700 million in revenue. A sequel was released in 2008, and then the brand began to expand to band-specific games, such as "The Beatles: Rock Band."2010 marked the final major releases, with "Rock Band 3" and "Green Day: Rock Band" hitting store shelves.

  • Ex-NBA Star Stephon Marbury Says He 'Wanted to Die' in 2009

    Stephon Marbury was only a two-time NBA All-Star, but the mercurial point guard — who now plays professionally in China at 37 — made enough headlines on and off the court during his lengthy American career to warrant “household name” status.The New York City native repeated a crash-and-burn narrative arc for a handful of teams throughout his career, but it was not until his time with the New York Knicks from 2003-08 that things went from bad to awful."I wanted to die," Marbury said in an interview on HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" that will air Tuesday night, Jan. 20, via ESPN. "I wanted to kill myself some days. I did. ... It wasn't about basketball. It started to become about me. Because I was that depressed and I was that sick.”

  • 'Guardians of The Galaxy' Soundtrack: 'Awesome Mix Vol. 1' Goes Platinum...Fans Looking Forward to Sequel, 'Vol. 2'

    Something skipped the attention of both Billboard and ourselves when reporting the Billboard 200 and album sales totals this week: Guardians of The Galaxy Awesome Mix Vol. 1 broke the million-albums sales mark last week with its 35,000 haul last week, bringing it to platinum status. Had it managed to sell just a tad faster in the last weeks of 2014, the mainstream soundtrack accompaniment to the film Guardians of The Galaxy would have been just the third album released during the year to attain platinum status, joining Taylor Swift and 1989 as well as Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour as albums reaching platinum. The soundtrack for Frozen was the second highest-selling album of 2014, being the last soundtrack album to reach the million-album mark (although it was technically released during 2013).

  • 2015 Grammy Nominees Album Tracklist Includes Taylor Swift, Iggy Azalea, Katy Perry, More

    While the annual Grammy nominees album has lost much of its luster since CDs went out of style, the tracklist still serves as a reminder of the year's most successful songs. Culled from several award categories, this year's version includes 21 songs from Taylor Swift, Pharrell, Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalea, Katy Perry and more.Check out the tracklist below, via 2015grammyalbum.com:

  • Wrigley Field Renovation: Chicago Cubs Stadium Will Be Missing Historic Bleachers at Beginning of Season

    Chicago's Wrigley Field is perhaps the most iconic stadium in the United States, with a legitimate claim to G.O.A.T. status over other all-time venues such as Boston's Fenway Park, Green Bay's Lambeau Field and Los Angeles's Rose Bowl.It has provided the Chicago Cubs baseball team with a home since 1916, but did not experience any drastic renovations until nearly a century later in 2014, when the team finally broke ground to fix up the crumbling structure.The current renovations mean Wrigley will be without its most signature seating area — the outfield bleachers — until May 11, more than a month after the new season begins.

  • Kid Rock Releases Conservative 'First Kiss' Music Video [WATCH]

    Kid Rock's newest music video is here, and it certainly falls on the conservative side of his multimedia endeavors. "First Kiss" is a New-Age, Mellencamp, country-tinged, pop song that features many of the same tropes that landed KR an international No. 1 with 2008's ""All Summer Long."The video is about as harmless as all of that sounds. An odd opening in which a grown-a-- woman hops out of a school bus pretending to be a kid is the only "Wait, what?" moment, followed by generic, "small-town" scenes filling up the bulk of the clip.Here is a sampling of the lyrics, which Kid seems to have copied and pasted from the "Billboard" Country chart:

  • Miami Heat Owner Takes Serious Twitter Jab at Cleveland, LeBron James

    What is it about LeBron James that makes NBA owners so salty? Cleveland Cavaliers boss Dan Gilbert lost his mind when James left for Miami in 2010, and now Miami Heat owner Micky Arison is throwing some serious shade because 'Bron decided to go back to Cleveland last summer.In case you do not remember Gilbert's epic tirade, it included a lengthy note to Cleveland fans decrying James's nationally televised decision to take his talents to South Beach.

  • Nashville's Music Row Gets National Treasure-Status from National Trust for Historic Preservation; Planning for Sustainability to Continue

    Music Row, the central point to Nashville's booming music industry centered around 16th and 17th Avenues, has received "National Treasure" status from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The push for the label has come in the wake of the near demolition of RCA Studio A during 2014, in hopes to counter other attempts to remove other buildings essential to the creation of the "Nashville sound" in the future (for the record, RCA Studio B was listed on the National Register of Historic Places during 2012).

  • John Mayer Talks Up 'Late Late Show' Guest Stint on Twitter: 'Insanity Guaranteed' for February Dates

    Craig Ferguson's departure from "The Late Late Show" was sort of ignored by the general public, considering the other late-night moves. David Letterman is leaving "The Late Show" and will be replaced by Stephen Colbert, effectively changing the format of two beloved time slots. Comedian James Corden was not able to fill in for Ferguson immediately, so some guest hosts including Jim Gaffigan, Judd Apatow and John Mayer will fill the void.The guitarist recently took to Twitter to promise an awesome guest lineup for his February dates, "Billboard" notes.
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