• 'Beyoncé' music videos for 'Drunk in Love,' 'XO' premiere on VEVO [WATCH]

    If there's one drawback to this era in Beyoncé's career, it's that new music videos are no real surprise. When the pop megastar released her surprise fifth studio album Beyoncé on Friday (Dec. 13), the 14-song record was accompanied by 18 music videos -- one for each song and four bonus tracks. So, when a new single is announced, if you're one of the 617,000 people who have already purchased Beyoncé, you already know exactly what the visual component to the song will look like.

  • Nicole Oran's 2013 Playlist: Jay Z, Daft Punk and Savages

    Music Times, like so many other music publications, was looking to publish a "Best of 2013" playlist. We met to discuss what such a playlist should include, and that's where we ran into trouble. We couldn't agree. Sometimes two of us just couldn't agree on whether the performer was amazing or terrible, and even when we agreed they were amazing, we couldn't agree on what track was most representative of their work. Hence it was decided that rather than try to agree (a seemingly impossible endeavor), everyone would get their own "favorites of 2013" playlist. We won't argue that these are necessarily the best tracks of the last year, but they're definitely songs that caught our respective attention and caused us to hit 'repeat" over and over and over again.

  • Jay Z ranks his best and worst albums on his 44th birthday

    With a rapper as prolific as Jay Z, fans will always debate which album is his best and which is his worst. Yesterday (his 44th birthday), HOV himself joined in the debate and gave the ranking he thinks each LP deserves. He took to his Life + Times blog, ranking his 12 solo LP's in order from "classic" to "don't shoot me."

  • Jay Z tour kicks off in St. Paul with plenty of 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' and everything else

    You wouldn't believe it, but it's been more than four years since Jay Z has had a righteous solo tour. He shared the stage with Justin Timberlake this summer, played a handful of shows for his hometown of Brooklyn last year, and toured the world with Kanye West as part of Watch The Throne, but by himself? Nope. Now, having released Magna Carta Holy Grail over the summer, Hov was finally ready to take himself, by himself, on the road again.

  • Jay Z, Dr. Dre, Rick Ross under fire from gospel group

    Copyright infringement is nothing new to music, particularly hip-hop. Every day it seems there's a new lawsuit alleging that some producer or rapper has borrowed unfairly, with the original owner suing for royalties, or whatever they're owed. Today's example may be less about the money and more about the divine consequences of the sample.

  • DJ Mustard signs deal for Roc Nation, music label of Rihanna and J. Cole

    Rihanna and J. Cole are two pretty big names in popular music. Look forward to DJ Mustard joining their ranks soon. The producer/beat-maker just signed to Roc Nation, the home of the previously mentioned artists, under an artist's contract of his own. He was previously signed under a management deal with the label.

  • Jay Z and Roc Nation sued for sample from 'Run This Town'

    The last week has been a big one for suing based on creative copyright. First the Gaye estate finally brought a lawsuit against Robin Thicke for the similarities between "Got To Give It Up" and "Blurred Lines," and then Teddy Riley sued Lady Gaga regarding the songwriting credits for the track "Teeth." Now Jay Z and his label Roc Nation Records are being sued by Tuf America regarding a song the Hov sampled...in 2009.
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