New years eve in new york

The first thing you expect to see when you walk through the security-access gate of Mariah Carey‘s sprawling rented estate in Beverly Hills, where she moved in just weeks ago, is something excessive. And there it is: two towering pillars of pink, magenta and metallic-colored balloons, swaying in the early afternoon breeze on either side of the main house’s entrance, a holdover two days out from Valentine’s Day. It’s not surprising, really – she loves to be festive. After all, she’s become the reigning queen of Christmas with her evergreen “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” and even celebrated the holiday a second time in January 2016, just a week after getting engaged to billionaire James Packer. Fast-forward to now and Carey started off the year by clearing the cache. She broke off the engagement with Packer in October, and documented some of it on her audacious reality series Mariah’s World, where she connected with her current … [Read more...] about Mariah Carey Talks New Love, Why NYE Performance Was a ‘Chaotic Mess’

“Oh, my goodness, Roy Rogers is gone!” So exclaims Lauryn Hill as she swerves around a familiar corner near her suburban New Jersey neighborhood. It’s a sultry night in July, and the Fugees’ singer is driving me back from Sony Music Studios, in midtown Manhattan, in her mom’s wheels, a brand-new sport utility vehicle with all the add-ons. The recent disappearance of a local landmark like the boarded-up fast-food emporium is yet one more reminder that life for Hill has been moving ahead at warp speed. “We used to be No. 10, now we permanent 1,” boasts Hill’s band mate Wyclef Jean in a singsong, Bob Marley-style lilt at the start of “Fu-Gee-La,” the Fugees’ theme song, cri de coeur and call to arms all wrapped in one. With its tough-talking raps, slack island beat and serpentine melodic refrain (“Ooh-la-la-la…”), “Fu-Gee-La” is as perfect an unofficial anthem for hip-hop’s future as … [Read more...] about The Fugees: Leaders of the New Cool

“I didn’t even know there was jazz in England,” said one attendee at the opening night of New York’s Winter Jazzfest in January. Hosted by influential BBC DJ Gilles Peterson, the concert – a showcase of British jazz held at downtown club Le Poisson Rouge – was America’s introduction to a small but mighty group of young musicians who during the past three years have helped turned South London into a new jazz epicenter. There was tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, at 33 the scene’s elder statesman, leading the Comet Is Coming, his psychedelic electronic-improvisation trio, toward the music’s dance-oriented outer reaches. Also on tenor was Nubya Garcia, whose quartet embraced classic postbop, but with a fiery group interplay that transcended rote chorus-solos-chorus structures. Trumpeter Yazz Ahmed’s group offered fluid melodic lines bathed in electronics and polyrhythms, and evoked the leader’s Bahraini heritage. And … [Read more...] about Jazz’s New British Invasion

“Stand and Deliver,” the first song recorded by the reunited No Doubt, leaked yesterday, nearly a month before the band was due to perform the song on a flashback episode of Gossip Girl. Like No Doubt’s cover of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life,” Gwen Stefani and her bandmates manage to take Adam & The Ants’ Prince Charming hit and skew it both more modern and more new wave. Stefani replaces Ant’s thick British vocals from the original with her own valley girl cadence, befitting of the band’s role as early ’80s Los Angeles rockers on Gossip Girl. That episode, a “backdoor pilot” for a GG spin-off series, will air May 11th. We applaud No Doubt for going a more obscure route with their comeback single, picking this track over more popular new wave hits and even more famous Adam Ant songs like “Goody Two Shoes” or “Don’t Be Square (Be There.)” Now if only No Doubt will film an equally … [Read more...] about No Doubt Go New Wave With “Stand And Deliver” Cover

For over two decades, throughout the ups and downs of his music career, singer R. Kelly has been accused of serious sexual, psychological and physical abuse by over a dozen women, including seven in just the last 15 months. He has faced little to no recourse for his alleged actions, which he continues to deny. On Friday, another woman added her voice to the chorus: Kelly’s wife from 1996 to 2009, and mother to three of his kids, Andrea Kelly. She appeared on The View and spoke candidly, for the first time publicly, about the abuse she said she endured during their 13-year marriage. R. Kelly did not respond to The View’s request for comment, but has continued to denied all allegations of abuse. “His forearm was on my neck, so, as he’s pressing down, my breathing is getting labored,” Kelly told the hosts of The View about the time the singer allegedly tried to asphyxiate her as they sat in the backseat of a Hummer, an incident she said gave her PTSD. … [Read more...] about R. Kelly’s Ex-Wife Makes New Abuse Allegations