Professor Green unveils "Lullaby" feat Tori Kelly

Professor Green opens up about losing the woman who raised him as he unveils emotional music video for "Lullaby," the lead single of the British rapper and producer's forthcoming third studio album "Growing Up in Public," due in UK stores on September 22nd via Virgin Records. It features the vocal talents of American up-and-coming singer Tori Kelly, who first found fame in the 2010 series of American Idol.
"Lullaby" is a tender rap-pop song very in the vein of the Eminem and Rihanna collaborations. This is Kelly's first major duet. Fans have been left moved by the emotional "Lullaby" video. And Green, whose real name is Stephen Manderson, has revealed the inspiration behind the British star's heartfelt hit song is his late grandmother, Patricia, who raised him as a child. Speaking exclusively after the release of his video clip, he said: "I wrote the song about my great grandmother who I lived with and was brought up by until I was 13 when she passed away. It's the specific details that matter here, the bed she slept in, the blue blanket she had on her bed, the things and the place I associated with being safe and secure."
Opening up about the time his beloved grandmother passed away, Green said: "I remember when she passed away I was on the sofa at my mums asleep and I opened my eyes as she picked up the phone to be told she'd passed away - unexpectedly as when she went into hospital they thought it was a stomach ulcer and nothing more serious." He went on to describe his shock at the news as he said: "I cried before she'd put the phone down and told me. I remember getting home and all of her things being there but her not, it was the first time I'd suffered lost and I'd lost one of the most important people in my life."
Matching the tone of the single, the Alex Herron-directed touching video focuses on a young boy and his grandfather and follows their story as the grandfather becomes unwell and passes away. Kelly sings the chorus on a pick-up truck, and in a wheat field, while Green raps walking the city streets as we get to see footage of the actual treatment of the video; the young boy taking care of his grandfather as he lives his last days. When he returns home from the hospital where is his grandfather has passed away, the song's filled with nostalgia that will make him break down. Fortunately for him, he has the support of his girlfriend to carry through.

Travie McCoy & Jason Mraz debut "Rough Water"

Travie McCoy is probably best known as being the front man for rap rock group Gym Class Heroes (and being a Katy Perry ex-flame). But he has now decided to branch out on the solo tip. Having relocated to Miami, after recovering from his addiction to pain killers, The 32-year-old has started working on his solo project from a completely different aspect. He had initially wanted it to be an acoustic album discussing his drug addiction and break-up with Perry, but scrapped all the original material citing it as being too personal for his first solo effort.
On previous solo efforts he worked with Bruno Mars and Cee-Lo Green. This time around McCoy has paired his rhymes with Jason Mraz's sweet vocals. The new song is called "Rough Waters" and the Gym Class Heroes captain navigates "Rough Water" on his first solo effort since his 2010 debut album, "Lazarus," which spawned the platinum hit "Billionaire." Someone is bound to complain this isn't "Hip Hop," but oh well. McCoy shares some bars about surviving rough waters with Mraz on the hook on the guitar-driven number, produced by Benny Blanco (Katy Perry, Wiz Khalifa).
The mid-tempo, acoustic ballad, which will be the lead single taken from McCoy's upcoming sophomore solo album is expected in 2014, begins with 36-year-old Mraz cooing a sugary intro before McCoy's trademark sing-along ready rapping. There's nothing here that will shock longtime McCoy fans, but if there are shades in the rap-plus-sung-chorus subgenre, it's fair to say that "Rough Water" sounds slightly more like Fort Minor than classic Gym Class Heroes. McCoy's voice just seems slightly more like Mike Shinoda's voice.
As for the Ethan Lader-directed video for rap/pop song "Rough Water," it was filmed in early-October and features McCoy teams with Mraz to kick up the romance on the streets of an upside-down New York City. The world is upside down and right side up and the city hits the sky with mirrored reflections and more for McCoy and Mraz, as McCoy trying to catch the attention of a wandering girl (played by Crystal Kay), while Mraz sporting one of his most mainstream looks ever as he chants the hooks.

50 Cent spitting his journey to fame in "My Life"

50 Cent just released his dark and gloomy action-packed video for "My Life," which the 37-year-old G-Unit hip-hop mogul has enlisted some major star power from his Shady partner-in-crime Eminem and Maroon 5's frontman Adam Levine. The new rap track is the third cut from his upcoming fifth 'more personal' album, "Street King Immortal," which has been delayed to be released on February 26, 2013. And their latest visual is really intended to get a message across.
The track, which premiered yesterday, finds the rappers spitting about their individual struggles the pressures of fame over the years, and expressing some melancholy and confusion of their lives as the singer touts the whole reason this may be a hit. 50 Cent speaking on his journey from the streets to the fame and having friends turn to enemies. After Levine croons on the hook with an undeniable earworm, Eminem reveals that he may not have been ready for the fame that followed "Recovery," but his guest verse is the best thing he's done in 2012.
50 Cent is a weird case among rappers, isn't he? He put out one of the best-selling hip-hop albums of all time in Get Rich or Die Tryin', and his personal narrative is as ingrained in the popular consciousness as any mainstream star’s of the past two decades. On the other hand, he's had a string of duds and non-starters, both in the music world and in the straight-to-DVD universe. But he's still a prodigious talent, and his upcoming album "Street King Immortal" might be the thing that puts him back on top of the rap world.
The Rich Lee-directed video might seem like a simple fugitives on the run from law enforcement story as they desperately try to escape a tenacious helicopter that relentlessly follows them throughout their environments, but it's actually a metaphor for life under the spotlight. The high-budgeted, action-packed is a perfect illustration of the difficulties they face day by day. As Eminem described: "The video is kind of abstract; it's kind of metaphoric in a sense, like the paranoia of feeling like we're being chased. Whether it's true or not, it's kind of how we feel. It's kind of a metaphor for us running for our lives. Personal lives and from fame, everything that goes with the game."

Jay-Z + Kanye West | "No Church In The Wild"

Jay-Z and Kanye West released the video late Wednesday night for "No Church in the Wild," an Illuminati-referencing highlight from the record, depicts a grim clash between a large number of protesters and heavily armed and violent riot police. The track is the third from their 2011 super-collaboration "Watch the Throne." However, it doesn't involve an appearance from either rapper, or even guest crooner Frank Ocean, but deliver a powerful clip all the same with the powerful message they were trying to send.
"No Church in the Wild" is a hip-hop song with R&B vocals in its chorus and bridge. It features a bass-heavy beat with guitar riffs, synthesizers, and drums. The song begins with Ocean's chorus followed by a Jay-Z verse about various topics including philosophy, religion, and braggadocio. The chorus then repeats and The-Dream performs a bridge, preceding West's verse, which includes themes of hedonism, celebrity, and religion. An instrumental which reoccurs through "Watch the Throne" plays, ending the song.
Features a cinematic production style, the Romain Gavras-directed clip centers on a battle taking place in the streets of Prague. The dark violent war starts when a masked citizen throws a blazing Molotov cocktail towards the lined-up officials in riot gear and a fight ensues. A sea of men then rush towards the police, caring little about their own unprotected faces and raging into war. By the end of the five-minute video, the freedom fighters seem to have notched a victory of some sort, standing in triumph in the face of their oppressors.
Set to the buzzing drums of the 88-Keys and Yeezy-produced track, ill-equipped freedom fighters with nothing to lose wage war against an oppressive regime. Of course, there is nothing in the video that directly details a specific storyline or plot: Instead, viewers are expected to rely on their own interpretations of the scenes that look taken straight from CNN. Fearless protestors hurl stones and fight armed officers using only their bare fists. "Power concedes nothing without a demand." If a quote could sum up the Throne's "No Church in the Wild" clip, Frederick Douglass' famed call for revolution might do it best.

Linkin Park Ignite In "Burn it Down" Video

Throughout their careening career, Linkin Park have made no shortage of truly iconic, eye-catching music videos, and there's no exemption for their new video for the synth-heavy hook "Burn It Down," the lead single from rock band's fifth studio album, "Living Things," which will hit the shelves across the United States on June 26. The band have performed "Burn It Down" at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards and will perform it at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards Japan, which will be held at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba on June 23.
The song's bass line is played on a synth, and packed with subdued rhythms, riffs and raps, draped in a sea of atmospheric electronics. It seared but still high-sheen slab of cross-pollinated pop driven by four-on-the-floor pump and the pulse of guitars and synths irreparably fused together. "Burn It Down" received favorable reviews from numerous professional critics. The lead singer Chester Bennington's verses as his prettiest ever and the song leaves open the option of just dancing the night away.
In an interview with MTV, Bennington explained what made the song interesting was "the really high energy and the really strong electronic melodies and hooks kind of set this song apart, which is why we chose it as our first single." The co-lead vocalist Mike Shinoda also added about the song's meaning, "Kinda like what we do in pop culture, we build somebody up to be the next great thing then we like to destroy them at the end of the day. And, we've lived through that so I think there's a lot of personal energy that went into the connection of that story."
The clip was directed by the band's DJ, and turntablist Joe Hahn, and it starts off with the band playing to the song in an enclosed area surrounded by metallic protrusions. As closeups of the performance is shown, various sci-fi special effects such as electric bolts, flashes and lighting effects are displayed. A notable blue explosion originates from the center of the area, spreading horizontally, but the band seems unaffected. As the song progresses, the effects are further intensified. The final chorus starts off with every individual of the band on fire, accompanied with 3D-esque shots of each member in stop-motion. Soon, the area was seen blazing in flames as the video comes to an end.

Eminem Takes His Own Life In "Space Bound"

Rapper Eminem falls into a deep hole over another wrecked relationship and decides to put a bullet through his head in his new video for his latest song "Space Bound," the fourth single from his year-old Grammy-winning album, "Recovery," which heralded the singer's return after a long period of elf-discovery, in which he kicked drugs. Once again Eminem is plagued by his inner demons in his new video for "Space Bound," only this time they manifest themselves in the form of his own evil twin. Blaming no one but himself for the pain that he feels is self-inflicted.
This acoustic ballad was written by Eminem with British songwriter Steve McEwan, and Florida producer Jim Jonsin, the latter having produced the track, it finds Eminem getting contemplative. The new song is catchy and even soothing, despite its painful lyrics. In an interview with Billboard, Jonsin said he went for a "soulful, Southern rock feel" for the beat and heard from Eminem's music manager Paul Rosenberg shortly after sending the demo. Within three days, Jonsin met Slim Shady in Detroit. "He had already done his vocals before I got there, so we just polished it up and tried out other song ideas," he said.
The video was shot in Santa Clarita, California by director Joseph Kahn and features former porn star and Hollywood actress Sasha Grey as Eminem's leading lady. The video is a look into another one of Eminem's tumultuous relationships, as he has been showcasing lately. It shows two sides of Eminem; one who is calm and loves his girlfriend and one who is aggressive and doesn't. Eminem has long had an obsession with death and violence, including the self-inflicted kind, and those themes are laced throughout the dark and dramatic video.
The clip opens with Eminem walking on a fog shrouded road at night, near a forest. Shortly after, he gets picked up by his love interest(Grey). Double visions of the rapper appear: one alone in the back seat, who is angry and hurling insults at Grey and one sitting in the car next to Grey who is quiet and calm. Eminem is driven over the edge when he finds out his girl has been cheating on him. The heartbreak is too much to bear. He increasingly loses touch with reality, becoming delusional as his opposing personalities clash. The only solution seems to be the gun. He puts it up to his chin and pulls the trigger. The video then rewinds fast, and everything plays back from end to beginning, causing us to have second thoughts about the true meaning of it all.

Lil Wayne And Eminem Unveil "Drop The World"

It seems like the entire world has been waiting for rapper megastars, Lil Wayne and Eminem, to team up for an epic hot verse-spitting track. It's finally here! The dream collaboration of Rap moguls has been expressed in video form, for their single "Drop The World," which was supposed to be premiered March 11 on MTV has been debuted days earlier than the schedule. The single is the third official single off Wayne's seventh and also first rock-inspired studio album "Rebirth," and it's rock feel is depicted accurately in this earth shattering video.
Wayne and Eminem both were featured together on Drake's hit "Forever" with Drake and Kanye West, so it was only a matter of time before the two would pair up again. The song is an angry message toward critics and haters of the duo's careers, while the Chris Robinson-directed video sees how Weezy and the Slim Shady appear on the street and spit their verses and among a gang of people around them running wild from every direction. Broken glasses shatter on the ground and fire set ablaze, giving a chaotic scene. It shows a warzone-like atmosphere, as if the world was coming to an end. The clip is filled with a ton of digital destruction and mayhem, similar to an average action movie and just without the traditional jailbreak scene.
The video was filmed on the eve of the Grammys, Robinson described the shoot for the video as "Just energy. It was a one-day shoot, and Wayne was on the set for upward of 14 hours." "You got two guys who are basically huge supernovas coming together, and the way that the song is constructed is great," Chris Robinson tells MTV News. "Because unless you see it coming, you don't know Eminem is on the track. The first two hooks and the first two verses are all Wayne, and it's kind of a surprise when Eminem comes through, and we matched it visually how Eminem enters the piece."