Daily Archives: September 2, 2011

Billboard reports C4 on pace to sell between 850,000 and 900,000 copies after album leaks five days early.
By Rob Markman, with additional reporting by Jim Cantiello

Lil Wayne


Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

In this digital age, album leaks are an accepted part of the music industry. So when Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV was illegally pushed onto the Internet five days before its official drop, the Young Money honcho wasn’t worried in the least.

“We did real good this time, real good,” Wayne told MTV News correspondent Jim Cantiello after his show-closing performance at the VMAs in L.A. on Sunday. “It just means people want to hear it,” he said. “I mean, ’cause there’re people’s albums that come out that can be leaked and don’t leak, so I’m glad mines leaked.”

Hear Weezy talk about having a ‘moment’ with his show-closing VMA set!

After Jay-Z and Kanye West avoided a leak with their Watch the Throne album, many wondered if Wayne could do the same. But the YMCMB camp insists they aren’t too concerned about how the leak may affect album sales. Via his Twitter account, Cash Money CEO Birdman has been promoting Weezy’s album for the past week, even going so far as to predict that C4 would sell a million copies in its first week, just like Wayne’s Tha Carter III in 2008. On Monday, he wrote, “C4.BMJR.#Dont Lie 1m. 1week They Know.”

“I think we should still do well,” Mack Maine told MTV News on Sunday. “The leak shouldn’t have affected it that much. Actually, this is the first time that the albums leaked so close [to the release date]. Tha Carter III leaked two weeks before and we still did [1 million] the first week. So if history repeats itself, we shouldn’t have any problems.”

On Tuesday, after a full day of sales, Billboard reported that Tha Carter IV was on pace to sell anywhere between 850,000 and 900,000 copies in its first week. Meanwhile, HITS Daily Double estimated on Friday (September 2) that Wayne could move upwards of 975,000 copies, inching him that much closer to a milli.

Do you think Wayne will sell a million copies of C4 in one week? Make your predictions in the comments!

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‘After almost 20 years in this industry, it was inevitable for us to take matters into our own hands,’ Prodigy says in a press release.
By Rob Markman

Mobb Deep


Photo: Robert Adam Mayer

The Infamous is back in the house once again. MTV News has learned that Mobb Deep have signed their Infamous Records with RED Distribution, the independent distribution system of Sony Music. Havoc and Prodigy will drop their self-titled ninth album as well any others that they sign and any film projects they choose to take on under the new deal.

“After almost 20 years in this industry, it was inevitable for us to take matters into our own hands. We feel that RED is the perfect home for our brand,” Prodigy said in a press release issued to MTV News. “We know who our fans are and what they want from Mobb Deep. We’re excited to take a new step in our career,” Havoc added.

President of RED Distribution Bob Morelli offered his support of the newly inked group and label. “Mobb Deep is an iconic act, having been on the cutting edge of music and social commentary for years. We are happy and excited to distribute the next chapter in their musical career.”

Read what Havoc said about Mobb Deep’s initial plans to stay independent.

This isn’t the first time the group has been in the Sony fold. After releasing their debut album Juvenile Hell on 4th and B’way in 1993, M-O-B-B signed on to the Sony-affiliated Loud Records and dropped their breakout album The Infamous two years later. They remained under Sony up until the release of their 2001 album Infamy. Since then, there has been an indie deal with Land Speed (2003′s Free Agents), a deal with Jive (2004′s Amerikaz Nightmare) and one with 50 Cent’s G-Unit Records (2006 Blood Money), but ever since Prodigy’s release from prison for gun possession in March, the group has been without a label.

The group has managed to stay in the news this year thanks to Prodigy’s tell-all book “My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy.” Many rappers, including N.O.R.E., his partner Capone and Ja Rule, took exception to P’s accounts of certain events described in the book.

Though there is no release date for the Mobb Deep album. The duo is currently on the road as part of the Rock the Bells Tour alongside Lauryn Hill, Nas, Common and Erykah Badu.

What do you think of Mobb Deep’s new deal? Tell us in the comments.

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In addition to Keys’ seventh LP, a second Blakroc album is also on the horizon.
By Gil Kaufman

The Black Keys


Photo: Warner Bros. Records

The Black Keys typically keep it simple: two guys, drums, guitars and thick slabs of bluesy goodness. They also keep it quick, which explains how the duo has already recorded their follow-up to 2010′s breakthrough album, Brothers, according to drummer Patrick Carney.
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Material Girl’s second directorial effort finds few early supporters at the film fest.
By Eric Ditzian

Madonna attends the ‘W.E.’ premiere during the 68th Venice Film Festival


Photo: Getty Images

The Venice Film Festival turned into something of a feeding frenzy on Thursday, as critics practically fell over one another in an effort to drum up the harshest disses and most damning, damaging turns-of-phrase about Madonna’s second directorial effort, “W.E.”

Their cackles of laughter echoed across the pond the next day, as the Weinstein Company attempted some damage control and a handful of defenders staked out claims that the film had been unjustly dismissed. Those supporters pointed to the lush visual landscape Madonna had captured and the touching love story she’d brought to life.

But the critics weren’t having any of it. They slammed the garbled narrative structure, cheesy dialogue and directorial trickery that seemed to serve no other purpose than Madonna’s look-at-me self-servitude. Read on for those critiques and more.

The Story
” ‘W.E. is rather better than expected; it’s bold, confident and not without amusing moments. Still, it’s undeniably a strange concoction. Madonna (who also co-scripted with [Alek] Keshishian) has fashioned a split-level story of two couples: the Windsors, and the growing attraction between Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish), a contemporary Manhattan woman, and Evgeni (Oscar Isaac), a handsome Russian working security at Sotheby’s. Wally, married to an eminent shrink who isn’t above slapping her around, desperately wants children. (He doesn’t.) Worse, she has inherited her mother’s and grandmother’s obsession with the Windsors (Andrea Riseborough, James d’Arcy) and doggedly researches their lives, seeking clues about how to live her own. In extreme moments, Mrs. Simpson actually appears to her.’ — David Gritten, The Telegraph

The Direction
“What an extraordinarily silly, preening, fatally mishandled film this is. It may even surpass 2008′s ‘Filth and Wisdom,’ Madonna’s calamitous first outing as a filmmaker. Her direction is so all over the shop that it barely qualifies as direction at all. ‘W.E.’ gives us slo-mo and jump cuts and a crawling crane shot up a tree in Balmoral, but they are all just tricks without a purpose. For her big directorial flourish, Madonna has Wallis bound onstage to dance with a Masai tribesman while Pretty Vacant blares on the soundtrack. But why? What point is she making?” — Xan Brooks, The Guardian

The Writing
“The script is the first problem. Co-written with Alek Keshishian, it’s laden with clich Continue reading →

Sam Worthington and Jessica Chastain talk to MTV News about challenges and rewards of playing special agents in John Madden film.
By Kara Warner

Sam Worthington in “The Debt”


Photo: Focus Features

Even at a glance, John Madden’s new movie “The Debt” has a lot going for it: a cool-looking espionage thriller that boasts a stellar cast, including breakout stars Sam Worthington (“Avatar”) and Jessica Chastain (“The Help” and “Tree of Life”), as well as acclaimed actors Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciar Continue reading →