Daily Archives: September 15, 2011

‘He spoke his piece, I spoke my piece, and he told me he loved me,’ Cons reveals on ‘RapFix Live.’
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway

Photo: Natasha Chandel/ MTV News

To err is human, but to forgive is divine. After Consequence appeared on “RapFix Live” back in May and dished on his severed relationship with Kanye West, the ex-G.O.O.D. Music MC returned on the one-year anniversary of the show to tell fans that he and ‘Ye have buried the hatchet.

It was a day of positive celebration. Maino, Lloyd Banks and Jim Jones all came on Wednesday to toast the year that was. The Outlawz stopped by as well and talked about their onetime mentor Tupac’s enduring legacy, 15 years after his death. The show’s most revealing moment, however, came when Consequence seized the moment to make an announcement.

“I got a couple updates,” Cons told Sway, as Banks sat on the red couch beside them. “Me and Kanye spoke.”

Back on May 4, Cons visited the “RFL” set, where he first told viewers he was no longer a part of G.O.O.D. Music and expressed his displeasure with West. While he had a long list of grievances, the fiery MC seemed most upset about the long-delayed release of his sophomore album, Cons TV. “At one point, Kanye wasn’t even doing any music after the Taylor Swift situation; it’s documented he went to Europe,” Cons said, alluding to ‘Ye’s 2009 MTV VMA outburst. “In the midst of all that, I was left hanging.”

But the Queens MC revealed he had a change of heart when after the birth of his son Caiden, his son’s mother played the infant “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” one of Cons and Kayne’s more popular collaborations. “It got to the point where I was just like, ‘Yo, I’m gonna hit son one time, and one time only, and see where we’re at with this,’ ” Consequence said of his decision to reach out to ‘Ye. “Is it gonna get all the way turnt up?” he recalled thinking.

As many fans know, West famously doesn’t have a phone and the best way to reach him is through email, so Cons fired away. “I hit him, and he hit me back with one of those all-caps tirades,” he said. “He was pissed and rightfully so. And I was pissed and that’s why things happened the way they happened. … He spoke his piece, I spoke my piece, and he told me he loved me. And the feud is over with Kanye.”

As for the exact details of the exchange, Cons wouldn’t elaborate much. “He can speak for [himself] but basically it was an analysis of 10 years and [Kanye asked], ‘How could you do this to me in the public?’ And he got hit right back with that: ‘How could you do this to me in the public?’

“When you spend 10 years working with somebody and basically y’all consider each other brothers, that’s a lot, that’s a lot of dirty laundry,” Cons continued. “That’s why it was easy for me to do some of the things that I did, just on the strength that.”

Although the two seem to be working out their issues, fans shouldn’t expect them to hit the studio together any time soon. “It doesn’t mean that I’m going back to G.O.O.D. Music; I got my own company,” he said of his newly formed Bandcamp Entertainment.

What do you think of Cons’ latest statements about Kanye? Tell us in the comments!

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Singer reveals plans for multiple versions of the October 24 release, including a deluxe offering and a bonus EP.
By Jocelyn Vena

Kelly Clarkson


Photo: Dr. Billy Ingram/ WireImage

Kelly Clarkson is inching her way toward her October 24 Stronger album release. The singer took to her official website to share with the world the songs that made the final cut.

Clarkson will release multiple versions of the album: standard, deluxe and a bonus EP. Thirteen songs made it to the standard edition of the album. They include her first single, “Mr. Know It All,” plus “What Doesn’t Kill You,” “Dark Side,” “Honestly,” “You Love Me,” “Einstein,” “Standing in Front of You,” “I Forgive You,” “Hello,” “The War Is Over,” “Let Me Down,” “You Can’t Win” and “Breaking Your Own Heart.”

The deluxe version of the album will include four additional tracks: “Don’t You Wanna Stay?” (her already-released duet with Jason Aldean), “Alone,” “Don’t Be a Girl About It” and “The Sun Will Rise.”

Those purchasing the bonus EP will get an additional six Smoakstack Session recordings: alternate versions of the album tracks “Hello,” “The War Is Over,” “You Love Me” and “The Sun Will Rise,” plus her renditions of “If I Can’t Have You” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”

Clarkson dropped her first single from the album, “Mr. Know It All,” at the end of August. The track was written by Brett James (who has a country pedigree, having written for Carrie Underwood), Ester Dean (Beyonc Continue reading →

RiRi and her ‘Cheers’ producers tweet about recording album number six.
By James Montgomery

Rihanna


Photo: James Devaney/WireImage

She may still be wringing singles from her platinum-plus Loud album, but Rihanna is already prepping her sixth studio effort. And, from the sound of things, it’ll be finished soon.

RiRi took to her Twitter account early Thursday morning (September 15) to confirm that, yes, sessions for album number six are already under way. “I can’t wait to start filling u guys in on some details!” she exclaimed.

Rihanna punctuated that tweet with a “*Zips lips*,” meaning that, for now at least, she’s done talking about the project.

Talk of new music began on Wednesday, when the singer retweeted a post from production duo the Runners (Rihanna’s “California King Bed” and “Cheers”), who wrote, “Shout out to @alexdelicata for makin history with us. Wait till they hear this new @rihanna song.”

But in late July, producer Verse Simmonds — one half of the studio duo known as the Jugganauts, who produced Rihanna’s hit “Man Down” — talked to MTV News’ Mixtape Daily about the new album, saying that Ri was close to completing work on the disc.

“From what I understand, she’s is closing the album up now, and we did two records for her that she really, really loved, and I’m really excited about them as well,” Simmonds said. “They are records that we wrote and produced as the Jugganauts.”

Simmonds said he was “99.999 percent” sure that he and production partner Sak Pase’s contributions would make the final cut, and while he wouldn’t elaborate on what Rihanna’s new album would sound like, he did hint that it’ll move in a direction quite different from “Man Down.”

“Because we … as producers, as artists, we try to always come with something different, a whole new sound,” he explained.

Of course, finishing up her album isn’t the only thing on Rihanna’s plate these days. During Wednesday night’s “The X Factor” launch party in Los Angeles, Simon Cowell confirmed to KIIS FM that she would also serve as a guest judge on the show, saying, “You’re going to see her.”

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