Track Review: Little Boots, ‘Shake’

“There’s only one thing you should really know,” chirps UK electronic upstart Victoria Hesketh (better known as Little Boots) midway through her slick, hypnotic new single, “I tell you, this place is about to blow.” But it’s far too late. “Shake” detonates only moments into its six-plus minutes, stuffed to the max with a heavy beat and liquid synth-bass that smacks you straight against the night club subwoofers. Repetitive and far from innovative, “Shake” occasionally threatens to lapse into generic, “A Night at the Roxbury”-esque territory, but the longer the track drones on, the more likely the listener will fall slave to its sheer determination. It’s unclear why Little Boots wants you to “shake until your heart breaks,” but with those neon synths drilling their way into the listener’s skull, logic is hardly a concern.

50 Cent Releasing Fitness Book, Food Guide

50 Cent has rapped about getting rich. Now he’s focusing on getting fit.

The hip-hop star is putting out a fitness book that’s set to be published in January 2013 by Avery Books. Titled “Formula 50: A 6-Week Total Body Transformation Plan,” the book will tout metabolic resistance training as the key to getting in shape. It will also include a nutrition guide.

The buff rapper says he wants to help people “make positive changes and take charge of their overall health.”

“Formula 50″ will be the latest credit for 50 Cent as an author. He recently released the teen novel “Playground” and also wrote “Pieces to Weight, The 50th Law.”

The rapper’s latest book will be co-written by Jeff O’Connell, editor-in-chief of Bodybuilding.com.

50 Cent hasn’t forgotten about his music: he recently released his latest mixtape, “The Big 10.”

Best Coast Addresses Lineup Changes

Best Coast has responded to the departure of drummer Ali Koehler on Facebook.

The lineup change caused an online stir upon its announcement on Wednesday. Music blog Hipster Runoff broke the news, posting a photo of the band performing with a new drummer.

“Best Coast has and always will be Bobb [Bruno] and I,” frontwoman Bethany Cosentino wrote. “No matter who has joined the band on tour, whatever lineup ensues, the band is simply the two of us. That said, these past two years have been full of nothing but the greatest of memorable adventures and I am so grateful that my friend Ali was a part of them when we were on tour.”

On Wednesday, Koehler, previously of garage act Vivian Girls, tweeted about the news, but offered no reasons for the split.

Responding to a fan who asked, “What happened?,” she wrote, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

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Jay-Z on the Throne: Three Albums Could Drop in 2012

Kanye West has noted his regret at releasing two albums in the same Grammy period, but according to the Throne partner Jay-Z, 2012 may see a trio of releases from the two MCs.

“It depends on how this thing finishes up,” Jay-Z told MTV News of the duo’s current tour. “We – when I say ‘we’ because I’m in Throne mode – we’re in a great place creatively. You might see a Jay, then Kanye and a Throne album next year. You know, we’re just really in a great place creatively. We really found our zone.”

West leads the 2012 Grammys with seven nominations, with both “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and “Watch the Throne” nominated for Best Rap Album. Yet neither was nominated for Album of the Year, a snub he acknowledged during a Throne concert in Chicago earlier this month.

“But I figured out though, that’s my fault for dropping ‘Watch the Throne’ and ‘Dark Fantasy’ the same year,” he said. “I should have just spaced it out a little bit more.”

In the same remarks, he also told the crowd that more music was on the way.

“Don’t worry, because me and Hov gonna keep on making sh*t,” he said.

Beyonce Video Game Lawsuit Can Move Forward, Says Judge

The suit was filed in April and claims that the pop star “double crossed” the video company on a “whim” by abandoning development of a dance game that was to be called “Starpower: Beyoncé.” Gate Five had purportedly spent $6.7 million on the game before the singer demanded more compensation to move forward. Her requests allegedly caused the financier to back out of a $19.2 million financing deal, and Gate Five said it needed to lay off 70 people from its workforce a week before last Christmas.

Beyoncé retorted that she had a valid right to exercise the termination provisions of her contract after the plaintiff was unable to fulfill contractual obligations to obtain $5 million of “committed financing” for the project. The singer’s attorneys put some of the blame on Gate Five’s chief financial backer and quoted Gate Five’s president, who purportedly found this person to be “overbearing” and someone who had “entered the picture and ended up disturbing the collaborative atmosphere” between the parties.

Gate Five said that the concerns about financing were “disingenuous.”

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Adele ‘Artist of the Year’ Q&A: ‘My Career Isn’t My Life’

But then there was Adele, who represented something like austerity. She’s raw in every way, whether regaling fans from the stage or channeling emotion through her unforgettable alto on wax. She’s a quintessential BFF; warm, intimate and personable even when she’s entertaining thousands. She idolizes Bette Midler, who at first may seem like a curious role model for a woman of her young age. But they’re both larger-than-life, consummate entertainers, playing up their brassiness to their advantage. It’s the kind of swag that carries a career across decades.

“Adele knows how good she is. You can’t underestimate that. Artists that tend to work long term, most of them tend to have a clear-cut idea of who they are,” says Rob Stringer, chairman/CEO of Columbia Records, her U.S. label. “Adele can kind of do it all. She’s never cocky… but she doesn’t fear to tread, ever.”

Still, how did a hyper-real, refreshingly thick, British singer manage to captivate — and subvert — a notoriously difficult American pop audience? On her sophomore album, no less, and two years after her debut? This year, “21″ became this year’s No. 1 seller in America (4.8 million units sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan) and in the world (13 million copies worldwide, according to the label) in just 11 months. It’s a testimony of “21′s” broad appeal, which blends earlier soul and gospel influences with traditional country music, a style she picked up while playing in the States with a tour bus driver from Nashville.

21 And Up: The Year of Adele Cover Story

Newly bleached blonde bouffant a little askew, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins clasps her hands at her waist and begins to dish. “I came home from touring with my first album, and I caught up with some friends, trying to be all posh and stuff,” she tells a rapt audience. “A nice lunch, some cocktails, pretending we were in ‘Sex and the City.’” She pauses and tilts her head. “I’m a Miranda” — the show’s brainy, pragmatic but sexually liberated character — “don’t know about you, girls… and boys!” She winks, clicks her tongue and then reflexively cackles, the most guttural, life-loving cackle, rumbling from the diaphragm. She tosses her hair back, plants her hands on her hips and explains why the song she’s about to sing — “Rumor Has It,” from her multiplatinum second album, “21″ — was written as a tongue-in-cheek “fackawff” to friends with the wrong idea about her love life. Then, Adele launches into the song, a Motown-invoking blues number that showcases the scratchy kick in the back of her vocal runs.

That’s a clip from the DVD “Adele Live at the Royal Albert Hall” (released Nov. 29), a document of the zippy 23-year-old singer cursing and wisecracking in one of the world’s classiest venues. It’s also a microscopic view into why Adele has captured the imagination of the world.

Miley Cyrus Designs T-Shirt With Brother

Miley Cyrus fans get ready to get draped in some good old country lovin, all stitched together in one eclectic shirt.

Metro Station’s own Trace Cyrus has joined creative forces with sister, Miley Cyrus, to launch a t-shirt from his Hollywood Paid winter line. The unisex T features a dreamcatcher symbol constructed from the famed three-pronged logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, all polished off with Miley’s signature. But wait, that’s not all, the design sibling duo has also released a limited edition hoodie.

“The SMHP Miley Cyrus collab t-shirt is now available in guy sizes too! and Also a limited edition hoodie! only 60 made!” Trace tweeted yesterday.

The former “Hannah Montana” star created a T-shirt and hoodie for the line, with all the proceeds from the items going towards Miley’s charity, Get Ur Good On. Both Miley designed items are available now. Just in time for holidays!

RZA Talks Headphone Line, Movie-Making, Wu-Tang’s Future

“I don’t like to compete against my own crew, meaning, hip-hop,” RZA told Billboard.com in an interview at Hollywood’s Trousdale club last week as he prepared for the line’s launch party. “Hip-hop to me is a family. But you do want to sell the most records, have the biggest song and win the Grammy.”

That said, he was quick to set his line apart from the efforts of MCs.

“With much respect to the other guys, Dre is a producer and I’m a producer,” he said. “If anyone is into sound and dealing with sound, it’s more the producer than a rapper. We get more technical.”

The new line, which arrived in stores this week, comes in two options, the professionally-aimed Premium (which offers noise cancelation and is priced at $270) and Street ($170). Chambers by RZA offers several key differences from its rival lines: unlike Beats, Premium will require batteries only for noise cancellation (Street doesn’t use them at all) and multiple sets can be daisy-chained to connect to a single iPod or other audio source. And then there’s the style.

“I made mine directly designed to match clothes,” RZA said. “In New York, a lot of guys wear uptowns — around the rest of the country they call them Air Force Ones. We’ve been wearing these for years. It’s like Adidas was to Run-DMC, [they] was part of my generation of sneakers. And you’ll see that my color schemes can match your uptowns.”

Willow Smith Talks Upcoming Album, Nicki Minaj Collabo & More

“It’s gonna make them feel like they have control over their lives and can do what they want to do and be the person they want to be,” she said Wednesday (Dec. 8) night.

Willow is already proving that at just 11. The daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith has become a buzzed-about star thanks to her hit song “Whip My Hair.”

She’s also become a fashion trendsetter with her funky clothes; on Wednesday, her hair was closely cropped with big bangs in the front, and she wore a cropped jacket with decals, including the name of her album, and sequined jeans.”I get a lot of my style from my friends,” she said, also citing her aunt.

Willow recently teamed up with another fashionista, singer-rapper Nicki Minaj , for Willow’s new song “Fireball.” Willow premiered it for groups of children and their parents at the Sony Store, as well as BET’s “106 & Park.”

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