At this year’s American Music Awards, Kayne took home the prize for top rap artist, his first award at the AMAs. During his acceptance speech, Kayne expressed his desire for a new generation of musicians to be “the new Beatles…the new Jimi Hendrix…the (new) Elvis Presley.” Kayne cited artists ranging from Beyonce to Chris Martin (of Coldplay) as pushing the boundaries on modern music.
Three 6 Mafia (36 Mafia) won the award for top rap artist, while Kanye took home top hip hop album for his Graduation record. Chris Brown, humble and solid at 19-years old, won Artist of the Year. Brown humbly accepted the award, stating that he would have “given it to Coldplay.” Brown’s girl friend Rihanna won Top Female Artist, while Alicia Keyes took home the award for top album for her work on As I Am.
Working on his sixth album, Theater of the Mind, set to be released on November 24, Ludacris has released the first single, MVP. Based on a collaboration with DJ Premier, who has worked with Jermaine Dupre and helped craft the Gang Starr sound, MVP is one of many collaborative tracks on the album, which also features Jay-Z and Nas, among other guest artists.
Ludacris has called the album a “classic” and a “movement”, and plans a future tour with fellow Atlanta artists TI and Young Jeezy in the near future to promote the new sound. He took some time out to discuss some of the most influential beats on his sound:
Artist Will.i.am released “It’s a New Day” to celebrate Barack Obama’s election victory last week on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The single is a follow up to the artists “Yes We Can” which helped catapult Obama’s internet presence and drew an whole set of new voters to the campaign.The next video due out from William is “We Are the Ones” which will feature Jessica Alba among other celebrities in continued support of his message for political change.
