Jay-Z, Kanye West Premiere “N****s in Paris” Video

Kanye West and Jay-Z’s premiered the music video for “N—as in Paris” video, released Thursday (February 9).

The video was directed by Kanye West. Filmed in part during the run of Throne shows at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The video is filled with eye-catching kaleidoscopic effects, creating dizzying visuals. No wonder the clip is preceded by an epilepsy warning.

Given the size and scope of both the song and the artists performing it, the “Paris” video is also loaded with lasers, prowling panthers, pop-up-book cityscapes and models.

Check out the video and let us know what you think!

LL Cool J to Host Grammys

Rapper and actor LL Cool J will be the first official host of the Grammy Awards in seven years, the Recording Academy said on Wednesday.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of music’s biggest night,” said the two-time Grammy award winning host. “I will always have fond memories of my first Grammy Awards and to now be hosting the Grammy show, in the company of so many other incredible artists, is a dream come true.”

LL Cool J, who has been the host of the Grammy nominations concert since its first live broadcast in 2008, is the first emcee of the awards program since 2005 when Queen Latifah headlined. Since then, music’s biggest night has not had a host.

The 54th annual Grammy Awards will be held on February 12 in Los Angeles, and broadcast live on CBS.

Nicki Minaj and Foo Fighters to Perform at Grammys

Rapper Nicki Minaj will make her debut Grammy performance next month, joining Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars and country singer Jason Aldean on the list of artists who will take to the stage on the recording industry’s biggest night.

Grammy organizers said on Thursday that Minaj, who has four Grammy nominations, will perform at the February 12 awards show, as well as country sensation Taylor Swift, and Kelly Clarkson.

Rapper Kanye West, who leads this year’s Grammys with seven nominations, is also yet to be confirmed as a performer at the live awards show in Los Angeles.

Organizers said additional performers and presenters will be announced in the coming weeks.

Adele, Bruno Mars and Kanye West Lead Grammy Nominations

Announced Wednesday were the Grammy nominations, and leading the lineup was Kanye West with a total of seven nominations, mostly for the song, “All of the Lights.” His album was left off of best album contention.

Following Kanye are Adele and Bruno Mars, each competing for album, record and song of the year. Both singers earned six nominations each.

Rock superstars the Foo Fighters also racked up six nominations, most notably for Album of the Year for “Wasting Light.” Also up for top album honors, aside from Adele’s “21″ and Mars’ “Doo-Wops & Hooligans,” is Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and Rihanna’s “Loud.”

The surprise artist thrown in the mix is Bon Iver, an indie-folk singer who appeared on much of Kanye West’s album “Twisted Fantasy.” Iver is up for Record of the Year for “Holocene,” which also snagged a nomination for Song of the Year, and is competing against Nicki Minaj, Skrillex, J. Cole and The Band Perry for Best New Artist.

The 54th Grammys will be held Feb. 12 in Los Angeles on CBS. Tune in to see all the winners!

Katy Perry’s ‘E.T.’ Performance On American Idol

Katy Perry blasted off into space last night during her performance of ‘E.T.’ Perry surprised fans when Kanye West took to the stage midway through the song.

Check out their performance –

Kanye West Wants To Work With Justin Bieber

Rapper Kanye West wants to use his musical gift and produce Justin Bieber’s next album. He’s offered to provide some beats for the teen sensation’s forthcoming project.

The Kanye delighted Bieber last year when he revealed he couldn’t stop listening to his song “Runaway Love”, and West was so eager to put his own spin on the track, he hit the studio with the “Baby” singer and rapper Raekwon to produce a remix.

Now West wants to lend a hand again and has reached out to the 16 year old’s camp once more. Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, reveals, “Kanye wants to produce a bunch of new songs for his new album.”

Maybe Kanye West should just get the clue, Bieber doesn’t want to work with you!

Kanye West has considered suicide

Kanye West told an audience at a screening of his film, “Runaway,” that he thought about killing himself, but now feels a responsibility to make a meaningful contribution to pop culture and art.

Describing himself as a pop icon and “soldier for culture,” West told the crowd “there were times that I contemplated suicide.” However, he said, “I will not give up on life again.”

“There’s so many people that will never get the chance to have their voice heard” as loudly as his, West said Monday. “I do it for them.”

West, who didn’t say when he had considered suicide, is credited as director of the abstract 35-minute film, which features portions of nine new West songs, boldly colorful visuals and off-kilter camera angles. The mostly dialogue-free piece, set to premiere this weekend on MTV, VH1 and BET, will accompany West’s upcoming album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” which will be released Nov. 22.

After a prelude featuring narration from rapper Nicki Minaj, West’s character, Griffin, is seen driving a black MTX Tatra supercar down a country road. Lying next to a hole in the pavement is a phoenix fallen to Earth, played by model Selita Ebanks in pink, gray and brown feathers.

He takes her home and offers this advice: “First rule in this world, baby: Don’t pay attention to anything you see on the news.”
The phoenix sits on a lawn with a deer, rabbit and sheep, then joins West at a private parade featuring fireworks, a marching band and a float depicting Michael Jackson.

Playing over those visuals are West’s next single, “All of the Lights,” which he said features Elton John on piano and an all-star chorus including Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Fergie and John Legend.

Ballerinas in black tutus perform in a scene featuring his current single, “Runaway.” When the tune ended, there was applause from both the on-screen and live audience. In attendance were Morgan Spurlock, Ryan Phillippe, Pete Wentz and others in the entertainment industry.

The 33-year-old West told them that after a “long, hard year,” he’d found his “creative sweet spot” by thinking like “a 5-year-old at all times.” Besides his mother Donda West’s death in 2007, West said he’d also lost three other parental figures in the last three years.

“Everything has been taken away from me,” he said. “I’m so not … scared. I so don’t care.”

In Case You Missed It: Kanye West on Saturday Night Live

If you’re like us and fell asleep before Saturday Night Live came on, then you might have missed Kanye West’s performance. Well, don’t worry, we’ve got here for you courtesy of YouTube. Kanye ditched the typical SNL stage set up for a plain white background. Pretty cool.

Check out Kanye’s performance of his current single ‘Runaway’ –

Check out Kayne’s performance of ‘Power’ –

Kanye West Apologizes To Taylor Swift On Twitter

With the 2010 MTV Movie Awards looming, Kanye West felt the need to apologize to Taylor Swift nearly a year after his transgression against her at the MTV Movie Awards where he brashly grabbed the microphone from her hand during what was the beginning of her acceptance speech for her Best Female Video Award. Even though this is a re-cap apology as Kanye had already apologized on his blog the night of the kurfuffle, an immediate private and personal apology to Taylor Swift should have come first, one without excuses. Take note, those who purposely make silly and immensely dumb mistakes.

Kanye West to release 1 new song Each Week From Latest Album

Although his fifth album is due to drop November 16, Kanye West is tirelessly working to give his fans some weekly fun through the holidays.

The rapper has announced on Twitter that he plans to release a new song “every weekend until Xmas”.

“I’m calling it good Fridays. Yall know every Friday yall gone have a new joint from our family. We look at the game completely different now,” West tweeted.

The rapper said that the new songs could be one of his own tracks or “it may be a new Jay song, etc.” West is currently working on new tunes for several other artists, including Raekwon, Mos Def, Swizz Beatz, Pharrell and Clipse’s Pusha T.

“Swizz looked at me the other night and said man are you getting sleep and I told him I can’t sleep… My people need this new music,” West tweeted.

The rapper recently finished work on a remix of Justin Bieber’s “Runaway Love” with Raekwon. West also released the remix of “Power,” featuring Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz, on Friday and premiered “See Me Now,” a new track with Beyonce and Charlie Wilson, earlier this month.

“It’s about the fans. No more holding back,” said West. “That’s why I dropped ‘See Me Now’… It wasn’t about me it was about the Summer the BBQs etc.”

West is set to perform at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12 after infamously interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at last year’s ceremony. He also tweeted a vague update on Monday that he is “working on the Movie… Unicorns and Rza beats yo.”

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