Sunday August 11th, 2002
New CD's this week:
None to report this week
Short news stories this week:
Teena Marie Remakes '80s Hit 'Square Biz' With 'Hollywood Squares' In Mind
Teena Marie is in talks to sing the new
theme song for game show series
Hollywood Squares, according to Marie's manager Lee Cadena for 337
Entertainment.
According to Cadena, Marie was asked to revamp her '80s hit "Square
Biz"
for the television show. "Henry Winkler's people called," Cadena said,
referring to the representative for Winkler's company that will produce
the show.
Marie re-recorded "Square Biz" Monday and Tuesday (August 5 and 6)
with
a live performance feel, and references to the long-running program that
recently featured Whoopi Goldberg as the center square.
Regarding the news of Marie's recently signing with the New Orleans
based Cash Money Records, Cadena said the final negotiations are
expected to be solidified soon.
"Square Biz," which features an early, impressive rap from Marie,
appears on her 1981 album, It Must Be Magic.
Eve Explains Choice Of Alicia Keys For 'Gangsta Lovin'
Philadelphian rapper Eve will release her
third full-length album,
Eve-olution, on August 27. The first single from the set is "Gangsta
Lovin'" featuring Alicia Keys.
At the Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles the rapper explained why she
decided to hook up with Keys for her latest single: "We did the 'Brotha'
remix together and when I heard this song, I wanted a female, a R&B
singer, and I figured, 'Why not Alicia?' She's talented and I'm a
fan.""Gangsta Lovin'" is Number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100
singles
chart.
Some of the other featured guests on Eve-olution include Snoop Dogg,
Nate Dogg, Styles, Jadakiss, and Truth Hurts.
In related news, Eve will hit the big screens on Friday (August 9) with
the release of the thriller XXX. The movie was directed by Rob Cohen and
also stars Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson.
Mariah Carey's New Album Due December 10
Mariah Carey's as-yet-untitled new studio
album on MonarC Music/Island
Records will be released December 10. The album "showcases her stunning
voice, prolific songwriting ability, and incredible versatility,"
according to her label.
"Everything's going really well with the album," Carey reports on her
official website (mariahcarey.com). Carey wrote and co-produced the
album with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and Jermaine Dupri. She's also been
recording with DJ Quik and the Murder, Inc. production camp, among
others.
Carey has already recorded 20 songs for the set, which will be the first
release from her newly established MonarC Music label, which will be
distributed via Island. Carey signed to the Universal Music Group's
Island Records in May after parting ways with Virgin Records.
Carey reportedly exited Virgin with a $28 million payoff. The settlement
ended Carey's multi-album, multimillion-dollar international recording
contract, and she also retained the $21 million previously paid to her
when the Virgin contract was forged in April 2001.
Carey was the top-selling female artist of the '90s, and she is
considered the world's best-selling female performer of all time, having
moved some 150 million albums and singles worldwide.
R. Kelly's Defense Team Receives Tapes From Prosecutors
R. Kelly's defense team received more than
70 pieces of evidence from
prosecutors Wednesday (August 7) during a hearing at Chicago's Cook
County Criminal Courts Building, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Part of the evidence included a small pile of videotapes. Kelly's
defense attorneys said they would discuss the subject matter of the
tapes after reviewing them.
Presiding Judge Vincent M. Gaughan received a copy of the Judge Mathis
Show from Warner Bros., and said he would give a transcript of the
program to the defense and prosecution counsel.
The relevance of the Judge Mathis Show tape was not explained.
In June, R. Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography for
allegedly videotaping himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Kelly
pleaded not guilty.
Monica On Boyfriend's Suicide And Industry Struggles
J Recording artist Monica--whose third
album, All Eyez On Me, is due out
September 17--recently discussed witnessing the suicide of a boyfriend,
being struck with Mitral Valve Prolapse, and her so-called feud with
Brandy in a cover story for the September issue of Sister 2 Sister
magazine.
Monica discussed coming to her boyfriend's aid after he had shot himself
in the head. "I just remember getting in the car, I remember grabbing
him and pulling his head to me, and I just felt something cover my left
side," Monica told Sister 2 Sister. "That was the side of his head
that
I realized was open."
Monica added that it was "by the grace of God" that the bullet did not
hit her as well. "One of the officers told me, 'You don't realize where
you were standing, that if this bullet would have come out the other
side of his head, it would be in you,'" said Monica, who also discusses
the incident on her album's track, "I Wrote This Song."
The 21-year-old singer spoke about being treated for Mitral Valve
Prolapse, which caused her to black out during a concert in Washington,
D.C., when she was 17. She was temporarily paralyzed on the left side of
her body by the disorder, which occurs when the mitral heart valve
swells and does not close properly, letting blood return into the left
atrium. "I ended up staying at the hospital for about four weeks,"
Monica said.
The drama of losing a boyfriend and combating Mitral Valve Prolapse made
the issue of a rumored beef with Brandy trivial. The speculation
prompted the two to record the Grammy Award-winning Number One song "The
Boy Is Mine" in 1998. "Both of our goals were to do something that
hadn't been done and break some records. Make history," Monica said.
"We
were thinking that it would be funny to do a song where were kinda
battling with each other since that's what people thought we were doing
anyway."
In related news, the video for Monica's "All Eyez On Me" was recently
serviced to outlets. The clip features cameos from Missy Elliott,
Jermaine Dupri, Trina, Ludacris, Rodney Jerkins, and Big Chan from Tha
Angels (formerly Doggy's Angels).