NEW YORK, May 31, 2012 – Today, American Express, in partnership with VEVO and YouTube, announced that seven-time Grammy® award-winning and multi-platinum recording artist Usher and director Hamish Hamilton have been selected to create this art-in-motion experience for its popular livestream music series, “American Express Unstaged.” Usher’s exclusive performance will be livestreamed from the Hammersmith Apollo in London, at 4:00 PM ET / 1:00 PM PT on Monday, June 11 at www.youtube.com/UsherVEVO. Fans can also watch the live event on VEVO’s free mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, and the YouTube mobile website. The stream is also available for the first time ever on VEVO’s Xbox Live app. The global event will coincide with, and celebrate, the debut of Usher’s highly anticipated album, LOOKING 4 MYSELF (RCA Records), set for release June 11th in the UK and June 12th in the U.S. Comments Usher, “I am excited to introduce my new album LOOKING 4 MYSELF with a worldwide performance in such an innovative way. It’s very exciting to interact with my fans from a global stage through American Express Unstaged’s live stream. Using the cutting-edge ‘take the stage’ technology will allow my fans to join me virtually via their dancing avatars on stage at London’s renowned Hammersmith Apollo Theatre. Be there on June 11th.” Renowned for his innovative directing style and technical skill in capturing live events, along with possessing an innate artistry in filming music and movement, Hamish Hamilton, Grammy and BAFTA award-nominated director of the 2011 and 2012 Bridgestone Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show, 2011 MTV Video Music Awards and the 82nd Academy Awards® telecast, was hand-selected by Usher and American Express to flawlessly capture this unique, high-energy performance for fans watching across the globe, via online music leaders VEVO and YouTube. Usher and Hamish Hamilton have had a long-standing creative bond, having worked together on several live performances, creating historic cinematic moments that fans love and anticipate from Usher. “I’m really excited about partnering with Usher – he is an exhilarating performer. I’m going to transport every viewer to Hammersmith in my home town of London to enjoy Usher in the most visceral way possible,” said filmmaker Hamish Hamilton. “Helping to elevate his killer performance, artistic flair, and his new sounds out to the global masses for the ‘American Express Unstaged’ livestream experience will be fun.”
Month: May 2012
When Will Smith isn’t love tapping reporters and making bold political statements, he is actually a workaholic. While making his promotional rounds this week for“Men in Black 3,” Smith dropped by BET’s “106 & Park” to talk about the new film, his family, and also confirmed that the third installment of “Bad Boys” was in the works. “I talked to Martin [Lawrence] about that a couple of weeks ago. Martin is into it and we got a couple of screenplays and the story’s gotta be right,” Smith told Terrence J and Rocsi. With Smith already signed on to remake “Uptown Saturday Night” withDenzel Washington, we can look out for “Bad Boys 3” to be in theaters by 2015, according to the Fresh Prince.
Today, critically acclaimed author Toni Morrison will be one of 13 people to be given the highest civilian honor in theUnited States — the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Announced by President Obama, Morrison will be awarded the prestigious distinction alongside Bob Dylan,Madeleine Albright, and Israeli president Shimon Peres. “These extraordinary honorees come from different backgrounds and different walks of life,” Obama said in a statement. “They’ve challenged us, they’ve inspired us, and they’ve made the world a better place. I look forward to recognizing them with this award.”
Three months after dropping his DJ Holiday-hosted Trap Back mixtape, Gucci Mane returns with a new tape in time for Memorial Day Weekend, titled I’m Up. This time, he re-ups with DJ Holiday, but brings aboard DJ J1 and Trap-A-Holics to help for the 21-track effort, along with beatmakers such as Lex Luger, Drumma Boy, Polow Da Don, Mike Will, Young Chop, and Detail among others. On the features side, Gucci enlists a star-studded cast, including 2 Chainz, Jim Jones, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Birdman, Rick Ross, Scarface, Fabolous, Yo Gotti, and the list goes on. I’m Up serves as yet another free release, as Gucci continues recording for his next official project, which he’s yet to release. Stay tuned… In February, the ATL rapper released Trap Back, which followed his latest official project, the collaborative effort with V-Nasty called BAYTL.
Until we have details about his next album, you can download I’m Up, over at MixtapePass.com.
While Lil Wayne seemed to be the first to hit Pusha T with a response track, following the release of “Exodus 23:1,” fans have been awaiting some type of reaction from Drake, whom is the main target of the song. Well, shortly after Weezy dropped “Goulish”, a diss track aimed at the G.O.O.D. Music rapper, Drizzy reportedly offered some words for him as well, during his D.C. Club Paradise stop on Friday evening (May 25).”If you was doin’ 16s, when I was 16 and your sh** still flopped and you switched teams don’t talk to me my n****,” Drake allegedly told the crowd at the Verizon Center, according to MTV’sRapFix blog. A few fans at the show seemed to confirm the reports via Twitter. “Drake just responded to pusha T in dc,” tweeted @jcudderlife, while another fan (@youngking_XVO) wrote: “drake said some things about pusha in dc.” If you haven’t been following the YMCMB vs. G.O.O.D. Music feud over the last several days, let’s break down what happened Pusha T set things off earlier in the week, after leaking a track called “Exodus 23:1.” On it, he fires shots at unnamed targets, although it’s widely believed that Pusha is going at both Drake and Lil Wayne. READ MORE: http://www.ballerstatus.com/2012/05/27/drake-pusha-dc-tour-stop/#.T8VdiJlYu1I
