With two singles currently out, Iggy Azalea is set to make a splash in the rap world. This Aussie MC began rapping at 14 and moved to the States at 16 in order to begin her career. She was so determined to hit it big that she told her parents that she was just going on vacation, but never came back.
Although Azalea was heavily influenced by her close friend Tip Richardson a.k.a. T.I., she decided to strike out on her own and she left his label (Interscope) for Def Jam to continue to craft her sound. She is much loved by her fans (called “Azaleans” on Twitter), but relatively unknown to the casual rap listener. This will probably change soon, though, as her first studio album The New Classic is set to drop later this year.
ANDPOP’s Evan Ross spoke to Iggy Azalea about her beginnings, what it’s like to work on a full record, and why she is wary of the term “role model”.
Evan Ross: What was it about rap that drew you to it?
Iggy Azalea: Some things can’t be explained, I just had an emotional connection to it.
Why did you pick the name Iggy Azalea?
Iggy Azalea: My grandfather kept saying that I had to have a stage name and my real name (Amethyst Amelia Kelly) was too long. I had a dog named Iggy, who was named after Iggy Pop and I wore a necklace that said “Iggy” on it so people started calling me that a lot. Azalea was the street that I lived on at the time.
Who are some of the artists that influenced you, both now and when you were younger?
Tupac definitely when I was younger. In terms of a female influence I would say Missy Elliot; she was a woman I wanted to dress like, wanted to dance like. I would save my money so I could buy the Adidas jackets that she wore. I basically wanted to be Missy Elliot (laughs). Now I don’t idolize people so much, I have grown out of that. But I like Kendrick Lamar and really like Andre 3000; I hope he has another record.
You talk a bit about how you supported yourself when you left home in “Work.” How else has your past influenced your music?
My music isn’t really biographical, but what I think definitely shapes the music. My music has both my past and my present, and past stories are evident.
Is there any reason behind the accent you use when you’re performing?
“Scenic Cold” (Katy Perry x Beirut) – Rostam
My favourite mashups are the ones you would never expect. Jay-Z and Linkin Park, Gotye and Avicii, and now pop princess Katy Perry and indie folk band Beirut. Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij, who occasionally produces his own projects on the side under the name ROSTAM, mashed Katy Perry’s “Hot n’ Cold” and Beirut’s “Scenic World” together, which (as weird as the two choices are,) blends perfectly together.
“Here With Me” – The Killers
Will we ever get tired of The Killers foraying deeper into the world of darker imagery and eerie videos? NO. So here is their new video, directed by non other than Mr. Tim Burton himself! Strap yourselves in, ladies and gentlemen, you’re in for a ride. Pretty much, a young boy falls in love with a beautiful actress (played with Winona Ryder), steals a lifesize doll of her, takes the doll places with him as his girlfriend, and then in the end the doll becomes real and the boy and Winona eat dinner together with their heads on fire. Classic Tim Burton.
“One Night” – Timeflies
Consisting of one part smooth vocals by Cal, one part wild electro/dubstep producer Rez and all parts tonally sexy men, Timeflies have all the makings for a successful duo. The video for their latest single “One Night” is either going to make you fall in love with them or get super jealous of the endless streams of girls that seem to be constantly surrounding them. For me, it was both. Cal’s silky vocals combined with Rez’s EDM beats complement each other perfectly and is a refreshing take on the manufactured dance music that seems to be monopolizing the charts lately. If you want to hear more from Timeflies, every Tuesday they release a “Timeflies Tuesday” video on You Tube to keep their fans up to date. Their EP One Night is out now.
“Sorry” – T.I. ft. Andre 3000
T.I. and former OutKast member Andre 3000 finally released their highly anticipated collaboration “Sorry.” AND it’s produced by the one and only Jazze Pha, so you know it’s going to be good. A melodic piano anchors the track while T.I. and Andre spit their perfected rhymes. While T.I. uses the track as the ultimate “sorry not sorry,” going on about how successful he is, Andre goes a little deeper, rapping about his regrets and what is actually is sorry for. Ahh… I see what you did there boys…Check out the track and pick up T.I.’s eighth album Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head, out Dec. 18.
In T.I.’s new video for “Go Get It” we see how much things have changed for Tip, who shows what life was like pre and post fame.
The Alex Nazari-video starts with T.I. begrudgingly waking up to the sound of his ceiling fan in his regular bedroom. The scene juxtaposes with him rolling over in a king sized bed with three ladies in lingerie. Basically, pre-fame T.I. swam in community pools and drove rundown cars. Post-fame T.I. swims in his massive outdoor pool and drives a beautiful, sleek ride.
The song is from his forthcoming album Trouble Man.
T.I. dropped a new uptempo rap banger called “Like That” in which he raps about how his fans want reckless, non-sensical rap these days. He also talks about the expectations placed upon him: ”They want that super gutter ignorant/ That new ghetto belligerent/ Authentic grip flippin’, dope boy trap.”
The Lil C and Mars-produced track is from his upcoming album Trouble Man, which should be out this summer. It’s been a while since he’s had a really legit hit single so it’ll be interesting to see if he can pick himself up again. Do you think this is the track to do it?
Listen to it here:
We’re used to seeing rappers as hard edged guys that talk about guns, drugs, sex and prison. That’s why it’s so bizarre seeing them pose for their primary school photos as wide-eyed children. My fave photo is Usher’s because the cheeky little guy looks like he knows something we don’t know. I also have to give a shout-out to Lil Wayne who sacrificed time out of his precious day and is NOT happy about it. Clearly his school photographer didn’t use one of those inherently funny jingly stuffed animals to crack a smile.
T.I released the first official single from his eighth studio album Trouble Man, which comes out today.
Although he’s had his share of public battles (and multiple trips to prison) he wants his lady to know that the good outweighs the bad: ”You know you love this life, don’t nobody do you like me,” he says.
But T.I. doesn’t forget about showering his special someone with expensive designer dresses and sleek cars: “Cavalli dress and high heels/ And drop tops on hot wheels/ We live how we wanna live ’cause we got mils/ Dem other belly, belly buy hot wheels/ In V.I.P. dem bottle popping do it B.I.G./ Come get with T.I.P. and be balling til you D.I.E.”
The Mars-produced track is just a taste of what to expect. What do you think of it? [Source]
Listen to it below:
Even since repeatedly pestering that poor DJ to turn the record up in 2005, Robyn Rihanna Fenty has been a chart-topping powerhouse representative of Def Jam Records. With her collaborations dominating the charts as of late, it seems that the recipe to Billboard success is a Rihanna hook. After all, she has the most digital number-one hits with eleven and counting.
That’s more number-one’s than Stevie Wonder or Janet Jackson. That’s two away from Michael Jackson and nine away from the untouchable Beatles. Are we talking quantity, not quality? It’s up for debate. How does she compare to the Gaga’s, Perry’s and Beyonce’s?
Turn on the radio. Open a music magazine. And if they’re on a break from their teen-preganancy programming, watch MTV. From Maroon 5 to Eminem to Coldplay to Lonely Island, there is that familiar sultry croon of the official ambassador of youth and culture for Barbados. She is considerably the most-featured female singer of this millennium. She’s no Fitzgerald, or Goulding for that matter, but it’s either she has a remarkable talent or impeccable timing. OK, maybe Jay-Z has a little something to do with it.
Going back to 2008, she was featured on two of the biggest songs of the year: Maroon5′s “If I Ever See Your Face Again” and T.I.’s redemption-song “Live Your Life.” Two opposing ends of the musical spectrum that equally delivered as hits in their respective genres.
Recently, her collaborations haven’t slowed down, they’ve been unescapable on the pop-charts. She duels with Nicki Minaj, harmonizes on Kanye’s “All of the Lights”and even trades verses with Chris Martin in Coldplay’s “Princess of China” In response to his appearance on “What’s My Name?”, Rihanna flourishes in the role of a wounded-love on the title track of Drake’s upcoming Take Care EP.
Her solo success should not be ignored. In Billboard’s 53-year-history, Rihanna is in a third-place tie with the legendary Whitney Houston for most chart-toppers, behind Mariah Carey and Madonna. That’s a fine line between jaw-dropping and head-scratching. She was also named Digital Song Artist of the Decade in 2009, passing Mr. West, Beyonce and Taylor Swift.
In a recent study, the most popular videos on YouTube are unsurprisingly, music videos that occupy an incredible 86% of the top 60 most-viewed. What’s even more mind-boggling is that a trifecta of pop-artists total a 25% of those 60 videos: Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Rihanna. Bieber impregnates the rest of the pack with 1.664 billion views. Mother Monster rolls in with 842 million views and Rihanna clocks in with 715 million views.
With her new album Talk That Talk on the horizon (due out November 21), critical pop-singles are expected to stampede the airwaves. She took to Twitter on Tuesday to confirm that her mentor would appear on the title track: “Yes sir! Jigga man is on the title track #TTT.” What a clubhouse that must be, with Kanye and Jay meeting their female counterparts of Beyonce and Rihanna for an afternoon picnic.
Hova and Ri-Ri previously collaborated on her mega-hit “Umbrella” and he featured her on that Blueprint 3 power-house single, “Run This Town.”
She’s definitely beating Chris Brown’s success to death.
T.I. has been extremely busy with music since he got out of jail in September. He also plans to start 2012 with a huge bang.
“For New Year’s I’m gonna be waitin’ on F— da City Up to drop. We got a party poppin’ off down here in Atlanta, 200 Peachtree. We gonna turn up and it’s basically that,” he told MTV News. “Between the party and the mixtape, that’s all I got going. New year, new money. That’s that.”
T.I. has been teasing fans for a week, including a video where he’s working with Dre.
“Dre was here. He sent for me, and of course I answered. We really just turned up more than anything else. It was about creating chemistry,” T.I. told MTV News while in Atlanta preparing for the release of the tape.
It seems one dude isn’t enough for pop singer Ke$ha. In a song that was just leaked on the internet, Ke$ha hooked up with T.I., Lil Wayne, Andre 3000 and Wiz Khalifa for a song appropriately called “Sleazy”.
T.I. doesn’t do much on the track. He just samples his own material from a verse in Nicole Sherzinger’s song “Whatever U Like”. Andre 3000 steps up to the plate after flying under the radar this year. It’s always great to hear him spit a verse or two.
Lil Wayne and Wiz are also standouts in the song. Ke$ha could really learn a thin or two about rapping herself, if she stayed put with these two bonafides rappers.
Check out the new song and let us know what you think of it!
T.I. spoke to MTV News on the weekend, saying he feels fantastic since being released.
“I feel phenomenal. But I’ve always been the kind of guy — I never really get a chance to soak up the feeling of the moment because even as we speak, I’m planning for the next moment,” T.I. said during a Sunday brunch for his Akoo clothing brand on Sunday. “I’m looking to the future and trying to just move forward, just moving forward. I refuse to remain stagnant.”
T.I. is back out of federal prison and will finish the remainder of his 11 month sentence in an Atlanta halfway house.
The rapper’s lawyer, Steve Sadow, told MTV News that T.I. will be finished his sentence by September 29 assuming everything goes to plan.
“[T.I.] went through a disciplinary hearing held before the ‘Center Disciplinary Committee’ (composed of Community Corrections-halfway house-staff) who recommended that he be returned to the halfway house,” Sadow confirmed in an emailed statement.
“We have good reason to believe that this favorable result was reached because of the pro-active and assertive approach taken to protect T.I.’s rights by providing [Federal Bureau of Prisons] officials and the media with reliable and accurate information that T.I. did not intend to violate his transfer furlough or any other [Federal Bureau Prisons] rules en route from the prison facility in Arkansas to the halfway house in Atlanta,” Sadow told TMZ. “T.I. will be released from the custody of the [Federal Bureau Prisons] on September 29th, and then will be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for a period of one year.”
Good for T.I. and this whole story is pretty ridiculous.
Here’s a lesson for everyone – if you are ever released from prison, be very specific about everything to the Warden, including your transportation home.
T.I. was thrown back in jail because he told the prison he would be transported to the Atlanta halfway house by a van, not a decked out tour bus. This apparently is a violation. However, TMZ reports prison guards took pictures with T.I. before he got on the bus.
T.I.’s wife told TMZ, “This is a bunch of bulls**t … they should have said something before he got on the bus … T.I. would have politely gotten into a van.”
She adds, “T.I. is one of the strongest individuals I know … and they just trying to break him in more ways than one and it’s not gonna work! ‘Cause what God got for him, can’t no man take that away … period!”
This is absolute bullsh*t. There were no drugs on the bus and he wasn’t hurting anybody by taking a pimped out bus. Leave the guy alone.
Well that was a quick dose of freedom. T.I. is back in jail – yes you read that correctly. He hasn’t even been out for 48 hours.
T.I.’s lawyer claims there was an issue regarding the luxury bus the rapper took from the Arkansas prison where he was released.
His lawyer told TMZ, “We are awaiting the opportunity to quickly resolve whatever the issue may be that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has with TI’s method of transportation, bus, from Arkansas to Atlanta, so that T.I. can return to the halfway house to complete the remaining days of his sentence.”
T.I. was supposed to complete his sentence at an Atlanta halfway house.
T.I. isn’t out of prison 24 hours, and he already has a reality TV show with VH1.
VH1 says the show follows T.I. as he “re-adjusts to life as a free man after being incarcerated for nearly a year in a Federal prison in Arkansas.”
The show will follow the personal moments as T.I. is “reunited with his wife and kids and thrust back into society at this crucial juncture in his life.”
Good luck T.I.
T.I. is a free man. The rapper was released from prison and is being transported to a community living facility or home confinement reports TMZ.
T.I. spent 11 months in jail after a drug possession arrest. Consequently his probation was revoked from a gun conviction in 2009.
T.I. has helped the family members of fellow inmates, reports Vibe.
Currently behind bars for violating probation after being arrested for drug possession, the rapper apparently financed a bus trip for the families of 14 inmates to visit their loves ones at the facility.
The Atlanta rapper, who is serving an 11-month sentence, is currently at the Forrest City Correctional Facility in Forrest City, Arkansas, where he funded the families to visit.
The bus trip reportedly transported 46 friends and family members to the facility, where they were able to visit for two days.
T.I. previously spoke to MTV about his time in the slammer: “I’ve been blessed to receive tons and tons of mail from my fans, family and friends, as well as get visits on a regular basis. Unfortunately some guys aren’t as fortunate. There are a lot of good dudes in here that haven’t been able to see their loved ones in years. Their families can’t afford the trip so I wanted to help out.”
T.I. is scheduled to be released from the Forrest City Correctional Facility on September 29. The man has such a great heart, and this is one of those rare cases where you actually feel bad that he’s in jail, even though he deserved it. Can’t they let him out on terms of niceness and charitable behaviour?
Rapper T.I., otherwise known as Clifford Harris Jr., is projected to be released from federal prison on Sept. 29 after serving an 11-month sentence, reports Billboard.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons website states that T.I. will leave the Arkansas Federal Correctional Institution a little over one year after he was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of drug possession last September. The rapper was previously on probation after serving a 10-month stint in the Arkansas prison on federal weapons charges.
Being behind the bars didn’t stop him, though. T.I.’s seventh studio album ‘No Mercy’ was released while the rapper was incarcerated last December, and has since moved 502,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
On the day of the album release, T.I. issued a thank you letter to his fans: ”It doesn’t matter how long it’ll be before the next time you see me. What matters is that I’ll be a better man before that time comes,” he wrote. “The longer I sit, the smarter I get.”
And there you have it. Hopefully he doesn’t make the same mistakes once he’s released. But I’m not very hopeful.
Yet another popular rapper has acquired a prison sentence. Ja Rule will join the ranks of Lil Wayne, T.I., and Gucci Mayne, who have all served time for various criminal charges.
Perezhilton.com reports that Ja Rule will serve a two year sentence for his July 2007 New York gun charge. The rapper was caught carrying around a loaded firearm, which is an extremely indictable offense especially in the state of New York. How could we forget P Diddy’s (Puff Daddy, Sean Combs) little gun incident at a New York night club in 2000?
Meanwhile, Ja Rule’s lawyer says that he will be finish his new album Renaissance Project before his term. Who knows, perhaps this prison sentence could inspire a whole new album. He’ll definitely have a lot of free time on his hands.
TMZ is reporting that rapper T.I. had his probation revoked Friday by a federal judge and subsequently sentenced to an 11-month stint in jail.
The popular rapper had been put on probation as a result of a 2009 federal gun possession conviction, and then was arrested again last month for felony possession of a controlled substance.
This news comes just two days after T.I. talked a man from jumping off of a 22-storey building. According to TMZ, one of the officers that was involved in that case testified on behalf of T.I.
This is a developing story.
