by Ciara ft. Ludacris: This joint is FIRE! My friend sent me this song to listen to about a week ago and I didn’t think it was that good. Today, I realized that I had not heard the full song and it may not have even been the right song for that matter. When I realized this video premiered, I had to see it and boy oh boy …this video! I don’t even know what to say, but Ciara has come back with a vengeance. She can’t really “sing” but homegirl shoollllll can move. There is *nobody* who can move like this. You think Beyonce can do this and you a lie. Only thing I know is that I’m about to be eating carrots and celery, signing up for some pole dancing classes and getting a Brazilian wax!

I’ve said for months now that Trey’s social media strategy is on point! Whoever provides his back end strategy and comes up with his non-traditional/traditional marketing tactics gets two thumbs up from me. Take yesterday for example:

First, Ludacris premiers his new single Sex Room featuring Trey Songz. The brilliance behind the release was the only place you could listen to the track was on Global Grind. I tried to YouTube the track and I found it. I tell you – by the time I listened to the track and copy/pasted the link to send it to my friend, UMG had pulled it down. When my friend told me she couldn’t listen to it, I thought she was joking. UMG must have had numerous detectives or insiders at YouTube monitoring to make sure people were not leaking the record too soon!

Instead, the track went viral instantly after Jo Jo (@YoungSimmons), the editor of Global Grind, sent a tweet that the track was available on Global Grind. Trey’s thousands of groupie girls went bananas and sent RTs informing their followers of the new single. I, personally, sent a tweet because I LOVE the track. It’s triple X-rated, but it’s the bomb diggity! I’ve had it on repeat for the last 24 hours.

Sex Room was a solo hit until…Trey premiered his video for Neighbors Know My Name, which is like his sixth edition of soft porn. The release of this video was brilliant too – although very weird. I’m not sure why, but the video premiered on Power 105.1 fm . I’ve never heard of that radio station before a day in my life and the website of the radio station had exclusive access to Trey’s video for a full day. Then, he uploaded the video on YouTube today. If you didn’t know the video premiered, there was no way you could miss it! On the homepage of YouTube.com, Neighbors Know My Name is the first video listed on the Videos Being Watched.

Trey is getting far more publicity than other artists I know, and the good thing is it’s all safe pub. You haven’t seen him robbing anybody, jumping anybody in the club, or engaging in illegal behavior. If you don’t like Trey, I feel sorry for you because 1. you aren’t the norm and 2. it doesn’t look like Trey is going anywhere!

Week of 1.25.10: Every now and then I force myself to listen to the radio. I started sometime last week and I can’t believe I’ve made it this long. Every – not one – but EVERY time I turn the radio on, I hear the same song.  If I didn’t like the song I’d probably be mad, but since I like the track I guess it’s ok. I only noticed they had the song in heavy rotation because I was constantly jamming to the track, and as days passed I was able to rap the lyrics. I began to question myself like “Woah! How you do know the words to this?”

If what they say is true about the amount of radio play an artist gets directly correlates to the number of singles/albums an artist sales, I know this artist is headed straight to the bank on a weekly basis! Just as I imagined, I just heard on the radio that the single alone has gone gold – that means 500,000 sold! Most people can’t even get their full album to go gold. That is super impressive being that the album isn’t set to release for at least two more months.

So….I’ve played the game long enough. Press play below to see who I’ve titled as the Radio King for this week. I will post the official video when there is one. I’m interested to see what a censored version could look like!

by Raheem Devaughn ft. Ludacris: I said we living like we bulletproof. We bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. We load it, cock it, aim and shootin. This track reminds me of some old school Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield. It is deep and a true reflection of hip-hop. Music is supposed to be an indication of our time and bring people together. A majority of the music played today is quite degrading and promotes negativity, but there are artists such as Raheem that break the cycle and progress change.

I want to give a shout out to Kenny Burns who snuck in the video and didn’t think he would be noticed ☺

Today marks a sad day in history. Well it was a glorious day because Barack had his first interview on 60 Minutes after being nominated President-elect. However, today was the finale of TRL. When I interned at MTV last summer, the rumor that the show was near its end date was buzzing around the offices, but I never thought the rumor was true. From running home after school to watching the top ten countdown during the summer, I grew up watching the show. I think TRL helped foster my love for music. All the hottest videos premiered on TRL before I saw them anywhere else.  I would tape all of *N Sync and Britney Spear’s videos and learn the dances. I would also record videos and memorize the lyrics – clearly this was before lyric websites were established. As a child, I wanted to be VJ! That was the hottest job on the streets! If anybody asked me today, “If you could have one job in the world what would it be?” My response will continue to be, “A MTV VJ.”

I’m glad Carson Daly came back to host the finale. I will be completely honest and voice my opinion that TRL went downhill after Damien took Carson’s place. There are a lot of other celebrities that stopped by to participate in what a few have called “a high school reunion” as numerous young artists’ careers flourished after being on TRL. The show was opened by Beyonce and included performances by Fall Out Boy, Ludacris, Snoop, and Nelly, as well as appearances by Diddy, Kid Rock, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, and the list goes on and on. Then, there were so many people outside, the streets looked like NYC on New Years Eve. The show will definitely be missed

If you didn’t get the opportunity to watch the finale, I suggest watching MTV over the next few days. You KNOW they will repeat this about 4 times over the time period. 

by Ludacris co-starring T-Pain: I like the beat on this track. Sounds like one Usher would sing on, but with T-Pain presents a different sound for Ludacris. This track is real chill and the lyrics crack me up! They are not really influential or meaningful; rather they detail a weekend outing in Atlanta. Drinking is involved, vision is impaired, girls are met, and activities that shall remain unsaid occur. This probably won’t be an official single released, but will make it on Ludacris’ album Theater of the Mind that was scheduled for an October 21^st release but has been pushed back to November 25^th. I always wonder the thought process behind delayed album releases??? Oh yea, and the reason for the co-starring vs. ft. is because Ludacris stated that none of the tracks will be featuring any guests and instead they will be “co-starring”.

by Ludacris: Clearly, Ludacris is releasing a new album this year. Being out of the game for a few years, Luda made an astonishing comeback with a track from his mixtape titled Politics (Obama is Here). That granted him to be the topic of a few news reports to put his name back out there. Additionally, he is featured on several song verses such as Monica’s Still Standing and Ciara’s High Price. Ludacris’ new album is titled Theater of the Mind and is slated for November ’08. The first single is reported to be What Them Girls Like featuring Chris Brown and Sean Garrett, but the song is only ok in my opinion. It’s the typical first-single club banger that will get people interested in the release. Alternatively, I like this track with T.I better. Record execs should have asked me!

by Ciara ft. Ludacris: This is my summer pre-club jam! I’m not too big on Ciara or Ludacris, but this beat is so hard! I liked the song a little better before I looked up the lyrics because I hate how artists rap/sing about money and what they can buy. I also think the song sends the wrong message to a girl that a guy should buy her everything she wants and if the guy isn’t dressed fly, she shouldn’t pay him any attention. Although, Ciara was correct with her line about a fresh pair of Nikes! I hate when guys wear dirty shoes but, a girl should be able to buy her own things if she wants them! Ludacris does spit a sick verse and my favorite lines are:

Let’s go on a shopping spree to an expensive place

Then I lick you up and I lick you down

Because I love your expensive taste

by Busta Rhymes ft. Lil Wayne & Ludacris: This is what I think Rick Ross would call ahhhh Maybach Music. This is a good song to ride to. The beat is hard. Not to mention Lil Wayne is a lyrical genius. This man says “Ya don’t want beef, I’ll put you on a diet.” A few lines later he states “I’m not the president, but I see cops behind me.” Classic. By the time it got to Busta’s verse, I was ready to go back to Weezy’s; but, this single is better than the first two releases off of Busta’s upcoming Blessed (due in September).