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Rap feuds are nothing new, but the one that has been going on between 50 Cent and Rick Ross since January has been one of the more entertaining in recent years, seeing both sides take things to amazing levels of pointless one-upmanship. But this week Ross declared himself the winner, due to relatively low first week sales of Fiddy's new album, 'Before I Self Destruct'. It all started in January, when Ross released a track, 'Mafia Music', in which he mentioned, seemingly for no reason, the fire which had burnt down the home of Fiddy's estranged partner and their child (said partner had accused Fiddy of being behind the fire, accusations he strongly denied). Taking it like the grown-up he is, 50 Cent promptly released his own track, 'Officer Ricky', in which he pointed out that Ross once worked as a prison guard. And so, a beef was born. Since then, both men have insulted each other in the press, and released a few of those obligatory 'diss songs' each. But more, oh so much more than that, is the war that has waged on the internet, which has seen Ross set up a website dedicated to insulting Fiddy's thirteen year old son, Marquise, and Fiddy commissioning a cartoon series, called 'Officer Ricky'. Both have also enlisted each other's former partners, and on occasion children, for videos and photo shoots. 50 Cent also published footage of Ross collaborator DJ Khaled's mother at work, seemingly recorded without her knowledge. Although Fiddy was forced to apologise for that, of all the stunts, after it received widespread criticism from fans, journalists and other musicians. Because apparently that's worse than starting up a website to insult a thirteen year old child. But, anyway, it's all over now. Or so says Ross. At a birthday party held for DJ Khalid last week, he announced to the assembled crowd that they were also celebrating "the demise of a pussy", due to the fact that 'Before I Self Destruct' had only shifted 161,000 copies in the US in its first week, which by mainstream rap standards, aint that good. Though it would only be fair to point out that Ross' last album, 'Deeper Than Rap', shifted 158,000 in its first week, which was down significantly on his previous LP. He should probably hold off gloating until the release of his next one, 'Teflon Don', next spring. And let's not forget, 50 Cent has a platinum mining business to fall back on, should this whole music thing go tits up. I've not saved up enough money to buy myself a platinum mine yet. So, for the time being, I will continue to provide you with weekly updates of what has been going on in the world of music. You know, like this here. Look at it all, what a treat. It's even got an interview with Leo Sayer, and that's not something you get every day, is it? No, he gets tired too quickly. Andy Malt |
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OASIS COULD CONTINUE (BUT DON'T MENTION NOEL) It's good to see that Oasis are still as entertaining as ever. Liam Gallagher recently revealed that he was working with the other members of Oasis who aren't Noel - Andy Bell and Gem Archer - on new material. Well, it seems the new band have now written most of a new album, and that it could be released under the Oasis name. Says Liam: "If we don't come up with something else by the time we're ready to release the album it'll be Oasis. I'm not going to call myself something ridiculous just for the sake of it". However, he insisted that the new version of the band - even if still called Oasis - would not play any songs written by his brother, which doesn't really give them a great deal to choose from when it comes to back catalogue. |
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ARCADE FIRE SIX MONTHS INTO WORK ON THIRD ALBUM Last month our sister publication CMU Daily revealed that Arcade Fire would definitely be releasing a new album next year. Now it transpires that they've been in the studio with producer Markus Dravs, who engineered 2007's 'Neon Bible', for the last six months. Dravs also produced Mumford & Sons' debut album, 'Sigh No More', and it was they who let the news slip during an interview with BBC 6music. Frontman Marcus Mumford told the station: "I keep asking Markus how it's going and he's like, 'Yeah, it's okay', and I'm like, 'What are the songs like?' And he goes, 'Better'". It's also rumoured that the album is set for a May release. |
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DOHERTY SINGS NAZI ANTHEM. IN GERMANY Hey, it turns out that people in Germany don't like it if you get up on stage and start singing the Third Reich's national anthem. You could probably guess that for yourself, but Pete Doherty found out the hard way when he sang 'Deutschland Über Alles' at the on3 music festival in Munich on Saturday. The crowd began to boo Doherty, who was a surprise guest at the event, but he performed five more songs before being pulled off stage by its organisers. The show was also being broadcast live on German radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk, but the transmission was cut as soon as Doherty began singing the controversial song. A spokesperson for the singer told Sky News that Doherty hadn't intended to cause offence and hadn't realised the song's associations. |
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BORDERS START CLOSING DOWN SALES The gap in the high street music market is likely to get bigger, because it looks increasingly certain that CD and book seller Borders is going to shut up shop. A management buy out earlier this year failed to turn round the fortunes of the retail chain, and they went into administration last week. Although administrators insist that it is business as usual for the time being while they try to find a buyer, closing down sale signs went up at all of the firm's stores last weekend, which certainly suggests there are no firm buyers at the negotiating table just at the moment. Obviously, we'd all love for the Borders chain to survive, but in the meantime, if you're looking for some stocking fillers, some books and CDs have been discounted up to 50%, so one last trip to your local Borders store might be a good move. |
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CELEB AUDIENCE FOR GATELY TRIBUTE CONCERT IN LONDON A special concert was held in memory of the late Stephen Gately last weekend, at the West End's Palace Theatre. Gately's Boyzone bandmates performed, as did Shayne Ward, Liz McClarnon and Beverley Knight, while a number of other celebrities stood up to pay tribute to the late boy band star who, of course, died while in Majorca last month. The event was organised by Gately's civil partner Andrew Cowles and saw a celeb-filled theatre celebrate the life of the singer. |
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Want more? Want daily in-depth music news? Want all this for free? Well, ha, you're in luck. Click here to subscribe to the CMU Daily. Or here to access the CMU News-Blog. |
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WIN DEATH METAL LIVE DVDS Well, luckily for you, this year Earache Records have put together a box of four classic death metal live DVDs, which pulls together over seven hours and 100 tracks from four of the world's most influential extreme metal bands. Included in the box are these DVDs: Deicide (pictured) - When London Burns |
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We have two copies of the 'Death Metal Live' boxset to give away. Fancy one? Just email [email protected] by 11 Dec.
Or you can just get over to Amazon and buy it right now, here.
Look what they won...
Well done to Pat Reid for winning last week's Florence And The Machine competition!
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Blur documentary due in 2010. A documentary following Blur on this year's reunion tour will hit cinemas on 19 Jan, it has been announced. Entitled 'No Distance Left To Run', after that song they wrote, it was directed by production duo 32, aka Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, and features interviews with the band and rehearsal footage. You can watch the trailer for the film on the band's official website - www.blur.co.uk | |
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Apparatjik - Electric Eye. Featuring Mew's Jonas Bjerre, Guy Berryman from Coldplay, A-ha's Magne Furuholmen and songwriter/producer Martin Terefe, Apparatjik made their debut single, 'Electric Eye', available for free via their official website this week. It's an intriguing taste of a project that could turn out to be the best thing ever or head down a route of impenetrable self-indulgence - www.apparatjik.com |
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Nine Inch Nails flog gear on eBay. Earlier this year, Trent Reznor announced that Nine Inch Nails would be hanging up their hats as a live band after one final tour. Now, to prove that he really meant it, and with that tour completed, he's flogging all the band's equipment on eBay. So far, it's just guitars. Assuming you class the banjitar as a guitar, as I do. More instruments to come in the next few weeks - bit.ly/ninstuff | |
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Steve Mason - All Come Down. Taken from former Beta Band frontman Steve Mason's new Richard X-produced album 'Boys Outside', which is due for release in March next year, 'All Come Down' sounds like one of the finest songs The Beta Band never wrote, a simple piece which echoes Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' in places and is driven by Steve's amazing talent for writing vocal harmonies - www.sendspace.com/file/rt2vg3 |
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Last.fm launch 2009 countdown. Last.fm's end of year countdowns are always interesting. In this first section, the music tracking site counts down from 40-21, showing how listening figures for each artists increased (and decreased in some cases) across the year. But best of all, if you're a last.fm user, you can see how your stats compare to the site at large. God, I love stats - www.last.fm/bestof/2009 | |
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Husky Rescue - We Shall Burn Bright. Finnish ambient pop types Husky Rescue will be releasing their third album, 'Ship Of Light', on 30 Jan. The first single from it, 'We Shall Burn Bright', will be released on 7 Dec, but you can get it right now as a free download. Building slowly over five minutes to the closest Husky Rescue get to rocking out, it's packed full of ideas and smart little twists and turns you won't see coming - www.husky-rescue.com |
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Q1 How did you start out making music? RACE HORSES: "I started playing piano when I was about seven, and used to like singing bits and bobs of tunes too. I started making up melodies and pieces on the piano towards the end of primary school, but didn't have any way to record them. I then started playing the tuba and really got into classical music - Rachmaninov and stuff - and liked that much more than pop music. But then I had a kind of mini-epiphany when my friend's older sister played me 'Rubber Soul' by The Beatles, and suddenly I wanted to be in a band and make rock n roll music. That's still my favourite record ever" |
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Q2 What inspired your recently re-released 'Endless Flight' album? |
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Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track? BOSQUE BROWN: "I don't have any sort of process, I just wait for the song to come into my head. I don't sit down to write, I wake up with a chorus or just start playing the song. When the song comes it is immediate, but songs don't necessarily come often. I always hear it first and then just find the chords that match the tune on the guitar. I don't really consider myself a guitar player, the guitar is just a means to support the song. As a band, we add parts simply by keeping in mind that the band is an accompaniment. The band should only enhance the song, the song should be good with ten people playing or just one" |
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Q4 Which artists influence your work? FOREIGN BEGGARS: "Well, we're inspired by a lot of different artists from a lot of genres. Hip hop-wise, I was always into deep dirty east coast hip hop like Company Flow, Cannibal Ox and Tribe Called Quest (Midnight Maraiuders, in particular). Nowadays it's all about MF Doom, but I get a lot of inspiration from the grime guys like Ghetto, who is the sickest MC in the UK right now. Our live show is definitely influenced by a lot of the rock shit OV is into, that's why we always gotta rock out. I think a lot of performers are so caught up in their own music they forget they're actually there to entertain the crowd. We take influence from dudes like Napalm Death in that respect. We ALWAYS try to rock the crowd!" |
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Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time? PHANTOM LIMB: "Don't fight it, don't get all het up on fashions and trends, let the music do its job. Music is the reason, not the bi-product of your hair cut or how skinny your jeans are. It's like a good meal or a conversation" |
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Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future? COMANECHI: "Our ambition for our latest album is making the music scene not suck. For the future? The same. Making the music scene not suck is our forever mission" |
Q. How do you know if Robbie Williams has been in your fridge? A. There are footprints in the butter |
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