In a week seeing the release of two highly anticipated albums — Muse’s The Resistance and Kid Cudi’s debut Man On The Moon — the top two spots were, perhaps surprisingly, occupied again by two massive releases from weeks past.

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Jay-Z: ‘Poet’

- During an interview with NME Jay-Z has claimed that rappers are ‘the poets of our generation’, saying  artists need to talk about ‘hard truths’ in their records. He lauded his groundbreaking appearance at Glastonbury 2008 as ‘knocking the door down’, and insisted that despite his closeness to President Barack Obama he would not be toning down his lyrics. Jay-Z recently scored his first UK number one single with Run This Town.

- Leonard Cohen is reported to have fainted onstage during a concert in Spain on Friday. Despite the collapse, said to have been caused by food poisoning, his tour will continue as normal with a performance in Barcelona tonight.

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Taio Cruz scored his first number one single this week with Break Your Heart, according to the Official UK Charts Company. Pixie Lott drops to six after just one week at the summit, while David Guetta stays strong at number two with Akon-featured Sexy Bitch. Madonna can only manage a new entry into position three, despite jumping on the dance-electro bandwagon by roping in producer Paul Oakenfold, who still hasn’t written a good song since he dropped Balaeric anthem Southern Sun in 2002.

Meanwhile, in the album charts, rock trio Muse have hit the number one spot for the third consecutive time with The Resistance, despite critical reviews, showing Britain hasn’t tired of overblown space rock just yet. Reality star Peter Andre impressively beats out Jay-Z, who debuts at a disappointing number four with Blueprint 3, while old timers Vera Lynn and Mark Knopfler keep the dream alive with placings in the top ten, the former who became the oldest artist to ever score a number one album, when We’ll Meet Again reached the summit last week.

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Jay-Z

The Blueprint 3

[Roc Nation; 2009]

Links: Jay-Z | Roc Nation | Purchase on Insound | Listen on Rhapsody

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After it was announced that the Beastie Boys would be canceling all tour dates, many wondered who would replace the Boys at various festivals as they were billed as headliners. The New Jersey based festival – All Points West, has announced that Jay-Z will be replacing them as headliner for the Friday slot.

This will be the first time Jay-Z has performed at a US festival, and seems to be a great choice as he was a big hit at European based festivals Glastonbury and Roskilde.

The Good News: Auto-Tune is dead.
The Bad News: This track really isn’t doing it for me.

This video was premiered last night at the BET Awards. I’ll admit, even though the song is a bit lacking, the video is great. I’m still hopeful for Blueprint 3 given that the rest of album is more in the vein of “Jockin’ JAY-Z”, “Brooklyn Go Hard”, and “History”. Whatever the case, the original Blueprint will remain a classic.

The Blueprint 3 is out September 11 on Roc Nation/Atlantic Records.

It’s official: Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 will be released September 11th on Roc Nation/Atlantic.

That’s right, according to Billboard The Blueprint 3 will be released in commemoration of the 8-year anniversary of the original Blueprint’s release (yep, oddly enough The Blueprint was released on September 11th, 2001). The album will be released on Jay-Z’s own Roc Nation imprint, with distribution by Atlantic.

Last month, Jay-Z paid $5 million to terminate his contract with Def Jam. Now Atlantic has outbid competing label Sony for the rights to distribute the record.

Keep your eyes peeled for the official Blueprint 3 announcement at New York City radio station Hot 97’s annual Summer Jam concert at Giants Stadium on Sunday.

It is common knowledge that Barack Obama is a fan of hip-hop. The President-elect often lists Jay-Z, Common, Kanye West, and Ludacris among his favorite musical acts. And when Obama is sworn in as the country’s first African American president on January 20, 2009, he may bring this musical love to the party. Several sources report that Obama is in talks with Jay-Z to appear at the inauguration ceremony. Awesome.

Chris Martin first worked with Jay-Z on his 2006 album Kingdom Come – and what at first seemed like an unlikely mix, now feels common, as Jay-Z recently guest spotted on Coldplays EP: Prospekt March. So it was inevitable that someone was going to make a mixtape mashing the two artists together.
However, it seems like the new mixtape titled: Viva La Hova- created by Mick Boogie and Terry Urban, has been making quite the splash, as both rapper and band have officially approved of it. It’s even gotten attention on MTV’s prime time spots. You can download the mixtape here in 320kbps.

Download MP3 album – Viva La Hova

The mixtape is pretty good, but did every song have to start out with a woman saying “Terry Ubraaaan”. I know the guy wants’ people to know this is his mix, but every song? The Mixtape takes samples from both artists entire career, with standouts being from Viva La Vida. “Lost!” in particular – which has a great dance beat. The official blog of the mixtape lists the samples, which you can see below:

Intro (Various Songs)
Public Speeding (High Speed + Public Service Announcement)
Know My Place (U Don’t Know + In My Place)
Never Changing (Never Change + Never Change)
Miss Trouble (Excuse Me Miss + Trouble)
Back At My Place (Back Then + In My Place)
No Love Coming Home (Homecoming + Ain’t No Love)
A Spy’s Prayer (Spies + Pray)
Science Is Ignorant (The Scientist + Ignorant Sh*t)
The Reverse Fix (The Bounce + The Fix)
Hola Blanco (Hola Hovito + White Shadows)
Take The Hill (Takeover + Violet Hill)
Lost Part 2 (Momma Loves Me + Lost – Import Mix)
Cold Success (Success + Lost – Import Mix)
What If We Cry? (What If + Song Cry)
Falling In Shadows (Fallin’ + White Shadows)
Life of Clocks (Clocks + Party Life)
X-Y-Z (No Hook + X&Y)

-Brent K.

Thanks to Ryan Seacrest, the remixed version of Coldplay’s single “Lost” featuring Jay-Z hit the internet today. The song is basically the exact same as the single, save of course for an extended Jay-Z verse during the guitar solo. This version of the song will appear on Coldplay’s Prospekt’s March EP alongside other previously unreleased material from the Viva La Vida studio sessions, which is scheduled for release in late November. Here is “Lost+”:

DOWNLOAD MP3: Coldplay [feat. Jay-Z] – “Lost+” | Mediafire

via 2dopeboyz

-Michael K.