More footage has surfaced of Letoya Luckett (and rapper Ludacris) on the video set of her new music video ‘Regret’. The video premiere for it will take place next week on BET. Take a look at the sneak peaks footage below:

This week, the song re-entered the Hot 100 at #91, and remains a top 5 hit on the R&B charts. Lots of chemistry was also promised. Maybe this song can put her album ‘Lady Love’ back on the map again. Fingers crossed.

Rihanna will be making a very exclusive appearance on Good Morning America next week Thursday. She will do a sitdown interview with Diane Sawyer and talk for the first time about her brutal beating by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. As well as the interview, she will also perform her new single ‘Russian Roulette’ from her forthcoming album ‘Rated R’. Here’s the official commercial for it below:

It’s going to be ON & POPPING! Smart move of Rihanna to stay silent until the album is ready to drop. Get those sympathy sales girl!

Beyonce’s intimate ‘I Am…Yours’ concert is going to be airing on ABC’s Thanksgiving night on Nov 26th. The concert footage was filmed during Beyonce’s three night stint at the Encore Theatre at Wynn Las Vegas. It will feature new costumes, acoustic performances, and never seen before intimate footage. ‘I Am…Yours’ is due in DVD/CD format on November 24th. A Blu-ray disc will be released on December 8th. Meanwhile, check out the official trailer for the ABC Thankgiving special below:

The concert looks like it will contain just as much sparks, bangs and cackles as a packet of fireworks.

Say what you want about Beyondroid but her concerts are usually entertaining. That much I can admit. Though, I’m confused as to why they would air the concert two days after it hits the shops.

Wouldn’t this deter people from buying it simply because they can record it on their VCRs, whilst tucking into their tasty grub?

Former 3LW and Cheetah Girls singer Kiely Williams is going it alone by launching a solo singing career. The forthcoming project will be released through Nine Lives Entertainment in 2010. This is the very same management and production company that the 23-year-old has been signed with since her career began with 3LW in 2000. Below is a sneak peek look at her forthcoming music video for new single ‘Make Me A Drink’, where she is showing off all her tatoos:

The song doesn’t sound bad at all, being the cute little R&B jam that it is but she will need to come much harder than this if she’s going to have any chance at sustaining a career in music. Never had her down as an artist who would pursue the singing because in 3LW, she always repped for the rapping side, mostly. Also, let’s just say her singing abilities left little to be desired.

I don’t know what it is but my spirit could never take to Kiely as a person. The reports of her physically assaulting Naturi and throwing a 2-piece chicken, mashed potatoes, and macaroni & cheese meal from KFC in her face did nothing to curb my discomfort. But I understand that’s all in the past now.

The slate should be wiped clean and I’ll definetely give her music a listen in the foreseeable future. But if this doesn’t work, at least she can stay splurging on those Disney cheques until her next acting gig comes along.

New York Natives Alicia Keys and rapper Jay-Z emphasise their love for the glorious Big Apple in the black-and-white music video for ‘Empire State of Mind’. There’s no word on a premiere date as of yet, but while we wait, you can check out a sneak peek look below:

Later today (October 29th), the pair will perform the song at the Game 1 World Series, a day after the originally scheduled performance date. I’m also reading that they’ll also perform the song at The American Music Awards on Nov 22nd. Yawn, yawn and some more yawning…

I can’t say this news excites me. We’ve already had a big Awards show performance of the song. Maybe they’re wanting a Lil Mama-less presentation this time, but if I’m honest I’m pretty much over it. With her latest single ‘Doesn’t Mean Anything’ underperforming, you’d think she’d focus that promo on her OWN project. A performance of her next single ‘Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart’ would have been perfect. Even Jennifer Lopez will be performing her new single.

No offense to Jay-Z but a repeated performance of ‘Empire State of Mind’ at ANOTHER big Awards show seems like a waste of a big promo oppotunity. Jay-Z’s album is already out and doing pretty well, whereas AK is struggling right now.

Here’s a sneak peek look at Chris Brown new music video for latest single ‘I Can Transform Ya’ (featuring Lil Wayne and Swizz Beatz). The song is the leading single from his forthcoming album ‘Graffiti’ which has a tentative release date of December 15th. The full music video for I Can Transform Ya will premiere tomorrow (Oct 27th) on MTV, MTV Jamz, MTV Hits and MTV.com. Watch the preview below:

The special effects video and robotic choreography looks like its going to make for a really hot music video. The visual endorses the themes taken from the actual ‘Transformers’ movies. Do I even need to comment on how nice he looks? Yeah, I think I do. Also, the song continues to shoot up the Hot 100, and that’s without the aid of a music video. I can’t wait to see the full video tomorrow. Roll on!

Ryan Leslie is dropping albums like he’s an artist on demand because apparently, ‘Transition’ will be his second album released this year. The Harvard graduate who is a singer, songwriter, composer and producer will release Transition on Nov 3rd and features the infectious lead single ‘You’re Not my Girl’. Click here to listen to 30-second snippets of all eleven songs courtesy of Amazon.

The music has a considerate amount of knock, funk and futuristic sass. It is very hard edged in its production and I’m not just going by the snips but by half of the songs that have leaked over the last couple of weeks. Although the album does not outdo his debut, it’s still a very decent offering from R-Les.

After encountering many pushbacks, Amerie is gearing up to release her fourth studio album ‘In Love & War’ on Nov 3rd. The LP will feature the old school-tinged lead single ‘Why R U’ and the edgy but playful second single ‘Heard ‘Em All’. It also comprises of oldschool Hip Hop and R&B compositions. Click here to listen to 30-second snippets of all fourteen songs courtesy of Amazon.

This album is oldskool urban heaven. It’s really organic and chemical-free (almost). Even the underwhelming songs on the album crap on many of the R&B songs that dropped this year. She could easily have jumped on trends by snagging up The Dream and Tricky Stewart to produce her lead single and more. Sadly, I don’t think she’s going to sell a tonne of albums in her first week, but one thing I can say is that as a real artist with a true passion for her art she strives for quality and not quantity. The same thing certainly can’t be said for the other R&B songstresses who shall remain nameless. I’ve enclosed all of the song credits after the jump.

(more…)

X-Factor runner-ups JLS (aka ‘Jack The Lad Swing’) are set to release their self-titled debut album ‘JLS’ on Nov 9th. The set mainly consists of catchy radio-friendly pop tunes and is produced by Syco stable regular Steve Mac. It includes their no 1 hit single ‘Beat Again’ as well as their second single ‘Everybody In Love’. Click here to listen to 30-second snippets of all thirteen songs courtesy of Amazon.

The songs don’t sound that bad but I’m not jumping up and down in excitement at what I’m hearing. Maybe I would have done if this was still the mid-late 90s. This was at a time where I would turn my bedroom into boyband poster territory and couldn’t get enough of The Backstreet Boys and N-Sync. I’d have put my beloved Imajin up there as well (who, like N-Sync and The Backstreet Boys were also on Jive Records) but they were hardcore R&B and their songs were at least hot. So, I’ll put O-Town in their place. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that the music is straight up boyband 90’s-style pop fodder (lets say, if O-Town and BSB had a musical baby, this would be the outcome). I’ll definetely listen to it because I’ve been rooting for them from day one, but I’d have personally preferred for them to go a more R&B direction. They’d have been able to carry it off but I guess this is down to deciding what would sell and what would appeal to radio and the masses.

Here is a sneak peek look at Omarion’s new music video ‘I Get It In’, which features Gucci Mane. The song is the lead single to be lifted from his third solo album ‘Ollusion’, now due on January 12th, 2010. Peep the mini trailer below. Somebody’s got jokes it seems:

Ugh. The King of Dance returns? Really Omarion? Who the HELL does he think he is? Who was checking for his ass?

Leona Lewis’s new album ‘Echo’ will hit stores on Nov 16th and is now up for preview on Amazon. On the site, you can now listen to 30-second snippets of all fourteen songs. The former X-Factor champ says of the album, “I titled my album Echo, since an echo describes a big, organic sound.” The disc contains a mix of ballads, dance tracks, and uptempo pop. A significant number of collaborators for Echo include Ryan Tedder (who produced lead single ‘Happy’ as well as her previous smash ‘Bleeding Love’), Justin Timberlake, James Fauntleroy, Max Martin and several others.

Click here to listen to the snippets. The only song I really don’t care for is ‘Outta My Head’, which I posted yesterday (the snippet). Having said that, this album sounds really nice. Leona knows what type of sound works for her in the artistic sense (she has no soul in her voice whatsoever to do hardcore R&B so when I read a previous article that she was working with Bangladesh, I laughed. I’m kind of sad that the uptempo Ne-yo joint didn’t make the cut though because I really liked it). After the jump, you can also check out the official album credits.

(more…)

UPDATE: Youtube video now included.

Rihanna’s new single does not recieve it’s official premiere until tomorrow morning at 11:23am (4:23pm for UK folk), but today, video footage has surfaced where we get to hear some of the song. I’ll reserve all my thoughts until the big day but Rihanna was definetely getting into the groove of things in her new video…

Peep under the fold to see Rihanna dancing to her song, as well as hear a vague clip of her brand new single…

(more…)