The-Dream is speaking out following the controversy of Rihannareleasing two remixes with her ex, Chris Brown, this week.
The producer of the more-raunchy collaboration, “Birthday Cake” (both the 78-second original and newly extended version) tells Billboard, “For me, it’s just music,” despite Brown’s felony assault on his former girlfriend 3-years-ago. He explains, “It’s two talented people doing a record together, doing two records together, and that’s what it was. It wasn’t about an incident that happened. The true thing really is to forgive, and… you want to believe in people.”
Dream also reveals that “It was Rih’s idea,” adding, “Not only do we work together, but [Rihanna] is a friend of mine. And it’s like, ‘You wanna do something? Then cool, let’s do it.’ I don’t know how she got the logistics and how it happened — maybe she’ll talk about it one day. I showed up at the studio, and it was like, ‘All right, cool, let’s finish this record,’ which we probably should have finished the first time we did it.”
He continues, “I think [the topic] that should be more on the tongues is: how do we proclaim to be a nation of forgiving, and we go by all of these rules and everything, but we can’t actually do it? It actually makes you look weaker than your adversary — if you don’t have the power to forgive, but you lie and say that you did. Because this is about her. If she can forgive, that’s where she is mentally. As a friend, it’s like, ‘Okay, cool. Let’s roll.’”
Meanwhile, MediaTakeOut.com reports Jay-Z, who manages Rihanna under Roc Nation and signed her to her first record deal at age 16, is furious. He was said to be completely against her working with Chris, and it’s apparently caused a rift… Tension.
Adele was the one who “flung” the middle finger at the BRIT awards last night — yet it’s the show organizers who are apologizing to her for it. So awesome!
Billboard reports “the suits”, who she aimed her middle finger at, have said in a statement, “We regret this happened and we send our deepest apologies to Adele that her big moment was cut short this evening due to the live show over-running. We don’t want this to undermine her incredible achievement in winning our night’s biggest award. It tops off what’s been an incredible year for her.”
The television station that broadcasts the awards added, “The Brits is a live event. Unfortunately the programme was overrunning and we had to move on. We would like to apologize to Adele for the interruption.”
The host, James Corden, who was instructed to interrupt Adele in order to introduce the band, Blur, is speaking out as well. He doesn’t get why he was made to do it as he explains, “I was having the best night of my life and then I was told to cut her off. She’s the biggest star in the world and I love her. I don’t understand what happened. I’m really upset.”
It’s been just days since Whitney Houston‘s funeral, but her ex-husband Bobby Brown is already rumored to be planning a tell-all book about the late-singer. Real classy.
Supposedly, Bobby B had actually attempted to sell the story about their marriage four-years-ago, but there wasn’t much interest at the time. According to the Huffington Post, back in 2008, Whitney had “fallen off the radar” but of course, now that she has died, it’s the “perfect” opportunity. Heartless…
However, Brown has a couple of major issues blocking his release. First, he signed a confidentiality agreement when their divorce was finalized. And more importantly, it could severely, negatively impact his daughter with his former wife, 18-year-old Bobbi Kristina, who is said to be struggling hard with the loss of her mother.
But, Whitney’s friends certainly wouldn’t put it past him. One insider explains, “This is a man who left his ex-wife’s funeral because he didn’t like his seats and went to a paying gig that night. He didn’t get on stage that night because he needed to sing his greatest hits or because Whitney would have wanted him to entertain his fans, he did it to get a paycheck — the same reason he now wants to write a tell-all book.”
Super sleazy.
In other Whitney Houston news, RadarOnline claims the cause of death, which isn’t official, was caused by a fatal combination of Valium, Xanax and alcohol. The anti-anxiety medications were said to be found in Whit’s Beverly Hilton hotel room following her death and it’s already been stated that drowning wasn’t likely.
The results of the toxicology tests are expected sometime next month.
LMFAO‘s just-released music video is over 7 minutes long and they’re not even sorry.
The new vid for the HOT 107 hit “Sorry For Party Rocking” introduces Redfoo and Sky Blu as new characters (one in drag)… It also features a couple of celebrity cameos, lots of animal print as usual, and — the unthinkable against zebras…
Another day, another rumor having to do with “The X Factor”…
US Weekly reports Britney Spears is the latest pop star to be eying one of the open spots on Simon Cowell‘s judging panel. She has apparently already expressed her interest to join the show, but no other details are available at this time. Of course not.
This would actually be good for her though! Plus, Simon and L.A. Reid with possibly Brit and Janet Jackson? Deadly combo.
XXLmag reports (via PopCrush) that Shakira is the latest artist to land a deal with Jay-Z‘s Roc Nation’s management, who also manages Rihanna — and has signed J.Cole, and Willow Smith, among others. Good move!
In other Jay-Z news, the new father and his wife, Beyoncé, were hilariously spoofed by Maya Rudolph and Jay Pharoah [above] on “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend.
Since YouTube is lame and has removed full clips, all we got are photos of Justin Timberlake as “Bon Iver”, Kristin Wiig as “Taylor Swift”, and more including “Prince” and “Nicki Minaj” meeting baby Blue Ivy for the first time…
Priceless! That’s GOT to be exactly how it happened.
Coming off her recent six Grammys, the biggest night in British music definitely belonged to Adele too as she took home two big awards — including “British Female Solo Artist” and “British Album Of The Year”… But when the singer happened to be cut off during her second acceptance speech on stage, her middle-finger reaction ended up overshadowing her wins.
According to The Mirror UK, the guy pictured with Adele had interrupted her before she was done speaking in order to introduce the final performance, the band Blur, to wrap up the night. Adele didn’t appreciate it to say the least…
She later apologized while explaining to the BBC, “I flung the middle finger. That was for the suits at the Brit Awards, not my fans. I’m sorry if I offended anyone but the suits offended me.”
Artists have been complaining for years that MTV is hardly “Music Television” anymore, and now Diddy is trying to fill that void…
The hip-hop mogul has announced that he is launching his own music network, ‘REVOLT’. According to the YouTube description, “It’s a channel where new artists can share their work in the way it was meant to be: raw, uncut, and uncensored.”
Sounds interesting! Rolling Stone reports that Revolt is expected to make it’s debut sometime next year…
The weekend after she passed away, Whitney Houston was buried next to her father, John Russell Houston (who died in 2003), following an emotional tribute to her life the day before.
The nearly 4-hour funeral, which was held on Saturday, included speakers Tyler Perry, Kevin Costner, and Clive Davis among many others… Plus Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, and R. Kelly were some of the performers. Aretha Franklin canceled her scheduled performance due to illness.
Bobby Brown, the late-singer’s ex-husband and father to their 18-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina, left the church only moments after entering. Despite tension between him and the family, he was invited, but it prevented him from staying for the service.
In a statement (via CNN) he explains, “My children and I were invited to the funeral of my ex-wife Whitney Houston. We were seated by security and then subsequently asked to move on three separate occasions. I fail to understand why security treated my family this way and continued to ask us and no one else to move. Security then prevented me from attempting to see my daughter Bobbi Kristina.”
Adding, “In light of the events, I gave a kiss to the casket of my ex-wife and departed as I refused to create a scene… I will continue to pay my respects to my ex-wife the best way I know how.”
Such unnecessary drama…
TMZ reports the funeral footage has been sold to several media outlets by the family to “help maximize Whitney’s estate for the benefit of her daughter.” Websites that had streamed the ceremony live online have since been ordered to pull the clips.
However, some moments can still be viewed on YouTube — though possibly, not for much longer…
Lindsay Lohan is hoping to “kickstart her comeback” by hosting “Saturday Night Live” on March 3. The announcement came during the episode over the weekend, with a simple screenshot:
TMZ reports it was LiLo’s idea to do the show again and basically begged executive producer Lorne Michaels, who has been “very fatherly toward her throughout the years”, for the chance. Soon her community service will be done with, so she feels this is the perfect time to remind people that she is an actress — not just someone who goes in and out of jail/rehab.
Lindsay has already hosted SNL three times, the first being at age 17 back in 2004. Here’s one of her funniest skits:
Yep, the rumors were true… Rihanna and Chris Brown have in fact been making music together.
The exes dropped not one but two songs over the long weekend. First, the remix to Breezy’s “Turn Up The Music” and then… the extended version of RiRi’s Talk That Talk track “Birthday Cake”, which is the one sure to cause the most controversy due to the lyrics (definitely NSFW — not safe for work) that include a line from Chris where he sings, “Girl, I wanna f*** you right now.” Mmhmm…
But just because they’re working together, spending time together, and collaborating on racy remixes together… it apparently doesn’t mean they’re back together romantically. Chris took his girlfriend Karrueche Tran [the blonde, above] on a trip to Miami last week (images via NecoleBitchie) and she’s said to be confident in their relationship… Yet, he also managed to find the time to tweet“Happy Birthday Robyn” (Rihanna’s first name) at midnight on her 24th B-Day. It’s since been deleted.
TMZ reports Chris has “no plans” to leave Karrueche for Rihanna. Still — at this point it seems it’s only a matter of time…
