2012 So Far...

Whitney Houston

The music world stood still again last Saturday when it was announced that Whitney Houston had passed away. The I Will Always Love You singer was found submerged in her bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel by a member of her entourage and pronounced dead on the scene, she was only 48-years-old.

Whitney leaves behind her 18-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina and a stack of hits for us music lovers who will be mourning the loss of a music great. With her death comes much negativity regarding the role a painful drug addiction had to play in her life, and until we know for certain the cause of her untimely death let's remember Ms. Houston for the music she blessed us with - R.I.P. Whitney Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012).


Whitney Houston - It's Not Right But It's Okay

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Blue Ivy Carter

At just over one month old Blue Ivy Carter has to be the world's most famous baby, kicking her rival Harper Seven to the curb the princess of music icons Beyonce and Jay Z has arrived.

First time parents welcomed their bundle into the world on January 7th but kept the world on our toes as we waited for a glimpse of the heir to throne, but then on February 10th the power couple released five very intimate snaps of their pride and joy.

Opting out of the traditional million dollar magazine spread they posted the pictures of their daughter on Tumblr site dedicated to her - helloblueivycarter.tumblr.com

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Just as she finally got rid of that horrid red thing and went to seek refuge with a brown weave, Rihanna has let me down again by deciding to get involved in a blonde mess...



Which just reminds me of...

Wait! Do you see it now...

 No?

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Not a massive Madonna fan myself but I did really enjoy watching this performance, although as she's 53-years-old I don't appreciate seeing so much of her skin.

Other than the fact she lip synced during the entire performance I do feel she gave it her all, I thoroughly enjoyed the way the tracks were mixed during the 13 minute show and the fact she brought my home boys LMFAO on stage to party rock with her put a massive smile on my face *shuffles*

For the halftime spectacular she also "sang" her new single 'Give Me All Your Luvin'' alongside Nicki Minaj & M.I.A. which overall was pretty awful, nothing can save that song but M.I.A. managed to amped up the lacklustre performance by flipping the bird to millions of viewers - good times.

Finally Madonna wrapped up the showing with Ceelo Green who in my opinion saved the entire thing because his vocals on 'Like A Prayer' were so on point.

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Nicki Minaj - Stupid Hoe

It's official Nicki Minaj has lost the plot! However you have to admire the hype she continues to generate as she managed to make history on Vevo with her latest video which gained over 4.8 million viewers in 24 hours but all I have to say on this is ... NEXT!!

Fresh From The Editing Suite...

***UPDATED***

This post is dedicated to my little Sister - Happy Birthday!

I've gotta admit I'm quite pleased with myself with this edition of 'Fresh From The Editing Suite'.
It's like playing 6 degrees of seperation, the only artist who's missing from this is Beyonce.

Rihanna - Cheers

Although I do believe these are the laziest type of videos an artists can make I love them. Nothing beats seeing behind the scenes footage of all that goes on when these stars are on the road, especially when you're actually interested in what they get up to. 'Cheers' is yet another release from Rihanna's Loud album, and the video documents all she's been up to in the last few months. The video also shows her sporting her new hairstyle and colour which I'm really feeling; finally the red is dead and buried.



Nicki Minaj - Fly (feat. Rihanna)

Once upon a time I was a massive Nicki Minaj fan but since her "fashion" sense upgraded to crazy I've switched off. In this video she does well to rock a couple crazy looks, none of which help to put across the potentially inspiring story behind this song. The video isn't really anything special, and I'm really struggling to understand the bit when she goes all ninja on some dudes. And am I the only one who thinks the video was located on the exact same set as Chris Brown's video 'Next To You'; very coincidental.


Lil' Wayne - How To Love

So Tha Carter 4  is here. Anyway. Yeah the hype around Weezy is pretty much gone, and 'How To Love' isn't exactly the best song to use to try to resuscitate the hype. I know it's meant to be one of those deep tracks that make you think but I want a song I can dance to man. The story in the video good but it's been done before, that's not to say that any video treatments nowadays are unique but it could've been done in a refreshing way.


Jay Z & Kanye West - Otis

Ok, my hands are up, I was not excited about Jay & Kanye getting together to make an album because their bromance is a tad bit annoying. But it'd be rude not to appreciate the great music that they make when they hit the studio. 'Otis' unlike 'H.A.M.' is very enticing to the ear and also typical Kanye, and the added element of Jay Z makes it that much better. The video's fun to watch, like who doesn't want to see rappers "discreetly" show off how much money they have by making a video that doesn't have a lot to it.


J. Cole - Work Out

'Work Out' is definitely my favourite song in this bunch, what should I say about the brilliance that is J. Cole? Maybe I'll just start by saying he has smacked it, this is the feel good song of the summer (even though it's more or less over), this track makes going back to the office that bit more bearable, and it 100% gets you ready for the weekend. The video to accompany the track is pretty standard for Cole, not too much going on but you still wanna watch it to see what goes down. Looking forward to the album, which I shall be pre-ordering...COLE WORLD!!

And just in case you missed my six degrees of separation let me break it down for you:

Rihanna obviously features on Nicki Minaj's track, Nicki's part of Young Money which is Lil' Wayne's clique, Wayne and Jay Z have collaborated on tracks together and are the Mr. Carters, and then finally J. Cole was the first artist to be signed to Jay Z's label Roc Nation #SICK

Fresh From The Editing Suite...

Frank Ocean -Novacane

If you don't know about Frank Ocean by now then I really have to ask where have you been?
This guy dropped one of 2011's sickest mixtapes a little while back, and he has managed to keep a pretty low profile which has kept us all wanting more. This song 'Novacane' is definitely one of my favourites from 'Nostaglia/ULTRA', and I'm so happy he decided to put some visuals to the words.
The video is nothing less than odd, but hey he is part of OFWGKTA, so what did we expect. I like that the video pushes the feeling of the high he experiencing in the song. The video also has a pretty cool ending too. I'm hoping a video for 'Nature Feels' surfaces soon, because that's my jam.



Kanye West - Monster ft. Rick Ross, Jay Z, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver

So footage for this single dropped about four months ago but it just didn't seem finished. Turns out I was right, the video wasn't complete. Above is the official video for Mr. West's biggest banger to date 'Monster'. This track is in itself a monster; it features too many heavy hitters, who each grace this track with some wicked verses. The video is classic Kanye - genius. I've probably said this before but he hands down has the best videography out there. The only criticism I have for this video is Nicki Minaj's lace wig - girl!

Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum

There's no doubt that I prefer this debut single to those of Cheryl's and Nadine's. I like that Nicola is embracing her own style and her sound (unlike the other two it isn't outdated or fake). Now to get stuck in...There are three things I dislike a lot about this song and video (1) Diplo bumped her because certain beats in this song sound way too similar to those from Beyonce's latest single 'Run The World (Girls)'. (2) Nicola doesn't yet seem like she's all that comfortable making a video without four other girls. (3) Finally Nicola needs to leave some of the dance moves she attempts alone - bye girl, fly girl!

Be sure to leave comments and let me know what you think of this song, laters xx

Really Quick

I had to post these magazine covers to my blog because I am super-excited for this magazine to come out. Shout out to ELLE for their Women In Music 2011 campaign because these women (and Willow Smith) are amazing and all the covers are stunning.

Below I've uploaded my favourite covers but be sure to click on the link above to see what other female artists Elle selected and paid homage to:

Adele

Florence Welch

Gwen Stefani

Jennifer Hudson

Nicki Minaj

Robyn

Willow Smith