Good Girl Gone Rated R, Rihanna shut down Abu Dhabi with her highly anticipated and much talked about New Year’s concert at the Emirates Palace. Just days before her big gig rumor had it that officials in Abu Dhabi wanted RiRi to do something she often doesn’t do–wear clothes! The Bajan beauty performed a string of hit songs including, “Don’t Stop the Music”, “Hate That I Love You”, “S.O.S” and many others. Rihanna ended the show with her biggest hit “Umbrella” minus the Jigga man. From the looks of it “Rated R” sang her heart out. Hell, she better have–shorty got paid $500,000!

Last night, diva Mariah Carey sang her ass into the New Year by performing at Madison Square Garden in NYC. Word is MiMi put on a great show and it was very entertaining–unlike the usual boring and almost always identical performance she puts on. She sang a few of her classic hits and some new tunes including Obsessed and H.A.T.E.U., while hubby Nick was on the 1’s & 2’s.

Meanwhile, The Black Eyed Peas rang in the New Year on the West Coast playing hosts at LAX Nightclub in Las Vegas.

Earlier this week, ya gurl J’More got the chance to see 50 Cent perform a “secret” show at the PC Richard & Son Theater in NYC courtesy of iheartradio. The Queens rapper brought his G-Unit crew with him on stage and performed a few tunes from his new album Before I Self Destruct as well as some oldies including “P-I-M-P”, “Hate It or Love It”, “I Get Money” to name a few.

I was surprised when Beanie Sigel hopped on stage to perform Jay-Z diss track “Go Off” with 50 since word had it that he was involved in a car accident.

Look out for exclusive footage from 50 Cent x iHeartRadio’s secret show coming real soon…

The sounds of Hip-hop & R&B are going to take over New York City on Tuesday, December 22nd! NYC’s Power 105.1 is having another installment of it’s famed Power Live R&B Artists Showcase hosted by DJ Envy featuring performances by R&B newcomer Wish, Grammy-Award Nominated singer Melanie Fiona, Jadakiss, The Clipse and more!

Who: Wish, Melanie Fiona, Jadakiss, The Clipse and more!

What: Power Live R&B Artists Showcase

When: December 22, 2009  @ 10 pm (Doors open @ 8 pm)

Where: Highline Ballroom

431 West 16 Street Between 10th & 11 Ave

New York, NY

**DRESS CODE WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED**

]]> http://str8nyc.com/2009/12/19/str8nyc-events-power-live-showcase-w-wish-jadakiss-melanie-fiona-the-clipse-more/feed/ 0 http://str8nyc.com/2009/12/16/kid-cudi-leaves-lady-gaga-high-and-dry/ http://str8nyc.com/2009/12/16/kid-cudi-leaves-lady-gaga-high-and-dry/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:22:50 +0000 J'More http://str8nyc.com/?p=30041 KID CUDI LEAVES LADY GAGA HIGH AND DRY…

First Kanye and now Kid Cudi bails out on Lady GaGa. After less than a month of being on tour with the “Bad Romance” singer, Kid Cudi announced via a statement that he has decided to drop out of the tour. The statement reads:

“Kid Cudi has decided to take an early leave of absence from Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour, in order to balance his schedule surrounding the recording of his next album and acting commitments. Cudi does not want to disappoint his fans and will move forward with his individual show dates in December and throughout the month of January.”

Hmm…does this have anything to do with last weekend’s incident when he clocked a fan?

In recognition of “World AIDS Day” Alicia Keys held a benefit concert yesterday at NYC’s Nokia Theatre, raising awareness about the AIDS epidemic as well as promoting her new album The Element of Freedom. The songstress sang a few classic tunes, “Falling”, “You Don’t Know My Name”, and “Diary” as well as new tracks  from The Element of Freedom. Alicia also surprised fans by bringing out the King of New York Jay-Z to end the show with NY’s anthem “Empire State of Mind”.

Continuing with her mission to “Keep a Child Alive”, the Grammy-winning singer is launching a contest that will give five people an opportunity to visit the motherland with her. Alicia claims her first visit Africa “totally changed” her life–so she wants to share her life changing experience with others. Awww, how sweet! She says,

“Going to Africa was unbelievable for me. I was probably like 19 or something. I was able to see the great separation between have and have not. I was able to see the incredible spirit of people. I was able to learn firsthand about the AIDS pandemic of Africa.”

In case you missed Alicia’s live performance on YouTube we’ve got you covered!

THOUGHTS?!

After Kanye West pulled out of the “Fame Kills” tour with Lady GaGa, rap newcomer Kid Cudi found himself as the rebound guy–after he got a call to be the opening act for the popstar’s “Monster’s Ball” tour. Although the Chi-town rapper is excited about touring with the weird pop star, he realizes that he’s going to have to step his game up ‘cause ya already know when it comes to performing Lady GaGa never disappoints.

“It’s like, man, you know Gaga’s gonna do the ill stage setup and mine’s gonna suck. It’s gonna be me and this DJ, and I’ll be like, ‘Alright, play the next song … this is on my album.’ I’m gonna be dodging Gaga’s equipment and stuff,” Cudi laughed before continuing more seriously. “Nah, it’s gonna be good, man. I’ve been working on something just to step my game up from the last tour I did with Asher [Roth]. We’ve been brainstorming, coming up with some good ideas. Of course, mine won’t be as elaborate as Gaga’s, but I’m kind of on this tour as a fan, you know, I’m just along for the ride … playing my part.”

Listen to Rihanna give an in-depth track by track preview of her new album Rated R. Here’s an excerpt of what she had to say about tracks “Hard” and “Stupid in Love”.

“‘Hard’ is lyrically–lyrically it’s very different from anything I’ve ever done. It’s very cocky. Um…it’s a lot of bragging Uh, on both my part and Young Jeezy’s part, but that’s the fun in the song. It’s like ‘I’m so hard’. I love it, I love performing it. As cocky as it is, it’s one of the least serious records on the album so it’s fun.”

“‘Stupid In Love’ is the first song that was written on my album. Actually Ne-Yo wrote it a couple days before the Grammy’s this year, so when we heard it was just crazy how it was like a premonition and the lyrics just made complete sense. It’s really about being blinded by love and coming to terms with that and the reality of  the state of your relationship and just saying ‘This is not what I stand for. I don’t want to do this anymore. Eventhough I still love you, this relationship is stupid’.”

Check out Rated R x Nokia’s live concert this past Monday in London.

]]> http://str8nyc.com/2009/11/18/rihanna-talks-rated-r-x-nokia-concert-full-video/feed/ 0 http://str8nyc.com/2009/11/18/mary-j-blige-usher-to-celebrate-christmas-in-washington/ http://str8nyc.com/2009/11/18/mary-j-blige-usher-to-celebrate-christmas-in-washington/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:47:10 +0000 J'More http://str8nyc.com/?p=28445 MARY J. BLIGE & USHER TO CELEBRATE “CHRISTMAS IN WASHINGTON”

Mary J. Blige and Usher are joining forces with TNT to ring in the holidays in musical style with its annual presentation of “Christmas In Washington”, set to air on December 20^th at 8 p.m. (ET/PT). This year’s concert will be hosted by funny man George Lopez and other musical guests include Neil Diamond, Sugarland, and Rob Thomas. “Christmas In Washington” is attended annually by the President and First Lady and other Washington VIPs. According to Michael Wright, executive vice president/head of programming for TNT, TBS and TCM,

“We take pride in presenting “Christmas In Washington” each year as we bring together musical artists from a variety of genres for a fantastic holiday concert. This year, we’re especially thrilled to welcome a lineup of top-name performers and an equally amazing host, George Lopez. Together, they will make this a holiday celebration to remember.”

Looks like New Year’s Eve in NYC is going to be crazy! Diva Mariah Carey has announced that she will be ringing in 2010 with a special performance at Madison Square Garden.  Tickets for members of the songstress’ Honey B. Fly fan club go on sale tomorrow, meanwhile tickets for the rest of the public will be available on November 14th. In the meantime, you can catch Mariah on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on Friday, November 13th at 11:35 p.m. ET.

“Mariah Carey, the #1 most successful female recording artist of all time will be live at New York’s famous Madison Square Garden for a special New Year’s Eve performance! Join Mariah as she bids farewell to 2009 in superstar style and gets ready to ring in 2010!”