It is Beyoncé like we’ve never seen her. The pop icon debuts her much anticipated HBO documentary, Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream. The 90-minute film gets up close and personal like never before with the 31-year-old diva. Executive produced by the singer/actress/mother, Bey lets us into her thoughts and reveals some of her most private moments never known until now.

Filmed off her laptop, Beyoncé opens up on the highs and lows of celebrity life, the sanctuary music and performing overall provides for her, and the blessing of enjoying motherhood with one-year-old Blue Ivy. From her firing her father/manager Matthew Knowles, to her previous miscarriage, and foundation her husband Jay-Z provides her, we witness through raw footage a compassionate, resilient, empowering person.

Watch the full documentary below…..

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Friday fun….it’s all about apocalyptic Russian meteorites, and really disturbing photos of comedian Louie Anderson, and the amazing moment when ASAP Rocky breastfeeds off Kathy Griffin…
And then this.

As a special Valentine’s Day treat to some precious little lady, Vin Diesel (an actor whose head has a six-pack) actually filmed himself singing Rihanna x Mikky Ekko’s “Stay”, while the video is projected onto the blank wall next to him.
It’s like Riddick x karaoke x 9 1/2 Weeks.
Un-friggin-believable.

Watch Vin Diesel laying bare his muscle-y heart for all the world to see….
(I also added a few customized Vin Diesel “Stay” memes to mark the occasion)
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Whatever you’re doing can just wait for the next 6 minutes and 1 second…There’s finally a new episode of my favorite web series, Zach Galifianakis’ talk show Between Two Ferns. This one is a special Oscar edition with guests Jennifer Lawrence, Naomi Watts, Christoph Waltz, Anne Hathaway, and Amy Adams.

Zach: “Do you say the n-word more in Django Unchained or more in real life?”
Christoph: “In real life.”

Watch (but not while drinking)…
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Shortly following Jennifer Hudson and her rendition of “America The Beautiful” was Alicia Keys. The multiple Grammy Award-winner appeared in a stunning red gown seated at her piano, performing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The moment was an emotional one for those at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome as players from the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens, specifically Ray Lewis, was seen with tears in their eyes.

Watch the A. Keys’ shining moment below….

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All eyes are on the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday night for Super Bowl XLVII. Opening the evening, an emotional moment as Jennifer Hudson performed “America The Beautiful” alongside the Sandy Hook Elementary School Chorus. Hudson previously had the honor of singing the U.S. national anthem at the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida.

Watch the heart-filled performance below…..

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Gucci Mane was the guest speaker at the Crawford Long Middle School today.
It was “Career Day” in the Language Arts class. Natch.

I don’t think we need to say much more here. Just digest that. And for the record…yes, Gucci has had some….self-imposed challenges, but I love bizarro Lynchian-life-twists, and this is pretty much the mountain-topper of that.

LA FLARE LOVES THE KIDS!

one more photo of Gucci Mane Career Day…and another recent photo of Gucci at work….
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(Camron, standing, at the Violator offices with Chris Lighty, Mike Lighty, and Eric Nicks, all seated…shopping his “new” artist, Juelz Santana)

Noreaga and his longtime friend Geno Sims collected a treasure trove of hip hop footage back in the late 90′s for a documentary show they called The What What. And in this newly unearthed trailer, there is literally too much to comprehend. There’s random bits of Big Pun, KRS One, Eminem making crank calls, Snoop Dogg at his most misogynistic, a chubby 50 Cent coveting NORE’s then-new Skytel 2-way pager…There’s Jay-Z and Amil, Capone in prison, De La Soul….and at the 2:25 mark, we see Cam’ron shopping his new 17-year-old artist Juelz Santana to Chris Lighty (RIP) and his staff. Amazing.

(Juelz Santana rapping on the spot for Lighty and company)

Now these days Geno is better known as one of ASAP Rocky’s managers, alongside Chace Infinite (another man with an long hip hop curriculum vitae), but I’ve known Geno since way back during his days at Harlem Music Hut, Bad Boy Records and more…So I’m really proud to see all his success! But no matter how busy you and NORE are, Geno….please gather more of this vintage What What footage and put this out!

Watch the vintage hip hop footage….
NOT SAFE FOR WORK, NOT FOR KIDS….
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An Interpersonal Literary Project. Yup.

Welp, this about seals it. We’re doomed. Civilization, I mean.
After a wildly successful memoir airing out her various sexual exploits with everyone from Ja-Rule to Jay-Z, Karrine Supahead Steffans is prepping a new book about the ongoing rollercoaster love affair she’s been having with Lil Wayne for years. But in keeping with Weezy’s gimmicky references about being so different from us that he is an extraterrestrial (ie his I Am Not A Human Being album)…she’s titling it, How To Make Love To A Martian. Is your soul weary yet?
Then wait til you watch this melodramatic video reading of what seems to be an excerpt from the book…
Supahead describes getting pregnant at some point in the past, possibly by Lil Wayne, while balancing her marriage (which ended last year) and her lover (Wayne aka The Martian.)

Oh…by the way, the relevation about the past pregnancy (which we assume Supahead did not carry to full term because there was no news of her having another baby)…is paired with close-up shots of her butt. Perhaps a visual allusion to that age old mystery of “how babies are made”. Very instructional.

Watch, after the jump
Then weep softly amongst yourselves
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Hold Up, JT! Don’t You Turn Your Back On Me…I’m Talking To You!

Miss Info: Wait a minute….so all this buildup was for, another version of buildup?!
Last night’s revelation was that Justin Timberlake was stopping all that In Time acting nonsense and Southern Hospitality BBQ nonsense and William Rast slacks nonsense and giving us what the good Lord meant for his curly-haired seedling to deliver….MUSIC. And the world rejoiced….and set their cell-phone alerts for a 12:00 EST debut of this JT x Jay-Z x Timbaland benediction.

So what happened at noon?
When you click on Justin Timberlake’s new “countdown” site, there’s a clock counting down for another three days. And a video of Justin talking some balderdash gobbledygook about his journey and being “ready” and some such.

That is not what I’m here for. I want the singing and the jazz hands and the Jay-Z and the Timbo “uhhs” and the possible Beyonce “ooooos”. Not. More. Dramatic. Monologues.
So give!

(Full Disclosure: I will still be waiting with baited breath when this shxt finally drops on Monday. And I’ve heard multiple label insiders who have raved that the whole Justin x Timbo project is crack crills. Obviously.)

Feel my pain…Watch Justin Timberlake’s waiting for godot video…
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Miss Info: If Frank Ocean’s “Thinking About You” was the best single piece of love songwriting of 2011 (in my humble opinion), then Rihanna’s “Stay” was one of the best in 2012 and all the credit goes to Mikky Ekko, the singer/songwriter from Nashville that you hear on the song with her. I’ve raved about him to everyone who will listen, and am excited about his 2013 project as I was about Miguel’s work last year. Ekko recently signed to RCA, and has been working with Clams Casino (of ASAP Rocky fame), Ben Ash (aka Two Inch Punch) and Paul Epworth (of Adele monumental smash fame)…so he’s clearly in good hands.
I’ve already had songs like “Stay,” “Feels Like The End”, “We Must Be Killers,” “Paint It Red” and “Pull Me Down” on a constant playlist loop, and now I can add the short live set Mikky Ekko performed on the Annie Mac show on BBC’s Radio 1 in the UK!
A ghostly cover of The XX’s “Chained” with added darth vader breathing?! Yes, please.
A sparse live version of “Pull Me Down”? Yay!

Listen to one of my favorite new music talents….
Mikky Ekko, singing on UK’s BBC Radio 1….
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