What's Hot

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My Chem rock for a good cause as they record an orchestra-accompanied version for “SING” to raise money for Japan relief. It’s “SINGitForJapan.”
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Check out other new album, single and video premieres at MySpace Music.
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Ever woke up with a tattoo of Zack Galifanakis in a bikini on your arm? The dudes in Hot Chelle Rae have! Check out their new video for “Tonight Tonight.”
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Check out other new album, single and video premieres at MySpace Music.
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–Metallica will be recording their next album with iconic producer Rick Rubin.
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–Death Cab For Cutie are touring with Frightened Rabbit. Check out their tour dates here.
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–Kasabian will release a new album in September.
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–Bamboozle has announced its set times. Check them out here.
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–All Time Low guitarist Jack Barakat has a clothing line that will appear in Hot Topic stores.
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–Muse’s Matt Bellamy is now engaged to actress Kate Hudson
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–Queen of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme has penned a theme song for the animated TV show ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force.’ Hear it here.
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–A documentary is being made about hip-hop producer 9th Wonder. Get more details here.
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–Soul Singer Phoebe Snow has died at the age of 58.

  DAN HYMAN  

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The Bamboozle — a 2-day parking lot party featuring some of the hottest talent in the music business — may have gotten its start back in 2003, when it was known as “The Great Bamboozle,” with the Roots serving as one of the headlining acts, but the majority of the performers that followed in the coming years– save a few exceptions– were almost exclusively rockers. In 2009 however, when the Kazoozle stage/tent made its grand appearance, featuring performances by some of the hip-hop game’s soon-to-be best and brightest — including Kid Cudi, B.o.B. and LMFAO — hip-hop slowly started making its presence felt in a major way at the annual New Jersey gathering. And last year, Bamboozle’s hip-hop contingent came in full force when artists such as Wiz Khalifa, Mike Posner, Far East Movement and more all played before the rowdy Jersey swarms.
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Now this year, the hip-hop infiltration continues. Joining headliner Lil Wayne, arguably the most talented rapper on the planet, are a slew of top-tier hip-hop artists including Wiz Khalifa, Chiddy Bang, Travie McCoy, Big Sean (pictured above), Das Racist, Lil B and Big K.R.I.T.
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We had a chat with three of the premier hip-hop players at this year’s Bamboozle (hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang, G.O.O.D. music’s budding star Big Sean, and Southern breakout MC BIG K.R.I.T.) to see what they’ve got brewing before their performances this weekend.
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  DAN HYMAN  

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In 2001, when Christopher Bridges, aka multi-platinum-selling rapper Ludacris, starred as Tej Parker, an ex-street racer and race host in “2 Fast 2 Furious,” it marked a particularly integral moment in the MC’s career. Aside from a small role earlier that year in “The Wash,” “The Fast and the Furious” sequel marked Luda’s first true foray into the world of acting. Now, a decade later, with a return role in the fifth edition of the car-centric action film, “Fast Five,” not to mention over 15 films to his name — including Academy Award winning films such as “Crash” — the Atlanta native is busy balancing his simultaneously hectic music and acting careers. Which, as the 33-year-old rapper recently explained while in Rio De Janiero– the world-famous Ipanema beach serving as his backdrop– wasn’t easy to make happen. “You have your work cut out for you,” Ludacris says of the barriers musicians must battle in order to break into acting. “There’s a lot of stereotypes out there.”
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In our exclusive chat with Ludacris, the rapper/actor dishes on the acting peers he admires (“The list goes on and on”), how female MCs are near and dear (“There’s a large place for female MCs in the industry”) and what’s next on his never-ending list of projects.
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Check out our exclusive interview with Ludacris below.
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