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Day in Pop Report for 05/09/2016


Today's Top Stories


Arsenio Hall Vs Sinead O'Connor Over Prince Allegations

(Radio.com) LAst week, Sinead O'Connor published a Facebook post accusing talk show host Arsenio Hall of providing Prince with hard drugs, as well as "spiking" her at Eddie Murphy's home.

The Irish singer's biggest hit "Nothing Compares 2 U" was written by Prince. Previous interviews indicate she and the late icon only met a few times during his life.

Last week, Hall responded to the explosive allegations with a $5 million libel suit against O'Connor. The suit characterizes O'Connor as a "desperate attention seeker" whose "defamatory lies" could do irreparable harm to Hall's reputation. Read more here.

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Justin Timberlake Reveals New Album Details

(Radio.com) The world has been waiting years for a new Justin Timberlake album and now the 9-time GRAMMY Award winner has finally confirmed to Carson Daly that he's got something in the works.

"I don't know exactly when I'm going to put it out, but yeah, I'm definitely working on a new album," Timberlake revealed Friday during an interview on 97.1 AMP Radio.

The news shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Back in March, JT began posting photos of himself on Instagram in the recording studio with his longtime collaborators Timbaland and Pharrell.

But what will his fifth solo studio album sound like? He cited lots of influences from his Southern roots. 'Growing up in Tennessee, very central of the country, Memphis is known as being the birthplace of rock and roll, but also the home of the blues, but Nashville's right down the street so there's a lot of country music." Read more here.

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Ariana Grande Releases New Song 'Into You'

(Radio.com) Two weeks from the May 20 release of her third studio album "Dangerous Woman", Ariana Grande treated the internet to a third single called "Into You."

The radio-friendly dance track combines pulsating electro beats with Grande's iridescent vocals, a tried-and-true recipe for her biggest hits. The lyrics describe a "dangerous" seduction: "A little less conversation / and a little more touch my body." Fans who pre-ordered Dangerous Woman on iTunes will have a welcome surprise in their library today--perhaps the album's strongest track yet.

"Into You" was produced by pop mastermind Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh, who co-wrote "Problem," the single that launched Grande from child star to mainstream prominence.

Listen to Ariana Grande's latest here.

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Jennifer Nettles And Jennifer Lopez Stream 'My House'

(Radio.com) The worlds of country and pop found middle ground this week thanks to two famous Jennifers. Jennifer Nettles released her newest song, "My House," which just so happens to feature Jennifer Lopez.

The song focuses on how Nettles and Lopez are "really not that different" even though they may live on different sides of town and have different experiences. "My house is your house/ Same dirty laundry, same dirty dishes/ My house is your house/ Air it all out and sort out the issues," the women sing together on the chorus.

The song's melody has a strong country backbone, but Lopez's voice lends it a smoother pop polish. However, it's the subject matter and the sentiment behind it that's so poignant. Women still face backlash from other women about the choices they make, whether that has to do with career, children or another arena. Nettles and Lopez hit upon that tension, but ultimately decide they can each live their life the way they want to and appreciate the other for doing the same. Read more and listen to the track here.

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Bow Wow Says That He Always Hated Rapping

(Radio.com) Bow Wow, real name Shad Moss, surprised fans by telling them he has always hated rapping. The rapper and actor took to Twitter to explain himself.

"My whole life I hated rapping," he says in the first of a series of tweets. 'Folks don't know that. I always wanted to be a comedian growing up. I wanted to act."

"I got songs. Tons. Just not really passionate bout the game," he continued. "Made the money. Been rapping since [I was] five. New place now. I still got my deal. I do what I want. Label cant force me. Paid my dues. I do it when I want. Now ain't the time."

Moss wants to make it clear he's not hurting for income though. 'In five months of filming, I'll have made more than half of what these rappers make in that one year alone," he tweeted. See Moss' tweets here.

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Fifth Harmony Release 'Write On Me' Video

(Radio.com) Fifth Harmony have released the striking new video for their song "Write On Me", a track from their sophomore studio album 7/27, which will be released at the end of May.

The black and white video showcases the five members�Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane, Camila Cabello and Lauren Jauregui�one by one before finding them all in the same room. Sitting in a circle, each woman has a spotlight trained on her. The camera moves fluidly around the space, each member's movements producing shadows that contribute a rhythmic effect.

Arriving at a time when overt sexuality rules the airwaves, Fifth Harmony's "Write On Me" takes a subtler approach, which is all the sexier for it. "Write on me/ Color outside the lines/ Love the way you tat me up/Baby take your time," Jauregui sings.

One half of the team who put them together, L.A. Reid, recently praised the group. Speaking with Billboard, he said, "They've become the biggest girl band in the world. People haven't quite accepted that, but they will." This video certainly sets them apart from other female pop artists and groups. Watch the video here.

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Tupac's Original Demo Version Of 'Dear Mama' Goes Online

(Radio.com) One of Tupac's early collaborators, DJ King Assassin, shared the original demo version of "Dear Mama" on Friday (May 6) in honor of Afeni Shakur's recent passing on May 2.

In a note accompanying the track on Ambrosia for Heads, King Assassin explained the difference between the demo version and what would go on to be Tupac's huge hit from his 1995 album Me Against the World.

King Assassin explained how the hook was especially different. "Originally, the hook was a sample of a song from the legendary rapper and friend of both of ours named Yo-Yo, from Ice Cube's [Da] Lench Mob," he wrote. "The sample was 'Wouldn't be a damn thang without a woman,' which was taken from the original song by Ice Cube featuring Yo-Yo, 'This Is A Man's World' with the scratching done, of course, by yours truly DJ King Assassin."

The very next day, though, they had to redo the song. Tupac told King Assassin they couldn't get clearance to use Yo-Yo's part. "[A] person by the name of Pat Charbonet would not give us the clearance to use that part in the song, so we had no choice but to take it out and that's where even the Richard Pryor excerpt, which you will hear, is completely off the released version of the song," King Assassin wrote. Listen to the original version here.

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50 Cent And Chris Brown Release 'No Romeo No Juliet'

(Radio.com) There are "no Juliets" in 50 Cent's new song, because instead it's peppered with strippers, hoes and other women who offer him sex but not love. But if there are "no Juliets" there are also "no Romeos" as 50 Cent and Chris Brown prove by the way they talk about women and how they treat them on their new collaboration, "No Romeo No Juliet."

The song has a curious sound about it thanks to a fiddle starting the whole thing off and appearing throughout, sometimes rhythmically, sometimes melodically. Besides that instrument, the song has a strong bounce beat that allows 50 Cent and Brown to rap and sing about their pimping ways.

Given his recent trouble after posting a video making fun of a young autistic man, 50 Cent includes a strange verse that seems to negate some of the progress he's made. 50 Cent raps, "I'm getting big money, starting to get hard to keep a n�- from hating/ I'm with a white b�-, n�a google this s�, we interracial dating/ This a new wave, I'm in a Wraith, a n�- sit on suede/ Like I'm Special Ed but I aint special ed b�-, I got it made." Check it out here.

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Chance the Rapper Premieres 'Blessings' On Jimmy Fallon

(Radio.com) Last week, Chance the Rapper stopped by Jimmy Fallon to debut "Blessings" from his upcoming mixtape Chance 3. He also announced that the new music will be available May 13.

"The Internet's going to go nuts for this one," said Fallon, and rightly so. The performance included a gospel choir and took the Tonight Show audience to church, as the musicians sang, "When the praises go up, the blessings come down." Hallelujah.

"I don't make songs for free, I make them for freedom/ Don't believe in kings, believe in the kingdom," rapped Chance during the song. Fans have long wondered about the status of Chance's first studio album. Despite high-profile collaborations and massively popular mixtapes, a debut album has been elusive. Last year, the rapper described Chance 3 as the final installment of a mixtape "trilogy." Watch the TV appearance here.

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Prince's Former Band The Family Redo 'Nothing Compares 2 U'

(Radio.com) Last week, hundreds of radio stations across the nation paid tribute to Prince by playing "Nothing Compares 2 U" exactly seven hours and 13 days after the pop star died.

The group Prince wrote the 1985 song for, The Family, also paid tribute at the appointed time - which came from the first lyric of the song, "It's been seven hours and 13 days/ Since you took your love away" - by releasing a new recording of the tune.

Using the name fDeluxe, the group formerly known as The Family, re-recorded the song with recent Prince collaborators StrinGenius and released it along with a video.

"It's with a musically heavy heart that tonight we honor our dear friend and musical collaborator Prince on what's to be seven hours and 13 days after his passing," singer Susannah Melvoin says in the beginning of the video. "Our band, the Family - myself, Paul Peterson, Eric Leeds and Jellybean Johnson - offer you a moment of Prince's musical legacy and brilliance with a song that he wrote for us many purple moons ago." Check it out here.

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