Heh, I think the fact that he is making such a serious face makes this ten times funnier.

Kanye West, Explained is a post from: The Inquisitr

First off is Kanye West performing as a 19 year-old in Chicago. Here he showcases his flow and his talent, which is still undeniable.

Secondly, Kanye West is seen reading out poetry as a 12 year-old, showing incredible conviction and clarity for such a young boy.

What do you make of these videos?

Incredible New Kanye West Videos Surface [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

The passive-aggressive feud between sometimes-model Amber Rose and sometimes-model Kim Kardashian isn’t going anywhere, and if you clicked on this, you’re about to thumb through the latest chapter.

Today, Rose was on the radio to talk about the situation. In chapter 1, Rose called Kardashian a “home-wrecker” for breaking up Rose’s relationship with sometimes-good-rapper Kanye West. In chapter 2, Kardashian fired arrows back into Rose’s camp, causing her to apologize for her comments.

Well look who Googled herself this morning and found no one’s been talking about her for a day or two (except for maybe news of her yawn-worthy single). And Rosie knows, anything with ‘Kardashian’ in the title is good circulation.

Rose said this in the interview:

“Initially, when I went into that interview, I wasn’t going in to say I’m going to go in and say what happened with Kim and Kanye. It was kind of like the lady said how do you feel about Kim and Kanye dating now, being as though you’re the cause of her and Reggie not being together … and I’m just like, whoa. That’s not the case. I’m gonna let y’all know what the case is. And then I want y’all to leave me alone about this. They ask me that in like every interview …

The story is very, very true, what I said to Star Magazine. I just felt bad, ’cause I’m not the type of person to hurt anyone’s feelings, even if they hurt mine first. I feel bad for calling her a homewrecker, even though what happened in the situation. I’m all about women empowerment and I feel like I stooped down to her level by calling her a homewrecker. It was just the heat of the moment. I was just upset ’cause I feel like her and her family manipulate the media and they make it seem like me and Reggie [Bush] did something bad, or I broke up her relationship with Reggie. And it’s just not the case.”

Believe it or not, this isn’t exactly exhaustive.

Oh, here’s Amber Rose’s new single, “Fame”. Now if you decide to skip it, here is my summary: LOL WTF

So is this feud between Amber Rose and Kim Kardashian overplayed already or are you going to be tuning in for chapter 4?

Amber Rose v. Kim Kardashian: The Fight Continues as Rose Starts “Music Career” is a post from: The Inquisitr

The rapper, a prolific tweeter at the best of times, fired out over 90 tweets in under three hours, chatting about future plans for his new design company, Donda (“[It will] pick up where Steve Jobs left off”), his urge to create (“I sit everyday and ask what can I do to make a difference…”), his dream of one day “designing” the MTV awards, and … I don’t even know:

“Good logic tells me smile Kanye… the world likes you again… red or blue pill? … aaaaand Swallow lol”

Donda is named after the star’s later mother, and West revealed the company already had 22 divisions of writers, DJs, publicists, designers, musicians, scientists and more. He said Donda aims to “make products and experiences that people want and can afford.” Oh, and there’s a “semi sci-fi” film in 2012 called “2016 OLYMPICS.” lulz.

But there were even bigger fish to fry for our Kanye – namely, the aforementioned saving the world stuff. He asserted that “We need scientists and top world designers to directly affect governments” and had this to say about the American education system:

“There are so many broken systems from the economy to school systems jail systems… we need experts for this.”

He also revealed he and director Spike Jonze were exploring the possibility of running a “summer school that tries new forms of curriculum.”

So folks, Kanye West – world’s greatest ego, or genuinely the most entertaining big-name celebrity of our time?

Kanye West in Epic Twitter Rant is a post from: The Inquisitr

File sharing site MegaUpload has recently been in the sights of both the RIAA and MPAA for hosting copyrighted content. In an ironic (and immensely satisfying) twist, a new video surfaced today from artists whom the RIAA claim to represent that sings the praises of MegaUpload.

The video was commissioned by MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom and features the likes of P. Diddy, Kanye West, Will.i.am, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, Jamie Foxx, Lil John, and more.

The video went viral very quickly, making it to Twitter’s trending topics within a short amount of time – and then Universal Music stepped in.

The original video, published on Kim Dotcom’s own YouTube account, was taken down due to a copyright claim by UMG, despite having absolutely no “stolen” content whatsoever.

“UMG did something illegal and unfair by reporting Mega’s content to be infringing. They had no right to do that. We reserve our rights to take legal action. But we’d like to give them the opportunity to apologize,” Dotcom told TorrentFreak.

After filing a copyright claim dispute the video was temporarily brought back, only to be taken down again.

“We filed a dispute, the video came back online and now it’s blocked again by UMG and the automated YouTube system has threatened to block our account for repeat infringement,” Kim explained.

Casey Rae-Hunter, Deputy Director at Future of Music Coalition, chimed in the incident, pointing out a blatant violation of the artists’ speech rights.

“The fact that this expression could be silenced by a major label — without any apparent infringement — should be seriously troubling to anyone who cares about artists’ speech rights,” says Casey Rae-Hunter, Deputy Director, Future of Music Coalition. “If this can happen to Snoop Dogg and others, it can happen to anyone.”

To see what the fuss is all about for yourself, check out the “Mega Song” directly below.

MegaUpload Song hits big on the web, UMG tries to take it down is a post from: The Inquisitr

Justin Bieber apparently wants to earn more street cred on his next album and to do so he is enlisting the help of superstar rappers Drake and Kanye West.

Bieber’s Christmas album Under the Mistletoe is less than a week away from release but he’s already talking about his album Believe telling  Capital FM:

“Very soon [it'll be released], after my Christmas album,” JB revealed. “It’s going to be coming out. It is called Believe. I’m working with a lot of cool people. I’m working with Kanye [West]. Drake is going to work on the album with me.”

Bieber says the new album will also be very Justin Timberlake influenced.

Bieber has already worked on tracks with both rappers, with Drake on Trust Issues and with Kanye who last year remixed Bieber’s track Runaway Love.

Speaking about Bieber Drake said:

“He’s like a talented kid … from Canada, so to hear him even remix that song is crazy,” he said. “That’s incredible.”

According to Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun most of the tracks were written by Bieber himself with Braun saying some of the Bieber penned songs sound like a Jodeci record.

Speaking with MTV earlier this year Bieber said he wanted to be the main producer for the Believe album:

“[I'm] writing about how I feel and producing. I’ve been producing on my laptop and on my computer,” he said. “I’ve been really into it and, hopefully, this next album will be huge.”

Are you ready for a new Justin Bieber album to drop?

Justin Bieber To Work With Drake, Kanye West On New Album is a post from: The Inquisitr

Kanye West showed up in Paris this weekend to showcase his highly anticipated womenswear line for Paris Fashion Week.

Speaking with reporters after the show West said:

“I had a lot of ideas about colors and shapes I wanted to express … I’m really happy where I ended up.”

Among his celebrity friends in the audience were singer Ciara, actress Lindsay Lohan and fellow designers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Designers Josephy Altuzarra and Alexander Wang also sat in for the show.

Speaking about her love of the West line Ciara revealed:

“To see someone like Kanye, who aspires to succeed in fashion, to get so much respect and cross over like this, it was monumental.”

Here are a few more photos from the Kanye West show at Paris Fashion Week:

What do you think about the Kanye West womenswear line?

Kanye West Shows Up In Paris, Debuts Clothing Line is a post from: The Inquisitr

Rap star and professional Video Music Awards interrupter Kanye West receives a treasured gift from his biggest fan.

To Kanye, Love Kanye is a post from: The Inquisitr

It was the beginning of Austin City Limits 2011 and the end of Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Tour,” and it was awesome. Kanye put on a three-act passion play to close out the first day of the Austin music festival, complete with costume changes, a light show, monologues, and ballerina dancers.

Kanye started his set by performing “Higher” from far above the crowd on a platform crane. Here’s a video of Kanye’s entrance.

MTV reports that for an hour and a half Kanye West ran through hits like “All of the Lights,” “Heartless,” “Jesus Walks,” “Golddigger” and “Run This Town.” Here’s a video of Kanye performing “Monster.”

Before West performed “Runaway” at the end of the show, he said:

“This is the last night of this show, this is the last night … there will be new times, but we gotta remember these times before we runaway.”

Kanye ended the show with an extended version of “Lost in the World,” and before he left the stage he thanked his fans, Austin, his dancers, his managers, and his crew.

Kanye said:

“Thank you, Austin, for letting me go over my time.”

It was rumored that Jay-Z would join Kanye West at Austin City Limits, but the Jiggaman never showed up. But Kanye and Jay-Z will get plenty of stage time together starting this October during The Throne tour. Jay-Z and Kanye are set to start rehearsals for the new tour this month in Birmingham, Alabama.

Were you at Austin City Limits? What was your favorite performance so far?

Austin City Limits Starts With Crazy Kanye West Show [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Lil Wayne leads the roster of hip hop star nominees for BET Networks’ sixth annual BET Hip Hop Awards. Wayne, with 18 nominations, is followed by Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa with 9 each, and Rick Ross with 8. Actor and comedian Mike Epps will be returning as host for the third time.

Wayne is nominated for Best Hip Hop Video, Reese’s Perfect Combo Award (Best Collab), Best Live Performer, Lyricist of the Year, MVP of the Year, Track of the Year, Made-You-Look Award (Best Hip Hop Style), Best Club Banger, Sweet 16: Best Featured Verse, Hustler of the Year and two consecutive nominations for Verizon People’s Champ Award (Viewers’ Choice) with videos “Look At Me Now” and “6 Foot 7 Foot.”

Wayne has been piling on numbers prior to the BET nominations. His recently released album ‘The Charter IV’ sold 964,000 copies during the first week, giving him his third career chart-topper on the Billboard 200. iTunes alone was responsible for 300,000 sales. Above all, he outsold Jay-Z and Kanye’s “Watch The Throne” which only managed to sell 436,000 units during its first week.

The live taping will be held at the Bisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center in Atlanta on October 1 while the network premiere will be on October 11 at 8:00 pm.

Now, if he can only give up his skateboard.

18 BET Hip Hop Nominations for Lil Wayne (Beat That Kanye, Jay-Z) is a post from: The Inquisitr

Some students in the University of Sydney in Australia’s drama society have debuted an hour-long musical production about the life and times of Kanye West.

Kanye: The Musical centers around West’s “humble beginnings writing beats for Jay-Z to the top of the pops remixing Daft Punk” and the first of three performances was last night at the Cellar Theatre, according to the group’s Facebook event page for the show. On the page, amidst some complaints about lack of ticket availability, the group also confirms that while no actual Kanye songs will be used, Kanye: The Musical will feature “Kanye tracks but they will be in the style of Kanye (inasmuch as someone can replicate the best hip-hop producer in the world.)”

The page explains that the musical won’t be an exact re-telling of Kanye’s life, and will be taking some license with the facts :

“This is a story of a struggle against the man to become the man. It’s about a guy who took a shot at the throne and didn’t miss. This is the tale of Kanye. It won’t let the truth get in the way and will be a lot of fun.”

The show will run from the 5th through the 7th of September and is a “two man production,” starring students Philip Roser and Damien Higginbotham. The two portray a bevy of characters in Kanye’s life, including fashion designer Marc Jacobs, his late mother Donda West, and the fictional vampire Dracula.

More than 1,300 people have confirmed attendance on the Facebook event page for Kanye: The Musical, and tickets are $3 for members, $6 for non-members.

Kanye Musical Debuts in Australia is a post from: The Inquisitr

Best rapper alive Jay-Z keeps it gangsta when he’s asked about Beyonce most of the time, answering no questions about his wife and clamming up in an almost kind of, “I dare you to ask more questions” way.

The strategy has served the couple well, preserving their relationship over the better part of a decade and keeping personal information about Hova and B off websites like ours, for the most part. But uncharacteristically, Hovito spoke at length about his wife during a recent radio interview.

Jay, who recently released the epic “Watch the Throne” album with fellow rap superstar Kanye West, called in to a Miami radio station to do some publicity for the long-awaited collaboration. During the call, Jay says that despite straight out owning the rap game for more than a decade, he’s learned a lot from Beyonce- and that she’s a Michael Jackson-level pop star:

“You’d have to ask [Beyonce] what she’s learned from me, but what I’ve learned from her is the same thing I’ve learned from Mike… and I know it’s blasphemy to compare the two because Mike was such an innovator, but I think she’s like, the second coming.”

Um… Jay, it might be a bit more blasphemous to refer to your wife as the “second coming,” you know. Hova continues:

“The hard work and dedication that she puts into her shows — it just makes you want to work harder at your craft. She’s like a machine.”

Beyonce will be turning 30 in just a few weeks, on September 4th, and in recent interviews, she’s brought up the “children” issue again- but still no baby for the power couple. Below, the first video from “Watch the Throne,” for the song “Otis.”

Jay-Z on Beyonce: “She’s The Second Coming” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Kanye West isn’t a liked man in many social circles and his hubristic  attitude has apparently made it hard for him to go into public without being looked at like a Nazi leader.

West recently told a crowd at England’s Big Chill music festival:

“I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I’m (expletive) insane, like I’m Hitler.”

Not surprisingly the crowd didn’t cheer for the rapper, instead just light boo’s could be heard from a handful of concert attendees, while Kanye eventually added:

“One day the light will shine through and one day people will understand everything I ever did.”

Kanye West’s image probably wasn’t helped  when he showed up at the concert 30 minutes late.

With his attack on Taylor Swift (yes I’m aware it was a long time ago but it still stands against his character), his attack on George Bush, his Hurricane Katrina comments and his various outbursts against other people while making claims that he’s the greatest person to ever live, it doesn’t surprise me that people look at him like an outcast.

Despite his negative image Kanye West remains one of the most dynamic musicians in the world with album sales totaling more than 10 million albums, while his “super-producer” status commands some of the highest paying per song deals in the industry.

Whether you love or hate Kanye West, it’s hard to deny the impact he has had on the hip-hop industry over the last decade and he doesn’t show any signs of slowing.

Kanye West Tells Crowd: “People Look At Me Like I’m Hitler” is a post from: The Inquisitr

The highly anticipated Kanye West, Jay-Z album “Watch The Throne” is going to drop soon and the first song from the album titled H.A.M. launched the album while samples of an Otis Redding track takes the album to a new level on “Otis” but other than knowing that fact and hearing the songs Kanye West and Jay-Z have left the album shrouded in mystery, foregoing all traditional release advertising for the album that will drop in just two weeks time.

What’s been missing? The track has no visuals other than a disc artwork release, while no performances have been given other than a Jay-Z joined “H.A.M.” showing at the South by Southwest festival, there has also been no radio appearances by the planets top rappers.

The digital release is expected Aug. 1 with the physical version arriving four days later and it looks like that’s about all the information we’ll have until then.

H.A.M and Otis have received mixed reviews since they were released but regardless of internet chatter Otis Redding has become an internet trend on various services as the two rappers with 15 No. 1 albums between them prepare to drop Watch the Throne.

Correction: The Otis Redding Sample “Otis” obviously features the Otis Redding sampled track and was released after the single H.A.M.

Otis Redding Sample Shrouded In Advertising Mystery For Kanye, Jay-Z Album “Watch the Throne” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Justin Bieber wants his fans to know that he has not had a falling out with Kanye West and that he didn’t turn down an offer to work with West on his new collaboration album which he is working on with Jay-Z

Earlier in the week a rumor began that Bieber, 17, refused to work with Kanye West on his upcoming record Watch The Throne for fear that it would damage his clean-cut reputation.

The rumor began when a source close to the teen heartthrob told HollywoodLife.com:

“Justin likes Kanye’s music, but he’s worried he’s done too many controversial things and it would hurt his image. Between the sex scandals, political gaffes and interrupting Taylor Swift (at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards), Kanye is known as a genius but a big risk to associate with!”

Bieber responded by mentioning that he had given the hip-hop star the thumbs up to remix his song Runaway Love. On Twitter the singer tweeted:

“Some rumors…i just dont know where they come from… Me and @kanyewest (sic) are good. This right here is just FALSE.”

Justin Bieber Says Kanye West Rumor is 100% False is a post from: The Inquisitr

Poor Kanye- first everyone started putting “Liz Lemon” in front of his tweets and re-tweeting them with a hashtag saying “Kanye West is Tracy Jordan,” and now Josh Groban has gone and sung his most silly tweets with a baby grand piano.

Can’t someone get emotional about fonts without being so judged all the time? Is anyone else waiting for Kanye to be revealed as an elaborate bit of performance art?

[Video] Josh Groban sings Kanye West’s tweets is a post from: The Inquisitr

Someone’s going to blow up Twitter with angst when he gets wind of this.

Music legend Quincy Jones summarily straight-up dissed one of the most outsized egos the entertainment industry has ever seen when asked by a magazine about his parallels with rapper Kanye West. Jones said he doesn’t think any comparison can be made between his work and that of Kanye, and that being a producer for successful hip-hop joints doesn’t approach the complexity level of arranging music for orchestral performances:

Us: Kanye West is similar to you in that he’s the producer everybody wants to work with in the last decade….

QJ: How man? No way. Did he write for a symphony orchestra? Does he write for a jazz orchestra? Come on, man. He’s just a rapper. There’s no comparison. I’m not putting him down or making a judgement or anything, but we come from two different sides of the planet. I spent 28 years learning my first skill. I don’t rap. It’s not the same thing. A producer has to have some sort of skills that enable him to be a producer. It’s totally different to know what to do with 16 woodwinds you know from piccolos down to bass clarinet. It’s a whole different mindset. No comparison. None.

Jones then said that he doesn’t even really consider West’s work much at all and lumped him in with a bunch of “good rappers,” creating what may be a double burn for Kanyeezy:

Us: What do you think of him?

QJ: I don’t think about him much. He’s a great rapper, but there are a lot of good rappers. I just did The View with Ludacris, who’s one of my favorites. He’s a beautiful human being and college educated. I joke with him and say, ‘How did ‘Move Bitch Get Out The Way’ come out of you?’ But I was raised around the Mafia when I was a kid in Chicago in the 30s. Chicago’s rough. I’m from the streets, I know what’s up!

West has yet to comment on the remarks, but when he does, it will probably be epic.

Flame war impending: Quincy Jones says there’s ‘no comparison’ between him and Kanye is a post from: The Inquisitr

Rapper Jay-Z has spoken out in defense of his much maligned friend Kanye West on the subject of both his outburst at a telethon to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina as well as his stunt interrupting Taylor’s Swift’s award acceptance to complain that Beyonce hadn’t won for her “Single Ladies” video.

Hova could have shown support for his boy a bit earlier, but he still spoke up in his characteristic, far-less-hyperbolic than Kanye manner on both issues this morning on Howard Stern’s radio show. In reference to Kanye’s “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” statement, Jay-Z says:

“It was bad timing, but it was absolutely an honest emotion. We all felt like that. We didn’t feel like Katrina was a natural disaster. We felt like it as an attack on black people. All you saw was black people on the roof with HELP signs. … White people felt like that.”

On the topic of Kanye’s behavior at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009, Jay said:

“It’s bittersweet in a lot of ways,” he said about West’s interruption of Swift’s acceptance speech. “If we look back, everyone would agree that he was right. It was bad timing. It was not her fault. It’s not Taylor Swift’s fault. She didn’t nominate … she didn’t elect herself. She just sat there and she had a dream and she’s seeing that dream being realized, and he had the same dream, so he realizes that now. He was fighting for the integrity of the award, and he knows how hard he works on his videos. It was bad timing, but we agreed.”

Bush has said recently that Kanye’s dis was “one of the worst moments of his presidency.

Jay-Z has Kanye’s back on Katrina comments, Taylor Swift incident is a post from: The Inquisitr

Kanye West performed some impromptu IFE on a trip from Minneapolis to New York yesterday.

It seems some passengers had the presence of mind to record Kanye’s mini-concert- pretty much exactly like an iTunes preview snippet- of a sanitized version of “Gold Digger.”

The Hollywood Life spoke to someone who was on the flight:

“I had to pass through First Class to get my seat in Economy, and I saw Kanye sitting there with a little drink in his hand,” the passenger recalls. “I wouldn’t have even thought it was him, but he was sitting with a very PR-looking lady.”

Needless to say, everyone freaked out when they heard Kanye’s voice over the loudspeaker 30 minutes later.

“He was like, ‘Yo, this your n***a, Kanye,’” the passenger says. “Then he couldn’t decide if he wanted to do ‘The Good Life’ or ‘Gold Digger,’ so he was like, ‘I’ll just do a little bit of both.’ It was awesome… but I still have no idea how he got into the cockpit.”

It would be extremely trite for me to suggest that perhaps he barged into the cockpit and grabbed the mic from the pilot, interrupting a description of clouds outside the right hand side of the plane.

[Video] Kanye West takes over in-flight entertainment, sings snippet of ‘Gold Digger’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Who else was totally thrilled when Kanyeezy finally joined Twitter? It’s like they’re made for each other.

[TDW]

This week’s most on point Twitter observation: Kanye’s tweets is a post from: The Inquisitr