Filmed back in late February, BET’s annual Rip The Runway special finally aired on TV last night, featuring performances from all the hottest acts in urban music who currently have a new single out to flog.

Current it girl Nicki Minaj and Ludacris were there to perform their hit “My Chick Bad”, as well as Janelle Monae performing “Tightrope”, Estelle and Kardinal Offishall with “Freak”, Trina and a video version of Keri Hilson for “Million Dollar Girl”, and last but not least B.o.B. and the elusive Bruno Mars who performing their smash “Nothin’ On You”.

Oh and Roscoe Dash and Soulja Boy were there to, but I followed my gut instinct and decided not to post their performance. Trust me, you’ll thank me when you’re older.

Overall I’d say that the best performance of the night belonged to my faves Janelle Monae or B.o.B. (go figure), whilst the worst was probably Nicki Minaj who’s going to have to make a few alternations to her ‘wacky’ gimmick because stepping out on stage in Britney’s old crazy wig and yelling and thrashing all over the place does not equal a good performance.

Who are your picks for best and worst of the night?

Watch performances below the cut… Read more »

With “Bedrock” riding high in the charts (#3 Hot 100, #1 Rap singles) Young Money are striking while the iron is hot and moving onto their next single “Roger That”, which was premiered on BET’s earlier today.

The video is inspired by Frank Millers Sin City so it looks like a hip-hop version of the artists popular film and graphic novels. Nicki Minaj inevitably steals the show in the clip, trading in the freaky look she sported in Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad” video for something much sexier.

Speaking of Nicki, she confirmed earlier this week that the first single from her upcoming debut album is titled “Massive Attack”, and was produced by and features Sean Garrett which I reported last week. It should be released this month so keep your eyes peeled.

Love her or hate her there’s no denying that femcee Nicki Minaj has become one of the hottest new artists in the game right, and that’s before she’s actually even released an album! Well now Nicki’s going to have to prove whether or not the hype is justified, because according to songwriter-producer Sean Garrett the first single from her debut album is due in about a weeks time.

“I just did Nicki’s first single. It’s coming in a week or so. Explosive record, I can’t wait for y’all to hear it, man. It’s just given me a lot of time to create some real special music that’s a lot different from what people expected,” Garrett said.

“I’m really, really excited about Nicki because I think that what Nicki has understood is that she can do whatever she wants to do. She’s a dreamer just like myself. I feel like when you’re creative … it’s basically like her whole image thing. She’s taken her image to a whole other level with the whole Barbie thing. And I think she’s very imaginative and her music’s great and she’s not scared of nothing. She’s fearless. As long as you’re fearless in life you can do anything.” {source}

With Sean Garrett handling the production I’d peg Nicki’s first single to be more on the urban-pop side than actual Hip-Hop, but that’s to be expected since Nicki is being marketed as more of a mainstream crossover artist than a hardened rapper like Remy Ma or someone like that.

Are you excited for Nicki’s long-awaited new single, or are you already sick of her?

After trading in Shawnna for Nicki Minaj rapper Ludacris has premiered the video for his latest single “My Chick Bad” from his new album Battle of the Sexes.

The video see’s Nicki doing an impression of slasher king Freddie Krueger (complete with the knife claws) whilst wearing a Britney-gone-bonkers pink wig. Nicki doesn’t lose her own flavor amongst all the craziness though, making sure sure to include the psychotic facial expressions of hers that have now become her trademark.

The Battle of the Sexes album was originally conceived as a joint album involving Shawnna, but Luda dropped her from the project after she signed with T-Pains Nappy Boy Ent and the rest is history.

Be on the lookout for the forthcoming “My Chick Bad” remix video soon, which features every single femcee that isn’t Shawnna such as Trina, Eve and my girl Diamond.

Sexy M.F. Robin Thicke was a guest on Letterman tonight where he performed the second single “Shakin’ It For Daddy” from his latest album Sex Therapy. Joining the blue-eyed soul singer was femcee Nicki Minaj, who was actually making her major mainstream debut with the performance.

During the performance Thicke tried his hardest to look slick & smooth (and succeeded), whilst Nicki did her usual Diana Ross circa 1965 eye-popping routine.

With all the buzz surrounding Nicki I’m expecting to see a lot more of her on mainstream television shows as she sets her sights on crossover success with her upcoming debut album. Funny how Trina has been trying so hard to cross over for years, and then out of nowhere Nicki pops up and seems to be doing it with ease.

Mariah Carey’s new album Angels Advocate is set to drop on March 23, and now we have the albums first two music videos which premiered exclusively on Vevo only moments ago and we’re brought to my attention by my friend over at the Pin Board Blog.

First up is the Nick Cannon directed “Up Out My Face” featuring femcee Nicki Minaj. Normally I’d cuss Mariah out for dressing up in her usual Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver outfits, but the ridiculous clothes actually work this time around because the song and video are both so tongue-in-cheek and silly.  The whole clip was just a whole lot of fun and for once Mariah was actually in on the joke.

I always appreciate when somebody can make a video work on a recession budget, so props to Nick Cannon for not giving us a repeat of the cringe-worthy “My Love” clip.

The other video, also directed by NC, is the ballad “Angels Cry” which features R&B crooner Ne-Yo. I didn’t mind this one either, though I was a little amused by the sight of Mariah out in the rain being soaking wet one minute then completely dry the next, making sure to maintain her picture perfect makeup the whole time.

Overall though I think Mariah and Nick did a great job, so now all we need is the actual Angels Advocate album so we can all finally move on with our lives and pretend that Mariah hasn’t released an album since The Emancipation of Mimi. Ignorance is bliss!

[Download Link]

Cassie & Nicki Minaj leave nothing to the imagination on a fiery new leak titled “Fuck U Silly”, which popped up on Nicki’s latest mixtape but is actually from Cassie’s Electro Love recording sessions.

Cassie’s always been known for her sensual sound but this time she’s turned it up a few notches to the straight-up explicit, showing off a more aggressive side of herself which is probably a good idea since a lot of people have been telling Cassie to up the tempo for a while now.

The song is clearly very rough and unfinished at the moment, but it’s still easy to hear the potential that the song will have once it’s completed.

Poor Cassie, she’s going to be recording this album for another three years if the songs continue to leak at this rate.

Here’s is the second of Mariah Carey’s two dual singles from her upcoming remix album Angels Advocate.

“Up Out My Face Remix” featuring Nicki Minaj is another cut & paste job similar to the “Angels Cry Remix” with Ne-Yo so it’s nothing to write home about, but the added publicity of it girl Nicki should benefit the song when it comes to radio and MTV.

Will you be buying Angels Advocate?

Here is out first look at the video for Mariah Carey’s new single “Up Out My Face Remix” featuring Nicki Minaj.

The video is taken from Mariah’s upcoming Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel Remix album which drops February 23.

This video looks great, it’s very Nicki Minaj. I can’t wait to see it.

Usher’s endless stream of Raymond Vs. Raymond leaks continue today with “Little Freak”, a new track featuring femcee Nicki Minaj who seems to have replaced Lil’ Wayne as the biggest rent-a-rapper in the game.

The Polow Da Don produced track was penned by Ester Dean and serves as one of the better offerings from Usher’s upcoming sixth album, which is now due out on March 1.

So anyways who do you think will be the next big star to get Nicki Minaj on their track? Beyonce, Rihanna, Ciara? Just remember that Tea-Tea did it first!