Week’s End Digest: Kanye West, Phil Collins, Willie Nelson, Black Eyed Peas
News you can really use. This ‘Week’s End Digest’ features reports on Kanye’s most recent chatterbox rant, Phil Collins’ approval of Taylor Lautner, Black Eyed Peas’ Super Bowl news and Willie Nelson’s pot luck.
So much can happen in a week. So we’ve decided to give you the rundown on the lowdown…in one digestible digest.
Wicked Witch of the West?
Kanye West rants again. This time, while promoting his new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at Chicago’s Bowery Ballroom, he takes back some of his minced words on Taylor Swift and ‘Today’s’ Matt Laurer and instead goes into a potty-mouth hissy fit stating things like: “Matt Laurer’s not a bad guy, I’m sure, but if you are a child that’s being abused by your parent…the greatest win you could ever have is win they hit you in public – you see I told you” and “if I wasn’t drunk, I would’ve been on stage longer,” a reference to the Taylor Swift MTV Video Award fiasco. He continued on the Swift episode by saying, she “never came to my defense in any interview and rode the wave.”
Whether the leaked bootleg videos of West’s most recent tirade hurts his image or record sales is impossible to detect since West is predicted to claim the #1 spot on the Billboard 200; beating new releases from Nicki Minaj, Robyn, Ke$ha and Ne-Yo. West is projected to sell a comfortable 500,000 units. If those numbers are true, he will perform only half of what Taylor Swift did. Taylor’s first-week record sales were reported to be well over a million.
WATCH KANYE WEST’S MOST RECENT RANT BELOW:
One More “Twilight” Night
Pop sensation Phil Collins may be singing more than just Motown covers (hence, his latest record Going Back) for the rest of 2010 after Digital Spy reported this past week that he approves of his daughter Lily dating “Twilight” actor and Hollywood hunk Taylor Lautner. It’s been reported that Lautner met Lily, 21, while on the set for the upcoming film Abduction. According to Star magazine, Lily recently arranged for her new boyfriend to meet her rock star father, who was apparently won over by Lautner.
A source said: “[Phil’s] pretty tough on the guys Lily introduces him to. Taylor was nervous about meeting him, but they got along well.”
Willie’s Pot Luck
Country icon Willie Nelson ran into some bad pot luck after being arrested at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas when agents seized six ounces of marijuana on his tour bus. Mickey Raphael, Nelson’s longtime harmonica player, tells Rolling Stone that the singer, who posted a $2,500 bond was freed by 1:30 p.m. yesterday, is in good spirits. “He said he feels great — he lost six ounces.” Yes, Nelson manned up to the arrest, even telling authorities that the pot was undeniably his. Let’s hope the next Farm Aid festival Nelson throws together won’t include pamphlets on “organic” farming.
Black Eyed Peas in a Super Bowl
With a new album heading to retail this holiday (The Beginning), the Black Eyed Peas are getting ready for the “time of their lives” (nod to “The Time (Dirty Bit”), their most recent single), with the recent announcement giving them the okay to perform for the 2011 Super Bowl halftime show. BEP’s will.i.am spoke with Rolling Stone about the big news: “They could have picked anybody, but it says something that they picked us.” The last set of Super Bowl halftime shows have featured big names in music including Prince, the Who, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney. The Black Eyed Peas are the first non-classic rock act booked for the halftime show since Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” performance in 2004.
WEEK’S END DIGEST is a weekly roundup of current events and headlines that involves the music industry. Although HiFi Magazine reports news throughout the week, the summaries compiled for the Week’s End Digest column are usually deemed as being stories “bubbling under the radar.”
