Daily Digest: Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, John Mayer
Today’s news bits: Justin Timberlake preps return; Lady Gaga postpones 2013 tour; Lil Wayne offends black history; John Mayer is almost back to normal
Suiting Up
After performing at the 55th annual Grammy Awards and with a new record on the horizon, Justin Timberlake decided to drop the offfcial concept video for his hit single, “Suit & Tie”…on Valentine’s Day. Shot entirely in black-and-white, the smooth artsy vide explores the lavish side of the jet set while also putting Timberlake and Jay-Z in the cozy comforts of Rat Pack glamour. There’s lots of studio and live shots tossed into the mix, which only proves Timberlake’s passion towards his return to music. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he claimed that the upcoming album was “the best stuff I’ve ever done.”
The new album, The 20/20 Experience, drops March 19.
Mega retail store Target will be selling deluxe editions of the album, which will feature two bonus tracks. Suit and tie not included.
No Poker Face for Gaga
Lady Gaga announced that she will be postponing the remaining portion of her Born This Wall Ball Tour to have hip bone surgery and recover.
A news release announcing postponements Tuesday said the 26-year-old singer was suffering from synovitis, an inflammation of the joints. Following a few tests, it was revealed that she had a labral tear in her right hip. The labrum is a layer of soft muscle that helps holds the ball-shaped hip joint in place. A news release says the surgery will require strict downtime. Athletes and dancers often develop a tear in the tissue, and such injuries can be fixed using arthroscopic surgical techniques.
Almost a dozen concerts have been called off, including a Feb. 22 show at Madison Square Garden and a March 6 show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Refunds for the canceled performances will be available at point of purchase starting on Thursday.
On Twitter, Gaga reached out to her fans by posting, “I hid it from my staff, I didn’t want to disappoint my amazing fans. However after last nights performance I could not walk and still can’t”.
Right before she made the announcement to her millions of followers, she posted, “Im so sorry. I barely know what to say.”
A new album from Gaga is scheduled to be released in 2013.
Lil Wayne Bring Lots of Pain to Black History Month
What the hell was he thinking?
That’s the big question lingering in some of the minds of Lil Wayne‘s strongest supporters when they heard a controversial lyric in a leaked remix to Future‘s “Karate Chop.” Due to the graphic nature of the lyric and the sensitivity of the subject, we decided not to publish the lyric here. But family members of the late Emmett Till heard it and demanded an apology.
“It was a heinous murder,” Airicka Gordon-Taylor said in a phone interview Thursday on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. “He was brutally beaten and tortured, and he was shot, wrapped in barbed wire and tossed in the Tallahatchie River. The images that we’re fortunate to have (of his open casket) that Jet published, they demonstrate the ugliness of racism. So to compare a woman’s anatomy – the gateway of life – to the ugly face of death, it just destroyed me. And then I had to call the elders in my family and explain to them before they heard it from some another source.”
The track leaked to the Internet on this past weekend, but has just made major attention. We’ve got word that Epic Records’s chairman L.A. Reid issued an apology over the incident and expressed heartfelt regret. They also created a campaign using “great efforts” to get the leaked song off the Internet. The brief reference – just seven words – will be stricken from the song when it is officially released later.
Gordon-Taylor stated that Reid personally reached out to her on a conference call Wednesday evening that included the Rev. Jesse Jackson to explain and apologize. According to sources, Reid stated that Future and Lil Wayne were both cooperative.
Emmett Till, shown in 1955 with his mother
A very sensitive subject for many who remembered the abuse of Till, who was murdered in 1955 while visiting his family in Mississippi. He was severely beaten beyond the point of being recognizable; he had his eyes gouged out and was shot in the head; his assailants tied a cotton gin fan around his neck with barbed wire and was tossed into the Tallahatchie River. Two white men, including the woman’s husband, were all acquitted of the killing by an all-white jury.
Till’s body was finally recovered and returned to Chicago where his mother, Mamie Till, insisted on having an open casket at his funeral. The pictures of his battered body were widely published in Jet magazine and provoked a national movement on civil rights. Bob Dylan even wrote a song about it: “The Death of Emmett Till.”
Adding insult to injury, Till’s cousin also replied to the controversial lyric and said “the Ku Klux Klan would be very proud of Lil Wayne.”
At the time of press, Lil Wayne has not made a public statement about the fall out.
‘Shadow Days’ Are Almost Over
John Mayer and Katy Perry are seen living a Los Angeles restaurant after having a pre-Valentine’s Day.
John Mayer is still recovering from critical throat surgery in 2012, but he is definitely on the mend.
Mayer, 35, is now dating recently-divorced pop singer Katy Perry, who is 28.
In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, the singer-songwriter talked about his history of dating high-profiled stars, such as Jessica Simpson and Taylor Swift, but honestly feels that Perry is a nice fit for him. “For the first time in my life I don’t feel like I’m in a celebrity relationship,” Mayer said. “I really don’t. I’m not in a high profile — I know it’s high profile, but for me it feels like something that’s very human.”
Mayer plans to return to touring this summer. He is scheduled to be the headlining act on the first night of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on April 26. More tour dates will be revealed via JohnMayer.com.
DAILY DIGEST is a roundup recap of current events and headlines that involves the music industry. Although HiFi Magazine reports news throughout the week, the stories compiled for the Daily Digest column are usually deemed as events “bubbling under the radar.”
