Afroman remixes his 2001 mega hit Because I Got High in support of marijuana legalization. The lyrics have been changed to show a more positive and accurate message about marijuana. The Grammy-nominated rapper released the video in conjunction with medical marijuana dispensary locator app Weedmaps (the Yelp of legal marijuana dispensaries) and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) – a nonprofit organisation.
NORML Director of Strategic Partnerships Sabrina Fendrick said in a statement: “NORML is thrilled to have brought Weedmaps and Afroman together to create this unique cultural collaboration merging art, entertainment and activism into a single campaign that highlights many of the positive benefits of cannabis, and raises awareness for the legalization initiatives coming up in the 2014 November elections.”
Afroman swapped the original negative lyrics like, “I was gonna pay my child support/ But then I got high” for ones including: “I had problems with glaucoma/But then I got high”. The original track took over the radio airwaves back in 2001 and although it showed marijuana in a negative light, it basically just poked fun at stoners and the whole marijuana culture. The new remix talks about how marijuana can be used to treat many disorders, plus help the economy.
“Because I Got High put me on the map – it’s what got me a record deal, a Grammy nomination and made me a household name. Getting high – and rapping about it – got me to where I am today and I’ll be forever grateful for that. With the current political battle with states trying to legalize weed, I thought it was a good time to educate – or set the record straight – about marijuana’s benefits, which is why I wanted to remake the song.” Afroman told Rolling Stone.
NORML tagged the song’s release with its campaign, dubbed Smoke the Vote, which is raising awareness for the upcoming 2014 elections in which Alaska, Oregon and Washington D.C. will vote on the legalization of marijuana for adults.
The widely considered global god of rap, Eminem, turns 42 today. To celebrate we have a playlist of his top 10 latest hits straight from his official YouTube Vevo channel.
Along with his extensive career in rapping, record producing, songwriting and acting, he’s also a dedicated father to now 18 year old Hailie and adopted daughters Whitney, 11 and Alaine, 20. (How time flies!) We all recall his poignant song Mockingbird which told the story of their struggle as a family, released in 2004 featuring his girls when they were just tots. Now, 10 years later and Eminem is going stronger than ever. As of June 2014, he has been deemed the best-selling hip-hop artist of all time, having sold 45,160,000 albums and 31,000,000 digital singles. He is the second best-selling male artist of the Nielsen Soundscan era, and the sixth best overall selling artist in the United States.
A very happy birthday indeed to Marshall Bruce Mathers III, Eminem, and The Real Slim Shady!
This conquering collaboration with Australian singer Sia is from his upcoming compilation album Shady XV. The track was officially released to iTunes late August of 2014 after premiering in trailers for the film The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington. The album now has an official release date of November 28, 2014. What’s so inspiring about this track is the clear message in his lyrics that we can all take with us through any obstacle we face in life.
Released February 5, 2014 as the fifth single on his eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Eminem collaborates with band member from Fun, Nate Ruess in this touching song. Through the lyrics and music video we see a rekindling of love between Eminem and his mother. Over the years we’ve experienced through his confessionary songs and true-to-life movies that their relationship was at best dysfunctional. This one could be classified as a tear-jerker if you’re not careful.
This is the fourth time rap sensation Eminem and pop sensation Rihanna, come together to make music history. Released back in 2013 on October 29, the song relates to the singers coming to grips with their inner demons.
Premiering on YouTube back in early October of 2013, it was released as the third single from his eighth studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Unbelievably, or believably, Eminem managed to spit a total of 1,560 words on this track, earning him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for ”Most Words in a Hit Single.” The video also won the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Editing.
First released as a pre-order bonus for the Call of Duty: Ghosts video game. The song is the second single from Eminem’s album The Marshall Mathers LP2 and debuted at N°17 on the US Billboard Hot 100 before swiftly moving up to N°16. The chorus features vocals performed by Liz Rodrigues of the music group ”The New Royales”
This was the first single off the album The Marshall Mathers LP2. The video won the Outstanding Video Award at the Detroit Music Awards ceremony, 2014. Debuting at N°1 on the UK R&B charts and obtaining a whopping 362,000 downloads in just the first week after it’s release in the US.
Shooting back to 2010 when Space Bound was released as the 10th track on his album Recovery. The song has an atmosphere of sadness and loss of hope reflecting Eminem’s love life. The music video features Sasha Grey, a former pornographic actress who plays the part of his hypothetical girlfriend. His girlfriend betrays him, and this sparks the two sides of Eminem to unfold, one loving and sensitive, and the other violent and crazy.
Sampling the song What Is Love by Haddaway and featuring gangster rapper Lil Wayne, it was an interesting combination of sounds by two of the hottest MCs in the game. Foreseeably well received by fans worldwide, the music video follows the theme of bullying, and how retaliation against hateful people comes about.
The original demo to this song was written and sung by singer-songwriter Skylar Grey. Eminem took it a step up when introducing his intense versus and then had Rihanna’s powerful voice on the chorus. With five grammy nominations and multiple awards in pretty much every major ceremony in the industry, it is no surprise that the video clip broke a YouTube record when released for Most Hits in One Day, being 6.6 million.
Released as the lead single on his 2010 album Recovery, it won: Best Rap Solo Performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards, Best Male Video and Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards and Outstanding National Single and Outstanding Video at the Detroit Music Awards. If that’s not enough to prove what a great song this is, then I don’t know what to tell ya!
Apple has done it again! Just when you thought the hype was slowing down they have again stepped into the spotlight and revealed the world’s thinnest tablet. They also released an iPad Mini 3, a 5K resolution iMac, a souped up Mac Mini and the new operating system OS X Yosemite. But it was the iPad Air 2 that stole the limelight in last nights keynote presentation.
The iPad Air 2 might be thinner than a pencil – its only 6.1 mm thick – but with its 64-bit A8X processor its a powerhouse as well. It’s the same size – 9.7-inch, 1536 x 2048 264ppi display – as its predecessor, but there is zero gap between its screen layers allowing Apple’s design team to shave off an incredible 1.4 mm. This video explains it graphically:
– The much talked about anti-reflective coating which reduces glare by 56%. Not bad! – Apple’s new A8X processor, delivering a 40% faster CPU performance and more than double the graphical capability of the original iPad Air. – Rear camera upgrade to an 8-megapixel iSight with a f/2.4 aperture and auto HDR. Can shoot video in 1080p and slow mo footage in 720p. Lots of new shooting modes are available including Panorama, macro and burst. – Front-facing FaceTime HD camera with a a f/2.2 aperture on the front for selfies and video calling. – The M8 motion co-processor (found in iPhone 6) – Faster WIFI – Touch ID fingerprint scanner – Supports 20 different LTE bands (wireless internet) which is more than any other tablet on the market – Battery life is approx. 10 hours for general usage – A barometer for atmospheric-pressure monitoring – Available in Space Grey, Silver and Gold options
Both tablets are available for pre order today (Friday October 17) with a release date slated for the end of next week.
How much does it all cost?
iPad Air 2 WIFI only 16GB $499 64GB $599 128GB $699
SHOWTIME! We continue our series of ‘In Performance at the White House’ – a series of concerts created to showcase the rich fabric of American culture in the exclusive setting of the nation’s most famous home. To see last weeks post, ‘Burt Bacharah & Hal David’, click here.
Carole King “Carole King: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song” is a concert hosted by the President and Mrs. Obama East Room of the White House. The concert includes performances from Gloria Estefan, Billy Joel, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sandé, James Taylor and Trisha Yearwood. President Obama presents the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to Carole King during the event.
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Carole King began her career in the 1960’s, when along with her then husband Gerry Goffin, wrote more than 25 charts hits, many of which have become standards. King found success as a performer with the album Tapestry which topped the US album charts for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than 6 years! Between 1955 and 1999 she wrote 118 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 61 hots on the UK charts. In 2005 music historian Stuart Devoy found her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts 1952–2005.
King has made 25 solo albums during her career, her most recent non-compilation album was Live at the Troubadour (2010) – a collaboration with James Taylor that reached Nº 4 on the charts in its first week and has sold over 600,000 copies. She has 4 Grammy Awards to her name and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting. She received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2013 – the first woman to be so honoured.
“Carole King’s body of work reflects the spirit of the Gershwin Prize with its originality, longevity and diversity of appeal,” commented Dr. James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
Download these shows and add them to your music library This is part of a 10-week series that we will be running on our blog, with the music videos conveniently separated into individual performances so that you can save and download your favourite artists, or the whole show if you prefer. Creation 5’s YouTube feature lets you download videos so you can watch offline when you’re travelling and enjoy great music on-the-go. Don’t forget that you can download Creation 5’s YouTube In-app purchase absolutely FREE, which normally costs €4.49 ($4.99), as we currently have a promotion running in celebration of hitting 450,000 downloads on the App Store!
Tap any video title to open it in Creation 5!
In Performance at the White House: Carole King: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (May 2013)
01. Carole King – Beautiful 02. Trisha Yearwood, Gloria Estefan & Emeli Sandé – Will You Love Me Tomorrow 03. James taylor – Up On The Roof 04. Gloria Estefan – It’s Too late 05. Trisha Yearwood – So Far Away 06. Billy Joel – The Loco-Motion 07. James Taylor & Billy Joel – Cryin’ in the Rain 08. Jesse McCartney – Home Again 09. Emeli Sandé – (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman 10. Carole King – Jazzman 11. Carole King – I Believe in Loving You 12. Carole King – I Feel the Earth Move 13. Carole King, James Taylor & Full Cast – You’ve Got a Friend
We’re loving the new music video from Passenger for his brilliant autobiographical track 27 – it’s his most fun visual yet! It takes you on a comical trip through his past characters and life. Filmed in Los Angeles last month and directed by James Lees, the video premiered yesterday (October 15) on Digital Spy. Passenger walks through a bright, theatrical LA set where he is trailed by past characters and habits from his life – “I hope you guys enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it,” he wrote in the video’s description.
British folk/rock singer Passenger, a.k.a. Mike Rosenberg, reached international stardom status with his breakthrough single Let Her Go – the video for which has accumulated over 418 million views on YouTube. The song was taken from his 2012 LP All the Little Lights. He released his latest album, Whispers, in June this year and it peaked at Nº12 in the US and Nº5 in the UK, receiving positive reviews. 27 is the latest single to be lifted from Whispers, his 5th studio album.
Passenger is about to embark on a 19-date sold-out headline tour of the UK – including two shows in London on December 7 and 8.
Here’s the song that started it all for Passenger. (To watch in Creation 5, tap here.)
Here we present our collection of recent weird, wonderful and on occasion completely off-the-wall music videos featuring some of the biggest names in the movie business…
Famous actors have been appearing in music videos for many years. A trend kicked off in the nineties with many huge bands featuring young actors in their videos such as Aerosmith’s Crazy, starring Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler, Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in The Dark featuring a young Courtney Cox, Tom Petty’s portrayal of a young rock star’s rise and demise played by Johnny Depp in Into the Great Wide Open to name but a few.
The Beastie Boys’ Make Some Noise is a must-see featuring Elijah Wood, Seth Rogan and Danny McBride as the Beastie Boys (mouthing along quite impressively to the words) while they carry on their party throughout town. During the video there is literally a famous actor on every street corner (and a few in a limo) with Rashida Jones, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Mary Steenburgen, Ted Danson, Amy Poehler, Steve Buscemi, Chlöe Sevigny, Maya Rudolph, Kirsten Dunst, David Cross, Orlando Bloom, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Jack Black in cameo roles.
Ke$ha’s Blow featuring James Van Der Beek of Dawson’s Creek and more recently Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 fame, is a comical portrayal of the two stars at a party. Here, James displays some pelvic thrusting (also known as dancing) and Ke$ha makes out with a unicorn in a suit on their path to a confrontation of amusing insults – resulting in a bizarre rainbow effect laser gun shoot down (!). None of the unicorns were injured in the filming of this video.
Sigur Ros’ Fjögur Píanó has Shia LaBeouf showing off his ballet moves in this eerie portrayal of a couples’ post-coital depiction of how they got their cuts and bruises. The journey continues as they go on a magical mystery tour with lollipops! A haunting transformation from the young star’s performance in… Transformers! Lots of butterflies, tears and nudity; be warned.
Eminem teams up with Rihanna to give Shia’s Transformers co-star Meghan Fox a run for her acting money in Love the Way You Lie as she portrays a girl in a serious, tumultuous relationship with Lord of the Rings star Dominic Monaghan. Meanwhile, lots of things set on fire and Rihanna is über-cool as ever…very Eminem.
Aerosmith’s Jaded stars a beautiful young Mila Kunis in an ‘Alice in Wonderland meets Eyes Wide Shut’ portrayal of a young girl who appears to have everything but is incapable of feeling. Her inability to experience emotion is the basis of the video until her lost, lonely and jaded self finally ‘finds the forest’ A.K.A her inner self and for the first time she sheds a tear…Hurrah! There are, of course, some classic Steve Tyler leg kicks and microphone hugging to boot.
Justin Timberlake’s What Goes Around Comes Around stars the stunning Scarlett Johansson in this short film-style music video. The two meet for the first time, the sultry Johansson plays hard to get (for about 5 seconds) but leaves the party with Timberlake after a little persuasion. They subsequently flick from making out clips, her faking a drowning, then make out some more with a few fire jugglers in between and some singing, he then claims she’s ‘the one’ to her and his best friend, does a bit more singing – cue fire jugglers – a lot more making out and then hey presto she cheats on him with said best friend. The result is a nasty confrontation, followed by a car chase between Johansson and Timberlake with a crash and burn ending. Justin proves his karma-based song title choice right as Scarlett gets what she deserves (according to him anyway), and all in just over nine minutes!
Cobra Starship’s Good Girls go Bad is a collaboration as well as an acting role for Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester looking stunning and a long way from her prissy role as Blake. The guys from Cobra Starship open an underground club below their convenience store, the entrance being a walk in fridge, where the good girls get the opportunity to go bad. Leighton joins in the fun and throws in shades of her Gossip Girl role spending a lot of time on her phone as “Good Girl”, only to turn out to be an undercover cop who busts the bad boys for their illegal subterranean dance venue.
The Rolling Stones’ Anybody Seen My Baby stars the beautiful Angelina Jolie sporting a shaved head and a Gaultier-esque corset strutting stormily through the streets of New York to evade Mick Jagger’s attempts at finding her.
Jenny Lewis’ Just One of the Guys stars Kristen Stewart, Anne Hathaway and Brie Larson in a very amusing depiction of them looking rather more like Beastie Boys than beautiful actresses! Anne Hathaway even sports a rats tail (apparently her own styling touch) while Jenny and the girls manage to make tracksuits and moustaches look somehow appealing. Kristen Stewart is spookily good at being a lad…or just one of the guys.
Jake Gyllenhaal surprisingly stars in a fair few music videos, unsurprisingly they are very diverse; one being Jamie Foxx’s Blame It, featuring TPain and starring the big names of Forrest Whittaker, Ron Howard and Samuel L. Jackson. This is a pretty typical “in da club” type video but worth a look to see all of the above. Another Jake appearance is in The Shoes’ Time to Dance where he turns American Psycho and slaughters lots of people in this seriously grim and gruesome video which doesn’t have much to do with the song! Warning; very gory and disturbing. So we went with a third Jake find where he appears briefly (literally) in some tiny sport shorts playing a monochrome game of indoor tennis against a girl in Vampire Weekend’s Giving up the Gun!
Flying Lotus and their Tiny Tortures video features our favourite hobbit Elijah Wood on a spiritual, dreamy journey after magically gaining a robotic arm having apparently lost his own. Interesting!
If you are inspired to watch Lady Gaga being thrown off a balcony by the gorgeous True Blood actor Alexander Skarsgard, then tune in to Paparazzi and get a glimpse of the Swede’s reaction to his on-screen lover as the pair struggle when in the limelight. She, of course, does not die but her stardom is in serious jeopardy, and so after some typical Gaga style costume changes and choreography she eventually gets her own back and poisons Skarsgard, which for some reason regains her stardom status (odd!)…the best part is probably LG’s mug shots at the end.
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Take a trip with Calvin Harris’s new psychedelic music video for Slow Acid. Completely different from his recent singles this returns to EDM’s more Prodigy-esque roots. The Emil Nava directed video follows a silver-painted woman on an all night bender, complete with a convenience store robbery. The bizarre visuals, combined with the pulse of the music, makes for a pretty trippy experience.
Regular Calvin Harris fans will probably not expect this number. The track is instrumental, save for an ocassional high-pitched ‘Woooo!’ vocal sample. Harris’s last two singles, the VMA-nominated Summer and the soulful Blame featuring John Newman were full of feel-good beats and very catchy melodies. This is not the case for Slow Acid (he did give us a clue with the title).
Slow Acid is taken from Harris’s upcoming 4th studio album Motion, which will feature Ellie Goulding, Gwen Stefani, Haim and Big Sean. Official release date is November 4.
James Blunt has released a cowboy-themed music video for his latest single When I Find Love Again. Filmed in Spain, it’s a foot-stomping, hand clapping, folk-pop number – great fun! The song premiered online and on the radio a few weeks ago, but the official music video was released just yesterday (October 14) and premiered on Telegraph.co.uk
When I Find Love Again was an interesting choice for Blunt’s new single as he only recently got married. The music video was actually filmed on his honeymoon in Spain! Fortunately, it all had the blessing of his wife Sofia Wellesley.
Blunt will release When I Find Love Again as the first new cut from his repackaged album Moon Landing: Apollo Edition. Blunt explains the title of the album: “There’s just something romantic, old-school and lonely about the moon landings… A nostalgic memory of something huge that we can hardly believe we once achieved, and for some sad reason, can’t achieve again – like first love.”
“In my teens, I found freedom in music. It’s a way of dreaming, a way to express who you are to the audience, but just as importantly, to yourself. It has taken me a while to understand it, to feel it again – and start dreaming again,” said Blunt of his new work.
The repackaged album features 5 new songs including the new single, which was written with Steve Mac and Benny Blanco. It also features a DVD of the Moon Landing World Tour concert filmed in Paleo, Switzerland. When I Find Love Again is released November 3.
Blunt is still one of the biggest names in live music – over the last year he has performed at an incredible 141 shows – his biggest ever world tour.
The Simpsons pay homage to Cat Stevens as Tea for the Tillerman replaces the normal Simpsons couch gag. Homer, Lisa, and Maggie replicate the album artwork & Springfield residents give a literal interpretation of the lyrics. The whole thing is totally charming and comes with the obligatory “D’oh!” from Homer.
The Simpson’s have been running for an incredible 26 seasons and have opened almost every episode with a clever ‘couch gag’. These couch gags have included spoofing everything from Breaking Bad to the Harlem Shake. They even managed to get iconic artists like Banksy and Don Hertzfeld to direct their own versions. This latest gag takes on Cat Stevens’ iconic 1970 album Tea For The Tillerman and ends with Homer reenacting Tea for the Tillerman’s iconic album cover. If the song sounds a bit familiar to you, it’s because Tea for the Tillerman was used as the theme to Ricky Gervais’ Extras. We’re quite surprised that The Simpsons didn’t also make use of the Sad Lisa track also on the Tillerman album.)
No one knows what exactly inspired this Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam tribute – perhaps it was the fact that the creators of the show are excited to see Yusuf Islam on tour December? Islam is getting ready to release his new album Tell ‘Em I’m Gone on Oct. 27. The album, his first studio album in 5 years, leans towards the R&B sounds that he listened to as a young adult: “Hidden in the background behind my renowned troubadour persona lurked an R&B alter-self waiting to be let free,” he said in a statement. “What’s powerful and profound, to me, is the overall message which emerged, lyrically. It suddenly stared me in the face: the innate struggle for Freedom! Isn’t that what most human beings dream of? Music and the blues particularly was a means of escape for many chained to the destiny of the rich and powerful.”
The album will contain 10 tracks (5 originals and 5 covers) – here is the first of the covers – a piano-based take on Edgar Winter’s Dying to Live. (To listen in Creation 5, just tap here.)
We could be Heroes – me and you – with Alesso’s new music video featuring the awesome vocals of Tove Lo. The crazy video is a like an X-Men movie, full of everyday heroes with extraordinary powers. Directed by Emil Nava, the video is slick and stylish with as good a plot as some Hollywood movies!
The story starts in an underground research facility/prison where young adults with extraordinary powers are being kept for research. Alesso is the one that comes to free them. Keeping inline with the title of the track this superhero themed visual is a perfect storyline for the song and the ending will have you gasping in shock/sorrow – no spoilers, don’t worry.
Heroes is the first track to be taken from Alesso’s debut album and this big room-progressive jam is Alesso at his most epic. He debuted the track at Tommorrowland earlier this year and it was premiered on Pete Tong’s BBC Radio 1 show last month. Alesso also brought Tove Lo to Ibiza and they performed live together for the first time at Ushuaia.
In a recent interview with Vibe magazine, Alesso explained what he goes through to make sure a song is perfect and ready for release: “It’s that last minute stomach goose bump feeling. It just feels right. I’ve worked on songs that I think are finished but when I go back, work on something else, it’s a special unique feeling that needs to be one hundred percent sure. I would never release a track and be like “Let’s see how this goes”. I need to be a hundred percent sure. I need to feel that it feels right.”
