jay-z (39 posts)

New York's most valuable player? With all due respect to Derek Jeter, we're going with Jay-Z for trying to psych out the Phillies with a performance totally supportive of the home team.

The Yankees lost Game 1 of the World Series, so what better way to rouse the team than Hova's single "Empire State of Mind" featuring Alicia Keys. One of the best songs on The Blueprint 3, it's as iconic as Frank Sinatra's version of "New York, New York."

Seriously, with an opening act like him, the Yankees have no excuses for losing (not that they had one anyway with their expensive roster).

Even with bad sound we're pretty sure Jay-Z was happy to stick it to the Phillies. Which is probably why he didn't do "Run This Town" instead.

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You know what baseball gets us thinking about? Football.

Ray Mickshaw / FOX

Perhaps Kanye West is finally taking that much needed "time off" from his stage-hijacking shenanigans. 

After stealing Taylor Swift's thunder at the MTV Video Music Awards, the rapper bailed on the Fourth Annual BET Hip-Hop Awards Saturday evening, giving up his nine chances to stage yet another remix-worthy acceptance-speech-crashing moment. 

While YouTubers across the country were probably chomping at the bit for that video-posting opportunity, it's safe to say the self-proclaimed egomaniac saved himself a beat-down by not jumping onstage with a nominee competitor like Young Jeezy or Rick Ross. 

Top nominees turned no-shows was somewhat of a theme for the awards show, held at the Atlanta Civic Center. The runner-up to West's bevy of nominations, T.I., was missing in action as a result of his lockdown in an Arkansas prison on a federal weapons charge. 

But that didn't stop the rapper from taking home two awards...

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For those of you wondering where in the world Jay-Z was during the Kanyegate furor, the answer is England.

Which would explain why he was about the only person in the world who hasn't yet weighed in on Kanye West's Taylor Swift-belittling VMA hissy fit on our shores. That is, until a BBC Radio 1 DJ got hold of Hova today.

"It's an awards show," Jay-Z said, dismissing the hullabaloo around his "Run This Town" collaborator (and de facto "little brother")'s spotlight hijacking.

"He's just a superpassionate person."

Well, that's one word for it...

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It's safe to say the 2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards will be getting a little more media attention than usual this year after giving Kanye West another opportunity (nine, actually) to let the world know, in true jackass fashion, how much better Beyoncé is than everyone else.

It's probably also safe to say that Taylor Swift will not be among the viewers tuning into the ceremony. Unless the country kitten has a stronger taste for schadenfreude than we thought.

But what started as one of West's worst weeks ever has taken a turn for the better thanks to some oddly timed positive reinforcement from BET, which this morning gave the controversy king a leading nine nominations for next month's Hip-Hop Awards.

Following on his egomaniacal heels are Jay-Z and Lil Wayne, who scored seven nods apiece, and T.I., who landed six. DJ AM also scored a posthumous nod for DJ of the Year.

West's nominations include Best Live Performer, Lyricist of the Year, Producer of the Year, MVP of the Year, Interrupter of the Year and CD of the Year for 808 & Heartbreak.

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It's pretty clear who's running this town.

Proving that condemnation by Kanyegate association has nothing on Jay-Z's sales appeal, Beyoncé's boy dominated the Billboard album chart this week, with Blueprint 3 taking over the top spot with sales of 476,000.

It's Hova's 11th career No. 1: He has now scored more solo chart-toppers than any other artist, even Elvis Presley.

And all without being party to a rampant display of jackassery.

Jay-Z's chart-topping track record is second only to the Beatles, who've been tops a record book-shattering 19 times. And counting, if this week's sales are any indication.

Chart love for the Fab Four is alive and thriving thanks to their accountant-approved reissues (piggybacked with their hyped Rock Band game) selling a collective 626,000 copies to dominate the catalog chart.

The biggest seller of the week was Abbey Road, followed by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album.

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Check out the highlights and lowlights (as if you didn't know what those were) in our gallery of the 2009 MTV VMAs.

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Whitney Houston, the Beatles and Jay-Z ought to step aside. Susan Boyle is the new queen bee of the album charts.

Too bad no one will get to hear her record until Nov. 24.

Britain's Got Talent's undeniable breakout star—whether she won the grand prize or not—is nearly three months from the release of her debut album, yet, thanks to presales, stands at the very top of Amazon.com's best-seller list.

Houston's comeback album, reissues of the Fab Four's classics, Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 and even the soundtrack for New Moon are eating her dust.

Talk about dreaming a dream!

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It's hard to believe that even performing on Good Morning America or taking long walks with Oprah aren't enough to be a chart-topper.

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New albums really bring out the best in people, don't they?

Even A-listers like Jay-Z use do-gooding to not-so-subliminally promote their latest records. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's difficult to pooh-pooh Hova's efforts to set up a Sept. 11 benefit concert, dubbed Answer the Call, at Madison Square Garden in New York City on the eighth anniversary of that fateful day. One hundred percent of the proceeds will go to the New York Police and Fire Widows' & Children's Benefit Fund.

Fuse is set to air the special show simultaneously in commercial-free HD.

We love seeing stars step up like this, but we can't help but note that the rapper's 11th studio album, Blueprint 3, comes out that very same day.

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We love it when stars try to heal the world, don't you? See all the do-gooders here!

The future may look bleak, but at least there'll be some cool music around.

The new video for Jay-Z's "Run This Town," featuring Rihanna and Kanye West, has a postapocalyptic feel to it as the trio sings and raps to a large torch-toting, bandana-wearing crowd that is clearly hell-bent on taking over its surroundings...

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