November 23, 2024

About the author  ⁄ Gil Kaufman

Beyoncé And Jay Z Finally Announce On The Run Joint Tour [Dates]

The biggest tour of the summer is now official. After weeks of rumors, Beyoncé and Jay Z finally announced the name of their eagerly anticipated joint summer stadium outing, the On The Run Tour.

The Beyhive pre-sale begins at 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday for the 16-date tour that is slated to kick off on June 25 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami and include stops in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Foxborough, Baltimore, East Rutherford, Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, Arlington, Chicago, Seattle, Pasadena and San Francisco.

The dates for the On The Run Tour:
6/25 – Miami, FL @ Sun Life Stadium
6/28 – Cincinnati, OH @ Great American Ball Park
7/1 – Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
7/5 – Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park
7/7 – Baltimore, MD @ M and T Bank Stadium
7/9 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
7/11 – East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
7/15 – Atlanta, GA @ Georgia Dome
7/18 – Houston, TX @ Minute Maid Park
7/20 – New Orleans, LA @ Mercedes-Benz Superdome
7/22 – Arlington, TX @ AT&T Stadium
7/24 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
7/27 – Winnipeg, MB @ Investors Group Field
7/30 – Seattle, WA @ Safeco Field
8/2 – Pasadena, CA @ Rose Bowl
8/5 – San Francisco, CA @ AT&T Park

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DJ E-Z Rock Dead At 46

Legendary hip-hop DJ E-Z Rock has died at age 46. According to a Facebook post from longtime partner MC Rob Base, Rock died on Sunday and no cause of death was revealed at press time.

Rock (born Rodney Bryce) was best known for his dancefloor destroying 1988 hit “It Takes Two,” with Base, who he’d known since fourth grade. The hyped hit, which was produced by new jack swing legend Teddy Riley, featured a sample of Lyn Collin’s 1972 James Brown-produced song “Think (About It).”

“It takes two to make a thing go right/It takes to to make it outta sight,” goes the iconic hook of the song that seamlessly mixed hip-hop and house music. He might have been behind the turntables, but Rock got plenty of love in Base’s lyrics, including the lines, “Cause Rob is in the front, E-Z Rock is on the back-up … Rock the mike with the help of EZ.”

Among the many who’ve sampled the Harlem-based duo’s hit over the years are Snoop Dogg (“I Wanna Rock”), Mac Miller (“Play Ya Cards”), the Black Eyed Peas (“Rock That Body”) and Gang Starr (“Suckas Need Bodyguards”), as well as Girl Talk, LL Cool J, Will Smith and Meek Mill.

“It Takes Two” was featured on the pair’s 1988 debut of the same name, which also had the hit “Joy and Pain.” But “Two” would be the song that cemented Rock’s reputation and, to this day, is guaranteed to get people on the dancefloor. Base announced the news on Sunday in a since-deleted post, but has changed the cover photo ...

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Neil Patrick Harris Is Great At Everything And Here’s The Proof

Artwork by Janelle Myers and Rich Sancho

Let’s face it. Neil Patrick Harris is awesome. Not, awesome in the way that a lot of actors are awesome in a role, or a costume or an awards show speech. He’s … wait for it … really awesome.

Think about it. What is NPH not good at? He killed it as a kid doctor back in the 1990s as “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” then came back hard in 2005 as the legendary Barney Stinson on “How I Met Your Mother.” He killed the Internet in Joss Whedon’s online musical “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” took on the voice of Nightwing in “Batman: Under the Red Hood” and played himself to perverted perfection in the “Harold & Kumar” movies.

He was great on “Saturday Night Live” making fun of his role in “Rent,” (he also directed a version of that musical at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as the play “The Expert at the Card Table”), nailed it as the 2009 and 2013 Emmy Awards host and four-time host of the Tony Awards and is currently vamping it like a champ on Broadway as the lead in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

Oh, and the magic fan is also the president of the board of directors of Hollywood’s Magic Castle and, c’mon, he was Carl Jenkins in “Starship Troopers.”

Which begs the question: Since he’s pretty much been great at everything so far, what other gigs would NPH kill?

1. Wal-Mart Greeter
I mean, look at that smile.

2. Mortician
When NPH says he’s sorry for your loss, you believe him.
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Justin Bieber Is Finding It ‘Hard2FaceReality’

Justin Bieber surprised fans over the weekend with a new slow jam whose title pretty much sums up the bummer he’s been having this spring.

The two-minute “Hard2FaceReality,” opens with the lines, “Sometimes it’s hard to face reality/Even though you might get mad at me.” Over a slow, skittery beat and ethereal keyboards and subtly picked guitar, a sleepy Bieber trades lines Atlanta singer/songwriter/producer Poo Bear (Pink, Whitney Houston).

For his part, Poo was just psyched that the pair’s work has finally hit the world and thanked Bieber for keeping him on the record.

“Don’t be afraid to stand alone/Don’t be afraid to stand outside that door alone/I know it’s hard away from home/It ain’t easy all alone,” JB laments. “Relationships over the phone/Talkin’ to your significant other all night long.”

The last line has, not surprisingly, led a number of commenters to speculate that Bieber is again singing about his on/off relationship with Selena Gomez. The single is the first new music we’ve heard from Justin since his digital-only EP, Journals came and went quickly in December.

Last week he made news by offending some of his Asian fans by posing at a Japanese shrine for WWII war criminals and being detained for almost four hours at Los Angeles International Airport for additional screening from customs. In the middle of all the drama, though, Bieber has been working on new music constantly over the past few months, but no announcement has been made yet about when fans can expect a proper follow up to 2012′s Believe.