November 30, 2024

About the author  ⁄ MTV News

Lana Del Rey’s <i>Ultra-Violence</i> Gets Some Shine From Black Keys Frontman

The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach is ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence — and when we say "ultra-violence," we mean Lana Del Rey's upcoming record. It seems that the Grammy-winning producer is on board to work on Del Rey's "A Clockwork Orange"-titled effort.

Thursday (February 20), the singer took to Instagram to share a snap of her mugging with Auerbach, writing, "Me and Dan Auerbach are excited to present you Ultraviolence." Del Rey revealed the title of the album in December at the Hollywood premiere of her short film "Tropico."

The pairing is an interesting one, given statements made by The Black Keys singer to MTV News back in 2012 about the singer.

"On some level, we've seen that Lana Del Rey thing since we first started, like, all of a sudden this new band would be headlining festivals, and we're like, 'Wait, how did they get that? We've been here for two, three, four, five years and we're still working our way up,'" Auerbach said. "But then they're gone. Just as quickly as they get up there, they disappear."

Well, two years have gone by and Del Rey is still holding strong, having scored a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album for Paradise, among other honors.

Auerbach has previously produced for the likes of Dr. John, JEFF The Brotherhood and The Growlers, collaborations that portend an interesting fate for Ultra-Violence.

The Growler's 2013 record, Hung At Heart, in particular, blended a melange of throwback sounds (surf and country included) with striking songwriting — a sensibility ...

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Who You Gonna Call? All The New LEGO Sets From Toy Fair

LEGO is huge right now. From the gigantic success of "The LEGO Movie," to their partnership with "Star Wars," Marvel and DC movie properties the brick builders dominated New York's Toy Fair, and the toy shelves on a year round basis. That doesn't look to stop anytime soon, either: at Toy Fair, we got a glimpse of upcoming sets for "Guardians of the Galaxy," "The LEGO Movie," "Star Wars Rebels," and even "Ghostbusters."

So who you gonna call? LEGO, that's who:


"Guardians of the Galaxy"
As with any big Marvel movie property, most of LEGO's "Guardians of the Galaxy" line was under wraps. But we can show you the previously revealed "Milano Spaceship Rescue," a 665 piece set that retails for $74.99, and features Chris Pratt's "muscle car" of a spaceship from the movie.

We can also give you details on the other two sets, though pictures will be coming later:

» "Knowhere Escape Mission," a 433 piece set for $39.99 that features Groot, Rocket Raccoon, Nebula, and shock-trooper The Sakaaran. Of note, the Groot figure is about three inches tall and needs to be built as part of the set.

» "Starblaster Showdown," a 196 piece set for $19.99, featuring Star-Lord and The Sakaaran, each with their own ship.


"The LEGO Movie"
Though the first batch of "LEGO Movie" toys played it safe, they rapidly disappeared from toy shelves. Wave two should double that business with several gigantic sets including:

"Metal Beard's Sea Cow," a 2,471 piece set for $249.99 that comes packaged with the movie's signature double-decker couch. That'll hit stores ...

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Schoolboy Q And Vic Mensa Battle In A Round Of ‘Rap Jeopardy’

Most people can appreciate a challenging game of trivia, so when Schoolboy Q and Vic Mensa visited on Wednesday, the two rappers were tapped to participate in a round of "Rap Jeopardy."

Over the past few days, the Twitter handle @RatchetJeopardy has made their version of the popular TV show game a trending topic within the hip-hop community, so it only seemed right to get some rappers in on the action.

During the game questions ranged from, "what the 'F' in Weezy F. Baby stands for," to "he's known as the light skin Keith Sweat." While the latter was obviously Drake, citing a lyric from his Nothing Was the Same single "All Me," Vic Mensa lost that round just so he could nominate himself as the "light skin Keith Sweat."

In this friendly competition, winning didn't count as much as having fun. Watch Schoolboy Q and Vic Mensa play "Rap Jeopardy" in the video above, then put your friends' trivial skills to the test.

Schoolboy Q will release his third album Oxymoron on February 25.

...

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Rick Ross And Jeezy Hug It Out In ‘War Ready’ Video: Go Behind The Scenes

Hearing former rap foes Rick Ross and Jeezy on the same track is one thing, but seeing them slap each other five and exchange pleasantries takes their new peace treaty to a whole other level. On Thursday (February 20) Ross released a behind the scenes clip from the pair's upcoming music video.

"What's happening my G? What it do," Jeezy asks, greeting Ross with a hearty handshake in the BTS piece that premiered on WorldStarHipHop.com. "My n---a we here, 'War Ready.' "

The two shot the video on Saturday in New Orleans, while the sports world was celebrating NBA All-Star Weekend. It's hard to tell if the finished product will follow a particular story line, but there appears to be plenty of action. Set in what looks to be an abandoned factory, the one-time rap foes mug it up for the camera as they spit their rhymes. Aside from performance shots there's an extra on set firing a machine gun to help further drive home the song's war theme. Then of course, there is the obligatory DJ Khaled cameo.

The song is the latest single from Ross' upcoming sixth solo LP Mastermind and marks the end of a lengthy feud between the MMG boss and the CTE CEO. The two even got into a scuffle at the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards, but it looks that any bad blood between them has been cleaned up.

"The mark of a powerful man is not only his ability to make war, but to also make peace," Ross told MTV News ...

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One Direction Have Some Advice For Justin Bieber

It was a big night at the 2014 Brit Awards, filled with memorable performances, A-list artists, big wins and some awkward moments, courtesy of One Direction.

After the guys were announced as the winners of the Global Success Award — one of two the band took home on Wednesday — Harry was noticeably missing. In an awkward-yet-adorable moment, it turns out that he was "having a wee" and had to run onstage to join the rest of his 1D bandmates.

But the awkwardness didn't end there.

The U.K. boy band were comfortably seated in their seats taking in the show at London's O2 Arena when host James Corden joined Harry, Louis, Niall, Zayn and Liam in the audience and asked them who was first to visit Bieber in prison following his recent arrest in Miami last month.

Niall laughed before Corden interjected with, "Did you tell him what guys do to people who look like him in prison? Did anyone send a text, Louis, saying, 'Lay off the bongs?' " Awkward.

Louis responded when he was asked if he had any advice for the Canadian pop star, saying Bieber should "keep strong and keep doing what you're doing."

The unpredictable moments didn't seem to dampen One Direction's night, though. The awards show marked the first time the guys were seeing each other since taking a much-needed break before their Where We Are Tour kicks off in April. In the press room backstage, they seemed to be in good spirits ... literally.

"I'll be honest, I'm feeling a little drunk," Liam said when asked ...

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Can You Keep A Secret? With These Apps, You Don’t Have To

Your smartphone is now a confessional — at least if you're down to download one of the growing number of apps that let you share secrets with the world without showing your face.

Yup, your diary is no longer the de facto place to go pour out your deepest longings and secrets — now there's Secret and Whisper, similar-yet-different smartphone apps that give you the lowdown on what's normally on the down-low.

Whisper, which launched in 2012, is available for iOS and Android and reaches a relative large audience. When you sign up, you can peruse "whispers" — or secrets — from everyone on the service. Said whispers are usually of the scandalous variety: finding panties in your boyfriend's bag (that aren't yours), your mom catching you with porn — you get the idea.

Just sign up to scan through a homescreen containing the latest whispers, the most popular whispers and those closet to you. All whispers are anonymous, but you can "heart" or comment on ones that you like, or send a direct message to the people who wrote them. You can also share other people's secrets across your social networks. Psst, did you hear that this random dude eats tuna fish with Ruffles? Well, now all your friends do, too!

All users can choose an anonymous username and create personalized whispers complete with image, tags and the font of their choice.

Secret, which launched in January, is a bit closer to home. Available only on iOS, when you first sign on to Secret you'll be asked to ...

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