From voting on release dates to checking out song premieres, we’ve been anticipating Ab-Soul’s, new album These Days, for a while now. But even with all the preparation we’ve done leading up to the release of the California native’s first project since 2012, which was released on Tuesday (June 24), there was still plenty we were surprised by.

Some things were a given when we pressed play: Soul’s lyricism would be sharp and his mentality elevated; the production would be strong; the sequencing would be on point. But here are some other things that we noticed that added to our listening experience of These Days.

Joey Bada$$ Shows Up

It’s not surprising that Joey is on the album, especially since Soulo was featured on the New York rapper’s own “Enter the Void” in 2012. What’s notable, though, is that about halfway through the second track, “Tree of Life,” the Pro Era MC’s voice emerges — even though he’s not featured on the tracklisting. No complaints about this bi-coastal tree-burning anthem, though.

Diddy Blesses Soulo (And Us) With Vintage Sh—Talk

Schoolboy Q often refers to himself as Puffy, so who better to feature on a song with Q than the man himself? That’s exactly what Soul does with “Hunnid Stacks.” After Q’s verse — and with just ten seconds left on the song — the beat cuts out, and Diddy’s iconic voice cuts in: “What, it ain’t no more to it,” he says, replicating a phrase Biggie boasted on “B.I.G. ...

NEW YORK — Dave Chappelle is in the middle of a bit of a comeback tour, in the form of a 10-show run at Radio City Music Hall. That in itself would be reason enough for his legion of patient fans (like me) to celebrate. But the comedian decided to up the ante, by inviting musical guests to co-headline with him for some of the shows. Like Nas. Performing Illmatic. With an orchestra. On Monday night.

And yes, it was as immaculate as you might have imagined.

As a large screen at the back of the stage flashed images of Nas, each accompanied by a year, counting down from 2014 to 1994 (the year of Illmatic‘s release), the orchestra played him in. And Esco arrived just in time to deliver his legendary opening verse to “N.Y. State of Mind.”

Nasty then rolled into “Life’s a Bitch,” before reminding us that “The World Is Yours.”

Even his in-between-song sh– talk sounded next-level with the backing of the talented instrumentalists.

After running through his classic debut album, the Queens rapper said goodbye to the orchestra, and brought it back to the essence: an MC and a DJ (… and a drummer). The trio ran through a bevy of Nas’ post-Illmatic favorites, from the poetic positivity of “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” and “I Can” to the unfiltered energy of “Hate Me Now” and “Made You Look.”

Oh, and let’s not forget: This all came after Dave Chappelle commanded the thousands in attendance with an ...

With additional reporting by Janelle Myers

A Jennifer Lopez Biopic? Just A Thought
“Ain’t it funny” that J. Lo would want Selena Gomez to play her in a biopic? Remember Lopez portrayed mid-’90s Tejano pop sensation Selena in a film of the same name?

You Should Probably Thank Marky Mark
“Transformers: Age Of Extinction” director Michael Bay almost did not make this fourth film in the franchise, but Mark Wahlberg persuaded him against that decision. Bay made another movie called “Pain and Gain,” and Wahlberg who starred in it said to him, “I’d love to do a Transformers movie with you.” The rest is history.

Ring The Bell, There’s A New Shepard On The Way
Kristen Bell is pregnant with her second child! She and her husband Dax Shepard are already the proud parents of their 15-month-old daughter Lincoln Bell Shepard.

New Album Tuesday
Ab-Soul releases These Days and Riff Raff drops Neon Icon. Also, Ed Sheeran marked the spot on Monday with his new album X, which you can stream on Spotify now.

Must See Video Of The Day
Need a pick-me-up? This video fittingly titled “(You’re Never Too Old To Be) HAPPY” showing senior citizens getting down to Pharrell’s hit song is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Age is just a number anyway!

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50 Cent has released a video for all 11 tracks on his album Animal Ambition, which dropped earlier this month. So it’s only right that the newly independent artist comes with a visual for one of the project’s bonus cuts, too.

That’s exactly what he’s done with the release of his latest video, “U Know,” which premiered on MTV on Tuesday (June 24). The Eif Rivera-directed spot finds Fif getting his World Famous Rapper on: posing in front of an expensive sports car, surrounded by beautiful women.

And when he’s not in World Famous Rapper mode (when he is, too), 50 is often in troll mode. Don’t believe us? Let him explain.

Adam Fleischer

I'm serious about these snacks. Catch me @adamfleischer

Angie Martinez shocked the hip-hop world when she announced last week that she was leaving Hot 97, where she had become “The Voice of New York” during her two decades at the New York radio station.

The public’s collective awe was only intensified when it was revealed, the following day, that she was making the move to her former employer’s crosstown rival, Power 105. Martinez is now explaining the motivations behind the shift.

“I tried to really look at what’s best for my career, what’s best for my life, what’s best for my family, for me,” she told Billboard. “I had to take my emotion out of it. It was a decision that I felt was right for me.

“It just got to the point where I wanted to assess myself and my career and where my future was going,” she added, in an interview with the New York Post. “It’s what I wanted. It just got to the point where I wanted to be on in different markets — I want to grow and be challenged in new ways.”

Her new gig will bring her to airwaves both in the Tri-State area, where she’ll have an afternoon show on Power, as well as 103.5 The Beat in Miami.

“It’s not going to be the same show — I’ll do a show just for Miami and a show just for New York,” she said. “I’ll mostly be based in New York, but I’ll travel ...

June has been an amazing month for previously unearthed Tupac material.

A few weeks back, a 22-minute phone call from 1995 between the late rapper and Sanyika Shakur, a gang member turned author, waas posted on YouTube. The two discussed registering voters, trying to ignite social change and plenty more.

The call was recorded just days after ‘Pac was released from jail in late 1995. Not long before that, he wrote Chuck D a letter, which the Public Enemy front man decided to share on Twitter over the weekend.

It seems that this is ‘Pac returning a letter that Chuck had written to him, and says he was “touched” by the “show of support.”

He also wrote that he had a part for the Public Enemy rapper in a movie, and wanted to work with him on a “program” that he was putting together, and asked if he’d appear on a song for his upcoming album.

‘Pac ended his letter powerfully. “I do believe we can make a difference and I have every intention of doing just that,” he wrote.

Adam Fleischer

I'm serious about these snacks. Catch me @adamfleischer

Helena Bonham Carter is at the opening of Universal Orlando’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Diagon Alley to talk about being bad. But for her upcoming role as The Fairy Godmother in Disney’s live-action reimagining of “Cinderella,” she’s channeling something completely different than the “Harry Potter” movie’s evil second-in-command, Bellatrix Lestrange.

“Yeah, she’s good!” Carter said, laughing, as she told MTV News about the “Cinderella” role. “She has a wand, she has teeth, but they’re perfect.”

Carter is well known for her out there — and in recent years, evil — characters like Lestrange, which she played over four “Harry Potter” movies, as well for scenes filmed for the new ride “Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts,” which opens on July 8. But when she graces screens in 2015, it’s for a part about as far from Lestrange as you can get.

Still, according to Carter, being pure good doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges.

“It’s an icon, it’s a tricky one because a fairy godmother, everyone has an idea of a fairy godmother,” Carter continued, as she sat right outside a replica of the “Harry Potter” films’ evil Knockturn Alley. “And also it’s kind of difficult to believe yourself as a fairy godmother, because it’s like a myth. You try and reinvent it, try ...

Demi Lovato, will you be our life coach? If she ever gives up her day/night job (Demi, please don’t do that!), she’d make an excellent one. After all, she’s written “Staying Strong,” a book of inspirational quotes, and as August’s Seventeen Guest Editor, she doles out sage advice and opens up about what she’s learned after checking herself into rehab in 2010. Beyond coming to the realization that confidence doesn’t come from what other people think (and that includes boys), but from within, Demi shares the importance of friendship and how to overcome obstacles.

“I tell myself five things that I’m grateful for, for every negative thing that I think,” Demi said, explaining her personal confidence boosters. On supporting friends’ confidence, she added, “Another cool thing girls can do: You know how people have swear jars, where if you swear you have to put a dollar in a jar? You could do that with feeling insecure — every time a friend says something bad about themselves, they have to put a dollar in a jar. [And then] you can donate it to charity.”

You know how they say you can tell a lot about someone by who they choose as friends? Demi shared what she’s learned about surrounding yourself with good people: “I like to have friends in my life who believe they’re going places and are working towards their dreams. When you’re growing and the people around you aren’t, That’s when you ...

RALEIGH, North Carolina — You know when you were a kid and you went to the museum and you didn’t understand the concept of a museum so you thought it was a shop and you wanted to buy all the shiny Egyptian artifacts and iconic paintings and take them home? And then, when your parents told you that you couldn’t, you cried and cried and cried?

Well, seeing Katy Perry’s Prismatic World Tour is kind of like going to a museum. From her giant ride-on “Dark Horse” to the butterfly crown that flapped its wings, Perry had a lot of stuff there on stage that I ardently wanted. Luckily, said tour had the equivalent of a museum store for all of us who wanted to look and touch and own: the merch stand.

Check out all the stuff that made my fingers itchy below:

The Prismatic merch stand was a glittering treasure trove of objets d’art

Like this T-shirt that really drove home the ‘big balloons’ innuendo in ‘Birthday’

And this way cool vintage ‘Roar’ poster

And this slowly undulating jungle beast

You could also cop Katy’s ‘Drive’-esque ‘Roar’ jacket and some seriously ’90s smiley gear

And somewhere there was a holographic backpack but not in plain site — likely because its beauty was blinding

I did get to actually touch this amazing Prism necklace because I purchased it and wore it to bed and dreamt of rainbows and unicorns

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RALEIGH, North Carolina — Attending a Katy Perry concert is about 40 percent pop music explosion, 10 percent Broadway musical and a hefty 50 percent total fan meltdown (in a good way). Perry’s KatyCats are much more loyal versions of your average, purring housecat — and the “Roar” singer is undoubtedly their lovable, crazy cat lady.

Perry peppered the kick-off to the North American leg of her Prismatic World Tour — which included tons of tracks off Prism, along with fan favorites like “Firework” — with shout-outs to fans of all ilks. She praised her KatyCats who have been with her since the “Mannequin” days — off of 2008′s One Of The Boys — and asked if they would still be around when she debuted at “#90″ rather than “#1″ and “can’t afford couture.” The answer was a resounding roar that exploded my eardrums and made me deaf and sounded like the below:

Despite the manic screaming, though, Katy Perry’s return to the U.S. had the distinct feel of hanging with all your pals in your arts camp bunk — times a few thousand. She handed out pizza to the front rows while gabbing about the rivers of post-performance sweat pouring down her sides — thanks, shiny costumes — and inspected the hand-drawn signs many a KatyCat lifted toward her in supplication (“We will love you unconditionally!” many said). She also brought one lucky fan born this month onstage during “Birthday” and gave her the royal treatment — throne, ...