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For the second year in a row, a hip-hop artist is leading the pack in Grammy nominations.

source: MTV

Although his name was only called for one category during Wednesday’s (November 30) “Grammy Nominations Concert Live!!,Kanye West walked away with a leading seven nods, following the hip-hop trend set by last year’s leading nominee, Eminem. He’s nominated for his Watch the Throne joint album with Jay-Z and also picked up a few nominations — including Song of the Year — for his powerhouse collaborative track “All of the Lights,” which features Rihanna, Fergie and Kid Cudi. He’s even nominated against himself, with Watch the Throne and his own My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy nabbing Rap Album of the Year nods.

West was followed by this year’s critical darling, Adele, who is tied with the Foo Fighters and Bruno Mars for six nods each. Lil Wayne and dance-music breakout Skrillex each garnered five nods.

While the Grammys have a reputation for catering to an older demographic (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss for 2009 Album of the Year, anyone?), this year’s nominees are notably young, with 34-year-old West looking downright geriatric next to fellow nominees Adele (23), Rihanna (23), Lady Gaga (25) and Bruno Mars (26).

Full List after the jump. Read More

* data comes from Nielsen Soundscan

#3. Rihanna – Talk That Talk – 198,000 (198,000)

#4. Drake – Take Care – 173,000 (804,000)

#5. Mary J. Blige – My Life II: The Journey Continues 156,000 (156,000)

#15. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter IV – 59,000 (1,752,000)

#16. LMFAO – Sorry For Party Rocking – 56,000 (306,000)

#27. Yelawolf – Radioactive – 41,000 (41,000)

#51. Wale – Ambition – 21,000 (256,000)

#112. Webbie – Savage Life 3 – 9,100 (39,000)

#164. Tech N9ne Collabos – Welcome To Strangeland – 5,100 (38,000)

#189. Mobb Deep – Black Cocaine EP – 4,200 (4,300)

 

directed by Vitamin E

Singsong

The Digital Era has arrived. You no longer need to carry around big keyboards and drum sets in order to play instruments and be a musician.  Check out video of song created completely with iPad apps (MadPad, Magic Fiddle, Magic Piano, Garageband, etc.) costing a total around $100 bucks. This is by no means a substitute for the real deal or a Dr. Dre beat created on a MPC 5000, but it will open a door for maybe a Digital Music genre?  Who will be the first rapper to release an iPad album?   Checkout more Digital Music Videos after the jump.

All instruments recorded by iPad apps!
Used in this song: Animoog, MadPad, Magic Fiddle, Magic Piano, iSynPoly, ReBirth, GarageBand, Alchemy, iElectribe.

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Vodpod videos no longer available.

In the first part of the series, we get a look at the day that TIP returns home after 11 months in prison. Episode airs on next Monday at 9pm

Google gives a short history on the evolution of search.

Title/ Weekend Gross (in millions)

  1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1   $41.6 m
  2. The Muppets    $29.2 m
  3. Happy Feet Two  $13.3 m
  4. Arthur Christmas  $12 m
  5. Hugo  $11.3 m
  6. Jack and Jill  $10 m
  7. Immortals  $8.8 m
  8. Puss in Boots   $7.5 m
  9. The Descendants  $7.3 m
  10. Tower Heist  $7.1m 

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General Cannabis Inc. has just announced that it’s acquired Marijuana.com. The company didn’t disclose the details of the deal, but we’ve confirmed that the acquisition price was $4.20 million.

Spotted at: TechCrunch

General Cannabis is a serious business: it’s traded on the OTCQX market, and a year ago it acquired WeedMaps, a popular ‘Yelp for Cannabis Dispensaries‘ site with a large following. WeedMaps was topping $400,000 a month in revenues at the time of the acquisition and it’s growing nicely — the site did over $1 million in gross revenues in July, and now sees 10 million page views a month.

The acquisition includes both the valuable Marijuana.com domain name and the existing site/content, which currently consists of a bulletin forum that centers on cannabis discussion and generates 3.5 million page views per month. WeedMaps Media, which is a subsidiary of General Cannabis, will be ‘bridging’ its membership database with the forum’s, allowing WeedMaps users to log into Marijuana.com with their existing accounts. The company says that it will also be expanding the amount of content and functionality available. The domain and site will be transfered early in 2012.

It’s obviously a pricey acquisition, but one that will likely pay dividends. Marijuana.com is much easier to remember than General Cannabis or WeedMaps.com, and the company is positioning itself as the go-to place for information that’s relevant to cannabis users.

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In an unexpected announcement last week, Daimler AG revealed that they will be discontinuing their luxury Maybach vehicles soon due to low sales and lack of profits. Last year, there were reportedly less than 200 Maybachs sold, which carried a starting price of $375,250 — one of which Kanye West and Jay-Z happily chopped up for their music video, ‘Otis.’

To make up for the financial loss, Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche plans on expanding the company’s now three series Mercedes-Benz S-Class model to a 600 in 2013.

“We came to the strong conclusion that the sales chances for the Mercedes brand are much stronger than those for Maybach.”

The luxury vehicles have been the ride of choice for rappers over the years, making appearances in many hip hop/rap videos and being the inspiration behind the name of Miami rapper Rick Ross’ label, Maybach Music Group. Last year, Diddy’s son Justin Combs received a $350,000 Maybach for his 16th birthday during MTV’s Sweet 16 special.

More Hip Hop Maybach pics after the jump Read More

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Mobile apps are extremely popular and trendy this year, Apple iPhone/iPad products accounted for 10% of Black Friday sales last week. GWOP Magazine staff has created a guide for all new Apple iPhone/iPad users as of what apps to download as soon as you step into the Mac world. (Some apps are also available on android devices)  Checkout the full list after the jump. 

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.  Design is how it works”

-Steve Jobs, (1955-2011)

Read More

 

Performers included The Time, Joe, Robin Thicke, Common, Marsha Ambrosius, Kenny Lattimore, Dave Hollister, Freddie Jackson, Gladys Knight, Mindless Behavior, Tamar Braxton, Chrisette Michele, Anthony Hamilton, BeBe Winans, Boney James, Mary Mary, Natalie Cole, Cee Lo Green, Melanie Fiona, Lloyd, Eric Benet and Joe. Plus, there was a Heavy D tribute featuring Doug E. Fresh, Goodie M.O.B., Naughty By Nature, Whodini, Big Daddy Kane and Kurtis Blow. Here’s a look at this year’s winners

Album of the Year – Chris Brown’s ‘F.A.M.E’

Song of the Year – Kelly Rowland’s ‘Motivation (Ft. Lil Wayne)’

Record of the Year (Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award) – Marsha Ambrosius’ ‘Far Away’

Best New Artist – Miguel

Best Male R&B/Soul – Cee Lo Green

Best Female R&B/Soul Artist – Jill Scott

Best Caribbean Performance – Rihanna’s ‘Man Down’

Best Gospel Performance – Mary Mary’s  ‘Walking’

Best Hip-Hop Song – Nicki Minaj’s ‘Moment For Life (Ft. Drake)’

Best Dance Performance – Beyonce’s  ‘Run the World (Girls)’

Best Soul Site – NecoleBitchie.com

Best Traditional Jazz Album – Cassandra Wilson’s ‘Silver Pony’

Best Contemporary Jazz Album – Dave Koz’s ‘Hello Tomorrow’


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Retail sales break records, Cyber Monday up next.
This year’s sales were up to $52 billion from $45 billion last year, the National Retail Federation said Sunday. A record 226 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 212 million last year. The average holiday shopper spent about $400 over the weekend, up from $365 last year.

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