Michael Jackson: Dead at 50

97 BHT heard the unfortunate news first from our friends at TMZ.com.  Here's the TMZ coverage.  

 

Here's some links to reports of The  King of Pop's death due to a cardiac arrest.

ABC NEWS COVERAGE

E NEWS COVERAGE

LA TIMES COVERAGE

MSNBC COVERAGE

CNN reported the occurance, but was late to verify that it was true. Here's the latest from CNN.

DAILY DOWNLOADS: New from Mr. Hudson ft. KanYe West, L.M.F.A.O., Drake

06.24.09 : Mr. Hudson f. KanYe West - Supernova
06.23.09 : L.M.F.A.O. - Yes
06.22.09 : Drake - Best I Ever Had

ATTY. ELIZABETH KELLEY: Chris Brown's Jig Is Up

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Attorney Elizabeth Kelley predicted the outcome of the Chris Brown/Rihanna case well before both sides reached a plea deal. Ms. Kelly weighs in on the situation with The Ralphie Radio Show.

Visit Elizabeth Kelley's website.

WINGMAN WEDNESDAY: Letting It Drag On

The Wingman advises Nicole to have fun... while her relationship goes on...

Initial Wingman Response:

Reaction #1:

Visit The Wingman on MySpace.

VIDEO: Tinted Windows Perform, Chat In Studio

Tinted Windows, comprised of Taylor Hanson (Hanson), James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) visited the 97 BHT studios for an acoustic performance on Thursday!

Powered by Rodano's, S-Curve Records, & 97 BHT!

EXCLUSIVE: Drake Denies Rihanna Relationship, Calls Soulja Boy, "Smartest Artist of Our Generation"

America is offering quite the introduction in to the music industry for Canadian recording artist Aubrey “Drake” Graham. The singer/actor already experienced first hand the influence of an A-list affiliation – regardless of the endorsement’s capacity.

Drake performed in support of Lil Wayne earlier in the year, and is set to trek out with Weezy again on this summer’s “America’s Most Wanted Music Festival.” The tour kicks off in Scranton on July 27 – so Drake called in to The Ralphie Radio Show, promoting the concert while speaking on a wide-array of topics, including his ties to the “Umbrella” singer.

“The most important thing in that situation is that, she’s actually a dope person,” said Drake of RiRi. “Whatever it did for me, I guess was just an additional blessing on top of the fact that she’s actually a great individual.”

Rumors have swirled about a romance between the two for well over a month. Paparazzi have caught both Drake and Rihanna out on the town, even kissing at times. Certainly it thrust the Toronto-born artist in to American pop culture. Now Drake can’t even hit an airport without being recognized.

“Some guy that was like working at Customs was like, ‘Yo, I know you, you’re Rihanna’s boyfriend.’ Which I’m not by the way, for the record,” Drake clarified.

Drake gave honest, almost inapprehensive answers when it came to his ties to the Bajan beauty – until I asked if he still keeps in touch with her.

Rihanna & Drake (CelebrityRadar)
Part 1: Toronto, Lil Wayne, Gaining Cred in the States

Part 2: Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, Rihanna

Info about the show here.
“(A few seconds of silence) Yeah, I see her from time to time,” Drake answered, his tone clearly down a notch.

But Drake didn’t hesitate to offer up props to his tour mates – a bill that generated a solid amount of buzz here in Northeastern PA with the likes of Wayne, Young Jeezy, and Jeremih. Specifically, Drake big-upped Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, anointing the rapper, “the smartest artist of our generation, period.”

“Whether it’s him, whether it’s his team around him, whoever has the thoughts to do the things he does, is genius.”

The two hip-hop artists met recently for the first time while playing the new Ultimate Fighting Championship game on XBOX 360. Drake took a light-hearted jab at the “Swag On” rapper, insisting that Soulja Boy, “can’t see” him when it comes to that game.

Hopefully Drake knows what he just got himself in to with that comment. After all, he’ll see a lot of Soulja this summer: the two will perform 21 dates throughout the U.S. and Canada.

EXCLUSIVE: Visit from Tinted Windows

Taylor Hanson will probably always be best known as one-third of “Hanson” – three brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma that “MMMBop”-ed their way in to mainstream media.

But much has changed since Taylor and his brothers asked where the love went. The lead singer is the father of four. “Hanson” still records, but no longer receives the spins from pop radio. And now, Taylor is proving that he can play nice with musicians that aren’t blood relatives.

Hanson fronts a new band called Tinted Windows. The quartet is a conglomerate of sorts – with Taylor’s vocals backed by Adam Schlesinger’s bass (Fountains of Wayne) James Iha’s guitar (Smashing Pumpkins) and the drums of Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick).

“Adam and I had talked about doing some music together for a long time,” revealed Hanson. “About three years ago, he called me, and we started talking about putting a band together.”

According to Rolling Stone, Hanson joined forces with Schlessinger and Iha – and the three decided that the group needed a percussion-presence similar to Cheap Trick’s Carlos. Finally, the band decided to reach out to Carlos himself, and he obliged.

The three founding members stopped in Wilkes-Barre last week, en route to Philadelphia. Carlos isn’t making this round of radio promo with the band – he’s a bit preoccupied on Cheap Trick’s tour with Poison and Def Leppard.

While each member’s respective band accolades may be recognized, what is possibly unknown is some of the group’s accomplishments as individuals, namely Schlessinger. The bassist earns the distinction as the only musician of the four with Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations on his resume. Schlessinger wrote the title track to Tom Hanks’ “That Thing You Do.”

“There were some people I knew in the music business that said, ‘Hey we heard Tom Hanks is working on this movie, and it’s kind of about this band in the 60’s,’” recalled Schlessinger

The 41 year-old musician is a fan of that musical era. So, Schlessinger wrote the track, recorded the demo with a few friends, and mailed it in.

“That was a big, lucky break for me,” he said. Schlessinger eventually met Hanks, and even ended up on the receiving end of some film direction from the number one box-office star in the world. The musician stopped by Hanks’ office to say hi to a few people – but unbeknownst to Adam, a short was filming.

“He gave me some lines, and put me on this couch, and he was directing me,” recalled Schlessinger. “I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t be directed by Tom Hanks. I’m not an actor.’”

Taylor Swift & T-Pain - "Thug Story"

Taylor Swift teams up with T-Pain for the track "Thug Story" that happened to be a big hit at the CMT Music Awards. Here's some behind the scenes footage of the song coming together.

Here's the finished product.