Music

New details of late R&B star Aaliyah‘s life are being revealed nearly 20 years after her death.

Author Kathy Iandoli‘s new biography, Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah, out Tuesday, includes never-before-told stories about the hitmaker’s music, her relationships and the evolution of her career.

Iandoli’s book also explores Aaliyah’s long-lasting influence since her tragic death in a plane crash on August 25, 2001, at age 22.

During an interview with Good Morning America, Iandoli shared more about her reverence for the late music icon and what drew her to creating this biography.

“I wanted to create something that celebrated her because I was sick and tired of the other static that was coming in about her — the other things, the other news — and there’s only really one way to tell a story and it’s to provide this panoramic view of the artist,” she explained.

The author and music expert said Aaliyah’s death was overshadowed by the 9/11 attacks, so many fans “weren’t able to grieve.”

“What started to happen over the years was Aaliyah became an aesthetic — she became this like mythical creature, she became almost like a statue, a piece of iconography,” Iandoli said.

The book covers many points of Aaliyah’s career and her personal life, including her secret — and brief — marriage to disgraced rapper R. Kelly in 1994, when she was just 15 and Kelly was 27. The marriage was later annulled.

In the book, Iandoli also acknowledges the possibility that the late singer may have been drugged before boarding her final flight. Iandoli is clear in stating that this is just a possibility; she is not saying it happened or did not happen.

Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah is now available.

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Seether has premiered the video for “Wasteland,” a track off the band’s new album, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.

The clip mixes performance footage with a narrative surrounding two characters trying to escape from the pressures of social media. The characters are played by professional snake wrangler Danielle Wall and Tom Berninger, brother of The National frontman Matt Berninger.

“We were trying to figure out how to make some kind of statement about the evils of social media and it evolved from one idea to the video it is now,” says frontman Shaun Morgan.

“After spending such a long period of time without any kind of personal contact with the other band members, the live performance element was especially important to us,” he continues. “It was good for us mentally and emotionally, but it was also important to visually show that we’ve come out the other side after such a difficult time.”

You can watch the “Wasteland” video streaming now on YouTube.

Seether released Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum last August. It includes the singles “Dangerous” and “Bruised and Bloodied.”

Last week, Seether announced a new greatest hits compilation titled Vicennial — 2 Decades of Seether. It’ll be released October 15.

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The Kid LAROI turns 18 today and he’s got a lot to celebrate.  Not only is he currently number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with his hit, “Stay,” but he’s also number one in his home country of Australia.  On top of that, he’s now besties with one of his idols, Justin Bieber.

On Twitter, the rapper, born Charlton Howard, wrote, “18 Years! WOAH. first of all, thank you to every single one of you mfs for supporting me. I LOVE YOU ALL BEYOND WORDS CAN F**KIN EXPLAIN MAN. you guys have literally changed my life and there’s nothing that I can ever do to repay you.”

LAROI then noted that, instead of gifts, he’d prefer that his fans donate to causes that mean something to him.

“I want to use this platform to continue to help others,” he explained. “This year I’m raising funds to help these amazing organizations —> https://pledge.to/the-kid-laroi-birthday u can also donate by texting LAROI to 707070.”

If you click on the pledge button, you’ll learn that LAROI is asking fans to help organizations that are working to help homeless young people in both Australia and the U.S.  “Proper housing and the kinds of supportive programs that these groups provide can make all the difference for a young person,” writes LAROI.

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Nelly is calling on a few of his country friends for an upcoming episode of CMT Crossroads. 

The Grammy-winning rapper is teaming up with frequent collaborators Florida Georgia Line, Kane Brown, Blanco Brown and Breland for CMT Crossroads: Nelly & Friends, which premieres on September 1 at 10 p.m. ET.

Nelly is making history as the first hip-hop artist to headline the long-running series that pairs a country act with an artist from another genre as they perform one another’s songs. The show will also mark Kane, Blanco and Breland’s CMT Crossroads debut. 

All three acts are featured on the rapper’s upcoming country-influenced album, Heartland, which features FGL on “Lil Bit,” Kane on “Grits & Glamour,” and both Blanco and Breland on “High Horse.” 

Nelly and FGL have been longtime collaborators, beginning with a remix of FGL’s “Cruise” that peaked inside the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2013. They’re currently climbing their way up the charts with “Lil Bit,” which is at #3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and in the top 20 of the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 Airplay chart.

Heartland is due out on August 27.

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If you just can’t wait for Josh Groban to return to the stage, you can watch him now on The Roku Channel.

The first season of a new game show called Eye Candy is now streaming, and Josh is the host.  The show, based on a popular Japanese program, has contestants trying to determine, “Is it real or cake?” 

Basically, contestants look at everyday objects and decide if they’re regular old inedible things — like a yoga mat or a box of crayons — or cleverly disguised delicious cakes.  If they think something’s cake, they have to take a bite out of it — with often hilarious results.

Among the celebrity guests who are competing: Rachel Dratch, Michael Ian Black, Tiki Barber, Nico Tortorella, Nina Agdal and Ana Gasteyer.

When the show was first announced, Josh was quoted as saying, “I first saw this show in Japan when it was called Sokkuri Sweets and was obsessed with how fun and silly it was. To be the ringmaster of such insanity is a dream. Bon Appetit.”

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Lorde has released a third advance song from her much-anticipated upcoming album, Solar Power.

The latest cut is titled “Mood Ring,” and is available now for digital download and via streaming. The acoustic-driven jam follows the lead single title track and the song “Stoned at the Nail Salon.”

“This is a song I am very excited about, it’s so much fun to me,” Lorde says of “Mood Ring.” “Obviously when making this album I did a deep-dive into ’60s, Flower Child culture. I wanted to understand the commune life, dropping out from society and trying to start again. That really resonated to me when writing this album.”

Fittingly, “Mood Ring” is accompanied by a video that finds Lorde in a hippie-commune setting.

“One thing that occurred to me as a major parallel between that time and our time is our wellness culture and our culture of spirituality, pseudo-spirituality, wellness, pseudo-wellness,” Lorde explains. “Things like eating a macro-biotic vegan diet or burning sage, keeping crystals, reading tarot cards or your horoscope.”

She continues, “These were all things that they were dabbling in back then, and that me and my girlfriends are dabbling in today. I was like, ‘I think there’s a pop song in here.’ So this is kind of my extremely satirical look at all of those vibes.”

Solar Power the album arrives this Friday, August 20.

In other news, Lorde will be joining The Late Late Show with James Corden for a week-long residency starting August 23.

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Volbeat didn’t need to “Wait” very long to grab another number-one single.

The band’s new track, “Wait a Minute My Girl,” has hit number one on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. It arrives at the top spot on the ranking just two months after it premiered in June.

“Wait a Minute My Girl” is Volbeat’s ninth number-one Mainstream Rock Airplay hit, which ties the Danish rockers with Aerosmith in sixth for all-time charters. Shinedown has the most leaders in the chart’s 40-year history, with 16.

Volbeat will launch a U.S. tour September 24 in Atlanta.

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Travis Denning is returning to the road with a renewed perspective. 

As he jets across the U.S. as an opening act on Brothers Osborne‘s We’re Not For Everyone Tour, the “After a Few” singer says that he has a newfound appreciation for live shows and life on the road. 

“I’m just so grateful. It’s like a totally different perspective. I try to take every opportunity now to go do things on the road, versus maybe there were days I woke up and just sat on the bus and did nothing,” Travis explains to People. “I remember the reason I love to do it is because I get to travel and do things.”

Travis also says he’s noticing a difference in the crowd, as more people seem to be in the moment and less occupied with capturing the show on their phones. 

“They’re really living in the moment. I think you can just see people who missed it so much. What’s cool is everybody on stage missed it, too, so where there used to be a little bit of a wall between the audience and us, it feels more like a celebration of returning to this thing that we love,” he continues. “It’s been really amazing to experience that with people and just feel like we’re right there together. It’s almost like we’re not even on the stage.”

Travis dropped his new EP, Dirt Road Dawn, earlier this month as his current single, “ABBY,” climbs the charts.

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Jim Jones announced Monday he’s recovering from COVID-19.

“I urge everybody to stay safe out there. COVID is real,” the Dipset member said in an Instagram video. “I was runnin’ ‘round here thinking I was Superman and COVID knocked the socks off Superman.” He also wrote that the virus “is like a stray bullet it don’t care who it hits.”

The 45-year-old rapper added that he recently tested negative and is feeling much better.

“So I urge and encourage everybody to please continue to mask up, please continue with hand sanitizer, social distance as much as you can, try to stay away from as many packed and crowded places,” he said. “I really felt it and I don’t want nobody to feel like how I felt.”

As previously reported, two weeks ago Jones and fellow Dipset members Cam’ron, Juelz Santana and Freekey Zekey battled The LOX in the latest edition of Verzuz, at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York City. The two groups will perform on the The Rap Superheroes Tour with State Property, which consists of Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Peedi Peedi, Oschino and Omillio Sparks, and the duo Young Gunz. The seven-city tour kicks off September 16 in Atlanta, and wraps up October 1 in Milwaukee.

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