The Best And Worst Dressed: Oscar's 2011

Celebs hit the red carpet for the Oscars on Feburary 27th and it looks like different shades of reds and plums are all the rage this season...check out the pics below.

Jennifer Hudson looked gorgeous as ever in a deep orange Versace dress.

Sandra Bullock rocked a  red Vera Wang dress and looked fabulous while doing so! The hair...not so much.

   Scarlett Johansson wore a plum lace Dolce and Gabbana dress. Something about this dress is kinda weird, but I like it and it works for her. Her hair is a bit too messy for my liking.

Natalie Portman wore a beautiful off the shoulder silk chiffon gown by Rodarte and tassel earrings by Tiffany & Co

Mila Kunis in a lavender lace and silk organza gown by Elie Saab Haute Couture...beautiful!

    

Michelle Williams in a skintight nude-color cap-sleeve gown by Chanel...something about this dress is just terribly boring to me.

Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg looking dapper as ever.

Gwyneth Paltrow...not sure how I feel about this dress.

Justin Timberlake and his mother....awww!

Jesse Eisenberg...why so serious?

Cate Blanchett in a structured lavender gown with cut-out detailing by Givenchy Couture.  This looks too "Little House On The Prairie" for me. Definitely a no go.

Reese Witherspoon dress looks like something from 2003...I've seen it before. Boring.

Camila Alves and Matthew McConaughey both look wonderful!

Mandy Moore wearing a nude-color, off-the-shoulder dress by Monique Lhuillier. I love the way the dress looks like nothing is holding it up. Its almost as though it's floating.

Florence Welch...What in piss colored multilayered hell is going on here? Pure disaster.

 

Halle Berry looks stunning as usual.

Hillary Swank, love it!

This looks more like a Halloween costume more than anything. Everything about this is ALL WRONG! Smh.

J. Cole "Nothing Like IT"

Here's brand new music from J. Cole. The instrumental's from Kanye...what do you think?

Adele Performs On The David Letterman Show

Grammy award winning songstress Adele made a trip from London to perform on the David Letterman Show last night. She sang Rolling In The Deep which comes from her sophomore album entitled "21" in stores now.  Check out the performance...her voice is truly amazing!

Beyonce's Louboutin's At The All Star Game

Bey rocked these Christian Louboutin Daffodile Platform Heels to the All Star game tonight...wow. I need these in my life!

Beyonce's Louboutin's At The All Star Game

Bey rocked these Christian Louboutin Daffodile Platform Heels to the All Star game tonight...wow. I need these in my life!

Steve Stoute Goes In On The Grammy Awards Commitee!!!!

Industry heavyweight Steve Stoute bought a whole page of ad space in the New York Times to publish his letter blasting the Grammy Awards Committee and NARAS (the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences). The letter hit shelves this morning and uses words like "dismay" to describe his thoughts of the 53rd  Annual Grammy Award show that aired last Sunday. 


In his letter addressed to Neil Portnow (President NARAS), NARAS itself, and the GRAMMY Awards Committee, Stoute describes in thorough detail why he says the Grammy Awards Committee is biased against more popular artists such as Kanye West and Justin Bieber, how the Grammy's uses popular artists for ratings but they are "snubbed year after year at the Grammy's" and the "fundamental disrespect of cultural shifts as being viable and artistic."  


Check out the rest below

February 20, 2011

An Open Letter to Neil Portnow, NARAS and the GRAMMY Awards®:

Over the course of my 20-year history as an executive in the music business and as the owner of a firm that specializes in in-culture advertising, I have come to the conclusion that the Grammy Awards have clearly lost touch with contemporary popular culture. My being a music fan has left me with an even greater and deeper sense of dismay — so much so that I feel compelled to write this letter. Where I think that the Grammys fail stems from two key sources: (1) over-zealousness to produce a popular show that is at odds with its own system of voting and (2) fundamental disrespect of cultural shifts as being viable and artistic.

As an institution that celebrates artistic works of musicians, singers, songwriters, producers and technical specialists, we have come to expect that the Grammys upholds all of the values that reflect the very best in music that is born from our culture. Unfortunately, the awards show has become a series of hypocrisies and contradictions, leaving me to question why any contemporary popular artist would even participate. How is it possible that in 2001 The Marshall Mathers LP — an album by Eminem that ushered in the Bob Dylan of our time — was beaten out by Steely Dan (no disrespect) for Album Of The Year? While we cannot solely utilize album sales as the barometer, this was certainly not the case. Not only is Eminem the best-selling artist of the last decade, but The Marshall Mathers LP was a critical and commercial success that sold over 10 million albums in the United States (19 million worldwide), while Steely Dan sold less than 10% of that amount and came and went as quietly as a church mouse. Or consider even that in 2008 at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, after going into the night as the most-nominated artist, Kanye West’s Graduation was beaten out for Album Of The Year by Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters. (This was the first time in 43 years that a jazz album won this category.) While there is no doubt in my mind of the artistic talents of Steely Dan or Herbie Hancock, we must acknowledge the massive cultural impact of Eminem and Kanye West and how their music is shaping, influencing and defining the voice of a generation. It is this same cultural impact that acknowledged the commercial and critical success of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1984.

Just so that I’m not showing partiality to hip-hop artists (although it would be an entirely different letter as to how hip-hop music has been totally diminished as an art form by this organization), how is it that Justin Bieber, an artist that defines what it means to be a modern artist, did not win Best New Artist? Again, his cultural impact and success are even more quantifiable if you factor in his YouTube and Vevo viewership — the fact that he was a talent born entirely of the digital age whose story was crafted in the most humble method of being “discovered” purely for his singing ability (and it should be noted that Justin Bieber plays piano and guitar, as evidenced on his early viral videos).

So while these very artists that the public acknowledges as being worthy of their money and fandom are snubbed year after year at the Grammys, the awards show has absolutely no qualms in inviting these same artists to perform. At first I thought that you were not paying attention to the fact that the mental complexion of the world is becoming tanned, that multiculturalism and poly-ethnicity are driving new meaning as to what is culturally relevant. Interesting that the Grammys understands cultural relevance when it comes to using Eminem’s, Kanye West’s or Justin Bieber’s name in the billing to ensure viewership and to deliver the all-too-important ratings for its advertisers.

What truly inspired the writing of this letter was that this most recent show fed my suspicions. As the show was coming to a close and just prior to presenting the award for Album Of The Year, the band Arcade Fire performed “Month of May” — only to… surprise… win the category and, in a moment of sheer coincidence, happened to be prepared to perform “Ready to Start.”

Does the Grammys intentionally use artists for their celebrity, popularity and cultural appeal when they already know the winners and then program a show against this expectation? Meanwhile the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences hides behind the “peer” voting system to escape culpability for not even rethinking its approach.

And I imagine that next year there will be another televised super-close-up of an astonished front-runner as they come to the realization before a national audience… that he or she was used.

NARAS.

And to all of the artists that attend the Grammys: Stop accepting the invitation to be the upset of the year and demand that this body upholds its mission for advocacy and support of artistry as culture evolves.

Demand that they change this system and truly reflect and truly acknowledge your art.

Steve Stoute

145 W 45th ST. 12th FL, NYC 10036

Kanye West "All Of The Lights" Video

This is the official video for "All Of The Lights" by Kanye (directed by Hype Williams) featuring Rihanna and Kid Cudi. This track is on Ye’s recent album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy which hit stores last November.has The imagery, the colors, and yes the lights...I love it! I'm not quite sure why Kid Cudi has his back and side to the camera the whole time and its kinda awkward...but that's Cudi and it works. Check it out and let me know what you think!