TODAY'S R&B UPDATE

PROMO

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Here are some new promo pictures for Fergie's new album The Duchess. The album came out today in the UK and overseas. It gets released in the US tomorrow.

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EVENTS

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Beyonce and her sister Solange, nephew Daniel and her mama Tina all stopped by at the Tyra Banks show where they had lots of fun.

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Cassie performed in Stockholm. It was in a club called Cafe Opera. I wonder how her live performances are coming along these days. We have two days to go before the (rubbish) MOBO Awards are shown live in the United Kingdom and I read somewhere that Cassie will be performing at the event. We will see in two days time. Well, it's been reported that "two secret international superstars" will grace the show with their presence so if they truly mean superstar, it may not be Cassie after all. My guess is that it might be Janet Jackson/Beyonce and P.Diddy. I bet I'm off but this is who I think. Now for those who aren't familiar with the MOBO Awards, it is the British equivalent of the BET Awards but ten times more wack, the type of show that gets shunned by all of the big names so they have to make do with all these Z-List performers. The show just seems to go downhill each year. It use to be so good circa 1998-2002. Well, to all my UK visitors, the MOBO's will air this Wednesday at 9pm on BBC3. I didn't watch it last year but I decided that I will watch it this week. It will give me something to write about. Confirmed performers include Lemar, Jamelia and Corinne Bailey Rae.

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On the right, Christina Milian attends Nas' Surprise Birthday Party presented by Kelis at the Canal Room September 13, 2006 in New York City.

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MAGAZINES

Two more new pictures of Beyonce in Harper Bazaar

Brooke Valentine gets down with hairstyles in the latest issue of Hype Hair

Rihanna on Portuguese Bravo Magazine

NEWS

I was wondering when we were going to get some news on this new Fantasia album and we finally get it. Fantasia talks about how this album will be different from her first: ''I want to be a household name, and I want to be able to cross over and do different things,'' she says. ''I'm like, let's do some stuff that will touch everybody, that everyone can groove to.'' To that end, she has recruited an impressive roster of big-name producers and collaborators, including OutKast's Big Boi (on the track ''Hood Boy''), Swizz Beats (who helms ''Surround You''), Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo, rapper Missy Elliott, and movie-ballad songwriting queen Diane Warren. She also adds:

''Kelly [Clarkson] had more imput on her second album,'' Fantasia says. ''She knew what she wanted, she had the vision. You can work with a lot of producers, and you can have people give you songs and you just sing them, but it's a difference when it's what you want to do. You go in and you just kill it.''

Or it could be that Kelly's sound was a lot more identifiable to the mainstream masses who actually go out there and buy albums (white people). After all, I did see a study that stated that white folks buy albums more than anyone else. Now if black people went out and supported her, she'd have sold much more than 1.7 million records, considering that she was mainly catering towards the urban/R&B market. Her album Free Yourself was actually very good. I look forwards to the new album.

MUSIC
Remixes. Okay, I am posting three different remixes of Beyonce's Ring The Alarm for those that have not heard these before. They actually sound better than the original dare I say it. I don't like Ring The Alarm but I'm feeling the hell out of that Jazze Pha remix. Thalisha also did a good version of the song and in the other version, Foxy Brown packs more bad-ass attitude into the track. Enjoy.

Ring The Alarm (Jazze Pha Remix) - Beyonce [download: full]
Ring The Alarm (Remix) - Beyonce feat Foxy Brown [download: full]
Ring The Alarm (Remix) - Thalisha [download: full]