Tuesday 31 January 2012

Machine Gun Kelly


MACHINE GUN KELLY


   Richard Colson Baker (born April 22, 1990), best known by his stage name Machine Gun Kelly or MGK, is an American rapper from Shaker Heights, Ohio. His stage name was given for his rapid-fire lyrical flow. He is known for his three mixtapes, 100 Words and Running, Lace Up and Rage Pack. He also has been featured in XXL.In mid 2011 MGK signed a deal with Young and Reckless Clothing. On August 3, 2011, he announced he signed with Diddy's Bad Boy Records, and Interscope Records.On December 14, 2011, Machine Gun Kelly was named the Hottest Breakthrough MC of 2011 by MTV.

Early life:

   Colson Baker was born in 1990, in Texas to missionary parents and took up residence in Egypt, Germany, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, and Ohio.Since he lived the first four years of his life in Egypt, he spoke Arabic before English.He started listening to rap at the age of four when he went to a predominantly black school in Denver.At 14, Baker moved to his now hometown Cleveland, where he attended Shaker Heights High School, graduating in 2008.



Musical career:

  On the verge of getting evicted, Baker went to Harlem's Apollo Theater in March 2009 where he had back-to-back victories, making him the first rapper to ever win at the Apollo Theater.He records music in his home studio which he refers to as the "Rage Cage".Colson first started to gain exposure when he was featured on MTV2's Sucker Free Freestyle, where he freestyled numerous verses from his "Chip Off The Block" single. In 2009, he was featured on a remix of reality television star Heidi Montag's single Look How I'm Doing from her debut album Superficial.

   In February 2010, he released his debut mixtape 100 Words and Running.He released his second mixtape in November 2010 titled Lace Up which featured the hometown anthem "Cleveland" which is played at Cleveland Cavaliers home games and is on rotation on Z107.9 in Cleveland.Lace Up was recorded in three months in 2010 during a creative burst.He is currently touring, and has forged a friendship with Three 6 Mafia's Juicy J who tapped Kelly to appear on his track "Inhale" in January 2011 which was produced by Lex Luger the music video for "Boat Load" featured Steve-O from Jackass.In March 2011 he participated in his first SXSW show in Austin, Texas.

   At the SXSW show he was approached by Sean Combs and since then has gained massive exposure throughout the music scene. In 2011 Machine Gun Kelly signed with Bad Boy Records which is associated with Interscope.He was featured on the XV song "Finally Home".On November 15, Machine Gun Kelly released a music video for the song "Wild Boy" featuring American rapper Waka Flocka Flame. On December 8, 2011, Machine Gun Kelly appeared on BET's 106 & Park along side Waka Flocka Flame to premier the video.



Labels:

   Machine Gun Kelly was signed by Jimmy Iovine, and Diddy to Interscope, and Bad Boy Records on August 3, 2011. In official statement given, Kelly's debut album is titled Lace Up due first quarter of 2012.

   The first single of the album, "Wild Boy" featuring rapper Waka Flocka Flame, was released on September 27, 2011.On the week of January 28, 2011, The song debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart on at number 98.

   His song "Invincible" is feature in a commercial for the HTC ReZound as well as the official theme song of Wrestlemania XXVIII. The song was released on iTunes December 16, 2011 featuring singer Ester Dean as the second single of the album.



Discography:

LACE UP
(2012)

Upcoming...

Singles:

WILD BOY
(featuring Waka Flocka Flame)
(2011)

   "Wild Boy" is a song by American hip hop recording artist MGK. The song, released September 27, 2011, serves as his debut single and the lead single for his upcoming debut studio album Lace Up. It features fellow American rapper Waka Flocka Flame and was produced by GB Hitz.

   The music video, directed by Spliff TV, was released to MGK's VEVO on November 16, 2011. The video depicts MGK at his girlfriend’s house having dinner with her parents along with the song’s featured artist Waka Flocka Flame. During dinner, the girl’s parents ask Waka Flocka Flame what he "does for a living," in which Waka Flocka Flame responds by hitting her father in the head with a glass bottle and the two artists answer with a wild warehouse performance of ‘Wild Boy’ where stage diving, bonfires, Steve-O references and partying ensues. The video features a cameo appearance from comedian and actor Katt Williams.

   The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of January 28, 2012 at number 98.

INVINCIBLE
(featuring Ester Dean)
(2011)


Here, feel the beat of the MGK:



Eminem


EMINEM



   Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of the Detroit rap group D12, Eminem is also one half of the Detroit hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s.He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop.Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number one albums on the Billboard 200. He has also sold more than 42 million track downloads and 41 million albums in the United States alone, and 86 million albums worldwide to date.

   Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.

   Eminem has opened other ventures since the beginning of his success. He founded his own record label, Shady Records with his manager Paul Rosenberg. He also has his own radio channel, Shade 45. Eminem began an acting career in 2002, when he starred in the hip hop drama film 8 Mile in which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award.He is also set to star in the 2013 films Shady Talez and Have Gun, Will Travel. He has also made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009) and television series Entourage.

INFINITE
(1996)

   Infinite is the debut studio album by Eminem, released November 12, 1996, on Web Entertainment. The album was recorded and produced from late 1995 to mid 1996, with help from The Bass Brothers and fellow D12 members Mr. Porter, Proof and Eye-Kyu, along with fellow rapper Three.

   The album received mixed critical reviews and was met with derision from within the local hip-hop community, earning Eminem unfavorable accusations of copying other rappers' styles, particularly Nas and AZ. Eminem recalls: "Obviously, I was young and influenced by other artists, and I got a lot of feedback saying that I sounded like Nas and AZ. Infinite was me trying to figure out how I wanted my rap style to be, how I wanted to sound on the mic and present myself. It was a growing stage. I felt like Infinite was like a demo that just got pressed up".

While it contains some swearing, Infinite is relatively inoffensive compared to the subsequent albums that would make Eminem famous.

   In 2003, this album was rereleased, although it seemed legitimate it was most likely pirated, containing many clicks, pops, and other defects in the sound quality. The "European Re-Issue" contains bonus tracks regarded as freestyles and unreleased tracks. No names for these tracks are given on the case.

   In 2009, Thisis50.com, re-released it for a free download on their website to build anticipation for his highly anticipated album Relapse.

THE SLIM SHADY LP
(1999)

   The Slim Shady LP is the second studio album by American rapper Eminem, released on February 23, 1999. It is his major-label debut, and was released under Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and Web Records.

   The album was met with critical, and commercial success. It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart behind TLC's FanMail with 283,000 copies sold in its opening week.The album went on to be certified quadruple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. To date, it has sold over five million units in the United States, and over nine million units worldwide. "Just Don't Give a Fuck" was the first, and only underground single from the album. The first official single was "My Name Is". The album won the Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album. It also won Outstanding National Album at the 2000 Detroit Music Awards.

   In 2003, the album was ranked number 273 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, the highest ranking of Eminem's albums on the list.

THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP
(2000)

The Marshall Mathers LP is the third studio album by American rapper Eminem. Released May 23, 2000, the album sold more than 1.76 million copies in its first week just in the US.In 2001, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and was nominated for Album of the Year. The album was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in the United States with shipments over 10 million.As of 2005 the album had sold over 19 million units worldwide.

The Marshall Mathers LP has been ranked as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all-time by such magazines as Rolling Stone, Time, and XXL.Rolling Stone placed the album at number 7 on its list of the best albums of the 2000s.The album was ranked number 302 by Rolling Stone on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.In 2010, Rhapsody named it the #1 record on the "The 10 Best Albums by White Rappers" list.


THE EMINEM SHOW
(2002)

   The Eminem Show is the fourth studio album by the American rapper Eminem, released in 2002. It was the best-selling album of 2002 in the United States, with sales of 7.6 million copies.At the Grammy Awards of 2003 it was nominated for Album of the Year and became Eminem's third LP in four years to win the award for Best Rap Album. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling approximately 284,000 units in its first week, which due to a premature release by retailers and street-date violations, counted only a day and a half of sales.The album sold 1,322,000 copies the following week, where it registered a full week of sales.The album topped the Billboard 200 for five consecutive weeks.The album also spent five consecutive weeks at the top of the UK Albums Chart.It has gone on to sell over ten million copies.

   On March 7, 2011, the album was certified ten-times-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, making it Eminem's first album to receive a Diamond certification in the United States. In 2003, the album was ranked #317 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and was later ranked at #84 on the same magazine's best albums of the 2000s decade. The album received critical praise by most music critics and is often debated as Eminem's most personal and best work. Eminem himself acknowledged during an interview with MTV that was recorded on May 25, 2002, that he felt that The Eminem Show was his "best record so far".The Eminem Show was Eminem's first album to be mainly self-produced.

ENCORE
(2004)

   Encore is the fifth studio album by American rapper Eminem. Its release was set for November 16, 2004, but was moved up to November 12 (coincidentally, exactly eight years to the day his debut album, Infinite, was released) after the album was leaked to the Internet. Encore sold 710,000 copies in its first three days.Encore sold 1,582,000 copies in its first two weeks of release in the United States in November 2004, and was certified quadruple-platinum there in mid-December.As of June 25, 2010, it had sold 5.2 million copies in the US.Nine months after its release, worldwide sales of the album stood at 11 million copies.

   Critical reception was generally positive. However, most critics and fans alike did note the subpar quality of the lyrics, which were more simplistic when compared to previous albums. The album was nominated for three Grammys at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards including for Best Rap Album but lost to Kanye West's Late Registration. The album made digital history in becoming the first album to sell 10,000 digital copies in one week.

RELAPSE
(2009)

   Relapse is the sixth studio album by an American rapper Eminem, released on May 15, 2009 by Interscope Records. It was his first album of original material since Encore (2004), following a five-year hiatus from recording due to his writer's block and an addiction to sleeping pills. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2007 to 2009 at several recording studios, and Dr. Dre, Mark Batson, and Eminem handled production. Conceptually, Relapse concerns the ending of his drug rehabilitation, rapping after a fictional relapse, and the return of his Slim Shady alter-ego.

   One of the most anticipated album releases of 2009, Relapse debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 608,000 copies in its first week. It produced three singles that attained chart success and has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album received generally mixed reviews from most music critics, who were mostly divided in their responses towards Eminem's lyrics. It earned him two Grammy Awards and has sold 2.2 million copies in the United States and 4.5 million copies worldwide.

RECOVERY
(2010)

   Recovery is the seventh studio album by American rapper Eminem, released on June 18, 2010, by Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. Production for the album took place during 2009 to 2010 at several recording studios and was handled by various record producers, including Alex da Kid, Just Blaze, Boi-1da, Jim Jonsin, DJ Khalil, Mr. Porter and Dr. Dre. Originally recorded as a sequel to Eminem's previous album Relapse (2009), Recovery features more introspective and emotional content than its predecessor.

   The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 741,000 copies in its first week in the United States. It also charted at number one in several other countries, and produced three singles that achieved chart success, including the Billboard hit "No Love" and international hits "Not Afraid" and "Love the Way You Lie". Despite some criticism regarding its consistency, Recovery received positive reviews from most music critics, who complimented Eminem's rapping and performance on the album, and earned him a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. It is the best-selling album of 2010 and has sold 5.7 million copies worldwide.


And now let us listen with awe to some of Eminem's rapping:


Hanna (2011)


Hanna is a 2011 European-American action thriller film directed by Joe Wright. The film stars actress Saoirse Ronan as the title character with Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett. The film was released in North America on April 8, 2011 and in Europe on May 5, 2011.














The Plot

Hanna Heller (Saoirse Ronan) is a 16-year-old girl who lives with her father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana) in the wilderness of Finland. Ever since she was two years old, Hanna has been trained by Erik to become a skilled assassin. Due to her training away from any civilization, she has never come into contact with modern technology or culture, and has memorized a series of fake back-stories for herself to be used "when the time comes", as well as a great deal of encyclopedic knowledge. She is also fluent in several languages.

One night, Hanna tells Erik that she is "ready", and he reluctantly gives her a box containing an old transmitter that will alert the outside world to their presence. After some time considering the decision, Hanna flips the switch, sending a signal of her location to Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a CIA officer. Marissa sends a team to Erik's cabin, where Hanna, who had been waiting for them since Erik left earlier, is captured and taken to a CIA safe house. There, she discovers that Erik is a former CIA agent who betrayed the agency and knows a secret that cannot become public. Marissa has been assigned to kill him, but Erik has trained Hanna to kill Marissa. Knowing that Hanna was captured too easily, Wiegler sends a body double (Michelle Dockery) to speak with Hanna. Not trusting the double, Hanna asks the body double where she met her father. The double, who is being fed answers through an ear piece by Marissa, answers the final question correctly, which makes Hanna start crying and crawl into the lap of the double, sobbing into her shoulder. This makes the officials uneasy, who send soldiers and a doctor to her cell to sedate her to calm her down. As they enter the cell, Hanna kills the double believing her to be the real Wiegler, the doctor and the officials, breaks free and escapes the compound.


While on the run through the desert, Hanna meets Sebastian (Jason Flemyng) and Rachel (Olivia Williams), a bohemian British couple on a camper-van holiday with their teenage daughter, Sophie (Jessica Barden), whom Hanna befriends, and their younger son, Miles (Aldo Maland}. She soon realises she is in Morocco, and after meeting the family a second time, sneaks into their van and hitches with them across to Spain, and then on to Germany. Meanwhile, Wiegler hires a former agent called Isaacs (Tom Hollander) to capture Hanna while she goes after Erik, who is in Germany. Later, Isaacs and his men corner Hanna and the family, but she manages to escape after fighting Isaacs' men and killing one of them. Wiegler interrogates the family, and tricks the son, who became infatuated with Hanna, into revealing that Hanna is heading for Berlin. The fate of the family is not revealed.

In Hesse, Germany, Hanna meets with Knepfler (Martin Wuttke), an eccentric and friendly old magician who lives in Steinau an der Straße at the whimsical childhood home of the Brothers Grimm, in order to rendezvous with her father as they had previously arranged. Knepfler introduces Hanna to the music of Edward Grieg and prepares waffles for her, commenting how Erik has given her to little of the riches of life. However, Wiegler and Isaacs arrive at the place and Knepfler manages to distract them while Hanna escapes. She eventually meets with her father at her grandmother's apartment, where Wiegler had killed her grandmother earlier in her search. Hanna then learns that Erik is not her father, and it is revealed that Erik was actually once a recruiter for a program in which pregnant women were recruited from abortion clinics so that the CIA could alter their children's DNA, enhancing their strength, stamina, and reflexes while suppressing emotions like fear and empathy in order to create a batch of super-soldiers. However, the project was shut down for unexplained reasons and all the women and their genetically-modified children were eliminated. Erik tried to escape with Hanna and her mother Johanna Zadek (Vicky Krieps), but Wiegler murdered Johanna, while Erik managed to escape with Hanna.

As Erik finishes explaining the truth to a bewildered Hanna, Wiegler and Isaacs arrive, intent on killing them; Erik acts as a distraction to allow Hanna to escape. Erik kills Isaacs and his cohort, but is shot and killed by Wiegler, who then goes back to the Grimm house where she finds Hanna, who just discovered Knepfler dead from the interrogation, his corpse hung after being used for archery practice by Isaacs. After a chase into the woods toward a seemingly abandoned Grimm themed amusement park, Hanna and Wiegler confront one another. Hanna pleads for an end to the killing, saying she doesn't want to hurt anyone else. Wiegler says she just wants to talk, but Hanna starts walking away. Upset by this act of defiance, Wiegler shoots Hanna, who simultaneously shoots Wiegler with an arrow she pulled from Knepfler's body, using a bungee cord she found to propel it. Hanna is knocked to the ground with a bullet in her stomach. She gets up, gets her bearings and she sees Wiegler attempting to flee up a nearby water slide. An unarmed Hanna chases Wiegler to the top of the slide's stairs, as Wiegler continually shoots at her. Near the top, it becomes clear that Hanna's arrow did more damage than Wiegler's bullet, and a disoriented Wiegler falls and slides down the water flume right when she is about to shoot Hanna. Hanna follows the wounded Wiegler, picks up the dropped gun, comments on how she missed Wiegler's heart, and shoots her dead, mirroring the scene at the beginning of the film with Hanna hunting and killing a reindeer.


Reviews

Hanna received mostly positive reviews; it holds a 71% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 196 reviews with the consensus stating "Fantastic acting and crisply choreographed action sequences propel this unique, cool take on the revenge thriller." Justin Chang of Variety states that "Joe Wright's 'Hanna' is an exuberantly crafted chase thriller that pulses with energy from its adrenaline-pumping first minutes to its muted bang of a finish." Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, commenting "Wright combines his two genres into a stylish exercise that perversely includes some sentiment and insight".


Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, on the other hand, gives the film two of five stars, stating "With its wicked-witch performance from Cate Blanchett, its derivative premise, its bland Europudding location work and some frankly outrageous boredom, this will test everyone's patience." Kenneth Turan, of the Los Angeles Times, states that the film "starts off like a house afire but soon burns itself out". He states that even though the film is "[b]lessed with considerable virtues, including a clever concept, crackling filmmaking and a charismatic star, it ultimately squanders all of them, undone by an unfortunate lack of subtlety and restraint."

The Cast

Saoirse Ronan as Hanna Heller
Cate Blanchett as Marissa Wiegler
Eric Bana as Erik Heller
Jessica Barden as Sophie
Tom Hollander as Isaacs
Olivia Williams as Rachel
Jason Flemyng as Sebastian
Michelle Dockery as False Marissa
Vicky Krieps as Johanna Zadek
Martin Wuttke as Knepfler (Mr. Grimm)
Sebastian Hulk as Titch

The Hangover (2009)


The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha and Jeffrey Tambor. The Hangover tells the story of Phil Wenneck, Stu Price and Alan Garner, who travel to Las Vegas, Nevada for a bachelor party to celebrate Doug Billings' impending marriage to Tracy Garner. However, after being drugged with roofies, Phil, Stu and Alan have no memory of the previous night's events and must find Doug before the wedding can occur.

Lucas and Moore wrote the script after executive producer Chris Bender's friend disappeared and had a large bill after being sent to a strip club. Lucas and Moore sold it to the studio for $2 million, Philips and Jeremy Garelick rewrote the script to include a tiger as well as a subplot involving a baby and a police cruiser, and also including boxer Mike Tyson. Filming took place in Nevada for 15 days, and during filming, the three main actors established a friendship between them.

The Hangover was released on June 5, 2009, becoming a critical and commercial success. It became the tenth highest-grossing film of 2009, with a worldwide gross of over US$467 million. Critics praised the film's comedic approach but criticized it for its vulgarity. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and received multiple other accolades. A sequel, The Hangover Part II, was released in 2011.

The Plot

Celebrating his impending marriage to Tracy Garner, Doug Billings and his friends Phil Wenneck, Stu Price, and Tracy's brother Alan travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, staying at Caesars Palace.

The next morning, Phil, Stu and Alan awaken to find they have no memory of the previous night and Doug is nowhere to be found. Stu is missing a tooth, their hotel suite is in disarray, a tiger is in their bathroom, and a baby is in the closet. They find Doug's mattress impaled on a statue outside of their hotel and when they ask for their Mercedes, the valet delivers a police cruiser.

Following clues to their steps, the trio travel to a hospital where they discover they were drugged with rohypnol, causing their memory loss, and that they came to the hospital from a chapel. At the chapel they learn that Stu married a stripper, Jade, despite having a long-term relationship with his mean-spirited girlfriend. Outside the chapel, the trio are attacked by gangsters saying they are looking for someone. They flee and visit Jade, discovering that she is the mother of the baby, before being arrested by the police.


Having been told that the Mercedes has been impounded, the trio is released when they volunteer to be targets for a taser demonstration. While driving the Mercedes, they discover a naked man in the trunk who attacks them and flees. Alan confesses that he drugged their drinks to ensure they had a good night, thinking that they were ecstasy.

Returning to their villa, they find Mike Tyson, who orders the trio to return the tiger to his mansion immediately. Stu drugs the tiger with the remaining roofies and they drive towards Tyson's home in the Mercedes, but the tiger attacks them and damages the car's interior. After pushing the car the rest of the way to avoid the tiger, Tyson shows the trio footage of them stealing the tiger to help them locate Doug. While driving, their car is struck by another vehicle intentionally; the passengers are revealed to be the gangsters from the chapel and their boss, Leslie Chow – the naked man from their trunk – who accuses the trio of stealing $80,000 of his money and kidnapping him. Chow says he has their "friend", threatening to kill him if his money is not returned. Unaware of the location of Chow's $80,000, Alan, with help from Stu and Jade, uses his knowledge of card counting to win $82,400 playing Blackjack. They meet with Chow and exchange the money, only to find that "Doug" is the drug dealer who inadvertently sold Alan the roofies.

With the wedding occurring in hours, Phil tells Tracy they cannot find Doug. Following a conversation with "Black Doug", Stu realizes where Doug is. The trio travel back to their hotel where they find Doug on the roof, moved there on his mattress while he was asleep, as a practical joke by Stu, Phil and Alan. Before leaving, Stu makes arrangements to meet with Jade the following week to pursue a relationship. With less than four hours before the wedding and with no flights available, the foursome race home, with Doug revealing he has possession of Chow's original $80,000. Despite their late arrival, Doug and Tracy are married and Stu breaks up with his girlfriend. As the reception ends, Alan finds Stu's digital camera detailing the events they cannot remember and the four agree to look at the pictures together before deleting the evidence of their exploits.


Reviews

The film received generally positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 78% based on 216 reviews, with an average score of 6.7/10, and awarded their "certified fresh" seal of approval. At Metacritic, which uses a normalized rating system, the film earned a score of 73% based on 31 reviews.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it three and a half stars out of four and praised the film for its funniness and comedic approach. A.O. Scott of The New York Times praised Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis for their performances in the film as well as Todd Phillips for its direction. Scott later went on to say that the film is "safe as milk." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle also praised Phillips' direction. LaSalle also praised the film's comedic scenes and called it "the funniest movie so far this year [2009]." Betsy Sharkey of The Los Angeles Times praised the film for its perverseness. Sharkey also said that the film is "filled with moments as softhearted as they are crude, as forgiving as unforgivable." Although Joe Leydon of Variety criticized the film's trailers and TV-spots for its "beer-and-boobs, party-hearty farce", Leyton praised the film for its cleverness.


Conversely, Richard Corliss of Time said that "virtually every joke [in the film] either is visible long before it arrives or extends way past its expiration date" and added, "Whatever the other critics say, this is a bromance so primitive it's practically Bro-Magnon." In his review in the Baltimore Sun, Michael Sragow called the film a "foul mesh of cheap cleverness and vulgarity." Joe Neumaier of the Daily News gave the film 2 1⁄2 out of 5 stars and noted, "Amusing as it is, it never feels real. That may not seem like a big deal — a lot of funny movies play by their own rules — except that The Hangover keeps doubling-down on the outlandishness."Lindy Keffer of Plugged In Online said it was "a movie about how much debauchery a handful of guys can commit — and forget — in one night. There's not much more to it than that." Family-oriented reviewers have harangued the film, noting that Galifianakis said he tried to forbid his own mother from seeing it and that he yells at parents of kids who tell him they like the film.

Many critics noted the weak character development, especially in its female characters. Ebert, despite his praise, stated, "I won't go so far as to describe it as a character study" but that the film is more than the sum of its parts Рparts that may at first seem a little generic or clich̩d, since many other films (such as Very Bad Things) have already explored the idea of a weekend in Vegas gone wrong. Critics also complained about misogyny and stereotyping, in particular the Asian gangster.

The film's premise has several similarities to Dude, Where's My Car? Both films are about "a couple guys waking up after a night of getting trashed, only to find they are missing something important", whose adventures include "a trail of clues, a missing car, dubious encounters with strippers and wild animals, a brush with the law and gangs chasing them for something they don't realise they have."

The Cast

Bradley Cooper as Phil
 Ed Helms as Stu
 Zach Galifianakis as Alan
 Justin Bartha as Doug
 Heather Graham as Jade
 Sasha Barrese as Tracy
 Jeffrey Tambor as Sid
 Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow
 Rachael Harris as Melissa
 Mike Tyson as Himself
 Mike Epps as Black Doug
 Jernard Burks as Leonard
 Rob Riggle as Officer Franklin
 Cleo King as Officer Garden
 Bryan Callen as Eddie
 Matt Walsh as Dr. Valsh
 Ian Anthony Dale as Chow's #1
 Michael Li as Chow's #2
 Sondra Currie as Linda
 Gillian Vigman as Stephanie
 Nathalie Fay as Lisa

Funny Prank - goodneighbor (Funny Video)

Monday 30 January 2012

The Double (2011)


The Double is a 2011 spy film, starring Richard Gere and Topher Grace, released on October 28, 2011.















The Plot

Story kicks off with the mysterious murder of a senator bearing the marks of a Soviet assassin, who was long thought to be dead. To hunt down the killer, a retired CIA operative, who spent his career going toe-to-toe with his Soviet nemesis, is teamed with a young FBI agent.


Reviews

The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, earning it a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 37 reviews. IMDb rated it with an average 5.7 out of 10 and Metacritic with 37 out of 100.

The Cast

Richard Gere as Paul Shepherdson
Topher Grace as Ben Geary
Martin Sheen as Tom Highland
Odette Yustman as Joanie Geary
Stephen Moyer as Brad
Stana Katic as Amber
Chris Marquette as Harrison
Jeffrey Pierce as Agent Pierce
Tamer Hassan as Boz
Nicole Forester as Molly
Ed Kelly as Senator Dennis Darden
Lawrence Gilliard Jr. as Agent Burton
Randy Flagler as Martin Miller

Season of the Witch (2011)


Season of the Witch is a 2011 American supernatural action film starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Dominic Sena. Cage stars with Ron Perlman as Teutonic Knights, who return from the Crusades to find their fatherland ruined by the Black Death. Two church elders accuse a girl (Claire Foy) of being a witch and being responsible for the destruction and command the knights to transport the girl to a monastery so the monks there can lift her curse from the land.

Development on the film began in 2000 when the spec script by screenwriter Bragi F. Schut was purchased by MGM. The project moved from MGM to Columbia Pictures to Relativity Media, where the film was finally produced by Charles Roven and Alex Gartner. Filming took place primarily in Austria, Hungary and Croatia. Season of the Witch was released on January 7, 2011 in the United States, Canada and several other territories. The film received negative reviews but was a moderate box office success.

The Plot

Set in the 14th century, three women accused of witchcraft are hanged by a priest. The priest performs a ritual to prevent the bodies from coming back to life. While successfully completing the ritual for the first two of the bodies, the third takes on a demonic appearance and kills the priest. Meanwhile, Teutonic Knights Behmen von Bleibruck (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) are engaged in a crusade, taking part in several different battles throughout the 1330s and eventually taking part in the Smyrniote crusades. After witnessing the massacre of civilians during the 1344 capture of Smyrna, the two knights choose to desert the Order and the crusade and return to Germany.

While traveling through Styria, they encounter the grotesque sight of people infected with the Black Death and soon discover that the Holy Roman Empire has been swept by the plague. Behmen and Felson enter the medieval town of Marburg, the German name for Maribor (once part of Styria, now in Slovenia). The two try to conceal their identity as deserters, but are revealed as knights by the crest on Behmen's sword. He and Felson are then arrested. They are taken to Cardinal D'Ambroise (Christopher Lee), who is infected with the plague. The Cardinal asks the knights to escort an alleged witch suspected of causing the plague to a remote monastery where an elite group of monks reside. These monks are capable of determining if the girl is truly a witch. If she is found guilty, the monks know a sacred ritual that can cancel her powers and stop the plague that is devastating Europe. The two knights agree under the condition that she will be given a fair trial and that the charges of desertion against them are dropped. The Cardinal agrees and they set out accompanied by a priest Debelzeq (Stephen Campbell Moore); Kay von Wollenbarth (Robert Sheehan), a young altar boy who wants to become a knight like his deceased father; Eckhart (Ulrich Thomsen), a knight whose family were killed by the plague; and the well-traveled swindler Hagamar (Stephen Graham) who is serving as their guide to the monastery in return for a pardon. The witch, a young girl later identified as Anna (Claire Foy), shows hatred towards Debelzeq and forms a bond with Behmen.


Shortly after setting off, the group camp for the night. Eckhart volunteers to watch the witch for the first night. After a while, Debelzeq comes to relieve Eckhart, who decides to remain with him. He tells Debelzeq about his daughter Mila, who resembled Anna. When Eckhart gets up to leave, Anna becomes hysterical at the prospect of being left alone with the priest. She attacks him and grabs his key to the cage. She escapes and flees toward a nearby village. The search for her leads the group to a mass grave, where Eckhart has visions of his dead daughter. Running after the visions, he impales himself on Kay's sword and dies. When they recapture her, the tearful Anna explains that she only ran away for fear of Debelzeq. However the group become less trusting of Anna. The group manage to cross a rickety rope bridge, during which Anna saves Kay from falling to his death by grabbing him with one hand, showing an unnatural strength. The group enter the dark forest called Wormwood, where Hagamar attempts to kill Anna so the group can go home, only to be stopped by the others. Anna appears to summon wolves, who chase the group and kill Hagamar. An enraged Behmen tries to kill Anna, but is stopped by Debelzeq and Felson, who point out that the monastery is in sight.

Arriving at the monastery, the men find all of the monks have been killed by the plague but locate the Key of Solomon, an ancient book filled with holy rituals used to defeat evil. The men confront Anna, with Debelzeq beginning to perform a ritual used on witches. However, as Anna begins precisely recanting stories from Behmen's past, Debelzeq comes to the realization that she is not a witch, and begins frantically performing an exorcism. However, the demon that is possessing Anna reveals itself and melts the metal. The demon effortlessly fights off the knights, but when Debelzeq throws a vial of holy water on it, it flies out of sight. As the men search for the demon, they come to the realization that it isn't trying to escape, but trying to destroy the book so that nothing can stop it. When they find a room where the monks were writing copies of the book, the demon appears, destroys the copies and possesses the dead monks' bodies to use as weapons. The three men fight the possessed monks while Debelzeq continues the exorcism ritual. During the fight, the demon kills Debelzeq, then proceeds to kill Felson. Kay picks up the book and continues the ritual, while Behmen continues fighting the demon. Behmen is mortally wounded during the fight, but Kay is able to finish the ritual and the demon is obliterated, freeing Anna. Behmen asks Kay to keep Anna safe and then dies of his wounds.

Kay and Anna bury their fallen friends. Anna requests that Kay tell her about the men who saved her. They depart from the monastery with the book in hand.


Reviews

Prior to Season of the Witch's release, Reuters reported that the blending of "road movie and buddy film with supernatural thriller and period drama... has critics wondering if it will be a hit or miss for an actor [Cage] who divides audiences and exasperates even his most loyal fans." When critics reviewed the film, Reuters said it won "almost universal scorn among critics". According to the Los Angeles Times, critics said that Cage was the primary reason that "this swords-and-sorcery romp is a collosal waste of time". Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 10% based on reviews from 109 critics and reports a rating average of 3.6 out of 10. It reported the overall consensus, "Slow, cheap-looking, and dull, Season of the Witch fails even as unintentional comedy." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 28 based on 27 reviews.

Associated Press movie critic Christy Lemire called Season of the Witch "a supernatural action thriller that's never actually thrilling". She wrote, "The scenery is drab, the battles are interchangeable, and no one seems particularly interested in being here. At the same time, Dominic Sena ... never flat-out goes for it in a schlocky, B-horror kind of way. What we're left with is just bloated, boring and utterly forgettable." The critic found Cage and Perlman to be poorly utilized and said of the film's progression, "It's a slog from one challenge to the next, with no real tension building, and all the while the alleged witch plays coy about whether she's actually a witch, pouting beneath her bangs, Kristen Stewart-style."
Andrew Barker of Variety said Season of the Witch was "both overblown and undercooked" and thought the film would have been more fun if it had a sense of humor. He called the film "too inert for midnight-movie schadenfreudists, and not nearly competent enough for even the most forgiving of fantasy fans". Of the film's production value, he said, "Witch's photography, costumes and production design are of good quality; editing, scoring and visual effects are most decidedly not."

Tom Huddleston of Time Out London wrote, "Despite its admirably straight face, 'Season of the Witch' is a silly romp through Pythonesque medieval cliché and knockabout Hammer horror with a dash of cut-price Tolkien chucked in to keep things moving." Huddleston criticized Cage's performance but praised Perlman's. The critic concluded, "'Season of the Witch' is not for everyone: it’s creaky, predictable and frequently idiotic. But for a tipsy Saturday night, this should tick all the right boxes."

Salon's Andrew O'Hehir called the film a "Hollywood-by-Hungary" remake of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957) with the "B-movie aesthetic" of director Roger Corman. O'Hehir wrote, "Season of the Witch is an unremitting schlockfest, full of blood and filth, bloated, purulent corpses, ghastly one-eyed witches and undead monks. If there were more such Corman-esque thrills and chills, and a whole bunch less ponderous Bergman references, we'd all be better off."

The Cast

Nicolas Cage as Behmen
 Ron Perlman as Felson
 Stephen Campbell Moore as Debelzaq
 Stephen Graham as Hagamar
 Ulrich Thomsen as Eckhart
 Claire Foy as The Girl
 Robert Sheehan as Kay
 Christopher Lee as Cardinal D'Ambroise
 Rebekah Kennedy as Peasant Turk Girl
 Andrew Hefler as Jail Bailiff
 Fernanda Dorogi as Old Woman (Givaudon)
 Kevin Rees as Dying Monk
 Matt Devere as Sergeant in Arms
 Róbert Bánlaki as Livery Boy
 Barna Illyés as Cardinal's Priest
 Kevin Killebrew as Demon (voice)

Accidental Shooting (Funny Video)

Nelly


NELLY


   Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is a Grammy Award winning American rapper, entrepreneur and occasional actor. He has performed with the rap group St. Lunatics since 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in 2000 with his debut album Country Grammar, the title track of which was a top ten hit. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and went on to peak at number one. Country Grammar is Nelly's best-selling album to date, selling over 8.4 million copies in the United States.His following album, Nellyville, produced the number-one hits "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma" featuring Kelly Rowland. Other singles included "Work It" featuring Justin Timberlake, "Air Force Ones" featuring Murphy Lee and the St. Lunatics, "Pimp Juice" and "#1".

   With the same-day dual release Sweat and Suit (2004) and the compilation Sweatsuit (2006), Nelly continued to generate many chart-topping hits. Sweat debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 342,000 copies in its first week. On the same week of release, Suit debuted at number one selling around 396,000 copies in its first week on the same chart. Nelly's fifth studio album, Brass Knuckles, was released on September 16, 2008 after several delays. It produced the singles "Party People" featuring Fergie, "Stepped on My J'z" featuring Jermaine Dupri and Ciara and "Body on Me" featuring Akon and Ashanti. In 2010, Nelly released the album 5.0. The lead single, "Just a Dream", has appeared in the top ten of several singles charts and were certified platinum in the United States. The second single is "Move That Body" featuring T-Pain and Akon. "Gone" is the sequel to Nelly's 2002 worldwide number one single "Dilemma", also with Rowland, and serves as third single from Nelly's album.

   He won Grammy Awards in 2003 and 2004 and had a supporting role in the 2005 remake film The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. He has two clothing lines, Vokal and Apple Bottoms. He has been referred to by Peter Shapiro as "one of the biggest stars of the new millennium", and the RIAA ranks Nelly as one of the best-selling male artists in American music history, with 21 million albums sold in the United States. On December 11, 2009, Billboard ranked Nelly the number three Top Artist of the Decade.



Discography:

COUNTRY GRAMMAR
(2000)

   Country Grammar is the debut studio album by American rapper Nelly, released on June 27, 2000 by Universal Records.The album was a mainstream success. It debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart, and went on to peak at number one, with 235,000 copies in its first week of sales. The album is Nelly's best-selling album to date, selling 8.5 million copies in the United States and is the tenth highest selling album of the decade.Billboard also rated the album number ten on their Top 200 Albums of the Decade The album was certified 9× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on April 27, 2004.

NELLYVILLE
(2002)

   Nellyville is the second studio album by American rapper Nelly, released through Universal Records on June 25, 2002.The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with 714,000 copies sold in its first week, and remained in the top spot for four weeks. It was also nominated for "Album of the Year" at the 2003 Grammys. The album was certified 6× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on June 9, 2003 in the United States, and 4× platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) (400,000 copies) on December 2002 in Canada.Nellyville has gone at least gold or platinum in over thirty countries.

SWEAT
(2004)

   Sweat is the third studio album by American rapper Nelly, released on September 14, 2004.Production for the album took place during 2003 to 2004, and was handled by some several producers, including Jason Epperson, Midi Mafia, The Neptunes, Trife, Jazze Pha, Doe, and The Alchemist.The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 342,000 copies in its first week. On the same week of release, the Suit album debuted at number one selling around 396,000 copies in its first week on the same chart. Upon its release, Sweat received generally positive reviews from most music critics.

SUIT
(2004)

   Suit is the fourth studio album by American rapper Nelly, released on September 14, 2004.Production for the album took place during 2003 to 2004 and was handled by some re-appeared producers, including The Neptunes, Jazze Pha and City Spud. Suit was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 47th Grammy Awards, losing to Kanye West's The College Dropout.

   The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 396,000 copies in its first week, becoming Nelly's third consecutive US number-one album. On the same week of release, the Sweat album debuted at number two selling around 342,000 copies in its first week on the same chart, which showed that Suit was the more popular album of the two. While Sweat was more Hip-hop based, Suit was more R&B themed. Suit ultimately sold over 3 million copies in the US, and received a Grammy nomination. Later on in early 2005, Nelly released a compilation album titled Sweatsuit, which combines hits from both the Sweat and Suit albums into one CD.

BRASS KNUCKLES
(2008)

   Brass Knuckles is the fifth studio album by American recording artist Nelly, released on September 16, 2008 after several delays.Brass Knuckles debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200, selling 83,717 copies in its first week in the United States. The album dropped off the Billboard 200' eight weeks later, but in early March 21, 2009 it re-appeared at number one hundred fifty-two. On December 12, 2008, it was certified Gold by the RIAA for shipping over 500,000 copies.As of September 2010, the album has sold over 223,000 copies in the United States.Reviews for the album have been generally mixed.

   Pharoh Martin of Vibe stated that "Brass Knuckles is standard Nelly fare." RapReviews wrote that "underneath the materialistic veneer Nelly's got a good delivery, sharp lyrics and impeccable breath control."

5.0 
(2010)

   5.0 is the sixth studio album by American hip hop artist Nelly, released through Universal Motown (Universal Music) and his own label Derrty Entertainment on November 12, 2010.The album features guest performances from Kelly Rowland, Keri Hilson, DJ Khaled, Baby, Sophie Greene, Ali, Plies, Chris Brown, T.I., Yo Gotti, T-Pain, Akon, Talib Kweli, Avery Storm, Murphy Lee, Dirty Money and Sean Paul while production was handled by the likes of Infamous, Dr. Luke, Bangladesh, Jim Jonsin, Multiman, Polow da Don, Rico Love and The Runners, among others. 5.0 is predominately a hip hop and pop music album with subtle influences of R&B.

   The album debuted at number ten on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 63,000 copies copies in its first week in the United States. The album's first single is "Just a Dream". It is the first song from 5.0 to garner UK and US airplay and has impacted on charts around the world. Released from August 17, 2010, It is Nelly's most successful single in five years (since "Grillz"), peaking at number three in the United States.


   5.0 debuted at number ten on the US Billboard 200, selling 63,000 copies in its first week in the United States.It also entered at number one on Billboard's Top Rap Albums and number two on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.The album debuted the same week on the Canadian Albums Chart at number nineteen.

And now enjoy Nelly's fine work:


Sunday 29 January 2012

Chris Brown


CHRIS BROWN


   Christopher Maurice "Chris" Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actor. He made his recording debut in late 2005 with the self-titled album Chris Brown at the age of 16. The album featured the hit single "Run It!", which topped the Billboard Hot 100, making Brown the first male artist as a lead to have his debut single top the chart since Puff Daddy in 1997. The album has sold over two million copies in the United States and was certified double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

   Brown's second studio album, Exclusive was released in 2007. It spawned two successful singles; his second U.S. number one hit, "Kiss Kiss" featuring T-Pain and "With You", which peaked at number two on Billboard Hot 100. Brown released a deluxe version of his album called The Forever Edition in 2008. The first single from it, "Forever" reached number two. Exclusive has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. The third studio album, Graffiti was released in 2009. The first single "I Can Transform Ya", featuring Lil Wayne and Swizz Beatz, peaked at number 20, becoming Brown's eighth Top 20 hit. He has had various other hit singles, and his dance routines have been compared to Usher.

   In 2009, he pleaded guilty to felony assault of singer and then-girlfriend Rihanna. He was sentenced to five years probation and six months of community service. The case received extensive media attention and negatively affected his career as a singer and all-around entertainer.

   Brown's fourth album F.A.M.E. earned him the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, his first Grammy, at the 54th Grammy Awards.


   Christopher Maurice Brown was born on May 5, 1989, in the small town of Tappahannock, Virginia, to Joyce Hawkins, a former day care center director, and Clinton Brown, a corrections officer at a local prison. The youngest child of the couple, he has an older sister, Lytrell Bundy, who works in a bank. Since his childhood, music was something which always had been present in Brown's life. He used to listen soul albums that his parents had owned, but eventually, Brown began to show interest in the hip-hop scene.

   Brown taught himself to sing and dance at a young age, often citing Michael Jackson as his inspiration. He then began to perform in his church choir and in several local talent shows. While mimicking an Usher performance of "My Way", his mother recognized his vocal talent and they began to look for opportunities of a record deal. At the same time, Brown had been through personal issues. His parents had already been divorced, and he said his mother's boyfriend made him terrified all the time due to the domestic violence his mother endured from her boyfriend.

   At the age of 13, Brown was discovered by a local production team, Hitmission Records, who visited his father's gas station while searching for new talent. Hitmission's Lamont Fleming provided voice coaching for Brown, and the team helped to arrange a demo package and approached contacts in New York to seek a record deal; Brown moved to New York at around the same time. Tina Davis – then-senior A&R executive at Def Jam Recordings loved what she heard and saw when Brown auditioned in her office at Island Def Jam Records in New York. She immediately took him to meet the former president of the Island Def Jam Music Group Antonio "L.A." Reid, who offered to sign him at the same day. "I knew that Chris had real talent," says Davis. "I just knew I wanted to be part of it."


   The negotiations with Def Jam lasted two months until Davis lost her job due to a corporate merger. Brown then asked her to be his manager and Davis accepted, starting to "promote" the singer to labels such as Jive Records, J-Records and Warner Bros. Records. According to Mark Pitts in an interview with HitQuarters, Davis presented Brown with a video recording and Pitts' reaction was: "I saw the potential ... I didn’t love all the records, but I loved his voice. It wasn’t a problem because I knew that he could sing, and I knew how to make records." Brown ultimately choose Jive, due to its successful work with then-young acts such as Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. Brown claims, "I picked Jive because they had the best success with younger artists in the pop market, [...] I knew I was going to capture my African American audience, but Jive had a lot of strength in the pop area as well as longevity in careers."

   He attended Essex High School until early 2005, when he moved to New York to pursue his music career.

   In addition to his solo commercial success, Brown has been featured on several hits such as "No Air", a duet with singer Jordin Sparks, "Shortie like Mine" with the rapper Bow Wow and "Shawty Get Loose" alongside Lil Mama and T-Pain. The songs have peaked on number three, number nine and number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 respectively. Due to his dance routines, Brown has been compared to R&B artist Usher and has cited him as a large influence on his music.

Discography:

CHRIS BROWN
(2005)

   Chris Brown is the eponymous debut album by American R&B recording artist Chris Brown, released on November 29, 2005 in the United States on Jive Records. It was a commercial success, certified double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for scanning two million in the United States, and sold one million copies worldwide. The album also earned Brown his first two Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 49th Grammy Awards.

   The album's lead single was "Run It!", which features rapper Juelz Santana and was produced by Scott Storch and Moe Faisal. It received continuous airplay(topping the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay), and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for five weeks. It replaced "Gold Digger" by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx, and was replaced by Mariah Carey's "Don't Forget About Us". It also topped Billboard Pop 100. Other singles released from the album include "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)", another U.S. top ten hit for Brown, as well as "Gimme That", released as a remix featuring rapper Lil Wayne, and the fourth single, "Say Goodbye", which peaked at number ten in the U.S. The fifth and final single from the album, "Poppin'", charted outside the U.S. top forty.

   The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 154,000 copies. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). As of April 2011, the album has sold 2.1 million copes in the United States alone. Worldwide, it has sold more than three million copies.

EXCLUSIVE
(2007)

   Exclusive is the second studio album by American recording artist Chris Brown. The album was originally scheduled to be released August 28, 2007, but was pushed back to October 30, 2007, then pushed back even further to its final release date of November 6, 2007.

   The album was both critically and commercially successful, reaching number 4 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart on its debut. It sold 295,000 units within a week of release. The album yielded three Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, and was successful in music markets, entering the top twenty of many charts worldwide. Exclusive was re-released on June 3, 2008 as an expanded double-disc deluxe edition; a DVD counterpart was also released, featuring behind the scenes footage and music videos from his tour. The album has earned double platinum certification in the United States from the Recording Industry Association of America; worldwide sales stand at three million copies sold. The album ranked number thirty-four on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.

   The album was originally going to be titled Graduation, but was renamed due to rapper Kanye West's album going by the same name. In an interview with MTV Brown stated the following,

"I am still going to keep it so my younger fans can continue to listen to my music, but I got a couple of joints on there that's for some of the older people".

   The first single, which was "Wall to Wall", garnered minor success compared to Brown's previous singles. The track was produced by Sean Garrett. Chris Brown confirmed in a 106 & Park appearance that the second single is "Kiss Kiss", which features and is produced by T-Pain. The song "Nice" featuring The Game samples Stacee Adams' club hit "The Last Call". The rap part in "The Last Call" was also performed by The Game and was also penned by one of Brown's producers, Scott Storch.


   At the 2008 Grammy Awards, Exclusive was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" for "Kiss Kiss", his collaboration with T-Pain. However, the award was given to the 2007 rival single, "Umbrella" by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z. The album also nominated for a NAACP Image Awards in a category for "Best Album", while Chris himself won for "Best Male Artist". At the 2008 BET Awards Chris received 4 nominations in four categories, including "Best Male R&B Artist", "Best Collaboration" for "Kiss Kiss", and "Viewer’s Choice" for "Kiss Kiss" and "No Air", his duet with Jordin Sparks.

GRAFFITI
(2009)

   Graffiti is the third studio album by American R&B and pop recording artist Chris Brown. It is the follow-up to his successful second album Exclusive (2007). The album was produced during 2008 to 2009 by several record producers, including Polow Da Don, Swizz Beatz, The Runners, and Brian Kennedy. Primarily an R&B and pop outing, Graffiti incorporates elements of electro-pop and hip hop music with synthesizers and electronic-influenced beats.

   The album debuted at number seven on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 102,489 copies in its first week. To date, "Graffiti" has sold 341,000 copies in the US. It became his third consecutive top-ten debut in the United States and produced three singles that achieved moderate chart success. Upon its release, Graffiti received generally negative reviews from most music critics. Graffiti was nominated for two Grammy Awards, one for Best Contemporary R&B Album and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for the track, "Take My Time" featuring fellow R&B singer-songwriter Tank.

   In 2008, Chris Brown commenced work on his third studio album and confirmed the title, Graffiti, at the 2008 American Music Awards. It was revealed in June 2008 that Brown was working with producers The Runners to create an "amazing, insane record. Something you've never heard before." Producer Scott Storch, who had previously worked with Brown, also announced his involvement in the album stating, "He's good. I'm working with him in Orlando on some stuff." Recording for the album primarily took place in Orlando and on September 5, 2009, via Twitter, Brown announced that he had completed the album, and also revealed that the album would be released outside of the US on December 7 and in the US on December 8. Speaking to MTV, Swizz Beatz revealed, "he's got something to prove," and "has worked on 60–70 songs."

   "I Can Transform Ya" was released as the album's lead single on September 29, 2009. The song received mostly positive reviews, noting the song's club feel and catchiness. "I Can Transform Ya"'s reached the top ten of New Zealand, whilst achieving chart success in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The song's dance-heavy accompanying music video features choreography with hooded ninjas, and makes puns on the Transformers series. "Crawl" and "Sing Like Me" were released on iTunes on November 24, 2009, the first as the album's second single, and the latter as a promotional single. The previous received positive to mixed reviews, reaching the top twenty in Japan and New Zealand. Its accompanying music video features Brown and American R&B singer Cassie as his love interest, as he yearns for their relationship on a winter night in a city and in a desert scene.

   The album debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, selling 102,000 copies in its first week. Graffiti was the week's second highest debut, only behind Glee: The Music, Volume 2. It's total sales of 341,000 copies to date were disappointing compared to his previous two albums.

F.A.M.E.
(2011)

   F.A.M.E. is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Chris Brown, first released on March 18, 2011 by Jive Records. Brown worked with several record producers and songwriters for the album, including Kevin McCall, Jean Baptiste, Brian Kennedy, DJ Frank E, The Underdogs and The Messengers, among others. The album featured several guest appearances, including McCall, Tyga, Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes, Ludacris, Justin Bieber, Benny Benassi, Wiz Khalifa, Game, Timbaland and Big Sean.

   Musically, F.A.M.E. combines the musical genres of R&B, pop, hip hop and euro. Upon its release, the album received mixed reviews from most music critics, who were ambivalent towards its songwriting and material. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 270,000, Brown's first number-one album in the United States. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for selling more than 500,000 copies.

   The album spawned three hit singles, "Yeah 3x", "Look at Me Now" and "Beautiful People". "Yeah 3x" and "Beautiful People" were commercially successful in Oceania and some European regions. In the United States, "Look at Me Now" reached number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts. To support the album, Brown embarked on his F.A.M.E. Tour in Australia and North America.

   Brown embarked on his F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011 in Australia. Jessica Mauboy, Havana Brown, and Justice Crew, served as the supporting acts on all dates of the Australian leg. 32 show dates in North America were later added to the tour, which began in September 2011. Kelly Rowland, T-Pain, Bow Wow and Tyga served as the opening acts of the North American leg.

   The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 270,000 copies, serving as Brown's first number-one album in the United States. Its first week sales also served as the second-largest one-week sales of 2011 in the United States alone. On the US R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, F.A.M.E. also debuted number one, giving Brown his third non-consecutive number-one album on the chart. It has since been certified gold in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America.

   Brown received six nominations at the 2011 BET Awards and ultimately won five awards, including Best Male R&B Artist, Viewers Choice Award, The Fandemonium Award, Best Collaboration and Video of the Year for "Look at Me Now". He also won three awards the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards, including the People's Champ Award, Reese's Perfect Combo Award and Best Hip Hop Video for "Look at Me Now". F.A.M.E. was nominated for Favorite Soul/R&B Album at the 2011 American Music Awards. On November 27, 2011, it won Album of the Year at the 2011 Soul Train Music Awards. F.A.M.E. and its second single "Look at Me Now", has earned Brown three Grammy Award nominations, including Best R&B Album. "Look at Me Now" is nominated for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. F.A.M.E. is also nominated for the Outstanding Album award at 2012 NAACP Image Awards. At the 54th Grammy awards, F.A.M.E. won the Best R&B Album award.

FORTUNE
(2012)

   Fortune is the upcoming fifth studio album by American recording artist Chris Brown, scheduled to be first released on March 16, 2012. The album will serve as Brown's debut release with RCA Records, following the disbandment of Jive Records in October 2011.

   During a listening party for Brown's fourth studio album F.A.M.E. in March 2011, Brown told fans that he would be releasing another album in six months, saying, "That is the first part of the F.A.M.E. album ... I'm coming out with another album six months later." In an interview with Rap-Up TV on September 2, 2011, Kevin McCall revealed that he has been collaborating "heavily" with Brown on the album, and that it is now scheduled for an early 2012 release, contrary to what was originally planned back in March. McCall said, "The Fortune album is really done. Chris Brown has four albums done if he wants to ... But the album's done and it's great. I like it better than F.A.M.E. personally." Producer David Banner told NeonLimeLight.com on September 20 that the album will "bring people back to the clubs" and that it will "change the way people look at R&B." He also revealed details of a song that he and Brown worked on for the album, saying, "When I tell you, you know how they don't play that much R&B in the club no more? ... The song that me and Chris made, they are going to play it like they used to play Jodeci. Like they used to play Keith Sweat. The song that me and Chris made is so jamming."

   In January 2012, Brown confirmed via Twitter that the album will include dubstep tracks. It was also made known that the album is in the final stages of recording. In addition, Brown has been in the studio working on the album with Asher Roth, Wiz Khalifa, will.i.am and Kid Sister. On January 20, Brown announced that Nas will appear on the album. In an interview with MTV News, producer Harvey Mason, Jr., half of the duo The Underdogs, who wrote and produced "Turn Up the Music", spoke more about the album, stating "The Fortune record is F.A.M.E to the next level. Similar material, but he's really being innovative with some of the music that you haven't heard before, taking pieces of other genres and integrating them into pop and R&B, which I think is really cool. Vocally, he sounds amazing; he's really, really coming into his own as a singer." Producer Damon Thomas, the other member of the duo, added "The only way I can describe Chris and what he's doin' with this record that he's making is that he's this generation's Michael [Jackson]."

   Fortune will be released in Germany on March 16, 2012. In January 2012, Brown released the first promo shot from the album, which showed him dressed in a full length fur coat. "Strip" was released for digital download on November 18, 2011 as the album's buzz single. It was sent to rhythmic contemporary radio in the United States on December 6, 2011. "Turn Up the Music", the album's lead single, premiered online on January 26, 2012. It was released digitally in the United States on February 14, 2012.

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