B.o.B.’s hit single “Magic,” featuring Rivers Cuomo, is an impossible-to-resist, get-on-your-feet, feel-good party of a track. And that’s exactly what his “Magic” video is, too, starting with a seemingly mundane morning that’s about to get a whole lot better and a whole lot weirder.

A magic sink magically filled with cereal? Magically hot girls magically occupying your suburban bungalow? Rivers Cuomo magically appearing out of nowhere and throwing a magical concert on the lawn? It’s all going on in the wonderfully weird, magical mind of B.o.B., who shows off not only his lightning-fast rap skills but also his mind games in his “Magic” video.

+ Watch B.o.B’s ‘Magic’ video featuring Rivers Cuomo.

To reinterpret a line from the movie “Field Of Dreams,” if you tweet it, it will come. Hear me out. A couple of weeks back, right as Kanye West began his epic Twitter odyssey, one of the many things he endorsed was Justin Bieber’s single “Runaway Love.” More specifically, he tweeted, “Yo this Runaway Love is the truth!”

A mutual appreciation society began, with Kanye and Justin Bieber tweeting back and forth and eventually (somehow) famed Wu-Tang Clan top chef, Raekwon, got involved in the action. Kanye said he would produce a remix of the Bieber jam, featuring Raekwon. Sounded good in theory, but given the ratio of things that get tweeted about to things that actually happen, we put the odds of this actually going down at 20-1.

Well, never bet on Buzzworthy, because below you can check out the “Runaway Love (Remix)” featuring Kanye and Raekwon and their lil’ buddy Justin. The beat is basically a flip of Wu-Tang’s classic, “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ To F’ Wit” and features solid verses from both MCs, bookending J.B.’s angelic vocals.

Check out the track below. Oh, Twitter! What will you give us next?

+ Listen to Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Raekwon’s “Runaway Love (Remix)” here.

It’s a bit odd for a song as iconic and seminal as The Buggles‘ “Video Killed The Radio Star” to be sampled simply for its melody. You’d think a song about the changing of the music industry, the twilight of the old, the birth of the new, would be sampled to make a similar statement about today’s quickly changing world.

But on this new single from Nicki Minaj, featuring Will.I.Am, “Check It Out,” all we get is a “ohh-woah-oh,” and that famous keyboard line.

Which is fine! I mean, it’s Nick Minaj for Barbie’s sake. Along with chief Black Eyed Pea, Will.I.Am, Miss Harajuku tells her haters to kill themselves, while riding a steady, dance-pop beat. It might be a pretty harsh sentiment, but frankly, over a track this downright jaunty, Minaj could be talking about the 40 percent chance there will be another recession, and it would still sound like a party.

“Check It Out,” is likely taken from Nicki Minaj’s upcoming, highly anticipated debut album, Pink Friday, which is due out November 23rd.

Check out the song below.

+ Listen to Nicki Minaj and Will.I.Am’s “Check It Out” (NSFW LANGUAGE) here.

Orville Redenbacher, the popcorn guy, once said, “Do one thing and do it better than anyone.”
In Lil Jon’s case, that’s making party music to raise your pimp chalice to. And his new video, “Hey,” featuring 3OH!3 on backup, is certainly no exception.

In the “Hey” video, Lil Jon and 3OH!3 are seen partying in and around Hollywood while the “Jersey Shore” cast — “Hey” is featured on the “Jersey Shore Soundtrack” — does what they do best: party.

Beer is chugged, the Situation’s abs are, once again, flashed, the beat is beaten and the dawn is broken.

Watch “Hey” now.

(Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Drake’s “Miss Me” is pretty much the musical equivalent of getting a paycheck, slamming a can of energy drink and putting on your Friday night’s finest. No song this year evokes a swagged-out night dancing and partying with friends.

But when you’re Drake, everything comes at a cost, I guess. So his new video for “Miss Me” doesn’t feature any huge entourages or friendly bartenders or sweaty dancers. Nope, it’s just Drizzy performing his banger in a room, joined only intermittently by a very friendly lady.

Like his evocative “Find Your Love” video, filmed in Jamaica, production values are incredibly high on “Miss Me.” You’ll be hard-pressed to find better cinematography in a video this year, and the special effects work is pretty great as well, thanks to director Anthony Mandler.

You might be wondering how Lil Wayne can appear in a video when he is, in fact, calling Rikers Island home these days. Well, Weezy shot his part before he headed to jail, and his role in “Miss Me” is that of an apparition more than anything else, showing up as a back-projected image during the proceedings. You did that, Weezy.

+ Watch Drake and Lil Wayne’s “Miss Me” video, here. (WARNING: NSFW)

(Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImages)

This new Lloyd Banks video is incredibly economical in how it delivers a ton of info in just a matter of seconds. Within the first few opening frames, we learn that Lloyd Banks sleeps in PJ bottoms with the windows open, that he fancies himself something of a sensitive singer-songwriter (peep the acoustic hanging on the wall) and that he has himself a “shorty” concierge who calls to alert him that his girlfriend is on the way home. So he better clean up his romantic crime scene, scrubbing off all evidence of infidelity.

We also learn that he’s friends with R&B sensation Lloyd, which must be hell when they’re out in public together and people shout, “LLOYD!” and they both look up.

Anyway this banger’s video, courtesy of J. Jesse Smith, finds Lloyd & Lloyd doing it up at a party with a disturbingly out-of-balance girl-to-guy ratio. They seem to be managing somehow. Frankly with a track this addictive it could be a film strip highlighting water treatment processes, and it would still go hard.

“Any Girl” is off of Lloyd Banks’ Hunger For More 2. Check out the video below.

Kanye West isn’t just tweeting like a madman or prepping his new album for a November release. Nope, ‘Yeezy is also getting all his G.O.O.D. Music ducks in a row, unleashing a handful of albums from his label’s rather talented roster this Fall. And, other than Kanye, perhaps no release is more anticipated than Kid Cudi’s follow-up to last year’s Man On The Moon.

“Wylin’ Cause I’m Young,” finds Cudi and Kanye teaming up, casting themselves as angry young men and celebrating that fact all the way to the bank. Taken from the just-released G.O.O.D. Music mixtape, the track is much different than the duo’s most famed collabo, Cudi’s hit single “Make Her Say.”

It’s a sort of drugged, dark and devilish cut, built out of a creeping beat and keyboards that sound like a leaky faucet. Lyrically the duo stay on message: welcome to the lifestyles of the young, rich and famous, as Kanye celebrates his home theater system and Cudi talks some darkly alluring smack.

Check out the song below. Kid Cudi’s Man On The Moon II is due out this Fall.

+ Listen to Kid Cudi and Kanye West, “Wylin’ Cause I’m Young” here (WARNING: NSFW LANGUAGE)

Spotted by the fine folks at Pigeons & Planes, here we have, “Lose It (In The End),” the latest single from Mark Ronson’s upcoming third solo album, Record Collection. As the album title would suggest, Ronson’s full length is shaping up to be a rather eclectic affair.

Record Colelction’s zany first single (and awesome video), “Bang Bang Bang” was a deviation from the retro-soul sound that made Ronson (and Amy Winehouse) famous. That classic Ronson sound could  describe Ghostface and Ronson’s first collaboration, “Ooh Wee” from Ronson’s debut solo album, Here Comes The Fuzz.

“Lose It…,” however, is a different kind of animal. Over a funky drummer beat we hear a variety of whistles and flutes (right out of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack),  while Ghostface kicks his typical dense slang on top.

It’s a dope track and an interesting move from Ronson, who certainly could have spent the rest of his days trying to remake Winehouse’s “Rehab.”

Check out the song below. Record Collection is out in September.

+ Listen to Mark Ronson and Ghostface Killah’s “Lose It (In The End)” here

(Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Kanye West is BIG TIME back. He’s joining Twitter. He’s VISITING Twitter. He’s rapping in Facebook’s conference room. He’s Ustreaming. He’s studying up on the ancient Egyptians. He’s getting SUPER into art. He’s coming clean and getting all emo over second, third, and fourth chances. He’s declaring jeans over. He’s jogging in Lanvin and getting in tip-top shape before he releases his fifth, still-untitled album this fall. And he’s giving it away, musically speaking.

Just today, Kanye West released “See Me Now,” another track from his upcoming album, which MIGHT be out November 16. “See Me Now” features Beyonce and Uncle Charlie Wilson — of soul great The Gap Band — and it’s a feel-good throwback track, soulful through and through. In it, Kanye likens himself to a black, boat-shoes-wearing Socrates, cuts down Nobu to mere Whole Foods proportions, name drops the Lourve, and leaves Fossil watches in the dust. Kanye calls out his late mother who’s looking down on him. Who doesn’t get love? All those brand-new friends who wanna be friends with your brand-new money.

If “The Good Life” was Kanye’s declaration that he’d passed through the gates that separate the unwashed masses from the finer things in life, “See Me Now” is Kanye’s declaration that he basically now owns those gates. And he’s having them redone in a Lagerfeldian black lacquer with a high gloss.

Listen for a great, tongue-in-cheek “I’ma let you finish” direct reference. And, yes, that’s Beyonce saying the N-word.

+ Listen to “See Me Now” on Kanye’s blog. (WARNING: NSFW!)

It’s sort of crazy to imagine a time when everyone from Dr. Dre to Aerosmith was making expensive, expansive, over-indulgent and totally awesome mini-movies-as-music-videos. For a variety of reasons, those days are largely dinosaur-bound. But nobody told Slim Shady.

Eminem’s latest clip, “Love The Way You Lie,” featuring Rihanna, is an honest-to-goodness, big budget, special-effects-having, movie-star featuring, blockbuster of a music video.

Directed by veteran music vid auteur Joseph Kahn, “Love The Way You Lie” (which is taken from Eminem’s Recovery album) features Megan Fox and Lost’s Dominc Monaghan as two lovers caught in a vicious cycle of abuse. Kahn has his stars lip sync Em’s lines into their dialogue in an incredibly artful fashion, and both Monaghan and Fox give pretty vivid performances.

Ultimately though, the stars are the musicians, with Eminem narrating this doomed love affair of two people with equally combustible tempers, and Rihanna offering a plaintive, defeated hook. And it goes without saying that the personal histories of the two artists certainly raises eyebrows.

Check out the video in the link below. Recovery is out now.

+ Watch Eminem, featuring Rihanna, “Love The Way You Lie,” here.

Sean Kingston, along with Iyaz and Vita Chambers, has been one of the chief proponents of the  Island Pop genre that’s been hitting the mainstream hard ever since Rihanna infused her pop-R&B with a little Barbados flavor.

On his new single, Sean Kingston, with the help of Nicki Minaj, indulges in a little more of the island than the pop, with this dancehall-ready banger, “Letting Go.” As Idoaltor notes, the track was produced by Stargate, who are also responsible for the rocksteady flavor of Rihanna’s “Te Amo.”

The “Letting Go” video was shot by Lil X on location in Jamaica and takes place largely at one heck of a party. Kingston sings and pushes up on Nicki Minaj, while the Harajuku Barbie does a great job translating her flow into a Jamaican patois.

“Letting Go” will likely be featured on Kingston’s untitled new album, due out later this year.

+ Watch Sean Kingston and Nicki Minaj’s “Letting Go (Dutty Love)” video here.

(Credit: Jerome Whi)

“Black Chukkas” takes a look at an ordinary day in the life of up-and-coming MC Gilbere Forte from a perspective that’s anything but ordinary. Take one part “Friday,” one part “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and mix with a deep love of sneaker culture and a ridiculously catchy song, and you get this, the debut single from Philly-via-Michigan rapper.

Lensed by legendary video director Chris Robinson, “Black Chukkas” follows Forte from the perspective of black Vans kicks as he rolls through a typical day of highs and lows and haircuts. Forte hits the barber, grabs some food, runs to catch a bus and tries to avoid alerting his sleeping girlfriend of some of his “extra-curricular” activities. It’s all in a day’s work (and play).

The track is taken from Forte’s recently released 87 Dreams and the video is up part of this week’s Best Freshmen Videos contest over at mtvU. Check out the video below, and be sure to drop by mtvU to vote for your favorite vid.

The discourse surrounding beverages has always been a constant in hip-hop and R&B. 20 years ago, Snoop and Dre turned the 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor into a rap accessory.

But as the years have gone on and on, hip-hop and R&B have turned their backs on the bargain basement beverages and moved into more refined tastes, espousing the joys of Pino Grigio and rose wine. Which brings us to two of hip-hop and R&B’s biggest names blowing up the cocktail of choice for aristocrats suffering from chest colds. Yup, it’s Usher, Jay-Z and Ester Dean’s “Hot Toddy,” from Usher’s forthcoming EP, Versus. New Usher EP? Yup, after the success of “OMG” and “Hey Daddy,” he’s striking while the proverbial iron is still proverbially hot. And with “Hot Toddy,” he comes out of the gate strong.

Despite being named after a cocktail of whiskey, hot water and lemon, this track is pretty slick. With a slithering beat courtesy of Polow da Don, Usher spits game at a girl, while Jay-Z spits game to the mirror, mirror on the wall, all while Ester Dean wails in the background.

Check the song out below, along with Usher’s “Hey Daddy” video. Drink it up, folks.

+ Listen to Usher, Jay-Z And Ester Dean’s “Hot Toddy,” here.

When Annie Lennox made “No More I Love You’s” many, many moons ago, she couldn’t have possibly imagined a gigantic, bearded rapper who tweets under the name @RickyRozay, spitting sweaty rhymes over a sample of the song some 15 years later. Frankly, Lennox couldn’t have possibly imagined a lot of things, such as Twitter, so there you go.

But here we have Ricky Rozay, aka Rick Ross, dropping his typical sophisticated pillow talk over the sample in this, the remix of Nicki Minaj’s jam of the summer contender “Your Love.”

Nicki and Rick make an interesting pair. Minaj is typically a very animated rapper while switching accents and doing impersonations. Ross, on the other hand, is always Ross. That will probably be on his tombstone: that he was always Ross (also, that he really liked Rose wine).

Other than the addition of Ross’ verse, the song remains the same, with Nicki shouting out Bruce Willis and harmonizing with herself on the chorus.

+ Listen to Nicki Minaj, featuring Rick Ross, “Your Love (Remix),” here.

Latest in the long line of hip-hop/R&B songs extolling the virtues of romantic loyalty and steadfast support — going back to LL Cool J’s “Around The Way Girl,” through Method Man and Mary J. Blige’s “You’re All I Need” — is T.I. and Keri Hilson’s “Got Your Back.” And we’ve got a sneak peek of the video right here.

Produced by DJ Toomp, the track is a buoyant, jumpy little love song about holding it down for the one you love. It’s taken from T.I.’s upcoming album, King Uncaged, which is reportedly due out in September.

In this short clip, we see a lot of Keri Hilson and a little of T.I., as the king and Keri trade lines about sticking to each other like glue. There’s a suggestion of a storyline going on, involving a guy in jail and a girl waiting for his release, but we’ll have to wait for the full-length version to get to the bottom of it.

Check out the sneak peek below, and stay tuned for the full “Got Your Back” video, premiering tomorrow, July 22.

If you’re expecting another “Boyz,” or “Paper Planes” or “Galang” from M.I.A. you might have to wait a bit longer. The controversial, post-pop singer is on the verge of releasing a new album, /\/\/\Y/\,  that’s occasionally as hard to listen to as its album title — the typographical equivalent of M.I.A.’s name — is to pronounce.

Take, for example, “Teqkilla,” co-produced by Major Lazer’s DJ Switch. It’s a cut-and-paste epic that builds, slowly and steadily, with layer upon layer of samples and digital squelches, with M.I.A. rap-singing while drowning in a digital bath.

Thrown into this mix is everyone’s favorite Barbie, Nicki Minaj. The Young Money princess tells M.I.A. that the beat is on fire as she doles out a flow somewhere between drunk valley girl, dancehall queen and math nerd.

Pretty strange stuff for a song that seems to be about doing shots and going crazy. Of course with M.I.A., nothing is what it seems. Check out the song, as well as M.I.A.’s “Boyz” and Nicki Minaj’s “Massive Attack” videos, all below.

+ Listen to M.I.A., featuring Nicki Minaj, “Teqkilla (Remix)” here.

Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win (Remix)” video falls under the latter category.

First things first: DJ Khaled has done so much winning that he’s become a traded commodity on the New York Stock Exchange. Either that or he spent a pretty penny on a LED screen that flashes his name and its stock price, but has no baring whatsoever on the world’s economy.

Second of all, we’re really feeling the sheer variety of jackets being rocked in this clip; from Khaled’s varsity style to Rick Ross‘ satin “West Side Story” windbreaker, to Diddy’s rose-colored fitted thing with the white ribbing. If variety is the spice of life, these guys are Sriracha sauce.

Third of all, and just to wrap up because I have to go start my thesis paper on this video to be published next Nevuary, WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH BUSTA RHYMES‘ STOICISM.

Every one else is totally living it up and throwing money and being animated. But Busta is acting like he’s watching “The Hurt Locker” for the first time! Check him out at 1:17! It’s true!

This video contains multitudes. I implore you to discover all of them.

But there’s an elephant in the room (or the video) in the form of “Harry Potter” star Emma Watson. Now, as metaphorical elephants go, you could do worse than Watson, but her presence automatically gives One Night Only a little bit more exposure than an indie-leaning band might normally get. How did One Night Only pull off the feat of snagging Hermione for their video? She just happens to be dating One Night Only singer/guitarist George Craig. Mystery solved!

The video is actually really charming — full of low-key footage of New York’s Lower East Side. Watson appears about midway through the video, looking lost. Craig approaches her and kicks some game, no doubt revolving around he is also British and what a small world it is, etc.

Check out the video below. One Night Only’s self-titled sophomore album is due out in August. Oh yeah, Emma Watson is in some wizard movie that’s coming out soon, too.

What you need is a nice, breezy, chill-out feel-good jam to cool you down. And that’s what we have here with “Lay Me Down,” courtesy of the L.A. band, The Dirty Heads, with a little help from Rome, the lead singer of Sublime With Rome (a group that features ex-members of the classic summertime band Sublime).

In this Thomas Mignone-directed clip, we get that easy summer feeling, watching the band perform on the beach while interspersed with some footage of lovers on the run in Mexico.

“Lay Me Down” is taken from The Dirty Heads’ Any Port In A Storm, out now. Check out the video below.

Hayley Williams and B.o.B.’s “Airplanes” video finally premiered, and like the song itself, the Hiro Murai-directed video is dark, if not a harbinger of doom. While there’s no clear star or storyline to the “Airplanes” video, B.o.B. is featured more prominently, while Hayley Williams, shown mainly in profile, takes a back seat on the rather bleak record.

A beautiful yet ominous and haunting song, “Airplanes” is a reflection upon fame — reminiscent of Lupe Fiasco’s “Superstar” and Drake’s “Over” — and the video, perhaps much like fame itself, is a cheerless collection of lights, fast-moving imagery, and solitude.

+ Watch B.o.B’s “Airplanes” video, featuring Hayley Williams, here.