Music news

By Aerin Raymond

Posted on Feb. 03, 2005, at 12:00 a.m.

50 Cent has confirmed details of his comeback single, “Candy Shop.”

The track, the first song to be lifted from his second album “The Massacre,” is released on March 21 by Interscope.

The album is the follow-up to the multi-million selling “Get Rich Or Die Tryin” and precedes the single on Monday, March 7.

Speaking recently about the song, the rapper said: “I think the song itself is great. I attempted to be as sexual as possible, from a male perspective, without being vulgar or obscene. I think that I did a great job on it.”

Coldplay showcased their upcoming third album at a gig in London last week. Chris Martin and bandmate Will Champion previewed two songs from the new LP. The pair, both playing acoustic guitars, debuted “A Message” after kicking off with another new song, simply referred to as “Track 12.”

Martin told the audience: “The point is, it’s [the album] going to be good. But don’t judge it on what you hear tonight because we’re playing ‘Track 12′, which is very obscure, which is the only one we can do at the moment.”

As reported in Music Week, “Track 12″ was later described by the singer as “our Johnny Cash song”, and is likely to be titled ”Till Kingdom Come.”

Coldplay have yet to complete the follow-up to 2002′s “A Rush Of Blood To The Head.”

Details of OutKast’s next project, a full-length feature film, have emerged. The Atlanta duo are currently working with their long-time video director Bryan Barber on the HBO-produced movie, which should be released mid-June.

Currently using the working title “Speakerboxx” after Big Boi’s contribution to OutKast’s last double album, Barber told MTV News that the film wasn’t based directly on those songs, but it would feature both rappers.

“Big Boi’s in a love triangle and has to choose between his dream of being a businessman and his family. Dre’s is more of a tragic love story. He falls in love with someone from out of town, which motivates him to follow his dream,” Barber explained.

Although Andre 3000 has acting experience, including a role in the forthcoming “Be Cool,” Barber confirmed that the duo had worked on new musical material for the film.

“They mostly rap in it,” explained Barber. “There are some new tracks and OutKast songs I think should have been released as singles.”

Despite this, the director insists the film will not be a modern rap flick, but will be set in the middle of last century.

“It’s not really a hip-hop movie at all, it just happens to have two major hip-hop stars in it,” he explained. “It’s more of a 1930s musical. I took some of the music from OutKast and set it in that time. That’s one of the things I set out to do. I was trying to make a statement on how music from today could have been music from the 1930s.”

Macy Gray will also star, playing “a jaded singer” and soul vocalist Patti LaBelle will also be featured. A soundtrack album from the film has been rumored ahead of more new OutKast material later due out this year.

Michael Jackson’s trial on charges of child molestation has been adjourned until Feb. 7. The decision was taken after a potential 4,000 jurors were narrowed down to 250 for the case in California’s Santa Maria county.

Next week will see the process continue to select the final 12 jurors and eight standby jurors, according to BBC News.

Lawyers for both the prosecution and defense will question the remaining 250 potential jurors next week and meanwhile the candidates have been asked to fill in questionnaires.

Professional jury consultants have been employed by the legal teams. They specialize in assessing the personalities of potential jurors and their likely opinions about the case. The jury selection process could take up to a month.

Just hours before his trial on 10 counts of child molestation and conspiracy, the singer rehearsed a video online appealing for a fair trial.

The trial is estimated to last in the range of six months. If found guilty, Jackson faces up to 21 years behind bars.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2005, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.