Kanye West, Eminem, Florence + the Machine, Taylor Swift and more: The MTV VMA performances graded

Pop & Hiss is live -- sort of! We're about 4 miles from MTV's annual pat-on-the-back party, but we're still grading all the performances as fast as we can, complete with typos. The two hours of hype will be documented here, but we also recommend you follow the tweets of our chief pop critic Ann Powers.  

 
Eminem, "Not Afraid/Love the Way You Lie." The show begins with a close-up of Eminem, his face shrouded in a hoodie, all Dungeons & Dragons sorcerer-like. But there's no 20-sided playfulness here, as Em is all solemn and serious -- stalking the stage face-down and plundering it with rhymes. "Not Afraid" is an overly forced tale of overcoming addiction, but it's stronger than anything off of last year's "Relapse." It comes alive as Em struts from a brick-adorned back room to a stage that's spread among a host of Googie-inspired symmetrics, allowing for some creative displays of light. Eminem has stolen some of Kanye West's "Heartless" drum line, and it gives the cut some award-show oomph, but doesn't add to the song's tenseness so much as explode it. The tautness comes courtesy of Rihanna, who appears onstage with a colorful, Hayley Williams-like hairdo. Her vocal delivery is straight-up stern, the perfect counterpoint to Em's more forceful hits. Overall, a solid opening: B

Justin Bieber, "Baby." Remember a couple years ago when the Jonas Brothers performed outdoors at the MTV VMAs? This year it's Bieber who’s the young'un who can't play inside with the grown-ups. He rolls up to the  downtown L.A. venue in a red convertible, chased by teenage girls. His "Baby" is fluffy retro-teen pop, and the vintage car and screaming girls attempt to connect Bieber to idols of yore. But Bieber is no Beatle, and his "Baby" is the kind of inescapable pop hit that already sounds dated, forever affixed to spring 2010. It's a sugar high, and Bieber isn't here to sing it so much as to show off his high-flying dance moves in his Team Bieber varsity jackets. But lest we think he's completely void of musical talent, he makes a brief racket on the drum set, immediately after dancing with some tykes half his size. The giant "B" on Beiber's jacket tells us what squad he’s playing for, but this belongs to the Mickey Mouse Club: D

SoCal rules on the charts: Avenged Sevenfold's 'Nightmare' a dream debut; Best Coast hits top 40

Huntington Beach's Avenged Sevenfold confronted the unexpected passing last year of drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan on its recently released "Nightmare." The darkly personal hard rock song cycle has been embraced by fans, as "Nightmare" has given the locals its best-ever sales week on the U.S. pop charts. "Nightmare" lands at No. 1 this week, having sold 162,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, to hold off another strong sales showing from Eminem's "Recovery."

Avenged Sevenfold has been on the upward trajectory since jumping to Warner Bros. in the mid-2000s, and it is one of the rare bands that continues to see sales increases with each album. "Nightmare" marks Avenged Sevenfold's first album since 2007's self-titled Warner Bros. effort, the act's second for the major, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with 94,000 copies sold in its first week.That represented a major boost for the act. It's 2005 collection, "City of Evil," entered the chart at No. 30, with fewer than 35,000 first week sales. 

Avenged Sevenfold isn't the only SoCal group to post an impressive showing on this week's sales chart. Retro-pop act Best Coast, the indie faves of the moment, enter at No. 36 with "Crazy for You," an album that sold 10,000 copies in its debut week. The buzz on Best Coast's '50's-meets-Ramones-inspired sound began at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, in March, and has only increased in the weeks since.

Eminem joins Rihanna at Staples Center and makes the room explode

The crowd at Rihanna's first-ever headlining show in Los Angeles, at Staples Center on Wednesday night, was already up and shouting. But the minute Rihanna began singing the hook from "Love the Way You Lie," the din began to build to a rolling boil. Then the somewhat expected happened: Eminem, her duet partner on that No. 1 song, emerged and started spitting out his emotional verses from the song. The response from the audience was so loud, you might have thought it was June 17 and Kobe, Pau and Ron had just nabbed victory again.

Eminem's emergence wasn't shocking, since he and Rihanna were filming a video in town earlier in the day. It added an element of spontaneity to Rihanna's visually stunning, high-concept concert. With no particular set piece on which to rely -- no pink tank, no trashed car, none of the many other props that populated the nightmarish dream world of the "Last Girl on Earth" tour -- the two performers relied on what made the single so memorable: their vocal rapport.

Adopting a stern stance, Eminem unfurled his emotional verses about a violent relationship, while Rihanna countered with the song's soft, mournful chorus. The pair circled each other on the stage extension that put Rihanna out in the crowd for much of the show. They didn't direct their words at each other. Their disconnection may have been the result of nerves -- Eminem and Rihanna have only performed the song live once before -- but it actually worked for this song, which, after all, is about two lovers who have grown perilously incompatible.

Most impressive, perhaps, was Eminem's effect on the fans, who went completely bonkers when he entered. The great success of his new album, "Recovery," already should have silenced anyone doubting whether Em could make a lasting comeback after his struggles with addiction. The frenzy that he can still ignite, even at another chart-topper's show, testifies to his status as a classic-variety superstar. As for giving back, he didn't pander; he just did what he does best -- rap -- and departed.

More on Rihanna's show, and on opener Kesha, in a full review later Thursday.

-- Ann Powers

Photo: Rihanna, on her Last Girl on Earth tour, performs at L.A.'s Staples Center on Wednesday. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

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On the charts: Eminem crosses the million mark as biz faces another double-digit dip in sales

 

With 2010 reaching its halfway mark, U.S. album sales are again facing another double-digit decline. Yet amid the harsh climate, Eminem's "Recovery" has managed to top 1 million in sales after adding an additional 313,000 copies sold to its tally this week. "Recovery" is one of four albums released in 2010 to sell more than 1 million copies through the first half of the year, according to mid-year data released today from Nielsen SoundScan.

But while there's good news from Eminem and country trio Lady Antebellum, overall album sales are down 11%, compared with the first half of 2009. There is growth in the digital sector, but evidence that it's slowing. Digital album sales are up 13.7% compared with the same period last year, while sales of digital tracks are flat. Both finished 2009 on an upswing, with digital album sales ending last year up 16.1% and digital track sales wrapping 2009 up 8.3%.

Yet digital album sales were stronger in the first quarter of 2010, up nearly 16% from last year's first quarter, and a busy fall and winter release schedule can certainly put 2010 on par. Digital albums now account for 27.4% of all album purchases, up from 21.5% at this time last year.

Album review: Eminem's 'Recovery'

Ever since Kanye West looped Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," the hip-hop zeitgeist has tilted toward techno. Skinny-jeaned stars Wiz Khalifa and Kid Cudi have rapped over Alice Deejay and Robert Miles, while Power 106 keeps house DJ David Guetta in heavy rotation.

Admirably, Eminem has always ignored evanescent trends. Despite an over-reliance on gross-out gags and tired pop culture riffs, his last album, "Relapse," further plumbed the weird depths of his psyche. Yet on his sixth album, "Recovery," he ushers in the "Night at the Roxbury" era, sampling Haddaway's "What Is Love," the Eurodance ballad mocked in the "Saturday Night Live" skits and spinoff movie. The song ("No Love") isn't as awful as it is illustrative of the pitfalls facing Marshall Mathers. In its quest for six-digit download numbers, the industry has reduced Eminem, Lil Wayne and highly gifted producer Just Blaze to plundering grooves for the silk-shirt and silver-suited set.

"Recovery" is thwarted by similarly ill-fitting decisions. Beats from his longtime collaborators the Bass Brothers and Dr. Dre are largely nonexistent save for the latter's co-production on "So Bad." In their stead are anthemic, hackneyed hooks and big-budget producers du jour (Boi-1Da, Jim Jonsin, DJ Khalil) at their most monochromatic and monotonous. Cameos from Pink ("Won't Back Down") and Rihanna ("Love the Way You Lie") further exacerbate the disconnect from the qualities that made Eminem a star: wariness of cultural cliché, knack for storytelling and conflict, and a caustic wit. Thematically, Eminem eschews the offbeat for the inspirational, with the 12-step single "Not Afraid" serving as a manifesto for his newfound sobriety. The central salvation is Mather's enduring virtuosity. Throughout "Recovery," he weaves dazzling internal patterns and clever word play.

But ultimately, until Eminem is able to restore the memory of what got him to the top in the first place, full recovery is impossible.

-- Jeff Weiss

Eminem
"Recovery"
Interscope/Aftermath
Two and a half stars (Out of four)

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Eminem, Usher and others play Activision's star-studded event at Staples

Of the half-dozen acts that played during Monday night's mega event at Staples Center, perhaps any one of them alone could have filled the arena. But together, those genre-spanning superstars produced a fantastic and unforgettable stage show for the fairly intimate crowd.

Also, there might have been something about a video game.

The invite-only event was put on by Activision Blizzard, the Santa Monica outfit that makes such hit games as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft. Among the first nighttime events for the kickoff of this year's E3 video game expo in Los Angeles, Activision somehow managed to top Microsoft's Project Natal spectacle from the night before, which called upon the ever-mystifying Cirque du Soleil.

How a video game publisher managed to book Staples Center on the eve of the Lakers' crucial Game 6 in the NBA finals was a mystery soon forgotten after things got rolling. Eminem was the apparent headliner of the night, nabbing the longest playtime and the last punch and kick onstage, but it wouldn't be at all fair to call those who preceded him opening acts.

Atlanta rapper B.o.B.'s 'Adventure' at No. 1

In the track “Airplanes” from his just-released CD, “B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray,” Atlanta rapper Bobby Ray Simmons, aka B.o.B., imagines that “I just dropped my new album, on my first week I did 500,000.”  Well, the 21-year-old hip-hop newcomer didn’t come close to that number, but he did nevertheless make it to the top of the national sales chart his first week out.

Simmons’ album sold 84,000 copies, helped along by the presence of a number of high-profile guests including no less than Eminem, who joins in on a bonus track version of “Airplanes” along with Paramore singer Hayley Williams. Among his other partners are fellow rapper T.I., Lupe Fiasco, Rivers Cuomo, Janelle Monae, Bruno Mars and Ricco Barrino.

It was considerably more impressive than the lackluster first-week response to the latest outing for Courtney Love’s band Hole, which came in at No. 15 with sales of just 22,000 for “Nobody’s Daughter,” according to Billboard/Nielsen SoundScan. That mirrors the critical response to the new collection, which garners a 59 out of a possible 100 on Metacritic.com’s aggregate of reviews from major publications and music websites.

Rolling Stone said “’Nobody’s Daughter’ isn’t a true success — but it’s a noble effort,” while, writing for The Los Angeles Times, Margaret Wappler said: “The biggest problem with ‘Nobody’s Daughter’ is the mostly standard hard rock licks provided by her too-merry band of youngsters. These boys don’t sound like they’ve lived through anything, much less Love’s torrid brand of ‘this.’”

Among other new Top 10 entries are Bullet for My Valentine’s “Fever,” opening at No., 3 with sales of 71,000 copies; Melissa Etheridge’s “Fearless Love,” at No. 7 with sales of 46,000; and Miranda Cosgrove’s “Sparks Fly,” landing right behind Etheridge at No. 8 after selling 36,000 copies.

Country trio Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” continues strongly at No. 2, and should crack the 2-million total sales mark this week if the album keeps on the pace it’s been on lately. Last week’s top-selling album, The "Glee" cast’s “Power of Madonna,” tumbled to No. 10 with sales of 29,000 copies, a second-week sales drop of 70%.

--Randy Lewis

Fear and loathing: Eminem leaks new single, 'Not Afraid'

Amid all the attention lavished upon Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Kanye West and new media-darlings Drake, B.O.B. and Kid Cudi, it’s easy to forget that Eminem remains arguably the world's most commercially viable rapper.

Until Susan Boyle budged him from the honor, he had the best chart debut of 2009 and remains one of the few non-teen pop or “American Idol” artists capable of approaching multi-platinum sales.

So it’s safe to say that his singles remain one of the last things remotely resembling “event status” in the atomized Internet environment, stubborn barnacles of the monoculture, and the rare songs capable of impacting the Interscope quarterly bottom line.

Accordingly, the release of his latest “Not Afraid,” has the rote feel of a rigorously focus-grouped session, rather than the un-medicated spontaneity that characterized his triumphant freestyles and guest spots that accompanied the aftermath of the largely disappointing “Relapse.”

The first leak from the forthcoming “Recovery” (slated for a June 22 release) bests its last two predecessors, “We Made You ” and “Just Lose It,” largely off the fact that Marshall Mathers has finally realized that he’d exhausted his ability to shock via an ersatz Arab-accent, scatological shtick and moldy pop culture jokes. 

Grammy countdown: Is Eminem's 'Relapse' a lock for best rap album?

Pop & Hiss will be handicapping the major Grammy categories leading up to the Jan. 31 telecast. Read our picks, and vote for your own, below.

The category: Best rap album

The field at a glance: Three of the last five years, the best rap album went to Kanye West. During the eligibility period for the 2010 awards, West drifted from his hip-hop past, offering up a collection of moody pop with "808s and Heartbreak," and thus opening up the rap album field.

But West isn't the only superstar absent from this category. Due to a one-month advance in the eligibility period from Sept. 31 to Aug. 31, Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3" missed the window to be considered for the 2010 awards, having been released on Sept. 8. The omission of the 2010 Coachella headliner will be felt, as the album has sold more than 1.5 million copies in just four months, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

What's left, however, is a rather broad snapshot of hip-hop over 2009. Flo Rida maintained his dominance as a singles artist, as his "Right Round" featuring Ke$ha sold more than 4 million downloads throughout 2009. His album "R.O.O.T.S.," however, didn't make the same impact as its individual cuts.

Introspective rapper and perennial nominee Common went the party route with his more lighthearted "Universal Mind Control," and indie-minded artists such as Mos Def and Q-Tip are also represented in the field. Q-Tip's album, "The Renaissance," was released in late 2008 and featured him melding hip-hop and neo-soul, as well as working with an impressive group of collaborators including Norah Jones and Nelly Furtado. It should be the kind of easily approachable album Grammy voters love, but it's far from the biggest success in the category, as Eminem's first album in five years, "Relapse," rounds out the field.

Examining the prescription: A look at Eminem's 'Relapse: The Refill'

Following a three-year fugue in which he suffered from a debilitating pill addiction, recidivism was anything but the reality during the recording of Eminem’s “Relapse.” But despite his newfound sobriety, Marshall Mathers descended deeper into depravity, un-retiring his Slim Shady alter ego and concocting grotesque serial killer scenarios.

The year’s most popular rap record drew mixed reviews, with The Times’ Ann Powers aptly calling it, “an impressively focused and clever work….But the music [was] not transcendent, [and] still stuck in Marshall Mathers' muck.” Discarding plans to release a sequel consisting of leftover tracks, Eminem has instead opted to release “Relapse: The Refill” -- the original album and a half dozen tracks from the "Relapse" sessions, plus “Forever,” a collaboration with Drake, Lil Wayne and Kanye West. In advance of its release next week, Pop and Hiss breaks down the new material.

“Forever” featuring Drake, Lil Wayne & Kanye West

From the delirious wordplay of Missy Elliot’s “Busa Rhyme,” Jay-Z’s "Renegade" and posthumous Notorious BIG collaboration “Dead Wrong,” many of Eminem’s finest moments have come via head-to-head competition. Originally intended for a Lebron James documentary, “Forever” continues the tradition. Sparring against MTV’s second, third and fourth “Hottest MCs,” Eminem unleashes a double-timed assault that laps his peers and slaps “kick me” on their back. He declares that the “passion and the flame is ignited.” You believe it.

“Hell Breaks Loose” featuring Dr. Dre

Often likening themselves to Batman and Robin, the best Dr. Dre and Eminem collaborations were always closer to Abbott and Costello, with Eminem’s lacerating wit blending well with Dre’s patient straight man. By contrast, “Hell Breaks Loose” feels Borscht Belt, with a corny string of punch lines about “Shady…filling you up if you’re a D or a C cup” and Dre rhyming “Caboose” with “Grey Goose.” Get the hook.

“Buffalo Bill”

At his most effective moments on “Relapse,” Eminem’s intensity was so searing that you wanted to turn off the album. Affecting the tungsten-eyed vacancy of a serial killer, he came off more Dahmer than “Dexter.” “Buffalo Bill” is as incisive and insane as anything released in 2009. Rhyming words with Velcro ease, the slithery and sociopathic narrator boasts of “Caucasian carcasses in his crawl space.” He kills cavalierly with chainsaws. In terms of its ability to emulate the mind of a maniac, “Buffalo Bill” is masterful. I never want to listen to it again.

“Elevator”

Introspective and effective, “Elevator” finds Slim Shady replaced by Marshall, nostalgic for the time when he “used to sit and goof on the phone with my friend Proof, that if I went gold, I’d go right through the roof, he said what if you went platinum, I just laughed at him, that’s not happening, that’s just something I can’t fathom,” before waking up “80 million records later, sitting in a house with an elevator.”

In those three sentences, he clues you in on the weirdness of his dizzying ascent, the sheer shock of a dirt-poor mullet-clad kid from Warren, Mich., becoming the most famous rapper in the world. You suddenly understand why he needed pills to cope: His friends are dead or distant, he’s trapped by his own fame and ill-equipped to handle the pressure. For someone who frequently plays victim, it’s the rare occasion it doesn’t feel like self-indulgence. Though it is hard to complain when you have an elevator in your house.

“Taking My Ball”

A throwaway scatological track featuring impressions of "South Park's" Cartman, and Kim Kardashian, Heidi Klum, Mischa Barton and Tara Reid name-drops. It’s superfluous and sounds like it could be an outtake from “Encore.” However, it might boast the funniest line on the album, with Eminem insisting he’s going to “mosey on over to Rosie O’ Donnell’s with McDonald’s to watch ‘The Sopranos.’ "

“Music Box”

Another song for “Saw” fans. Over music box chimes and trap-door synths, Eminem carves another psychotic fantasy out of the dark chambers of his head. Unlike some of his more contrived horror-core moments, “Music Box” is chilling, with Shady flexing an aggravating unhinged snarl. A Norman Bates stand-in, the narrator is “fixated on asphyxiating and breakin’ this little chick’s neck like a pixie stick,” thus ruining the candy for me for life.

“Drop a Bomb On Em”

Returning to his Scribble Jam battle roots, this is five minutes of nitroglycerin raps with Eminem likening himself to Kenard from “The Wire,” Michael Spinks and Captain America on Ferris wheels. Over a throbbing piano and galloping drums, Eminem taunts haters: “Think ya made a mistake, by saying Shady was ghost, I ain’t even close to the gate.” The man has a point.

-- Jeff Weiss

Photo credit: Karin Catt

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