Rihanna’s new album “Rated R” is scheduled to be released on November 23rd and already, there are lots of speculation and excitement about it. In this album, she is portraying herself in a tougher image, unlike her previous glamorous self. On the music video of her single “Wait Your Turn” shows a grainy, sexy clip of Rihanna that shows her as a tough renegade. This is the type of image she and her music-video collaborator, Anthony Mandler, were going for. The video was shot in the middle of October on a cold day in the Big Apple. The first video is just a preview of what’s to come. The two talked about creating something that’s a bit more raw and gritty, so they decided to create a more “Street” video than a classic beauty piece.

They reviewed early hip hop videos and liked how they weren’t created with few resources — they mostly used their environment and surroundings; the textures and shapes. In the video Rihanna is wearing an eye patch and heels, giving a hard-edge feel to he usual glam self. Some of the videos that inspired her featured artists like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep and Nas. The words behind the song were carefully thought up in order to create the same image audio-wise: aggressive bravado. Rihanna is a young artist that is always pushing boundaries. She has changed her identity so many times, so you never know what she’ll come up with next. She is a true artist, someone that knows how to transform the picture and make it into anything she wants to portray.

As you may have all heard, Def Jam has been sold and taken over by none other than Jay-Z. Now, this may sound very nice, especially to all of you Jay-Z fans, but not everyone is feeling the same glory. KRS One, for instance, isn’t too thrilled about the news. He is known for always going against the system and big corporations that neglect and abuse the little people. So nothing is stopping him from targeting Def Jam. The record company was established by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin back in the day when hip hop was fresh and new. Today, KRS One complains that hip hop has been damaged and that the Jay-Z take over of Def Jam may down it some more. I guess he figures someone like Jay isn’t the solution to hip hop’s ordeal.

Def Jam is the father and mentor of a lot of artists in R&B, pop and rap. It brought and still is bringing out lots of artists and many of the same artists are still signed under their label. KRS One told XXL Magazine that Def Jam single-handedly destroyed hip hop. According to KRS, everything from the lyrics, commercialized music and one artist being played on the radio all day is all thanks to Def Jam. There’s really no competing with Def Jam, so everyone else had to respect what the record label was doing. Hip hop groups like X-Clan and Public Enemy used to be with Def Jam, which were also against the system and big corporations, now Def Jam is a big corporation — how ironic.

Hip hop tours are poppin all over the globe. First, we have rumors that Keyshia Cole, Rihanna and Ciara will be touring together, so if you’re looking for a great R&B concert, you should definitely check out the dates and cities to for this show. No dates have been set yet, but keep an eye and ear out. Supposedly, Rihanna would like to team up with strong women for a “women empowerment” type tour. This trio would definitely empower the women in their concert crowds with their soulful voices and lyrics.

Rihanna has a live concert in Dubai coming up; yes it has been confirmed. There will be 25,000 tickets available for sale. No exact location has been set, but it may be in an outside arena…wouldn’t that be lovely?

Beyonce is also on tour, but has told interviewers that she is looking to wrap things up and take two years off to play the role of a wife to her husband Jay-Z, who is also on tour by the way. The two currently try to link their calendars together, so that they can schedule time together. B definitely misses her boo while on tour, so to help her feel better, she has Jay-Zs name written on the nails of her index, middle and ring fingers. This helps her to remember him and even makes her smile she says. Beyonce is really looking forward to starting a family and leading a somewhat normal life.

Yeah, you’ve heard of her. The new hip-hop sensation Keri Hilson is hitting the radio and video channels by storm. But many are already criticizing her ways of accomplishing this. Some even think that her fame will fizzle before it can even truly shine. A “lazy” album they call it. If you take a listen to her debut album, “In a Perfect World”, you will hear a lot of generic songs that were “over-produced” and actually hides her personality. Ms. Hilson claims the album is supposed to send a message for women empowerment, but is that what you hear? What you do hear is a lot of Timberland and a lot of reworked beats; you will notice that the song “How Does it Feel”, is a recycling of the Timberland production, “4 Minutes”. Then there is “Return the Favor”, which sounds similar to “The Way I Are”.

Keri Hilson’s top producers on this album are Timberland, of course, and Polow da Don — maker of “In this Club” by Usher and “Forever”. A lot of cliches were found in songs like “Make Love” and “Get Your Money Up”, but you can find some reasonable tracks like “Turnin’ Me On”, featuring Lil Wayne, “Change Me”, produced by Akon and “Slow Dance”, which was co-written with Justin Timberlake. The latter two are pretty decent songs — maybe because they didn’t feature the usual Timberland, who happens to have his voice in all or most of the songs, and Polow. She let a few others produce some of the other songs, as mentioned above, and they turned out to be more original and had a lot of personality.

There’s always been hype about the hip hop industry and how many of the rap artists that enter into the game come out hard and then go soft. One of the first rappers to do that was Ja-Rule. He rapped about women, money and cars with hardcore lyrics while rockin’ a bandana and hip hop jewelry; but a couple albums later, he had a love Jones. Many of the songs he released there after were love songs featuring singers like Lil’ Mo and Ashanti. A lot of his fans didn’t like the new Ja and he eventually fell off. Even other rappers took notice of the bad boy gone soft and started beef — remember when 50 Cents came out with that controversial hit?

Well, Ja Rule isn’t the only one that has “fallen off track”, but there’s a new buster in town. Kanye West is best known for his ill lyrics and old school approach, but his new album is definitely different than his hardcore self. Many fans are mad about his new R & B, techno-beat feel. You may have already heard a few of them, like “Love Lockdown” and “Coldest Winter”. Some congratulate his attempt to sample new waters while others are mad about another good rapper gone bad.

His new album has a more R & B sound and those that have heard it — well, some are a bit disappointed. There are a lot of heart broken songs on there, but it doesn’t really seem to be talking about a girl of interest. Some folks have speculated that he could be making this album for his late mother…who knows?

What do you think?