Music Thread #1 for 1/7/09- The Quick Runthrough

To start off, here' the video for Skillz Rap Up for 2008


Whether you like country music or not, Taylor Swift is atop of the charts again. Even more alarmingly to quality music that really makes a difference in people's lives is the fact that Queen B (Beyonce') has now sold over 1.5 million copies with her 11 track piece of you know what album.

Sorry, just keeping it real.

If you thought that was real, it has nothing on what Q-Tip told Newsweek about the industry right now.

Even without an outrageous number of marketing campaigns, Q-Tip's The Renaissance was still able to reach the Number 11 spot on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

"Their model for getting numbers is broken," Q-Tip explained. "They realize it, but they don't have any solutions. They all seem shook. A&R departments need people who really know music. That way, they can make records that last a long time, because eventually it's going to be about the whole catalog selling again. Especially in these hard times, people want to make sure that their dollar is going to something that's worth something."

And the person who plays Biggie in the upcoming Notorious B.I.G, Jamal Woolard, says it was his dynasty to fulfill the role. He was handpicked by Voletta Wallace.

"He came in the room, and I said, 'That's my son,' " Wallace told MTV News. Gravy hadn't even auditioned yet.