VIA RS:

A long-form video starring Kanye West featuring his 808s & Heartbreak’s “See You In My Nightmares” will hit iTunes on September 8th, according to the blog of director Spike Jonze, who helmed the short film now titled We Were Once a Fairytale. (The title is taken from the song’s lyrics.) As Rock Daily reported, West and Jonze previously teamed up for Kanye’s stunningly strange Graduation vid “Flashing Lights.” The approximately 15-minute “See You in My Nightmares” film initially debuted at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June.

“It’s not necessarily [a video for ‘Nightmares’], but the song is featured in it. We’re still editing it right now, it’s probably going to run between 10-15 minutes,” Jonze’s producing partner Vincent Landay told MTV about the “See You” video in March. “Essentially, we’ve been editing it whenever we had time — it’ll be a couple of weeks on and then a couple of weeks off. Nobody’s making any money on it, so it’s sort of like, ‘Hey, let’s get in there and edit on night and weekends.’ ”

According to the Daily Swarm, who saw the video at the LAFF, We Were Once a Fairytale stars Kanye as Kanye, with the rapper getting drunk at a club and telling the ladies that the song playing on the speakers is his. He brings one of the women home and engages in sexual relations only to realize he’s getting it on with a pillow. Then, like in American Beauty, West starts vomiting rose petals. And that’s just the first act! From there, Kanye finds a knife, digs a rodent out his hand, then the rodent kills itself with a smaller knife. We’d be nervous about the whole endeavor if not for the involvement of Jonze, a master music video director who is also helming this autumn’s Where the Wild Things Are.

Like some of the 808s videos, notably “Paranoid,” the music itself is slightly updated and bettered compared to their album versions, with Jonze’s brother and N.A.S.A. man Squeak E. Clean remixing the new “See You,” Daily Swarm reports. Even though “See You In My Nightmares” features a verse from Lil Wayne, no reports place Weezy in We Were Once a Fairytale.

VIA RS:

Since February, fans have only gotten fleeting glimpses of Rihanna in paparazzi photos and on the red carpet of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Gala. But we’re all getting to see a lot more of the singer in the new video for Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak gem “Paranoid.” According to BET’s Sound Off blog, the bootlegged “Paranoid” video above was screened by Def Jam’s L.A. Reid last night at a celebration announcing Interscope Def Jam’s spring plans.

Rihanna dropped out of the public eye immediately following an altercation with then-boyfriend Chris Brown the night before the Grammy Awards, where both stars were scheduled to perform. (Look back at the pair’s Grammy Weekend.) She’s made a slow transition back into public life since the February 8th incident, but this video announces her return in a big way: Filmed in stark black-and-white like a film noir and boasting messages like “traumatic delusions” and “betrayal” in the opening credits, Rihanna is perfectly cast as either a damsel-in-distress or a femme fatale who is (artfully) driving highways late at night to escape what’s behind her. The intended symbolism is pretty obvious: Rihanna is trying to distance herself from recent events and begin anew while wearing some pretty scandalous lingerie and posing fiercely.

Stylistically, the video combines the portraiture of Herb Ritts with David Lynch’s Lost Highway. The video also features very little Kanye, as the rapper graciously steps out of the camera’s gaze to let his co-star make a silent statement. (Kanye does make an awesome cameo in the video for The-Dream’s “Walkin’ on the Moon,” which also debuted at the Def Jam event.)

Brown made his own return to music this month, appearing on the duet “Turntables” on Ciara’s new album Fantasy Ride. He has been charged with two felonies and pleaded not guilty to both.

The video has been taken down, but we’ll keep you posted when the official video drops!

Okay, it seems like ‘Ye is starting to put out new videos weekly. I’m not mad. Sir Louis debuted the video for “Amazing”, which features Young Jeezy”, on 106 and Park this week. Check the hilarious segment following the video where Kanye attempts to make good on his recent promise to contain his ego. It eats him up.  Classic.

Follow Pharoh Martin on Twitter at www.Tiwtter.com/Youngpharoh

This is not the official video. An imaginative interpretation if anything, by Mills Miller.

Check it out below:

GIANT may have gave kudos for Kanye West and his ultra-hip style, but the Louis Vuitton Don saves the biggest praise for his own style guides.

Check out the video below to see what we’re talking about:

MediaTakeOut.com just caught wind of an interesting rumor. According to one of our snitches over at Def Jam, Jay Z has recorded a “singing track” in auto-tune.

Here’s how MediaTakeOut.com’s insider describes it:

“Jay sings the entire hook using the auto-tune at one point he even hits a high note. Not even autotune could make that note sound on key.”

What do you think? Speak on it in the comment section!

Rapper Drake revealed recently that Lil Wayne’s latest project will be a rock album.

“Wayne’s coming out with a new album, it’s a rock album,” said Drake in an interview with MuchMusic.com. “A complete rock album. I have a song on there.”

The rapper likened the project to Kanye West’s latest project. “It’s something different in just that whole 808s and Heartbreaks, just throwing individuals off.”

Drake will be touring with Wayne in North America, stopping at Montreal on Jan. 14 and Toronto on Jan. 15. He has also signed a management deal with Kanye West managers Gee Roberson and Kyambo “Hip Hop” Joshua and Lil Wayne manager Cortez Bryant.

SOURCE: HipHopDX.com

Kanye West is well-known for two things: his awesome rapping and his arrogance. The guy’s music is so intensely good it (almost) justifies his God complex. Every time the rapper gets onstage at some awards show and accepts one statue by claiming he should have won another one, we usually have to agree. West has encouraged us to expect such a superhuman level of perfection from him, it was inevitable he would one day not be able to meet it.

That day was last Saturday, when West performed on Saturday Night Live. Dude did not sound good. He was more American Idol blooper reel than Grammy-winning polished performer. So what was the problem? Well, it had something to do with the Auto-Tune feature–you know the part of “Love Lockdown” where he sings about a system overload and losing control? Well, he was living it! And it was also pretty clear that when he got to the high notes, he pulled away from the mic and let an offstage singer handle the tough stuff. The bottom line is that we saw behind the curtain of Kanye West’s seemingly impenetrable awesomeness. So was it satisfying to witness the world’s most egocentric rapper all exposed on national television? No, no it was not. People were outraged. How dare he…sound so bad!

We say the scandal is not that Kanye lip-synched through a live TV performance, but that he failed to lip-synch through a live TV performance. If he’d had all the right bells and whistles on board, we would have been all like, “Wow, this rules,” rather than all like, “Wow, this hurts our ears.” Just sayin’.

SOURCE: Yahoo.com

Kanye West apparently isn’t done singing. After an impromptu meeting at a recording studio in Paris last month, it looks like ‘Ye will be working with British rockers Keane. The group’s drummer, Richard Hughes, tells the BBC, “I think Tim [Rice-Oxley, the group’s keyboardist] left another song with him that he wrote a little while back… It’s got a huge gap in it which is for a guest vocalist, and we were hoping Kanye might take a run at that as well. I don’t know, maybe we’ll do a little EP, [and] call it Kanye or something. We’d been thinking about asking him to have a crack at a remix and actually he ended up rapping over a little bit of ‘You Haven’t Told Me Anything.’”

SOURCE: ThatsHipHop.com

Kanye West tried to tell you that he was doing this for “art,” but a part of him still wants to do it for commerce. Check out what his recent blog post reaped:“THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR MAKING ‘HEARTLESS’ NUMBER ONE ON 106 AND PARK!!!! MY BOY CALLED ME FROM THE A AND TOLD ME IT’S NUMBER ONE DOWN THERE TOO. THIS IS A SONG NOBODY CAN FRONT ON!!! THE BEAT IS ON SOME RZA SHIT AND EVERY LINE COULD MAKE THE ULTIMATE RAP HOOK! I COULD SEE SOMEBODY SAMPLING…. “WE JUST GONE BE ENEMIES!!!” I’VE BEEN HEARING THAT THERE’S PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT THIS ALBUM THAT NEVER BOUGHT ONE OF MY ALBUMS BEFORE. I’VE BEEN HEARING THAT STREET NIGGAS LOVE IT! STREET NIGGAS CALLED ME AND TOLD ME THEY LOVE IT! YOU KNOW GIRLS LOVE IT!! EVERYBODY HAS A DIFFERENT FAVORITE!!! RIGHT NOW. ‘PARANOID’ IS MOST LIKELY GONNA BE THE NEXT SINGLE. IT’S NECK AND NECK WITH ‘ROBOCOP!!!’ I’M NOT GONNA RELEASE EITHER FOR AWHILE BECAUSE I WANT ‘HEARTLESS’ AND ‘LOVE LOCKDOWN’ TO SOAK INTO THE CULTURE!! I’M GONNA WALK THIS ALBUM SLOW LIKE A MORE INDEPENDENT APPROACH. I FEEL LIKE A NEW ARTIST. THERE’S ACTUALLY ARGUMENTS AGAIN. IT REMINDS ME OF THE FIRST ALBUM WHEN EVERYBODY SAID I COULDN’T RAP. I LISTENED TO ‘SAY YOU WILL’ LAST NIGHT AT MY HOUSE AND WAS DAAAMN, THIS SONG IS SOOOO DOOOPE!!! I’M A FAN OF WHAT I’VE MADE. WHEN I MADE ‘GRADUATION’ I WASN’T SATISFIED! I FELT LIKE CERTAIN RECORDS WERE KEEPING IT FROM BEING A PLAY IN EVERY ENVIRONMENT ALBUM. I WAS AT THE COOL STORE IN AUSTRALIA CALLED ASSIN THAT CARRIES RICK OWENS, LANVIN, DIOR ECT… THEY TOLD ME THEY PLAY MY NEW ALBUM IN THE STORE. IT WAS SUCH A BIG COMPLIMENT FOR ME TO HAVE SONGS THAT ARE NUMBER ONE ON 106 AND CAN PLAY RIGHT NEXT TO VAMPIRE WEEKEND, SADE OR SILVERCHAIR IN A HIGH END FASHION STORE! IT’S SUCH A TRIUMPH TO HAVE LOVE LOCK DOWN ON RADIO. WHEN IT COMES IN IT DOESN’T SOUND LIKE ANYTHING ELSE EVER MADE IN HISTORY! THIS IS NEW MUSIC! IT MIGHT TAKES SOME GETTING USE TO BUT WHEN IT SET’S IN IT WILL MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!”

Previously: ‘Colbert Report Plans Operation Humble Kanye’

Has Kanye gone over the deep-end to where he can’t even take a joke?

Last night talk show host Steven Colbert responded to Kanye West’s “Twitter” statement: “Who The Fuck Is Stephen Colbert?” The carnage begins at 1:38.

We gotta give it up to Kanye though. With this latest beef he is officially bigger than hip-hop.

The college dropout wants an internship. Kanye West, the self-proclaimed “voice of this generation,” is humbly seeking an internship in the fashion industry.

With his own clothing line, Past Tell, still waiting to come out, almost three years after it was originally supposed to hit stores, Ye hopes to learn more about the design process. He prefers, however, the high-end houses of Louis Vuitton or Raf Simons, according to the New York Times, who spoke with Simons. Simons told the Times that he was “blown away from the planet,” when Ye told him about his interning aspiration.

“I know he’s very serious about this,” Simons said. “I don’t take it as a joke – but how can I imagine him being my intern? It’s a very extreme situation.”

Last week, Ye blogged about wanting to be “the real thing,” and vowed not to be another “celebrity designer.” Though Kanye prides himself as a trendsetter he’s not the first celebrity to take an internship. NHL star Sean Avery of the Dallas Stars, who hopes to become a fashion editor, interned with Vogue Magazine last summer. If fashion students want an internship, now they have to compete with the “Louis Vuitton Don.”

SOURCE: XXLMag.com

Also featuring The Dream.

After noting that 808′s & Heartbreak was about “loss,” he went on to speak on what the loss of his mother meant to him.

“It was like losing an arm and a leg and trying to walk through that,” he said, before speaking on his break up. “There is no album that expresses what guys go through after the break-up.”

“I still listen to Hip Hop, actually, like, in my car. I listen to old Wu-Tung Clan or something while I’m designing,” he said. “But, I really don’t listen to new Hip Hop albums that come out like that. I really don’t learn the lyrics the way I used to learn the lyrics when I was 18 years old…Like, even albums like Lil Wayne’s album [Tha Carter III], which I loved, I couldn’t recite the raps for you. I’m just not in that position. Maybe it’s because I’m busy or something. Like, I’m working on shoes for Louis Vuitton or something, and I’m touring…”

“I’ll just do what I want to do. More than anything, I just want to deliver art.”

Later, one reporter asked if he’d like to be the first black James Bond, a title Diddy originally said he wanted. This caused some buzz and even Kanye had to think twice about what he said.

“I don’t want to be James Bond. I don’t want to fit into this iconic figure that someone else has made. Just like how I don’t want to be Jesus Christ. My whole life, they’re like, you know, I was raised as a Christian, and they’re like ‘Be Christ-like. Be Christ-like.’ I’m like, ‘No! I don’t wanna fuckin’ be Christ-like. I want to be me-like. I want to be the best me. ‘Cause you’re gonna fall short of being Christ-like and then you’ll never quite be happy. And then, you’ll always feel like you gotta give up 20% of your money to try to buy back some of this happiness. It’s like, ‘No. I just want to be me.”

Later, Yeezy blogged about this and wanted to share his thoughts on his conference.

“When I listened back to the New Zealand conference I was like, ‘Whoa this is pretty harsh.’ Sometimes I speak with no filter. I did not mean to be so harsh on the subject of Christianity being that I was a well known Christian. When I was at my mom’s funeral a fucking stranger came up to me and said, ‘I hope you’ve accepted Jesus as your savior so you can see your mother again!’ My entire life, being an African American, Christianity was forced down my throat. Since I was a child, I would ask questions like, ‘So are little babies that can’t speak yet going to hell also?’ I 1,000% believe in God, I believe in Karma, I believe in being a good person. I’m not trying to tell people what they should believe or not believe. To each is his own. I was in situations where someone constantly used Jesus to show me how baaaad a person I was or how not perfect or not Christ-like I was. When I say I don’t want to be Christ-like, I’m saying I’m fine with not being perfect. I’m fine with being a human being. I’m happy with just that.”

SOURCE: HipHopDX.com

Could this be a potential cut off of The Blueprint 3…? You be the judge.

Previously: ‘Damon Dash Fuels Beef With Jay-Z’

Stephan Scoggins, a registered nurse, was supposed to be supervising West’s post-surgery care along with West’s assistant and a friend. But, a source familiar with the situation tells People.com that Scoggins left the house to attend a baby shower the day after West underwent breast reduction and liposuction last Nov. 10. West died that evening at a Los Angeles hospital.       

For the record, EURweb reported this information about Scoggins last January in an exclusive interview with Diana Pinkney, who was one of Donda West’s care givers and was with her on the day of her fatal mediacal emergency.

At the time, her death was described by a family spokesman as “the result of complications from a cosmetic surgical procedure,” a statement that placed intense scrutiny on West’s surgeon, Dr. Jan Adams. But last January, a Los Angeles coroner ruled that West died of “multiple post-operative factors,” which cleared Dr. Adams of responsibility.       

In this new development, an investigator with the California Department of Consumer Affairs has issued subpoenas asking individuals “to testify in the matter of the investigation of Stephan Scoggins,” a source tells People.

According to an autopsy report, a heavily-bandaged West was able to walk out of the medical facility after nearly five and a half hours of surgery last November. The report further stated, “[West] opted to return to her home for care even though she was advised that she receive post-operative care at another facility.”       

That night, West took Vicodin for pain, slept and felt better in the morning. Later in the day, a source tells People, Scoggins left West’s home to attend a baby shower and was unreachable when her condition worsened. According to the autopsy report, West experienced pain, a sore throat and tightening in her chest before collapsing in the early evening. A friend at the house called 911 and West was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead in the emergency room.       

The source also says investigators are looking into the possibility that Scoggins administered too much Vicodin in a short period of time.

Roger Riley and Teddy Troutman have taken autotune to places no rapper or singer has taken it before. This hilarious mixtape takes hip-hop classics like Black Moon’s “Buck Em Down” and M.O.P.’s “Ante Up” and gives them the robotic gargle treatment.

Check out “Buck Em Down” below and download the full mix at rappersiknow.com.

Congratulations for both men and their gratuitous giving during the American Music Awards.

It’s a safe assumption that there are no gray areas in Kanye West appreciation. Either you consider him a genius or you want to send him on a shopping spree with Sarah Palin using an an expired Amex Black card and a stack of I.O.U’s from MC Hammer. After listening to the leak of 808s and Heartbreak, I won’t be petitioning for his MENSA membership anytime soon.

Mr. West has been tried in the court of public opinion ever since he announced this ambitious (or pretentious, depending on what side you’re on) project. But before you render a final verdict on this most-likely unfinished version of 808s & Heartbreak keep these observations in mind:

The Truth: Kanye West fell asleep with A-Ha’s “Take On Me” playing on his 80 inch plasma and woke up with this album in his head. Realizing that his natural-born vocals couldn’t adequately convey what was burning inside of his soul (or some other part of his anatomy) he enlisted computerized help. Bundle this with some heartache over losing his mother (as he insisted in interviews, though I hear no evidence of such) and some anonymous love interest/supermodel that we’ve never heard of and you have the makings of The Miseducation of Kanye West.

The Secret: The title is actually a typo. The actual title is 80′s Heartbreak and that makes much more sense given the Don Johnson and Punky Brewster-era synthetic sonics that define this disc. It appears Ye’s white blazers and open shirts were not just a fashion statement, that is indeed his state of mind.

The Good: “Heartless.” This is pretty frickin’ dope. Not just because Kanye is rapping for most of it, the beat is simply superior to “Love Lockdown” and when he does use the auto-tune it is actually… in tune. This is a great post-argument-pre-break-up driving to the strip club for a revenge lap dance track. “I’m gonna take oooofff tonight…”

“Anyway” Melody is an inviting example of Reagan-era nostalgia done right. It also helps that he enlists actual back-up singers to fill out the hook and leans off the auto-tune a bit. Again, he’s rapping more but the balance works.

“Tell Everybody That You Know”  You can tell Kanye has been hanging a lot with DJ Toomp and its been rubbing off in a good way (pause).  It’s a good track with a catchy hook but Jeezy would have sounded better on this than “Amazin,” and Lil Wayne’s granola bar : “Girl you think your shit don’t stink but you’re mrs P-U…” pushes it closer to the laughable end of the spectrum.

The Bad: “Robocop.” This is a bad case of “I found this cool sound effect and I really wanna use it, but no theme makes sense.” It reminds me of a chopped & screwed version of that AT&T “zero bars” commercial where the guy is stuck in the hostile with Slad and Veter the Techno Twins and their boombox. Except it’s not funny.

“Love Lockdown” This leak version is clearly the unpolished demo because it’s even more off-key than the official joint. People like this because it reminds them of cheering on your best friend at the high school talent show. You admire their balls for getting on the stage regardless of how they sound and they autographed the homemade burn of their CD to make you feel special. The problem here is that Kanye has already forgotten the little people and the addition of R.Kelly just underlines why Ye shouldn’t be singing.

The In-Between: Kanye channels his inner N.E.R.D for a danceable “Coldest Winter” that would have better served Chris Brown or Omarion. Topically, Kanye taps into some pretty dead-on observations of relationships that few people like to express, it’s just hard to take him seriously sounding like a chipmunk drowning in a toilet bowl.

Verdict: Kanye West can’t deal with our acceptance. He likes being the underdog. When he first came on the scene he won us over and made us see him as a legit MC, not just a producer lip-synching in the mirror. But as he became successful (sales and critically) he just couldn’t chill. Being an asshole is way more fun and it’s hard to be that when people like you. So in the name of pushing the envelope he’s concocted this experiment. The irony is that Ye is doing just the opposite here. For the first time in his career Kanye is a follower and to call the disc derivative is being kind. There are definite bright spots but merely being different does not make you brave or innovative. Manson was different. (Marilyn or Charles…take your pick). Either way the results were mixed, just like this album.

Sentencing: Check out The Death of Auto-Tune on Rappersiknow.com.

To hear a stream of the complete 808′s & Heartbreak go to Kanye’s Myspace page!

According to TMZ, ‘Ye was exiting the Tup Tup nightclub in Newcastle and got physical after a photog pushed his limit. The Louis Vuitton Don has already been released and will not face additional charges. The “victim” also has a history of violence at celebs, so with dude getting close to Mr. Go Hard, Yeezy did what most folks in that situation would do.

What do you think? Were the bobbies necessary? Speak on it!

Kanye West is on a roll yet again… talking ish about himself, Rihanna and Beyonce. How long until 808′s & Heartbreak drops again?

‘Ye recently held a teleconference where he talked about the upcoming project. Among the highlights were him likening himself to a “super famous alien” and saying that his music was “better than committing suicide.” For more quotables, listen below.

In other Kanye news, during an album listening session West made some interesting comments about competition and complacency in the music industry. In reference to a question about his single “Love Lockdown,” Kanye stated: “This is a wakeup call … people in music get comfortable … Rappers get comfortable.”

Normally, this wouldn’t be newsworthy but ‘Ye used two very popular R&B divas to exemplify his point. “Rihanna was the best thing to happen to Beyonce” said Kanye, suggesting that Rih Rih’s ever growing star status caused Beyonce to outdo herself.

Mr. West also said that Beyonce achieved this task with her “Single Ladies/Put a Ring on It” track and video. He makes a great point but someone is bound to get a little salty when they hear this. – LYNDSEY WOODS

Previously: R. Kelly, “Love Lockdown” (Remix)

The cut features Young Jeezy on the rap as Kanye sticks to the script and presents a sing-song Auto-Tune inspired couple of verses over the unmastered track called “Amazing.”

Press play to hear the cut:

Island Def Jam is moving up the release dates for Ludacris’ Theater of the Mind and Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak, in an attempt to capitalize on the Thanksgiving shopping weekend. Too bad folks are gonna steal ‘em anyway.

The albums from the one time collaborators were due Tuesday Nov. 25 but will now come out off-cycle on Monday, Nov. 24 in both physical and digital formats.

Ludacris’ “One More Drink” co-starring T-Pain is No. 34 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs while West’s “Love Lockdown” has already peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100.

Ludacris is currently starring in the Max Payne movie which has grossed over $35 million to date.

Heartless from kwest on Vimeo.

The animated version of the latest video for the track “Heartless” (my personal favorite so far) is buzzing around the internet as we speak. I’m still not to sure about that “Love Lockdown” tribal video but the “Heartless” video is hot, something fresh and new. Kanye West is creative and unique and I will never question his vision again, well at least not for a while. – LYNDSEY WOODS