Erykah Badu
Photo: Paul Warner/ WireImage

After documenting the birth of their daughter on Twitter, Erykah Badu and longtime boyfriend Jay Electronica also used the social-networking site to announced the baby's name: Mars Merkaba.

An earlier post had explained that "her eyes are looking right into mine. She struggles to focus. So much [heart shape] in her. I wonder where she just came from. I mean ... her spirit."

Badu, who has two children from previous relationships named Seven Sirius (with Outkast's Andre 3000) and Puma Rose Sabti (with rapper the D.O.C.), did not explain the origin of the name. According to Crystalinks.com, the word Merkaba refers to a "divine light vehicle allegedly used by ascended masers to connect with and reach those in tune with the higher realms." The vehicle is described as a kind of three-dimensional Star of David that "transports spirit/body from one dimension to another." In the Bible, the Merkabah is described as a chariot made of angels with four wings and four faces that represent the four directions and take the form of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle.

While many artists have begun using Twitter to make announcements about their careers, Electronica and Badu might be the first on record to use it to chronicle a birth. As the labor began, Electronica wrote, "Everybody stand back. No hospitals, No doctors. No medicine. We're waiting for the midwife to show."

• Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu
Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/ Getty Images

Artists have always done strange things to win our attention, right? And lately, we've seen how musicians are using micro-blog site Twitter as an über-marketing tool. This weekend, one pair of artists took things further than we expected, as Erykah Badu and her beau, upstart rapper Jay Electronica, sent tweets of their daughter's birth in real time.

The ever enigmatic Badu kick-started the experience, telling the more than 4,500 followers of her Twitter blog, "Fatbellybella": "Morning, I'm in labor."

The Grammy-winning singer gave updates on the time between her contractions before going AWOL. Presumably Badu was, you know, giving birth when she disappeared. But Electronica kept sending updates throughout the birth on his page, "JayElectronica."

Badu and Electronica chose to forgo delivery in a hospital and instead opted for a home birth with a midwife. According to updates, it looked like the midwife may have been running a bit late.

"Labor has begun," Electronica wrote. "Everybody stand back. No hospitals. No doctors. No medicine. We're waiting for the midwife to show."

While waiting for the midwife, Electronica described the vibe and sent messages to rapper Talib Kweli ("I'm build for this sh--") and producer Just Blaze ("You should be here").

Electronica also compared the atmosphere to a scene from "The Color Purple." He wrote that only a few family members were present in Badu's Brooklyn home, including her daughter Puma. The rapper told followers he was sending the tweets between watching contractions and rubbing Badu's feet. He even blogged about Badu's water breaking, how far along she was dilated and when she started pushing.

"I see the head, full of hair," he wrote. Just over 20 minutes later, Badu gave birth.

"Feb. 1 2009 my first child, my daughter born at 130 PM exactly," the new father wrote. "It's the happiest day of my life."

Later, Badu, who has two children from previous relationships with rappers Andre 3000 and the D.O.C., popped back online with a message to fans.

"I can't believe it's over," she wrote. "Home birth, no painkillers, about five hours, she was a little past due date, but I didn't mind waiting. Breath."

• Erykah Badu

Photo: MTV News

Is the album dead? I guess it depends on who you ask. Your Web-savvy nephew would probably tell you "yes." Lil Wayne, Coldplay or Britney would beg to differ. Me, I'm not sure. What I do know is that of the thousands of albums released this year, there were 25 that shone brightly, that made me think, laugh, cry and dance and sometimes even restored my faith in humanity.

And I've compiled those 25 below ... my favorite albums of 2008. Major-label blockbusters, quiet indie fare, hip-hop, electro and some that are all of the above. Hopefully, there's something for you, your nephew and the Coldplay fan in your life ... because we all lived music this year. And, to that end, if you'd like to send me your thoughts — and, of course, lists — hit me up at BTTS@MTVStaff.com.

So without further ado, on to the list:

25. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
The year's most unlikely success story and the rare case of 1 million people getting it right. On Tha Carter III, Wayne spins tales both humorous and harrowing (sometimes at the same time), dropping mentions of Tennessee Titans QBs and retail chains and sounding very much like a guy who realizes he is probably the greatest, most unchained rapper alive (sometimes he also sounds like a stoned Yoda). It's either a minor miracle or a happy accident that he went platinum in a week or that he grabbed eight Grammy noms. With Wayne, you can never be sure — which is just another layer to the legend.

24. Coldplay, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
At best, it's probably the most sonically adventurous album from a major major-label rock act since Green Day's American Idiot (or even Radiohead's Kid A), a swirling mix of massive and minimal, of cathedral guitars and glacial synthesizers, tiny tablas and tack pianos. At worst, it's still the second-best Coldplay album. So, you know, win/win.

23. She & Him, Volume One
The anti-Scarlett (or, really, the anti-any-actor-turned-musician), Zooey Deschanel defied the odds and made one of the year's most satisfying albums, a crackling, sunny listen that recalls 1960s C&W, '70s AM radio and the stylings of Carole King and Linda Thompson. Sure, M. Ward helped out a bunch, but it's Zooey D's big, brassy voice that brings the whole thing together.

22. The Walkmen, You & Me
An exercise in simplicity and sadness from one of NYC's most underappreciated acts, You & Me creaks like old floorboards and shudders like a 10-bell hangover. Over the course of 14 blurry, damp tracks, frontman Hamilton Leithauser's world-weary howl somehow gets even wearier, and the band's time-tested loud/soft dynamics start to fray at the edges. If their last album — a song-for-song piss-take on Harry Nilsson and John Lennon's Pussy Cats record — was the party, well, You & Me is most certainly the morning after. Hope it was worth it.

21. Portishead, Third
An exercise in simplicity and sadness from one of Bristol's greatest acts, Third took the Portishead sound as we knew it — foggy, film-noir beats (your parents called it "trip-hop") floating beneath Beth Gibbons' harrowing voice — and rebooted it. What we got this time around was spooky synthesizers curling around simple drum patterns, acoustic guitars that disappeared into dense electronic plumes — a sound that was equal parts human ("The Rip") and machine ("Machine Gun"). Expect the next album sometime around 2030.

20. Beck, Modern Guilt
My favorite thing about Beck's eighth studio album (and something like 12th overall) isn't the hazy sheen applied by Danger Mouse, the singularity of its theme or the straightforwardness of the lyrics. It's the fact that, if viewed in the context of Beck's entire career, Guilt makes total and complete sense. Here is a former Golden Child edging gracefully (if not exactly willingly) into his 40s, still not sure where he fits in. Like I wrote last week, "Obsolescence has never sounded so good."

19. Panic at the Disco, Pretty. Odd.
An album unfairly skipped by fans and critics alike, Pretty. Odd. is what happens when a bunch of kids in their early 20s get together in a cabin, get baked (or, for legality's sake, don't), listen to a ton of Beatles records and think, "Why don't we do that?!?" because they don't know any better. In other words, it's exactly the kind of record I would've made when I was 21, except replace "a cabin" with "an apartment in Gainesville, Florida."

18. The Breeders, Mountain Battles
When you're really drunk in a really shady bar, looking at the yellowed jukebox in one corner and a bunch of Korean War vets in the other, and the bartender — who's been giving you the stink eye since the moment you first came in — finally decides you're OK and slides you a glass of Michelob on the house, and the air is dense because they don't give a sh-- about the smoking ordinance, and there are tiles on the ceiling and peanuts in a bucket and a picture of an old boat called "The Wild Rose" or something tacked to the wall behind the bar, and it's Christmas, that's basically what this record sounds like. That probably doesn't make sense.

17. Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles
Lead singer Alice Glass' whole "drinking blood/ playing with knives/ I am the undead" shtick might get a little tiresome, but there's no denying that the best moments on the Crystal Castles' self-titled debut come when she opens her mouth and just roars. Actually, the chippy, blippy instrumentals dreamed up by mastermind Ethan Kath are pretty great too. Part cyber-punk skuzz, part minimalist perfection, Crystal Castles might be the future, or no one might give a crap by this time next year, but there were few albums released in '08 more invigorating than this one.

16. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
Take everything I said in that last sentence and apply it here too, except replace "cyber-punk skuzz" with "hippie-dippie noodling" and "minimalist perfection" with "burbling synthesizer overkill." Everything about these guys leads me to believe that we'll never hear a note from them again, but it's not as if that matters. For 12 glorious months (OK, more like 14, since the album was released digitally last year), MGMT were the shining poster boys for a Brooklyn scene that never was and the world's leading purveyors of wide-eyed electro optimism. Though that just might be the drugs talking.

15. Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair
Sumptuous, sprawling neo-disco/post-house (as if I can tell the difference) from New York-based DJ Andy Butler, Hercules isn't so much a band as a "musical project," one unafraid to blur genders and genres and genealogy, which is about the only way to explain gems like "Blind" and "Hercules Theme." It's probably why Antony Hegarty got involved too. Gay, straight, man, woman or something else entirely, this album is guaranteed to make you feel funny in your special place(s).

14. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
The year's most interesting backstory — bearded dude gets dumped, ditches band, nearly dies, moves to cabin in northern Wisconsin to recuperate, gets even more bearded, is utterly and completely alone — also made for one of the year's best albums. (OK, OK, Justin Vernon, a.k.a. Bon Iver, actually released this by himself in 2007, but who's counting?) Emma is a creaky, delicate and deliberately lo-fi take on love and loss, played wonderfully and sung in Vernon's husky, hushed tones. In other words, it sounds exactly like an album recorded by a bearded guy in a cabin in Wisconsin in the middle of winter is supposed to sound. Also, my wife really likes this one a lot.

13. M83, Saturdays = Youth
Anthony Gonzalez pens a loving ode to his faded youth, an album full of gauzy fantasy pop, starbursting synthesizers and gull-wing guitars (he grew up in the '80s, if you couldn't guess). Saturdays = Youth sounds like every single John Hughes film ever made, not to mention the rush of hormones that come with "Enchantment Under the Sea" dances or holding hands with a girl in a graveyard or drinking your first bottle of Boone's Farm in a parking lot. The sensations of being invincible, indestructible and, most of all, free ... and being too young to know any better. So basically, it's the soundtrack to universal youth — but, of course, some of us are old enough to realize that fact.

12. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
The boat shoes. The pique polo shirts. The musicology classes. The Ivy League diplomas. These are the things great bands are made of, no? Regardless of what you might think about VW — that they are snobs, that they are overrated, that they are kind of wieners — you cannot deny their ear for pitch-perfect indie pop. Their self-titled debut packed more hooks into a scant 34 minutes than any other album released this year. And perhaps, in doing so, it also gives us reason to reconsider the very idea of what a rock act should be these days. If a dude named Ezra can rock, well, then certainly anyone can. Also, this was the whitest album of the year, at least until Kanye dropped 808s & Heartbreak, that is.

11. Constantines, Kensington Heights
It's perhaps a testament to the growl of frontman Bryan Webb that even when he rumbles, "You can tell by the way I walk/ I've got hard feelings," you get the sense that he's somehow holding back. If anything, that's a pretty good way to sum up the fourth album from the Cons, a slab of blue-collar rage that tries very hard to keep it all stuffed up inside. The end result is songs like "I Will Not Sing a Hateful Song," "New King" and "Do What You Can Do," which bristle with anger as much as they do with, well, restraint. Webb might be drowning in debt, crushed by the expectations of previous generations, jobless, shiftless and generally helpless, but he's somehow managed to swallow all the rage that comes along with that, and only after letting it ferment for a while does he finally let the venom fly. There might not be a more happily angry album released this decade. Which means, in a way, the anger is a gift.

10. Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs
There are so many moments on Stairs where something seems to be teetering on the brink of collapse — the reverb-drenched middle of "Bixby Canyon Bridge," the wobbling bass and guitars in the intro of "I Will Possess Your Heart," the tablas (!) in "Pity and Fear," Ben Gibbard's psyche on "The Ice Is Getting Thinner" — that it's a testament to Death Cab's skill that they're able to pull it off. It's a testament to their dedication that they let things get that far in the first place. From the beginning, they claimed Stairs would be "bloody" and "loose" — a conscious step away from the polish of their Plans album — and it most certainly is both of those things, and then some. It's a perfectly imperfect album, which is to say that it sounds very much like a band, setting up in a room and just letting it rip, and that makes it perhaps more compelling than 90 percent of the rock albums released this year.

9. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah, Part One (Fourth World War)
Time isn't really important in Badu's New Amerykah, which is why she jumps from the smoke-filled streets of the 1970s to the darkened and desperate projects of the present day to the post (pre?) apocalyptic future without much concern for the narrative arc. What is important is the message she conveys throughout those travels: that no matter how hard we try, things keep falling apart. They have been and they are and they will continue to do so, unless we wake up, stand up and — most of all — fight. So she puts the gun to our backs, orders us to march headlong into the darkness. She might not tell us where we're going — or what we'll see when we get there — but no one ever said revolutions were easy. This is a story told through stony beats, crackling samples and smoky voices, and rather terrifyingly so. Welcome to post-millennial tension.

8. No Age, Nouns
If someday, an archeologist uncovers the ruins of L.A. club the Smell, they will undoubtedly also uncover copies of Nouns, the best album by the best band to be birthed from the scene (maybe the discs are in a supply closet or something). And when they finally figure out how to play the things on their 3-D holographic decks (these will be like giant laserdisc players or something, only with holograms) what will they think? Probably something to the effect of "Wow, these dudes can't play their instruments," at which point, some nerdy rock historian/ architect guy will turn to them and say something like, "Oh yeah? Well neither did the Ramones." And everyone will sort of nod in agreement and then move on to uncovering Pink's Hot Dogs or giant statues of Kobe Bryant from the rubble.

7. The Plastic Constellations, We Appreciate You
For something like 13 years, TPC were mythic warriors of rock ... writing songs about slaying mighty beasts and brotherhood and drinking on front stoops, playing legendarily boozy live shows, partying — and playing — harder than mere mortals ought to. Of course, this eventually caught up with them (they never made a dime doing any of it), so they were forced to tackle decidedly un-mythic tasks like fixing cars or selling real estate to make ends meet. They managed to keep the balance between rock and responsibility going for a few years, but in the end, guess which side won? So, in early '08, when they announced they were calling it quits, I was saddened, but certainly understanding. One cannot rock forever. That their farewell album, We Appreciate You, is so awesome — full of big dumb hooks and even dumber lyrics — makes me reconsider that sentiment. Their riffs will most certainly be missed, though it's good to know they were buried with their swords and shields. We'll meet up again someday in the afterlife, dudes.

6. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
In theory, this is just dance music, except you really can't dance to it. It's probably also illegal, only it just might be protected under the concept of "fair use." It could be art, but most art I'm familiar with doesn't contain samples from Too Short's "B---job Betty" and Dr. Dre's "Bi---es Ain't Sh--." So why don't we just call it all of the above? I don't think anyone involved with Feed the Animals — not Gregg Gillis, not the folks at Illegal Art, not anyone who's work is sampled on the album — intended it to become the lightning rod for 21st-century discourse that it somehow did ("Who owns music?" "What is intellectual property?" etc., etc., etc.), so perhaps it's just best to agree that everyone's right. Perhaps Animals will become the bedrock for a landmark Supreme Court decision ... perhaps Gillis will be sued within an inch of his life ... or perhaps he's the greatest media artist currently working, and we should all be grateful for that. Or maybe not. Because, really, f--- art, let's dance. Or at least attempt to.

5. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive
I don't think I can ever sum this one up any better than I did back in July. Why even bother trying: "The best band in America makes the best album of their career, a sprawling, profane opus that takes the singular world frontman Craig Finn has created over the course of four albums — dead-end kids doing dead-end things, usually down by the banks of the Mississippi River — and folds it in on itself, creating something entirely new in the process. There is still plenty of drinking (on water towers, in the woods, in Memphis) and drugging (in hotel rooms, at laser-light shows, in "cute little cars") and dance floors, but things have somehow gotten darker this time around, as if Finn himself knows that the party can't last forever and Sunday morning's gotta come someday. So accordingly, kids are crucified, canonized and catch spears in the side, while VFW halls and 7 Seconds cassettes are revered like Bethlehem or the Old Testament. Bar bands aren't supposed to be this God-fearing, unless they're drinking the sacramental wine, which, knowing the Hold Steady, doesn't seem all that improbable at this point."

4. Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak
Kanye has spent the past 12 months being wronged. Wronged by life. Wronged in love. And wronged by his contemporaries (especially those at the Recording Academy). So is there any wonder why, on Heartbreak, he's eternally the victim? Then again, it takes an artist of his skill — and one possessing his ego — to make an album so one-sided, let alone one that's this great. His detractors might say that the Auto-Tune thing is played out, or that he made a mighty mistake by ditching the rapping, but that's only because they're probably put off by everything he's accomplished here, if not made a little uncomfortable. Unflinchingly honest (even when he's probably bending the truth a bit), emotionally unbalanced, this is West as we've never seen — or heard — him before. He's alone on an island (Would 50 ever consider making an album like this? Could he?) establishing himself as one of the few great artists of the 21st century. And on Heartbreak — an album of singular focus and purpose — he's created a great piece of art.

3. The Gaslight Anthem, The '59 Sound
If Brian Fallon is sincere — and given his snarl, his growly voice and his leather jacket, there's no reason to believe he isn't — then he's perhaps the most hopelessly romantic kid to ever have been raised in New Brunswick, New Jersey. And I don't mean that in the "flowers and candy" sense of the term. Rather, he's in love with romantic ideals: of rock-and-roll Saturday nights, of magical drive-in theaters, of the fins on the back of an old Cadillac. On The '59 Sound, he's created a world where all of those things coexist — where a punk act from Jersey can move crowds like the Boss, or share the stage with Tom Petty, where rockabilly chicks leave you stranded in all-night diners, where salvation can be found at the turn of a radio dial. And to that end, there's an unmistakable nostalgic streak through his lyrics and the band's go-go-go guitars, but it's nostalgia in the sweet, straightforward, black-and-white sense ... the kind you see projected on screens. Because life can be a movie, but only if you believe it so.

2. Deerhunter, Microcastle/ Weird Era Cont. It's difficult to commend a band on their restraint when it released two albums in 2008, but over the course of a pair of discs — and 25 songs — Deerhunter managed to show nothing but restraint, reeling in the sonic terrorism and just writing knee-buckling tunes. "Nothing Ever Happened," "Saved by Old Times" and "Operation" were plenty good — swoony, scary, driving stuff — that delivered on the promise of their 2007 output (particularly "After Class," the song they released on the Rare Book Room Records comp) and showcased a band quickly turning into one of indie rock's best. Frontman Bradford Cox's lyrics were still open-wound raw, and there were still moments on both albums of hissy, misty experimentation, but Microcastle and Weird Era sharpened the focus, and because of that, they're both massively great, not to mention welcome additions to the legendary list of albums released by the 4AD label. Legacies are tough to figure — especially when you're talking about Deerhunter, a band that seems determined to destroy whatever good will it's built up — but I have the feeling that in 10 years' time, we'll look back at both of these albums as being landmark indie. There's magic here. You've just got to sift through a bit of detritus to find it. That's the Deerhunter way.

1. TV on the Radio, Dear Science
An album that wrestles with big questions: How does humanity survive in the era of technology? How do we find beauty in an increasingly ugly world? Why do we continue when the odds are stacked against us? There might be no answer to any of those things — and TVOTR are smart enough to realize that — so instead, they can only offer up unflinching optimism and a steadfast resolve to never give up searching for those slippery solutions. Dear Science is, on the surface, a very mechanical beast — full of shimmery synths, pulsing electronics, otherworldly falsettos — and it's an album about the 21st century, to be sure, but there's also a very human heart beating beneath it all, because it's mainly an album about love, family, life, happiness and the kind of things that have buoyed man since the very beginning of time. Is love all we really need? It sounds vaguely ridiculous, but then again — who knows? Perhaps a little faith in the timeless is all we really need. At least, I hope so.

This is just our opinion — what's yours? Share your lists by uploading a video to YouRHere.MTV.com or leaving a comment below.

• Lil Wayne
• Kanye West
• Death Cab For Cutie
• Panic at the Disco
• Erykah Badu

Selections from our columnist's "The Best Albums Of 2008 (So Far)" list
Photo: MTV News

On The Record: The Best Albums From The First Half Of 2008

If my math is correct — and believe me, there's a very good chance it might not be — then today is the official halfway point of 2008. So what better time to roll out a list of my favorite albums from the first 182.5 days of the year? (It's a rhetorical question; there really isn't one.)

What follows are the 20 albums that I've been obsessed with thus far in '08. There's been no shortage of really great music made this year, and looking at the list now, I realize that I've already forgotten to throw Beck's Modern Guilt (hey, it leaked yesterday!), My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges and Bun B's II Trill on there. But that's the beauty of the halfway point: I've got a whole six months to rectify those errors.

I've broken things down into two groups. The first is honorable mentions, which are albums that, for whatever reason (usually because I am incredibly lazy), I haven't given proper attention to just yet, though I realize there's something there and I'm sure I'll get around to them one of these days. The second group is a standard top 10, which is, well, my 10 favorites so far.

If you've got a halfway list, I'd love to see it — and if there are any records I've missed, feel free to let me know about them: BTTS@MTVStaff.com is the address. And now, on to my picks.

Honorable Mentions

Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago - Bearded dude records somber acoustic album in a log cabin. This is why I hate Iron & Wine, right? Still, people kept recommending this one to me, and so I'm finally getting around to giving it a proper try. So far, the results are promising.

British Sea Power, Do You Like Rock Music? - Why, yes ... yes I do. For years, BSP have been churning out angular, angsty rock with a flair for the dramatic, and their latest only continues that trend. Unfortunately, it also continues the trend of them never getting enough respect for doing so.

Deerhunter, Microcastles - I'll be honest. I've only heard the leaked version of this one (doesn't it come out in, like, October?), so I'm giving it an incomplete grade for now. But I like the compression and focus and sheen I'm hearing so far, except that they cut out a whole lot of "Calvary Scars," which is sort of bumming me out. Last year DH mastermind Bradford Cox promised that the song would be part of "a three-song suite ... [in which] I would like to attempt — though I'll probably fail — to kill off the adolescent character that haunts everything I write." And I like my self-flagellating song cycles to be as long as (in)humanly possible, dammit.

Islands, Arms Way - An album full of proggy guitars, trilling strings, herky-jerky time signatures and disco bass lines that's also a concept record? Where do I sign up? Still, no matter how much ephemera Nick Thorburn and co. stuff into it, I can't shake the notion that Arms is sort of a leaky piñata, and I'm 90 percent certain it isn't as good as their 2006 effort, Return to the Sea (though the cover art is certainly way more awesome).

Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III - Hey, 1 million Wayne fans can't be wrong, can they? Truth be told, III is really only part of the Weezy phenomenon, one that stretches across mixtapes and message boards and "no he didn't" proclamations and guest spots too numerous to mention, which goes a long way toward explaining just how scattershot it is. But it's also biting, bruising, hilarious and completely confounding, by far the most interesting and compelling hip-hop album released to this point, and probably the only album in history that makes Robin Thicke (who sings on the haunting post-Katrina tune "Tie My Hands") seem interesting. And that's including Thicke's own records.

M83, Saturdays = Youth - A loving ode to raccoon-eyed girls, drinking in graveyards, kissing with tongue and the general splendor of being young and free and unafraid of death, coated in a lacquer of synthesizers and starbursts and even a guitar or three. Or basically like every John Hughes film ever, only dancier and dreamier. And made by a French guy. And not "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

MGMT, Oracular Spectacular - I really wanted to hate these guys because of their headbands and because someone told me they were "fake major-label hipsters" (which is hilarious). But then — much like with the Bon Iver disc — people kept telling me how great their album was. Lo and behold, people knew what they were talking about. There's so much sumptuous electro-pop going on here ("Time to Pretend" might be the anthem of '08) that I'm sure this one will end up ranking much higher on my year-end list. I wish they'd ditch the shtick, though.

She & Him, Volume One - These kinds of things are never supposed to work, only Zooey Deschanel's voice is so big and pure and clean (it sounds like her eyes look, if that makes any sense), and M. Ward's production is so dusty and crackly and warm that somehow everything falls directly into place. A genuine treat of an album, full of songs about love and loss and sounds that burble and plink; it reminds me of Richard and Linda Thompson's I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight. Scarlett Johansson should take note.

Silver Jews, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea - David Berman can't sing to save his life, but that's never been the point of Silver Jews. It's about what he's singing, which, on Lookout, means wordy odes to bluegrass drummers washing dishes in 24-hour restaurants and multi-part epics about bungling burglars in San Francisco, to name just a few. Plus, given that he currently resides in Nashville, he's able to use the phrase "squirrely" in the proper context.

The Teenagers, Reality Check - An album that OMGWTFed its way into my headphones based solely on the strength of "Homecoming," a bawdy slice of synth-pop that proves that American girls are dumb and European guys are scumbags. As a whole, Reality Check might be a bit too long (it plays like one long, long, long tumble through PerezHilton.com), and it's got the shelf life of an episode of "Gossip Girl," but if you've ever been curious to know what Pulp would've sounded like if Jarvis Cocker were an erudite, Peter Pan-ish French guy, well, here you go.

The Top 10

10. The Plastic Constellations, We Appreciate You - That this, their final beery hurrah, came and went without so much as a whimper is pretty much the way things have always gone for the Plastics, a hard-charging, harder-partying Minneapolis quartet who sang about brotherhood and metaphorical dragons and stuff and never got the love they deserved. Basically recorded as a thank-you note to their loyal fans in and around the Midwest, Appreciate also displays TPC at the pinnacle of their powers — check the stop/startiness of "Stay That Way" or the doomy guitars of "Phantom Canyon" — and is about as close as you'll ever come to witnessing the sweaty glory of their infamous live sets. It's also one of only two albums I can think of this year (the other sits at #1 on this list) that furthers the concept of "inclusion rock" (which I wrote about back in March), meaning that right up until the bitter end, TPC were fighting the good fight, metaphorical or otherwise.

9. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals - The album LL Cool J doesn't want you to hear, the one that samples Kanye and Metallica and Jimi Hendrix and Radiohead (plus about 300 others) and does so bravely and without apology. Girl Talk couldn't have existed in any other era (OK sure, I know all about Double Dee and Steinski), inasmuch as he's been raised on MTV and he's got both the musical palate and attention span to prove it. And if nothing else, Animals is Exhibit A — a whiplash-fast trip through the past 50 years of recorded music, cut-and-pasted without regard to anyone's feelings and played back like an iPod in a blender. Words are twisted, beats broken and copyright laws tested. It's dance music you can't really dance to, but that's sort of the point now, isn't it?

8. The Breeders, Mountain Battles - In 2002, when I was drunk all the time, I wrote the following review of the Breeders' Title TK album on a napkin, in the hopes of having it published in Spin magazine: "The broken guitars, the charred crystalline of Kim Deal's voice ... like finding a golden broach pinned to a cigarette butt, this is an album of disgusting, dirty beauty." Now, aside from that being totally awesome, it's funny how well it also applies to Battles, an album of even more disgusting and dirtier beauty. Over the course of 37 raucous, raw minutes, the Deal sisters prove that the more things change — time, weight, space — the more they stay the same. Plus, this time, they sing in German and Spanish!

7. Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles - Welcome to the future, as imagined by a couple of hipsters from Toronto and played through an Atari 5200. Chippy, bitty and occasionally really beautiful — like all good electronic albums should be — their self-titled debut stands out from the fold thanks to the moments when frontwoman Alice Glass is allowed to unleash her guttural growl (songs like "Alice Practice" and "xxzxcuzx Me"), which instantly change the Castles into some sort of electro version of the Distillers. Trust me, the record is better than that last sentence indicates.

6. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend - Look, I was just like you. I saw the boat shoes and the oxfords. I shuddered at the social ramifications of statements like "Upper West Side Soweto." I sat through the video for "Mansard Roof." Believe me, I wanted to dislike Vampire Weekend so, so badly ... probably more than anyone out there. But I just couldn't. Turns out, they're a pretty great band, and their self-titled album is probably better than you remember (since you probably stopped listening to it the moment the blog backlash started). In fact, it'll probably end up wedged a bit higher on this list at year's end. Snappy like a piqued polo, sharp like a pair of Ray-Bans and a pastel sweater tied jauntily 'round the neck, Vampire Weekend make you realize things about yourself — things you probably don't want to think about, like how you're a snarky, judgmental jerk. Or maybe that's just me.

5. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah, Part One (4th World War) - So far, this is the year's most certifiably batsh-- record, a labyrinthine mix of chittering beats, rattling bass and gauzy, hazy vibes, and one that jumps through time like Desmond from "Lost" — from the past to the future and back to the present — only to remind us that things have always been as messed up as they are right now. So we get somber '70s soul rolled up into harrowing postmillennial doomsday proclamations, with Badu — part priestess, part transistor radio — hovering above the din, holding the world in the palm of her hand and spinning it faster and faster on its axis. A positively vital record — probably the most important of the year — full of social commentary and smoky quests for spirituality in these troubled times, one full of hope yet also realistic enough to point out that we're probably teetering on the brink of something very bad. Also, proof that you probably don't want to spend the night alone in Badu's head.

4. Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs - I wrote an entire column about this album back in March, calling it "unquestionably the best thing they've ever done ... full of songs that thrash and rattle and bounce around echo chambers ... an early contender for the best album of 2008," and, well, nothing's changed since then. Stairs is a marvelous album, full of crags and pockmarks that make me scratch my head and songs that give me goose bumps for days. If possible, it's only grown on me over the past month as I've been driving around Los Angeles for "FNMTV", and though I am aware Ben Gibbard is an avowed anti-L.A. guy, Stairs recalls nothing quite as vividly as it does driving around the city — it's sad and beautiful, and there are terrifying moments when all hell breaks loose and you have no idea what's happening, which is sort of like trying to merge onto the 405.

3. Constantines, Kensington Heights - "You can tell by the way we walk/ We've got hard feelings!" Cons frontman Bryan Webb growls at the beginning of his group's fourth full-length, and quite frankly, it's all downhill from there. Midway through, he's mumbling about how "time can be overcome," and by album's end he's been reduced to bellowing that "you do what you can do with what you got." Welcome to blue-collar anger, circa 2008. Webb knows that he can't win, can't escape and can't afford not to show up, so instead he pours his heart into Kensington Heights, penning songs about falling short of previous generations ("New King"), having sh--ty credit ("Credit River") and the beauty that comes with living proud in the face of overwhelming obstacles ("I Will Not Sing a Hateful Song"). There's a disarming directness to his approach, one that resonates long after the last chord has been struck. Uneasy listening at its finest.

2.No Age, Nouns - Welcome to the future as imagined by a couple of hipsters from Los Angeles and played through a wall of indiscernible feedback. No Age certainly aren't the only band making gloriously lo-fi noise these days, they're simply the best. Recalling the DIY spirit of '77 punk and the bedroom aesthetics of '91 indie rock, they're a band operating at the peak of its powers, only you sort of expect there's a whole other level yet to be tapped. "Eraser" is part sunny psych, part spiky guitars; "Teen Creeps" is electronic whirs and crunchy chords; and "Keechie" is a squealing, dreamy instrumental that sounds like sunshine through the tops of trees. It's noise like you've never imagined noise could be. There's a reason the liner notes to Nouns are packed with photos documenting the L.A. scene that birthed the band: It sounds like a momentous document of an era, a touchstone noise-rock record that's never gonna be topped.

1. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive - The best band in America make the best album of their career, a sprawling, profane opus that takes the singular world frontman Craig Finn has created over the course of four albums — dead-end kids doing dead-end things, usually down by the banks of the Mississippi River — and folds it in on itself, creating something entirely new in the process. There is still plenty of drinking (on water towers, in the woods, in Memphis) and drugging (in hotel rooms, at laser-light shows, in "cute little cars") and dance floors, but things have somehow gotten darker this time around, as if Finn himself knows that the party can't last forever and Sunday morning's gotta come someday. So accordingly, kids are crucified, canonized and catch spears in the side, while VFW Halls and 7 Seconds cassettes are revered like Bethlehem or the Old Testament. Bar bands aren't supposed to be this God-fearing, unless they're drinking the sacramental wine, which, knowing the Hold Steady, doesn't seem all that improbable at this point.

Questions? Concerns? Lists of your own? Send 'em to me! BTTS@MTVStaff.com

• Erykah Badu
• Death Cab For Cutie
• Vampire Weekend
• The Hold Steady

Janet Jackson's <i>Discipline</i>
Photo: Island Def Jam

How's this for a wipeout? After three weeks of domination, surfer-turned-rocker Jack Johnson's reign as the nation's top-selling artist has come to an end — and we have pop icon Janet Jackson to thank.

Jackson's latest studio offering, Discipline, will top next week's Billboard albums sales chart, having generated week-one scans of more than 181,000, dethroning Johnson's Sleep Through the Static and dropping the LP to the chart's #3 position; Johnson's disc sold just over 91,500 copies during its fourth week of commercial availability. With its strong sales, Discipline becomes Jackson's sixth career chart-topper: Her 1986 album Control also entered the top 200 at #1, as did 1989's Rhythm Nation 1814, 1993's Janet., 1997's The Velvet Rope, and 2001's All for You. (Jackson's last two releases, 2004's Damita Jo and 2006's 20 Y.O. both opened at #2.)

But Miss Jackson's new one isn't the only new release to enter in the top 10. Right behind her at #2 is the latest from Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), the first half of Badu's double-album set, which sold close to 123,900 units. Believe it or not, Badu has never seen one of her albums bow at #1; 1997's Baduizm and 2003's Worldwide Underground opened at #2 and #3, respectively.

Joining Jackson and Badu in the top 10 is rapper Webbie's Savage Life 2, which enters at #4 after selling 72,000 copies. The rest of the top 10 is teeming with the usual suspects, as well as a couple of surprises. Falling three spots to #5 on next week's chart is Alicia Keys' As I Am, which sold 57,300 copies. Coming in at #6 is "Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus," with sales reported at 54,500, and following at #7, with more than 46,700 scans, it's the soundtrack to "Once," which features the Oscar-winning number "Falling Slowly." The disc experienced a 143 percent spike in sales.

The soundtrack to "Juno" follows at #8 with 42,000 sold, and at #9, it's breakout artist Sara Bareilles' Little Voice, which sold another 37,800 units. This week, MTV News spoke with Bareilles — who's wrapping up a tour with James Blunt — about her recent rash of seemingly instant success.

"I was very surprised when we were on 'TRL' at all, but the whole time I was thinking, 'What am I doing here? This is crazy,' " she said. "It happened relatively quickly, but we've been at it a long time. This has been six years in the making, and I'm glad we're at a point where people are connecting to the music on a greater scale."

Finally, coming in at #10, it's Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, which sold another 37,500 copies, following her recent Grammy wins.

Elsewhere on the chart, rapper Shawty Lo's Units in the City opens at #13, having sold 31,000 during its first week in stores. The record was one of 20 to debut on next week's top 200. The Afters' Never Going Back to OK bows at #41 with 16,000 scans, while Goldfrapp's Seventh Tree debuts at #48, selling 14,900. Pillar's For the Love of the Game enters at #71 with 10,900 sold, while Cheri Dennis' In and Out of Love follows at #74 with 10,700-plus scanned. Tift Merritt's Another Country claims the #156 spot with 5,000 sold, and Pete Rock's NY's Finest checks in at #193 with 3,800. Finally, selling 3,700 units, it's Beach House's Devotion, which just makes the cut at #195.

• Janet Jackson
• Jack Johnson
• Erykah Badu
• Webbie
• Alicia Keys

Janet Jackson's <i>Discipline</i>
Photo: Island Def Jam

Fans of rap, R&B and soul have been shafted so far this year. Beyond the release of Jim Jones' Harlem's American Gangster last week, so far there really hasn't been much with which to get your groove on in 2008. But that's all about to change this week, as the urban floodgates open wide and usher in new tuneage from the likes of Janet Jackson, Shawty Lo, Joe Budden and more. Here's a look at what'll be shaking in the streets and banging in the clubs quicker than you can get your booty on the dance floor:

Discipline-ary Action: After peaking at #2 on the sales chart with her past two albums, Janet Jackson is hurting for her first #1 LP since 2001's All for You. While 2006's 20 Y.O. and 2004's Damita Jo dropped during busier months, her latest release faces very light competition, so she stands a good chance of nabbing the crown. Plus she's now part of Island Def Jam's powerhouse family and has producers like Ne-Yo, The-Dream, Missy Elliott, Rodney Jerkins and Jermaine Dupri on her side. "I want [fans] to forget about their worries, if any, for the 50 minutes and just dance and feel certain emotions that hopefully I'll take them through, and reminisce and just have a good time with it," Jackson told MTV News earlier this month about her 10th studio effort. Said fans should take note of the Discipline deluxe edition, which includes a bonus DVD loaded with videos, making-of footage, rehearsal clips and more.

Amerykahn Revolution: Janet faces some friendly competition this week from Erykah Badu, who barrels back into stores with her first outing in five years, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War). The timing of the new release is perfect, actually — the neo-soul trailblazer turns 37 on Tuesday (February 26), and the lead single, "Honey," is climbing on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Many of the blistering beats, including those on "Honey," come courtesy 9th Wonder, while Madlib and Bilal also lent Badu their skills.

Cheri on Top: Finishing up this week's batch of R&B releases is the debut disc from Bad Boy newcomer Cheri Dennis, In and Out of Love. Released exclusively on iTunes late last year, the album is finally hitting terrestrial stores this week — with guest spots from Jim Jones, Gorilla Zoe and Yung Joc, as well as production contributions from Rodney Jerkins and Ryan Leslie still intact. The 28-year-old singer broke out "I Love You" as the album's first single a looong time ago — we're talking late 2005 here — but the Diddy darling is crossing her fingers that "All I Wanna Do" and "Portrait of Love" make sure the forever-delayed In and Out of Love comes out on top.

Shawty Riding High: Speaking of debuts, one of the three big MCs who are cranking out releases this week is another rookie, Shawty Lo. The ATL freshman got some help from a fleet of other rising rappers, with Gucci Mane being the only big name among them, although Lo's D4L pals, Fabo and Stuntman, also provide some aid. But will that be enough to take Shawty Lo to great heights? Only time will tell ...

Tangled Webbie: Tangled among a slew of guest stars, that is! For his new one, Savage Life 2, the Trill Entertainment/ Asylum/ Atlantic spitter gets a boost from Bun B, Young Dro, Birdman, Mannie Fresh and Cypress Hill's B-Real, not to mention label comrades like Lil Boosie and Foxx. With his single "Independent" totally on fire right now — it was MTV Jams' first "Jam of the Week" pick this year, and has been in heavy rotation on BET — Webbie's hoping the follow-up track, "Missing You," will mean even more good things for this disc.

Ear Bud: Capping off this week's crew of rap talent is none other than Joe Budden, the Grammy-nominated rapper who has been awfully quiet on the studio-albums front since his eponymous debut dropped in 2003. Budden — who is in limbo with Def Jam — has been keeping busy on the mixtape circuit, though, and this week the third installment in his Mood Muzik series materializes courtesy new digital-retail store Amalgam Digital. "I think eventually ... you'll only be able to get music digitally," the New York native recently told Mixtape Monday. "I'd like to jump on that bandwagon. Since my hiatus, I've been big online, so this album is going online." Early birds interested in the release got a worm in the form of two exclusive bonus cuts, "Last Real N---a Left" and "My Life," but the standard release is littered with guest spots by Fabolous, Joell Ortiz and others.

Song Title of the Week:

"Love Me Dead" from Ludo's You're Awful, I Love You

Album Cover of the Week:

Erykah Badu's New Amerykah

Other Notables:

Goldfrapp's Seventh Tree
Almost a decade into their career, the London synth-pop duo are putting out their fourth studio disc, which was written and produced entirely by centrifugal forces Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory. Recorded at their own studio in the English countryside, the album follows 2005's Supernature — 1 million copies of which were sold worldwide — and is already getting strong buzz thanks to "A&E," a single that has been charting high across the pond. The special edition carries a bonus DVD with a documentary, interviews and more, while iTunes has a pair of extras: a live performance of "You Never Know" and "Clowns," an instrumental tune.

Rocket From the Crypt's R.I.P.
The always-creative punk-rockers went out in style when they called it quits — the band threw a 2005 Halloween shindig in its San Diego hometown and dressed up in voodoo gear to mark the end of its career. "After 18 years of massive rock hard success we felt we needed to take a stand and fight for the future of our children and our children's children's friends," ever-wry frontman John Reis joked in a statement. The set enshrining the band's last show also comes with a DVD, giving a little extra meaning to the set-closing song, "Come See Come Saw." But RFTC fans shouldn't lament too much — Reis is bouncing back with a like-minded project, the Night Marchers, and their See You in Magic debut drops April 22.

Son Lux's At War With Walls and Mazes
Ryan Lott is making quite the entrance with his project's debut — his name has already been tossed around thanks to remixes of Beirut and Castanets songs, and he got a financial boost when he won the Cleveland Arts Prize's Emerging Artist Award. The Indiana University grad, who is almost 30 years old, ties together everything from organs and violins to pianos and drums on his electro-chamber release, which has 11 one-word songs, including "Tell," "War," "Prologue" and — you guessed it — "Epilogue."

New Releases:

· A Whisper in the Noise - Dry Land (Exile on Mainstream)
· Afters - Never Going Back to OK (Columbia)
· Algebra - Purpose (Kedar)
· Avalon - Another Time, Another Place: Timeless Christian Classics (enhanced; Sparrow)
· Erykah Badu - New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) (Motown) [Buy Now]
· Laura Barrett - Earth Sciences EP (Paper Bag)
· Beach House - Devotion (Carpark)
· Sir Richard Bishop - God Damn Religion (Locust)
· The Bridal Shop - From Seas (Magic Marker)
· Children 18:3 - Children 18:3 (Tooth & Nail)
· Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Revisited (with DVD; Zoë)
· Death Angel - Killing Season (two CDs; Nuclear Blast America)
· Cheri Dennis - In and Out of Love (Bad Boy/ Atlantic) [Buy Now]
· Toumani Diabaté - The Mandé Variations (World Circuit/ Nonesuch)
· Dirtbombs - We Have You Surrounded (In the Red)
· Earth - Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull (Southern Lord)
· Michael English - The Prodigal Comes Home (Curb)
· The Exit Stratgy - City of Microphones (One Percent)
· Experimental Aircraft - Third Transmission (Graveface)
· Fink - Distance and Time (Ninja Tune)
· Melody Gardot - Worrisome Heart (Verve)
· Ghostland Observatory - Robotique Majestique (Trashy Moped)
· Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree (special edition comes with DVD; Mute) [Buy Now]
· Tommy Guerrero - Return of the Bastard (Galaxia)
· Chris Hicks - Dog Eat Dog World (Shout! Factory)
· Missy Higgins - On a Clear Night (Reprise)
· High Kings - The High Kings (Manhattan)
· Honeyhoney - Loose Boots (EP; Ironworks)
· Janet Jackson - Discipline (deluxe edition comes with DVD; Island) [Buy Now]
Read: "Janet Jackson Shows Off Sense Of Discipline With New Album"
· Richard Julian - Sunday Morning in Saturday's Shoes (Manhattan)
· La Scala - The Harlequin EP (Highwheel)
· Danny Lerman - Meow Baby (Sugar Whiskey)
· Ludo - You're Awful, I Love You (Island)
· Sara Melson - Dirty Mind (Nettwerk)
· Tift Merritt - Another Country (Fantasy)
· Nine Pound Hammer - Sex, Drugs and Bill Monroe (Acetate)
· Dolly Parton - Backwoods Barbie (Dolly)
· Pegasuses-XL - The Antiphon (Ernest Jenning)
· Pillar - For the Love of the Game (Flicker)
· Power Pill Fist - Kogmaivog (Graveface)
· Psycho & the Birds - We've Moved (Happy Jack Rock)
· Punch Brothers - Punch (Nonesuch)
· Rocket From the Crypt - R.I.P. (with DVD; Vagrant) [Buy Now]
· Kurt Rosenwinkel - The Remedy: Live at the Village Vanguard (artistShare)
· Diane Schuur - Some Other Time (Concord)
· Shawty Lo - Units in the City (Asylum)
· Son Lux - At War With Walls and Mazes (Anticon)
· Spires That in the Sunset Rise - Curse the Traced Bird (Secret Eye)
· Suishou No Fune - Prayer for Chibi (two CDs; Holy Mountain)
· Sunny Day Sets Fire - Stranger/Remix EP (I Am Sound)
· Takeovers - Little Green Onion Man (EP; limited edition; Off)
· Tarja - My Winter Storm (deluxe edition comes with DVD; Fontana International)
· To-Mera - Delusions (Candlelight)
· Torae - Daily Conversation (Internal Affairs/ Select-O-Hits)
· Webbie - Savage Life 2 (Trill Entertainment/ Asylum/ Atlantic) [Buy Now]
· Trent Willmon - Broken In (Compadre)
· Lizz Wright - The Orchard (Verve Forecast)
· Raya Yarbrough - Raya Yarbrough (Telarc)
· David Yazbek - Evil Monkey Man (Ghostlight)
· Various artists - "Semi-Pro" soundtrack (Mew Line)

Notable Reissues and Archival Material:

· The Apples in Stereo - Discovery of a World Inside the Moon; Fun Trick Noisemaker; and Her Wallpaper Reverie (One Little Indian)
· Ashford & Simpson - Hits, Remixes & Rarities: The Warner Bros. Years (two CDs; Rhino)
· Patti Austin - Greatest Hits: The Very Best of Patti Austin - The Singles (1969-1986) (Rhino)
· Bloodstone - Greatest Hits: The Very Best of Bloodstone (Rhino)
· Boston - X2 (Boston/ Don't Look Back; Legacy)
· Mariah Carey - X2 (Daydream/ Music Box; Legacy)
· Johnny Cash - X2 (At San Quentin [The Complete 1969 Concert]/ Orange Blossom Special; Legacy)
· David Cassidy - Dance Party Remix (180 Music)
· Change - Greatest Hits: The Very Best of Change (Rhino)
· Harry Chapin - "Cat's in the Cradle" and Other Hits (Rhino)
· Kenny Chesney - X2 (I Will Stand/ Me and You; Legacy)
· Guy Clark - Old No. 1 and Texas Cookin' (DBK Works)
· Bing Crosby - When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (Varése Vintage)
· Celine Dion - X2 (Let's Talk About Love/ Celine Dion (Legacy)
· Earth, Wind & Fire - X2 (Gratitude/ That's the Way of the World: Alive in '75; Legacy)
· Aretha Franklin - The Very Best of Aretha Franklin: The '70s (Rhino)
· Hellhammer - Demon Entrails (two CDs; Century Media)
· The Highwaymen - Water of Life: A Celtic Collection (Varése Vintage)
· The Impressions - Greatest Hits: The Very Best of the Impressions (Rhino)
· Michael Jackson - X2 (Off the Wall/ Invincible; Legacy)
· Jefferson Starship - Timeless Classics Live (Rainman/ Shout! Factory)
· Billy Joel - X2 (Piano Man/ The Stranger; Legacy)
· Journey - X2 (Escape/Evolution; Legacy)
· Kleer - Greatest Hits: The Very Best of Kleer (Rhino)
· Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers - Greatest Hits: The Very Best of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers (Rhino)
· Barry Manilow - X2 (This One's for You/ If I Should Love Again; Legacy)
· Willie Nelson - X2 (Red Headed Stranger/ To Lefty From Willie; Legacy)
· Roy Orbison - X2 (Crying/ In Dreams; Legacy)
· Dolly Parton - X2 (Jolene/ Coat of Many Colors; Legacy)
· Sam & Dave - Greatest Hits: The Very Best of Sam & Dave (Rhino)
· Santana - X2 (Santana/ Santana III; Legacy)
· Joe Tex - Greatest Hits: The Very Best of Joe Tex (Rhino)
· Randy Travis - Storms of Life (Rhino)
· Conway Twitty - It's Only Make Believe: The MGM Years (Mercury Nashville/ UMe)
· Luther Vandross - X2 (Never Too Much/ Songs; Legacy)
· Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - X2 (Texas Flood/ In the Beginning; Legacy)
· Bobby Womack - The Best of Bobby Womack (Capitol/EMI)
· Various artists - Bedtime Beats: The Secret to Sleep (two CDs; Rhino)
· Various artists - Club Anthems (Water)
· Various artists - Dance Factory: Ultimate Dance Radio Hits Volume 1 (Toucan Cove)
· Various artists - Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents: The Coolest Songs in the World! Vol. 4 (Wicked Cool)
· Various artists - The Local Anesthetic (Smooch)
· Various artists - Stax Does the Beatles (Stax)

Music DVDs:

· High Kings - "Live in Dublin" (Manhattan)
· Paul McCartney - "Ecce Cor Meum" (EMI Classics)
· John McCormack - "The People's Tenor" (Kultur)
· Various artists - "Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz" (Euroarts)

Digital Releases:

· Joe Budden - Mood Muzik 3 (Amalgam Digital)
Read: Mixtape Monday: Lupe Fiasco Plans His Cool Viral Video; Joe Budden Compares Jay-Z To A 'Bully'

Coming Attractions:

March 4:
· Black Crowes - Warpaint (Silver Arrow/ Megaforce/ Sony)
· Flogging Molly - Float (Side One Dummy)
· Stephen Malkmus & Jicks - Real Emotional Trash (Matador)

March 11:
· Fat Joe - The Elephant in the Room (Virgin)
Read: "Fat Joe Nixes Planned Eddie Murphy Cover, Salutes 'Hood Spartans On '300' "
· Meshuggah - obZen (Nuclear Blast America)
· Rick Ross - Trilla (Def Jam)
Read: "Rick Ross Recruits Jay-Z, T-Pain, Lil Wayne To Help Him Thrill On Trilla"

March 18:
· Flo Rida - Mail on Sunday (Atlantic)
· Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III (Cash Money/ Universal)
Read: " Lil Wayne Wrapping Up LP, Writing For Dr. Dre -- But He's Got Mariah Carey On The Brain"
· Danity Kane - Welcome to the Dollhouse (Bad Boy)

• Janet Jackson
• Shawty Lo
• Joe Budden
• Erykah Badu

The Roots' Black Thought performs at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday
Photo: Lovekin/ WireImage.com

NEW YORK — All the Roots' ?uestlove could think of Wednesday night was that game time was only 24 hours away. ?uest and his band were rehearsing on a small stage at Montana Studios, getting ready for the big stage at Radio City Music Hall.

"When I did the Jay-Z Madison Square Garden show, he and I were joking about how not to get nervous for a night that big," ?uest said during a break. "We said we were going to pretend it was Boston and not Madison Square Garden. Being that tomorrow is the equivalent of that special night for me, I'm going to treat it like Boston. I handpicked these 70 songs we're going to do over six hours over a two-night period. For me, this is a dream and chance to amalgamate my unit with some of the people who we've admired for years."

"Let it roll, get bold, I just can't hold," Big Daddy Kane started rapping, facing ?uest. "Back or fold, 'cause I'm a man with soul/ In control and effect, so what the heck/ Rock the discotheques, and this groove is what's next."

Surprise guest Kane was one of the trump cards ?uest planned to lay on the table Thursday night during the Roots' first performance at Radio City.

Before leaving, Kane ripped through a practice run of his set's closer — and a record he said is key for NYC — "Warm It Up, Kane," garnering big smiles from everyone in the room. He did his set in one take.

Inside the studio, ?uest's musical directing was seamless, like a graceful point guard leading the fast-break charge. "No, Jeff, turn it down some. Turn it down just a little bit," ?uest said from behind the drums, directing Jazzy Jeff and his band on the soundscape for Raekwon's "Verbal Intercourse."

If Kane was to be the Roots' trump card, no doubt Raekwon the Chef and Ghostface Killah would be their two aces. In addition to Ghost having his own set, where Erykah Badu would be singing the hook on "Chez Chez LaGhost," Tony Stark and longtime partner Raekwon were to join already advertised guest Nas for the classic posse cut.

Later, it was Badu's turn to get down with her brothas. Her voice sounding strong as ever, the singer started freestyling until being interrupted by ?uest. "Are you definitely going to do that tomorrow?" he asked her. " 'Cause I'll commit that to memory."

"I'm not used to that memory sh--," she smiled. "Man, let's just have fun."

"We're like a studio husband and wife," Badu explained later during a break in rehearsal. "If I'm having a good day, [?uest] can lead. If not, we're arguing about the set list or the breaks. But for the most part, he's my brother. ... We usually have the same thought or idea."

Badu went on to explain she had a trick up her sleeve for the show.

"Shhh," a giggling Badu said, lowering her voice so ?uest couldn't hear. "Everything we've rehearsed tonight, I'm not doing any of that. I'm gonna do something totally different. I like to look back at him, and he can't do anything about it. I'm gonna do that tomorrow night. This rehearsal will self-destruct when we walk out. I promise."

Little did Erykah know, her friends would soon find themselves improvising on Thursday night to a couple of snafus and some no-shows.

The show started out on a high enough note — Black Thought setting the table with "Thought @ Work," then Nas, wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans, coming on to "Made You Look."

Nas didn't miss a step as he rapped the album version of "Ain't Hard to Tell," and then the Roots switched the beat to the remix. There was a short misstep during "The World Is Yours," where he seemed to be fumbling over his words, but many in the crowd either didn't catch it or didn't care, continuing to rap along. He closed with "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)."

"The Roots are a one-of-a-kind class act," Nas said minutes later in his dressing room. "They're all we got on a level like that with the instruments. Black Thought is a hard-body lyricist; he did his thing. I never had a band behind me before, so working with the Roots on that show was a first for me on a concert level.

"When I first got the call about it, I was like, 'Cool,' " he added. "But I didn't know how I would do because of the band, it was live. I didn't know which joints would sound good. But ?uest has the knack for that."

"Tonight was special, man," Common said about an hour after his set. "I performed here [at Radio City] a few times, but with R&B acts. I felt tonight was like real. Hip-hop was in the place. I felt the Roots playing, and the MCs that were coming were some of my favorite MCs: Nas, Big Daddy Kane and Talib and Tariq [Black Thought]. I just felt hip-hop, and I was proud."

Common turned out to be the show's second wind — jumping in the crowd, freestyling off the dome, kicking a stool over during "Testify" and, of course, covering all types of ground on the stage like a cornerback on the football field.

"?uestlove, he got his request line going," Common joked after the performance. "He'll say, 'We gotta do this, we gotta do that,' and he'll pick out some obscure stuff you'll only know if you're a music lover. I be having to nix some of his stuff out."

Talib Kweli, who arrived a few minutes late, came on after Common. After that, the aces the Roots had planned on, Rae and Ghost, were no-shows. The last 45 minutes of the three-hour show was basically improv, with friends such as Alicia Keys, Badu, Dave Chappelle and Jay-Z standing on the sideline.

Extended Roots member Rahzel came out to close the show with his magic mouth, beatboxing and singing records like Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" and Aaliyah's "If Your Girl Only Knew."

"That's when the tightness of the band comes in to factor," Black Thought said after the show. "We're able to play off one another and throw things in there and not come off like you're stalling. We performed, like, three or four other songs than the Roots had intended to perform to smooth out a couple of the transitions. We changed a couple of things in the set too because of how it flows, a couple of things in Kane's set, a couple of things in Nas' set."

The show ended when Chappelle, Keys and Badu came onstage to share hugs with the band as the audience filed out.

In the Roots' dressing room, ?uestlove was visibly upset that the show had not come off as planned. The usually jovial leader of the crew looked dejected. Black Thought was more positive.

"I feel like there were a lot of people here tonight that it was their first time seeing us perform," he said. "So they didn't really have any standard — maybe a performance on TV — but they didn't have anything to judge it [by]. So I feel like we make a pretty good first impression. Then I think there were some diehard Roots fans in the place who may have caught wind of what the set list would be or what we were rehearsing and realized what we performed tonight was not it. So they might have been a little confused. We had a couple of no-shows, a couple of people who came in like a bat outta hell off the flight, but I feel people got their money's worth."

The Roots take another stab at it Friday night (May 19) for their second sold-out show at Radio City. Erykah Badu and Mos Def are the most well-known names advertised on the bill.

Black said they'll probably try to do some things differently on Friday.

"Just probably try and cover more within the time we have for the soundcheck," he said. "[Get] some of the kinks worked out sonically so we could concentrate on what set we're gonna do and what transitions. I think [Friday] is going to be a lot smoother, a lot more low-key. It's a lot of vocalists, singers who don't come with the same ego and nonchalantness of an MC."

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports.

• The Roots
• Big Daddy Kane
• Ghostface Killah
• Erykah Badu
• Raekwon

Queen Latifah (file)
Photo: Getty Images/Peter Kramer

WANTAGH, New York — The Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach Theater was only about half full Tuesday night for the traveling Sugar Water Festival, but that half a crowd roared like a full house for singers Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Queen Latifah and Floetry.

The latter, billed as the evening's special guests, only got about 20 minutes of stage time but made the best of it by singing their hits and some covers by the likes of Mary J. Blige. The headliners then all came out together to welcome the crowd — which included actress Natalie Portman — and then Badu and Scott cleared the way for Latifah.

Backed by a band and a DJ, the Queen started off soul singing and even brought out her father, "Mr. O," to help sing a song she said she heard around the house growing up: Barbara Lewis' "Hello Stranger."

"Seems like a mighty long time," Papa Owens sang to his daughter, who said, "Thank the Lord for Daddy." When her pops left, Dana Owens transformed into a familiar mode, the rapstress Queen Latifah.

"The Queen is ready to get hyped," she said. "Y'all remember Queen Latifah, right?" She then took people back to the early '90s with "Latifah's Had It Up 2 Here."

"I'mma hit y'all with another one," she said, segueing into "Ladies First" by saying, "I been all around the world, and I always demand the respect of ladies first."

After going back into some selections from last year's The Dana Owens Album, the Queen hit the floor and walked through the crowd while rapping. She said she wanted to find out who'd come to see her.

Jill Scott, up next, had no problem seeing who was showering her with adoration. The crowd was standing on its feet when she commenced her set with "Golden," and she only gained momentum when she took things back to "The Way," a hit from her first album, Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds, Vol. 1.

"Is it the way, you love me, baby?" she and her fans sang.

"You got me trembling, vibrating all over," she continued. " Get chills up my spine/ Can we do it one more time?"

Radiating a born-to-sing persona, Scott hit notes high and low, going operatic at points and of course beaming with soul throughout. "I wrote this when I was princess," Scott said after performing "Do You Remember," telling her faithful that her mother said she had to earn her "queendom."

Scott then sang "Gettin' in the Way" and acted out the confrontation she has in the song: "Suga honey girl, fly, fly away/ I been a lady up to now, don't know how much more I can take/ Queens shouldn't swing if you know what I mean/ But I'm bout to take my earrings off, get me some Vaseline."

Jill ended with "He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)," performing with nothing more than a spotlight shining on her and the breeze from the nearby water blowing through her reddish Afro.

Erykah Badu came on almost as unceremoniously as "Jilly from Philly" had left, without even an introduction. In near darkness, she simply walked up to the mic, and after a few deep breaths, with both hands raised, the R&B rebel began singing "Green Eyes" from 2000's Mama's Gun.

As Badu moved into "Cleva," it was clear the music was taking over her. "All right, all right, all right, all right," she kept singing.

"Damn, I broke it down early in the show," she said, almost laughing to herself.

Things turned more serious later, when she delivered "Other Side of the Game," from her '97 debut, Baduizm. Erykah didn't just sing, she took the crowd on a journey into the life of a woman who is conflicted over her love for a drug dealer. And just in case anyone didn't understand, she explained that the line about her man's "complex occupation" meant he was "selling dope."

The song's sequel, "Danger," followed. "They got the block on lock/ The trunk stay locked/ Glock on cock/ The block stay hot/ Block on lock/ The trunk stay locked/ Glock on cock/ The block stay hot."

"Police play dirty," she continued. "Our man's in jail. ... You gotta move to the trap." She ended by yelling, "F--- the police!"

A personal Badu narrative came into play after "Back in the Day (Puff)." The Texas native talked about how she smoked a lot of weed when she was younger ("I used to wake up early in the morning like Snoop Dogg"), but it caused her to lose her ambition.

Badu said she quit smoking and started drinking but still felt an emptiness in her life. Eventually a voice told her to stop drinking, and she moved on to another addiction: a boyfriend who bought her everything she wanted. Still there was a void, and the voice told her to get rid of her man. Confused, she shed all her vices and the voice finally told her to "pack light." This led into her hit "Bag Lady," which is about women finding themselves.

The show ended as it started, with Badu, Scott and Latifah onstage together. This time, though, they paid tribute to Luther Vandross by singing "Never Too Much" (see "R&B Singer Luther Vandross Dead At 54"). Latifah and Badu even began beat boxing, and all three played around with some freestyle raps.

The Sugar Water Festival moves on to Boston Wednesday night (July 13) and runs through August 10.

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports.

• Queen Latifah
• Erykah Badu
• Jill Scott

Kanye West (file)
Photo: Getty Images

Kanye West and a small entourage checked out "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" composer/songwriter Jon Brion's performance on Friday at Largo in Los Angeles. Apparently this wasn't the first time the Grammy-winning rapper has stopped by to watch Brion play at his weekly residency, but if Kanye would have stuck around for the second set, he would have witnessed inventive bluegrass takes on Radiohead and Strokes songs. ...

Jessica Simpson was treated for dehydration due to a stomach virus at a Chicago hospital on Monday while in town to shoot a segment for Friday's "Oprah." Simpson's stay was brief, and she returned to Los Angeles on Tuesday. Her rep said the singer is "already feeling better." ...

Jay-Z announced Tuesday (February 22) that he's opening an education center focusing on music, sports and fashion. The S. Carter Academy in New York will open in the spring, with enrollment starting in March, around the same time a commercial with Jay and New York Knicks star Jamal Crawford promoting the facility is scheduled to start airing. ... Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, currently incarcerated while awaiting trial on charges of murder and racketeering in the Murder Inc. drug-money scandal, has been put in solitary confinement at the Manhattan Detention Center. According to his lawyer, prosecutors requested that McGriff be taken out of the general population because he is a "problem" inmate. The defense has since complained about the move, causing the judge in the case to look into the matter. McGriff is due back in court on March 18, the same day as Irv and Chris Gotti. ...

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is going solo — in his personal life, anyway. The singer announced Sunday that he is separating from his wife of 17 years, Teresa, according to The Associated Press. He has two kids with Teresa: Chelsea, 16, and Taj, 13. In a statement released by his publicist, Tyler announced the split and said, "We're just a family trying to work through a difficult time." ... Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow and Aerosmith's Joe Perry are among the musicians who have designed Gibson guitars to be auctioned off to benefit the Expedition Inspiration Fund for Breast Cancer Research. The auction will be held May 3 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles and online at www.juliensauctions.com. ...

Phil Lesh has been tapped to host the fifth annual Jammy Awards, to be held April 26 at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. The awards, which honor the world's best jam bands, will be given out in eight categories, including Live Performance of the Year, Archival Live Album of the Year and New Groove of the Year. ... Erykah Badu has recently been in the studio with the Neptunes working on her next album. The follow-up to 2003's Worldwide Underground is expected to be released later this year. ...

After more than two decades playing together and a sold-out reunion concert on Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, the Jayhawks have called it quits. Singer Gary Louris told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that "we haven't completely closed the door, but ... I'd say it's dead." The band released five major-label albums over the course of its career, with its last recorded work being 2003's Rainy Day Music. ... Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana will join Beyoncé and Josh Groban as performers at Sunday's Academy Awards. The two will perform the Best Song from a Motion Picture nominee "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" from "The Motorcycle Diaries." ...

Henry Rollins is taking his talking show "Caught in the Zipper" to the Zipper Theater in New York for a slew of dates. The volatile singer/spoken-word artist will perform there March 22-27, March 29, and March 31-April 2. ... Glenn Danzig will reunite with his old Misfits bandmate Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein at shows February 28 at the Roxy Theatre in Boston, March 1 at the Spirit Performance Center in New York, and March 2 at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia. The duo, who performed together for the first time in 20 years at two surprise West Coast dates last year, will play a 30-minute set of Misfits favorites after Danzig's regular set in support of his new album, Circle of Snakes. Danzig also recently completed Black Aria II, the follow-up to 1993's classical album Black Aria, and is writing a movie adaptation of "Gerouge," one of the comic-book titles distributed by his Verotik publishing company. ...

02.18.2005

Nobody can accuse 50 Cent of being stingy. He invited a bevy of radio-contest winners and famous folk like Foxy Brown, Lil Scrappy, Funkmaster Flex, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh to his mansion in Connecticut for an album-release party Thursday night. The festivities took place at a club 50 actually has inside his house, and the whole G-Unit — with the exception of Game — performed. ...

Eminem, Paul McCartney, Dave Matthews, Sting and a host of other artists have donated signed items to an auction benefiting the Station Family Fund, the organization founded to offer relief to people directly affected by the fire at Rhode Island's Station nightclub in 2003. The auction is being run by the Mimi Fishman Foundation; more information can be found at www.stationfamilyfund.org. ... Ozzy Osbourne has pulled out of Friday night's (February 18) Music for Relief: Rebuilding South Asia concert at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California, due to a family emergency. Osbourne was supposed to join Los Angeles' all-star rockers Camp Freddy (featuring Dave Navarro and Matt Sorum, among others) for a few songs. Linkin Park, Jay-Z and No Doubt are among the acts who will perform. ...

Phil Spector's trial for the 2003 murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson will begin on September 16, a judge ruled on Thursday, according to Reuters. The legendary record producer is accused of shooting Clarkson at his home near Los Angeles. Spector has claimed that Clarkson committed suicide. ... One of the alleged conspirators in the Murder Inc. drug-money scandal was sentenced to prison Thursday on separate charges of gun possession. Tyran "Ta Ta" Moore, who had refused to cooperate with the federal investigation of Murder Inc. and its connection to drug lord Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, was sentenced to prison for six years, with an additional three years of supervised release, a probation-like condition which requires him to continue treatment for substance abuse. As for McGriff, he pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on charges of murder and racketeering on Thursday. He's facing the death penalty if convicted. ...

Will Smith has been tapped as master of ceremonies for the March 19 AIDS benefit concert in George, South Africa, which will feature 150 local and international stars who have agreed to perform for free, according to Reuters. The actor/rapper will introduce acts including Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor, Annie Lennox and India.Arie at the 46664 concert, named for former South African president Nelson Mandela's prison number. ... Prince will be honored with the NAACP Vanguard Award at the March 19 NAACP Image Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, according to Reuters. Prince is already up for two awards, while Usher leads the pack with five nominations. The show will air on March 25 on FOX. ...

FOX's "The O.C." will release the fourth installment in the show's mixtape series on April 5. The O.C. Mix 4 features "Scarecrow," off Beck's upcoming album, Guero; "The View," from Modest Mouse's 2004 album, Good News for People Who Love Bad News; and a cover of Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" by Matt Pond PA. Also included are tracks by the Futureheads, Pinback and Sufjan Stevens, among others. ... Conor Oberst currently melts the hearts of indie girls everywhere as the dreamy frontman of Bright Eyes. But that wasn't always the case. And now you can own the proof. Currently up for bid on eBay is the 1995 Creighton Preparatory High School yearbook, featuring the freshman picture of a bespectacled, baby-faced Oberst. Currently, the high bid tops $200. ...

First Jessica and Ashlee Simpson traded barbs over Ice Breakers, and now another sister act is shilling for the mints. Hilary and Haylie Duff star in a commercial where they disagree supposedly for the first time ever. "We agree on absolutely everything," Hilary said in a statement. "So when she thought that Ice Breakers Liquid Ice was liquid and I thought it was ice, well, I knew she had to be right, and she knew I had to be right!" The sisters are also offering an online sweepstakes to go on a Beverly Hills, California, shopping spree with the two of them. ... Xzibit is embarking on a 10-city tour, starting March 18 in San Francisco. The rapper will hit Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, Washington, D.C., and Detroit before wrapping things up in Chicago on April 4. ... Danger Mouse has completed production on the new Gorillaz album, Demon Days. The album is due out May 24. ...

"Amerrrrrrricccca, have you heard?/ There's a brand new dance called 'The Bird.' " Well maybe not too new. "The Bird" has to be about 20 years old, but on Thursday night at the Apollo Theater in New York, Morris Day and the Time were flapping their wings just like they did in the Purple Rain days. Mo and co. performed, singing all their hits (except a much-called-for "Ice Cream Castles"). The Ohio Players opened up. ... Richie Sambora taped a guest appearance last week for the CBS sitcom "Still Standing," in which he plays a character named Reverend Roach. Though the Bon Jovi Web site lists the guitarist's episode as airing February 28, a spokesperson for the show said that the episode will now air at a later date, "probably May." ...

• Kanye West
• Jay-Z
• The Inc.
• Erykah Badu
• The Neptunes

Lauryn Hill at Dave Chappelle's block party on Saturday
Photo: Soulbrother

BROOKLYN, New York — The remnants of Hurricane Ivan may have put a damper on the last weekend of summer, but the rain, clouds and brisk weather could not do the same to the old-fashioned block party Dave Chappelle threw on Saturday.

(Click here for photos.)

For the biggest comedian in the world right now, the secretive neighborhood jam was his Summer of '69, a hip-hop and R&B Woodstock that featured a hit list of his favorite artists, including a surprising reunion of the Fugees, the hip-hop trio that disbanded after their second and last album, The Score, sold 15 million copies worldwide. Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras came together to headline the day-long concert, which was shot by famed film and music-video director Michel Gondry for a likely DVD release.

Chappelle graced the stage to introduce the Fugees to a crowd that was expecting just a Lauryn Hill solo performance (see "Chappelle Throwing A Block Party With Kanye, Lauryn, Others"). "We were going to have Lauryn Hill perform tonight but Columbia [Records] wouldn't clear her songs," Chappelle said, referring to Hill's record label. "So she came up with a better idea. Ladies and gentleman — the Fugees!"

As the thundering bass of Bone Crusher's "Never Scared" blasted through the speakers, Wyclef ran onto the stage, getting the crowd hyped with lines from the Fugees' "Nappy Heads (Remix)." Moments later, Hill entered the stage, receiving a rousing cheer from the hundreds of fans who had gathered on the L-shaped block in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. Wearing a short khaki coat over a flowing white pantsuit and Yankees cap cocked to the side, Hill resembled the performer of old — not the unstable, unkempt artist she's been made out to be in recent years.

Hill's verse and the emergence of Pras punctuated "Nappy Heads" and the group's other hits, which included "Fu-Gee-La" and "Ready or Not." When Hill hit her verse on "Ready or Not," the crowd joined in enthusiastically: "So while you're imitating Al Capone/ I'll be Nina Simone ..." Though Hill's new work is supposed to be in the singer/songwriter mold, she was all about dropping lyrics on this night, except when she gloriously sang "Killing Me Softly" to minimal accompaniment from the backing band.

The reunion's most delicious moment came when Wyclef, standing at a mic with his guitar, told the crowd it was time to put an end to all the rumors. Immediately, the band behind him unleashed the rhythmic stabs of Lauryn Hill's solo cut "Lost Ones," which many have considered to be a veiled declaration of autonomy from Hill toward her former bandmate. "It's funny how money change a situation/ Miscommunication leads to complication/ My emancipation don't fit your equation," she rapped, shoving herself in Wyclef's grill. While Pras and Hill danced around him with mock anger, Wyclef simply held his pose, eyes rolled upwards as he took the faux-abuse. It was a self-aware moment that underscored the genuine bond the three once shared with one another.

The good vibes had been in effect throughout the day, starting with opening afternoon sets from Kanye West (who left promptly for a show in Chicago later that evening), Freeway and Dead Prez. Erykah Badu and Jill Scott performed back-to-back, their haunting soul songs drifting underneath the overcast skies. Both singers would return to the stage to help the Roots perform "You Got Me" from their 1999 album, Things Fall Apart, and old-school fast-rap icons Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap joined the group for classics like "Warm It Up, Kane" and "Poison."

Just before the Fugees' set, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Common joined forces and ripped through a set, ending with a spirited performance of Talib's "Get By" and Mos Def's "Umi Says," both crowd favorites. The Fugees weren't the only folks making up at the block party: Common performed his song "The Light" beside Erykah Badu, his former girlfriend.

Even amidst the memorable musical performances, it was Dave Chappelle's day. The block party was his idea, a re-creation of the 1972 Wattstax concert in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles that featured R&B, soul and gospel greats of the era. The concert film, which featured the comic narration of Richard Pryor, was recently released on DVD.

Chappelle played the funnyman between each set. He dropped a poem ("Five thousand black people chillin' in the rain — 19 white people peppered in"), challenged a Mohawked man to an MC battle, and sang two songs in character as R. Kelly, satirizing the infamous sex tape that allegedly shows the R&B singer's ritualistic kinky side.

Fans wanting to check out the block party had to go through an intricate process that included registering online and getting e-mailed a secret location to meet in order to be bused to the concert site, which was also kept a secret. In the end, the inclement weather kept many away, but not enough to derail the enthusiasm of the several hundred fans who did show up.

The night ended with a freestyle session featuring the Roots'
?uestlove on drums, Cody Chesnutt on guitar and a litany of rappers and singers, plus a final thank you to Dave Chappelle, the man who, for one day, got to live out his own private music fantasy.

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports.

• The Fugees
• Kanye West
• Common
• Erykah Badu
• The Roots

Nine Inch Nails, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Many More At Bonnaroo 2009

• Nine Inch Nails
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Erykah Badu
• Snoop Dogg
• MGMT

Grammy Parties 2006

• Britney Spears
• Kevin Federline
• Maroon 5
• Chingy
• Christina Milian

Backstage At The 2004 Grammys

• OutKast
• Dave Matthews
• Sean Paul
• Foo Fighters
• Coldplay