Think 50 Cent is taking his upcoming face-off with Kanye West lightly? In an interview posted on SOHH.com on Friday (August 10), Fiddy threatened to end his rap career if he gets upstaged by 'Ye when their albums go head to head on September 11. "If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I'll no longer write music," he said. "I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out anymore solo albums." 50's Curtis will square off against West's Graduation. ...

Lily Allen has canceled gigs once again, this time because she has strep throat and sinusitis, she says in a post on her MySpace blog. "I'm back in London eating my mum's chicken soup, 'cause I'm afraid the traveling has caught up with me," she wrote in the post. "Before anyone starts trying to accuse me of neglecting my fans, I want to apologise and say how sorry I am, but I can't risk causing any permanent damage." Defending herself further, the singer also posted an image of her holding her doctor's note. ...

D'Angelo received suspended jail sentences Friday after pleading guilty to charges of driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license, The Associated Press reports. A Virginia judge revoked his license for 13 and a half months and fined him $1,250, with additional penalties suspended. A reckless-driving charge was dropped. ... Beastie Boys finally said hello to Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday night with -- if you can believe it -- their first-ever concert in the borough. RollingStone.com reports that the group, which played at at McCarren Pool in Greenpoint, aptly opened the set with "Hello Brooklyn" and closed it with "No Sleep Till Brooklyn." ...

Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and Joss Stone are chipping in for Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, which arrives in stores September 25. Paul McCartney, Elton John, Robert Plant and other classic-rock vets also salute the bluesman on the two-disc set, the sales from which will go toward buying instruments for public schools in New Orleans, rebuilding Domino's home there and helping other Crescent City-related programs. ... Emma Bunton, a.k.a. Baby Spice, gave birth to a, um, baby boy in London on Friday. It's the first child for the singer and boyfriend Jade Jones, who used to be in a pop act of his own: boy band Damage. ...

Bright Eyes are lighting up their tour schedule with seven additional dates: September 14 (Boise, Idaho); September 15 (Spokane, Washington); September 18 (Fairbanks, Alaska); September 19-20 (Anchorage, Alaska); September 23 (Eugene, Oregon); and September 24 (Chico, California). ... Waiting for a Cure LP? Well, the wait just got a bit longer. The band's new album was supposed to drop earlier this year, got bumped to the fall -- and now won't be ready until the spring, Billboard.com reports. The band is busy touring and frontman Robert Smith hasn't finished writing yet. ...

Underoath will hit the road with Every Time I Die, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and Poison the Well for a fall tour beginning September 22 in Houston and ending November 6 in Orlando, Florida. ETID, who are still on the Sounds of the Underground Tour, will drop their new Ferret release The Big Dirty on September 4. Earlier this week, they posted "No Son of Mine" -- a track from the Steve Evetts-produced (Dillinger Escape Plan, Sepultura) effort -- on their MySpace page. ... Queens of the Stone Age will not perform as part of Samsung and AT&T's free Summer Krush series on Monday in Los Angeles, as previously reported by Billboard.com. Plain White T's will play the gig instead. ...

As promised, Pearl Jam have posted the edited and unedited videos of their performance of "Daughter" at Lollapalooza on their Web site. Some segments of the performance were missing in AT&T's live "Blue Room" webcast, including critical remarks frontman Eddie Vedder made about President Bush. A spokesperson for AT&T recently told MTV News the omissions were not intentional and were mistakenly made by a webcast vendor. ...

Spoon, Coheed and Cambria, Devin the Dude and others have been confirmed for this year's CMJ Music Marathon, going down October 16-20 in New York, Billboard.com reports. UNKLE will play one of their first gigs ever with a live band, and surprise VMA Video of the Year nominees Justice will also hit up the fest. ... Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip, Deerhoof, Grizzly Bear and David Byrne are among the acts who are contributing performances of songs written by David Shrigley for Worried Noodles, an unusual package containing two CDs and a hardcover book by the Scottish artist. The book of words and drawings was previously issued and caught the attention of the musicians, who have chalked up new songs for the set. ...

Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones flick is rolling into next year. The film, originally slated for an August 26 theatrical release, will open in April instead, to allow the band more time to promote it. ... Speaking of rock docs, IFC has secured the rights to "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten," a flick about the former Clash frontman that will hit select theaters November 2 and be televised on the cable channel thereafter. ... An unreleased Mick Jagger song produced by John Lennon in Los Angeles in 1973 will surface on The Very Best of Mick Jagger, due October 2. Jagger recorded the song, which has been on bootlegs for decades, with a cast of all-stars that included Harry Nilsson, Jack Bruce, Al Kooper and others. ...

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, a special edition of the album will be released August 28. The three-disc collection will look like a cloth-covered book, and include remastered stereo and mono versions of the album plus bonus tracks. The effort will also include a 12-page reproduction of Syd Barrett's notebook. ... Notorious ex-David Bowie manager Tony Defries will release his autobiography, Gods and Gangsters, in 2008. Also known for his work with the Beatles and Stevie Wonder, Defries is best remembered for helping to fashion the string of iconic characters rolled out by Bowie in the 1970s, as well as helping launch the solo careers of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Luther Vandross and John Mellencamp. ... The world's leading record label, Universal Music Group, has announced that it will experiment with offering a large part of its catalog for download without copy protection at least through January. According to The New York Times, Universal (home to 50 Cent, Amy Winehouse and Akon) will offer the songs without DRM through RealNetworks, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Google and some artists' sites -- but not on top download service iTunes.

08.09.07

Gwyneth Paltrow wasn't so into the initial idea of singing onstage last year with Jay-Z at London's Royal Albert Hall, she admitted to W magazine for its September issue. "Jay was playing at the Albert Hall on my birthday, and he said, 'Will you sing on this song?' " the actress told the mag. "At first I didn't want to do it!" Paltrow also talked a little about her husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who was also onstage for the strange collabo. "When Chris gets home, we're not going to do anything other than what any regular couple does," she said. ...

A day after Amy Winehouse canceled two European festival dates following a trip to a London hospital to deal with what her label termed "severe exhaustion," a spokesperson for the singer said doctors have ordered Winehouse to rest in bed. For now, she's still expected to perform at the Virgin Festival in Toronto on September 8 as well as a string of U.S. dates in September. Winehouse's spokesperson would not comment on British tabloid reports that said the collapse that lead to the singer's hospitalization was possibly drug-related. ...

A woman is peeved that no one from Britney Spears' camp has contacted the woman about her car, which the singer was seen driving into earlier this week in Studio City, California. Kim Robard-Rifkin told CelebTV.com on Wednesday that, "It was simply like my car didn't matter to her, my inconvenience didn't matter to her." Robard-Rifkin, who filed a police report Thursday (August 9), added, "I'm not asking for money. I'm not asking for a new car. ... I simply want my car fixed, the same as I would fix somebody's car if I had done that." ...

Hilary Duff is branching out. The singer/actress has partnered with Michaels stores for Stuff by Hilary Duff, a new fashion-crafts line that includes bracelets, necklaces, charms, patches and more. All Michaels stores will host in-store demonstrations of the products on August 26 from 1-3 p.m. local time. ... An "American Idol" hopeful went into labor during her audition on Monday at Texas Stadium and had contractions as she was singing, People reports. After that, Antoria Gillon, who was taken to a local hospital, gave birth to a healthy son. She will be on the next round of the show. ...

John Mayer has been confirmed for the upcoming season of "Austin City Limits," Pitchfork reports -- but the program will be heavily weighed toward indie-rock acts too. Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, Decemberists, Regina Spektor and Wilco have also been booked for the PBS series, which will start airing in October. ... The lineup for the first-ever Monolith Music Festival, to be held September 14-15 at Denver's historic Red Rock Amphitheatre, will include the Flaming Lips, Kings of Leon, the Decemberists, Editors, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Spoon, Cake, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Das EFX and many more acts. ...

Thrice have pegged October 16 as the release date for The Alchemy Index: Vols. I & II - Fire & Water, the first two parts of a four-volume concept effort. The other two chapters, Vols. III & IV - Earth & Air, will be released in the spring. Both sets will be issue by Vagrant, the new label the band calls home after parting ways with Island in June. Earlier this year, frontman Dustin Kensrue called the Alchemy project "daunting" in an interview with MTV News. ... If you've been exchanging MySpace messages with Chris Cornell in recent weeks, chances are you were dealing with an imposter. The real Cornell logged onto his MySpace page on Wednesday to clear up matters. "Over the past several months, several incidents have taken place where others felt the need to engage in activities pretending to be me," he wrote. "I have been wanting to make a clear statement to fans, friends and anyone this may concern." He added the confounding remark, "Under no circumstances, under any name or address, do I or have I ever communicated or corresponded with anyone online or otherwise." ...

Want to get up close and personal with Velvet Revolver? You can get your chance for $250, thanks to meet-and-greet packages being offered for the hard-rock group's Tuesday gig at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The package includes a VIP laminate, personal photograph with the band, exclusive 8x10 color poster and autograph. ... Three unaired Alice in Chains performances taped during the band's "Unplugged" session in April 1996 are being unearthed for a revitalized version of the package, Billboard.com reports. The new Unplugged will drop September 18 and feature a bonus DVD boasting "Angry Chair," "Frogs" and "The Killer Is Me." ...

Expect to catch an eyeful of U2 rehearsing songs from their new album in "Here It Is," a documentary about the band's longtime producer Daniel Lanois that is set to debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, RollingStone.com reports. The feature film captures Lanois and the band in a studio in Morocco, with Billy Bob Thornton, Willie Nelson and others making guest appearances. ... Ricky Martin wants to start creating "a family of many colors" this year by adopting "one [child] from each continent," the singer told reporters Wednesday in his Puerto Rico homeland. The 35-year-old Martin is not married. ...

A fifth woman will be allowed to testify that Phil Spector threatened her with a gun, the judge in the music producer's trial ruled Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reports. Former Spector employee and girlfriend Devra Robitaille was expected to testify Thursday after jurors returned from a tour of Spector's mansion in Alhambra, California, where he allegedly killed actress Lana Clarkson. The defense -- which on Wednesday called to the stand a neuropathologist who said the way Clarkson's body was found was consistent with a suicide -- objected strongly to the decision to let Robitaille testify.