Amazingly, both of New York City's major tabloids — the Post and the Daily News — devoted their front pages today to Drake and Chris Brown’s club melee. The story seems to still be evolving, but as it currently stands: Drake and Brown were both at “the club,” with their own crews, independently; Brown, cheekily, sent over a bottle of champagne; Drake returned the champagne with a note reading either “I’m still f-----g Rihanna,” their mutual ex, or “I’m f-----g the love of your life”; Brown got pissed, words were exchanged, shirts were removed, bottles went flying; and blood. Was. Shed. Seriously, check out this photo of this random Australian tourist caught in the middle. Pretty gnarly stuff! (I bet you $10,000 Drake sends her flowers.)
OK, but let’s get to the point here: did the Post and the Daily News — both famous for their irreverent, pun-based headlines — do the rich, manifold story justice?
When Rob Dyrdek and MTV launched Ridiculousness last year, fans of comical shows constructed out of crazy web clips might have noticed that it was an extremely shameless ripoff of Comedy Central's Tosh.0, but it didn't matter much: Tosh.0 is consistently one of the cable channel's highest-rated shows, and Ridiculousness is never mentioned or watched by you or anyone you know. Daniel Tosh has made the odd joke about the striking similarities between his show and Dyrdek's, but none have been as direct as in the latest episode on Tuesday, in which a Web Redemption for a skateboarder hit by a truck winds up in a facility very similar to the titular setting of a previous Dyrdek show, Fantasy Factory. Though Dyrdek's name is never uttered, Tosh dresses in Dyrdek's signature style while presiding over a platoon of shirtless preteen boys and plying them with booze and foam machines.
With 12.4 million viewers, Sunday night’s VMAs broadcast was MTV’s most watched program, like, ever. Equally as impressive: the show actually managed to piss people off! Not about Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s baby, of course (everyone’s pretty psyched on that). But shots were fired in the direction of Lady Gaga’s alter-ego Jo Calderone: Kelly Osbourne, that paragon of creativity, claimed Gaga was ripping off an early eighties Annie Lennox performance; other people just thought she was ripping off Ralph Macchio. (And wait until people hear about her prosthetic penis). But better still: Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, the increasingly reliable troublemaker, took aim at everybody.
Jay-Z would seem to have many reasons to be happy these days: He and Kanye have the No. 1 album in the country, there likely won’t be an NBA season this year which should cut down on the Nets jokes, and, to top it off, he’s about to become a dad. But there is one small thing that consistently turns Jay’s smile upside-down: Chris Brown.
Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV leaked last night. It’s his first album since his prison stint, and his first proper album since 2008’s Tha Carter III (in between came the rushed I Am Not a Human Being and his much-maligned alt-rock side project, Rebirth) — and, therefore, it’s a big deal. The album will get an official release on iTunes at midnight on Sunday after Wayne's performing at the VMAs, but way before then consensus will have formed as to whether or not he delivered on the hype. Right now, though, all anyone wants to talk about is his Jay-Z dis.
