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WE WENT THERE

Inside Rick Ross's MMG Strip Club Party: Emo Drake, Stacks of Cash, and Calamari

By Amos Barshad at

From outside the VIP section of Sin City Cabaret — “New York’s largest upscale gentleman’s bar” — all you can see is a gaggle of sweaty people, the blinding lights of HD cameras, and, every 45 seconds or so, a big poof of cash floating softly down from above. We’re here because Rick Ross is here: Last night, he assembled his Maybach Music Group for what was ostensibly a listening party for their new album, Self Made Vol. 2, although that part got a bit buried underneath all the stripping and whatnot. The party featured MMG’s Wale, Stalley, and Meek Mill, of course, alongside the likes of DJ Khaled and Drake — who’d go on to have quite an eventful night; more on that later — and came only a month after Ross’s instantly legendary MMG press conference. (That was the one where Diddy explained that every time he hears the Australian girl say, "I like this Maybach Music," his dick gets hard.) For better or worse, as long as Ross stays on this ridiculous promo event roll, Grantland will have no choice but to continue to provide coverage.

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SONGS OF THE WEEK

Songs of the Week: Lana Del Banks, Fiona Apple, Johnny Depp, and Hotel Rooster Parties

By Amos Barshad at

Lana Del Rey featuring Azealia Banks, "Blue Jeans" (Smims&Belle Extended Remix)

We’re gonna kick off our latest installment of SOTW with this here unholy Lana-Azealia collaboration as a harbinger of what’s to come. I can’t tell you why, but this week is just packed with all kinds of material that certainly exists, whether or not it should. Just a fair warning before we go any further.

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SONGS OF THE WEEK

Songs of the Week: The-Dream Rocs, Kool A.D. Flys Thru the Air Inna Airplane

By Amos Barshad at

The-Dream, “Roc”

Is it weird that The-Dream uses the spelling of the word “rock” so closely associated with his former Def Jam boss Jay-Z? Yes, sort of. In response, Jay-Z should make a song about how good he is at doing sex.

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GRADING THE CHARTS

Molly Grades the Charts: The Top Ten of 2011

Adele
Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images

The keyword for the Billboard chart in 2011 was "ANTHEMS." Anti-bullying anthems (Selena Gomez, "Who Says"; Katy Perry, "Firework"; Lady Gaga, "Born This Way"), party rock anthems, anthems for regular weekday night non-rock pre-work partying. Tons of pop-rap pap where diet-inspirational verses were soldered awkwardly to soaring adult-contemporary choruses. Videos with cinematic spoken intros (The Script, "For The First Time"; Katy Perry, "The One That Got Away"; Rihanna, "We Found Love") and further attempts, some very successful, to make VEVO the baby big screen it wants to be. These are my personal picks for a top ten from the Billboard 2011 Top 100 chart.

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GRADING THE CHARTS

This Week's Top Ten in R&B and Hip-Hop as Movie Musicals

Lil Wayne/Kanye West
Kevin Mazur/WieImage

Every week we ask Molly Lambert to dive deep on one of the Billboard top ten songs of the week charts. This week's victim? The R&B and Hip Hop list, which Molly kindly transformed into film adaptations before grading.

1. Jay-Z & Kanye West, "Ni**as in Paris"

Wizards In Paris (G): A CGI-saturated family adventure about Apples (Jay-Z) and Grapes (Kanye West), two koalas on the loose in the City of Lights after stowing away on a luxury cruise (where they romance gold-digging squirrels, upend a millionaires' buffet and eat so many shrimp). Arriving in Paris on a chilly snowy night, the rascally marsupials face racist cabdrivers, a steep conversion rate, and evil time-traveling steampunk stage magicians. The movie climaxes with an exciting chase through the Chanel flagship store and an epic tumble into the catacombs to face off with both the metropolis's fabled wizards and their own fragile furry mortality.
Listen: Here
Grade: A

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