Kanye West

Michael Phelps has his weight in gold medals and bragging rights to the title "Most Decorated Olympian of All Time. " And now he's been immortalized in a Kanye West song. West gives Phelps a shout-out on the song "The One," which is off his new collaborative album "Cruel Summer. " The song features 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Marsha Ambrosius. Though the rap is mainly a paean to Kanye (the apparent "One" in question), and features a few too many four-letter words for a family newspaper, the part with Phelps is cleaner than clean.

Yahoo has added another major property to its portfolio, Kanye West went dark and political for his SNL gig, and France is buying military equipment. Welcome to your post-weekend trends report for May 20, 2013. With the exception of television show reactions, most Internet attention this morning centers around Friday news. That includes France's Friday announcement that it is buying drones and Yahoo's announcement that it is buying Tumblr. Apparently only one of those decisions was unpopular enough to warrant NYT reaction coverage . As for weekend content: Kanye West gave what one Twitter user described as "the most terrifying PowerPoint presentation I've ever seen" on SNL Saturday.

Tickets for the Kanye West and Jay-Z joint tour, "Watch the Throne," go on sale today at 10 a.m. on Ticketmaster. The two will kick off the tour in Atlanta on October 29. They will perform at Baltimore's 1st Mariner Arena on November 1 and at the Verizon Center in Washington on November 3. Tickets for the show range in price from $47.50 to $219.35, and includes a digital copy of the rappers' new album, also named "Watch the Throne....

The mayor can rock out. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake shared her Spotify playlist this week -- the songs that ostensibly get her pumped up before big Ravens games. She goes with M&T Bank stadium standbys like The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army. " There's Ray Lewis' walk-on song "Hot in Herre" by Nelly. And she tells Spotify her "personal favorite" is "This is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan. We like that she picked "Run This Town. " Which, you know, she kinda does.

Kanye West and Jay-Z, whose new collaborative album "Watch the Throne" will be released next month, will also tour together, it was announced Monday by concert promoter Live Nation.  The two rappers will go on a 24-city tour, also called "Watch the Throne," that will kick off in Detroit September 22. The tour includes stops in Washington - on Sept. 29 at the Verizon Center - and Baltimore - on Nov. 1 at 1st Mariner Arena . Tickets go on sale August 8, the same day the album is released exclusively on iTunes.

Here are the pros and cons of "Otis," the second offering from Kanye West/Jay-Z's collaborative album, Watch the Throne , which drops Aug. 1 digitally. If you like buying CDs (bless you), you can purchase it Aug. 5. The suits are taking down all of the YouTube videos, so head over to the Life + Times website to stream it. PROS •••• Kanye sends a subtle diss to Drake ("N----s talking real reckless / stuntmen" plays on Drake's famous line "I made enough for two n----s, boy / stunt-double")

The best moment of Tuesday night's 'Watch the Throne' tour stop at 1st Mariner Arena - and there were plenty of candidates -  came 17 songs in, when Jay-Z and Kanye West ditched the flashy, multi-piece set and sat down, side by side, like old friends on a stoop. As an Auto-Tuned Nina Simone sample of "Feeling Good" poured through the speakers, Jay-Z wiped his brow after removing his snakeskin Yankee snapback. Kanye announced that this song, "New Day," was his favorite from "Watch the Throne" and its opening verse was his "favorite ever.

Here’s an understatement: the rap blogs were busy yesterday. It seemed like every hour, there was another leak from a big-name artist. Kanye West, Nas, Big Sean and Lil Wayne were all victims of Hulkshare liberation. But now for the important part: are the songs any good? Let’s grade them. Kanye West, “Mama’s Boyfriend” This comes from the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy cutting room floor, where it probably belongs. “Mama’s Boyfriend” would sound out-of-place on the final tracklisting, as the album sticks to a very specific emotional arc (defiance slowly builds to arrogance and then dissolves into lonely melancholia)

PERHAPS HE MEANT IT AS A SYMBOL OF personal suffering. Maybe he wanted to present young hip-hop heads with an updated image of the Son of God. Whatever his motives, Kanye West again has accomplished what he set out to do: Get people to talk. About him. On the cover of February's Rolling Stone, which hit news stands last week, the brash, egomaniacal rapper-producer poses as Jesus Christ. In the profile shot, he wears a crown of thorns. Blood runs down his face; his expression conveys anguish, vulnerability, a steely resilience.

Kanye West, the Foo Fighters and the Stone Temple Pilots are among the headliners for this summer's Virgin Mobile Festival, the third annual show in Baltimore. Held at Pimlico Race Course Aug. 9 and 10, the festival will feature rapper West, who won this year's Grammy for Best Rap Album, Hawaiian singer/songwriter Jack Johnson, industrial rock outfit Nine Inch Nails, and alternative rockers the Foo Fighters and Stone Temple Pilots, organizers announced yesterday. About 25 bands will play on two stages and several DJs will spin in a dance tent.

Is it any wonder America is distrusted and held in contempt around the world? I was unaware my tax dollars were paying for fake polio vaccination programs in Pakistan (and no doubt elsewhere). What a dreadful way to "win the hearts and minds" of a population ("A tainted polio program," Jan. 7). A further affront to conservative societies is the manner in which our culture promotes out-of-wedlock pregnancies and adulterous entanglements like Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend Kanye West ("Kim and Kanye, the latest to put marriage last," Jan. 7)

Goodbye 2012, it's been real. But on the trends front, we end on a sad note. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West -- two of the most obnoxious people in the world -- are reproducing. Joe Flacco can't even claim the title of the NFL's most pathetic quarterback. Thanks to Congress , the economy may be on the verge of collapse. And Hillary Clinton is in the hospital with a blood clot.  Happy New Year everybody!  In between auto-tuned sets, Kanye West confirmed last night what the gossip mags have been speculating about for months.

Michael Phelps has his weight in gold medals and bragging rights to the title "Most Decorated Olympian of All Time. " And now he's been immortalized in a Kanye West song. West gives Phelps a shout-out on the song "The One," which is off his new collaborative album "Cruel Summer. " The song features 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Marsha Ambrosius. Though the rap is mainly a paean to Kanye (the apparent "One" in question), and features a few too many four-letter words for a family newspaper, the part with Phelps is cleaner than clean.

In recent years, album release dates haven't mattered as much as "leak" days have. That trend continued when the compilation album from Kanye West and his G.O.O.D. Music clique - "Cruel Summer," an odd name for a record that will hit stores on Tuesday, five days before fall begins - hit the Internet while most of us were sleeping last night. You won't find a link here, but if you're good with the Google, you should have no problem finding it. There's always iTunes, too. We've heard the singles - the ubiquitous "Mercy" has been banging out of cars for months and "New God Flow" (now with a wonderful Ghostface Killah verse tacked on at the end)

Mac Miller isn't the only person in hip-hop making money on his own. Here are five other acts that created their buzz without a major label's help. 1 The Weeknd Abel Tresfaye, aka the Weeknd, is Toronto's enigmatic R&B crooner-on-a-bender whose two free albums from this year, "House of Balloons" and "Thursday," will end up on many best-of-the-year lists. Labels are desperate to sign him, but he's doing just fine thanks to haunting songs and a public friendship with Drake.

The best moment of Tuesday night's 'Watch the Throne' tour stop at 1st Mariner Arena - and there were plenty of candidates -  came 17 songs in, when Jay-Z and Kanye West ditched the flashy, multi-piece set and sat down, side by side, like old friends on a stoop. As an Auto-Tuned Nina Simone sample of "Feeling Good" poured through the speakers, Jay-Z wiped his brow after removing his snakeskin Yankee snapback. Kanye announced that this song, "New Day," was his favorite from "Watch the Throne" and its opening verse was his "favorite ever.

Hip-hop megastar Kanye West is the biggest of the names who will play this year's HFStival. The event, held May 27-28 at Merriweather Post Pavilion, will also feature such acts as the Counting Crows, festival regulars Cypress Hill, Hasidic reggae singer Matisyahu, the Strokes and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Tickets go on sale April 8 at 10 a.m. More than 60 acts will perform on several stages at Merriweather, which will expand its capacity to 27,500 for the event. Day one's lineup, headed by West, Cypress Hill and Matisyahu, also includes '70s punk outfit The Misfits, local favorites Jimmie's Chicken Shack, Rise Against and Matchbook Romance.

It's the thug against the preppy boy. And the battle between 50 Cent and Kanye West goes down starting today. The heat is on to see which of the pop-friendly rappers will sell the most CDs in the first week: 50's Curtis or West's Graduation. 50 has vowed to stop making solo albums if West outsells him. But the much-hyped beef has been mostly friendly - generating buzz (not bullets) for waning mainstream hip-hop. What's at stake? 50 is all flash and no substance, whereas West is about 90 percent flash and 10 percent substance.

In what is easily the concert of the season, Jay-Z and Kanye West perform Tuesday at 1st Mariner Arena. The two are promoting their collaboration, "Watch the Throne," which was released earlier this year and divided critics who either loved its ambition or were disappointed with the sum of its parts. The concert, though, is a meeting of two titans of the industry. Also this week: Halloween parties finish up, Oxes, Mister Heavenly, and dance parties at Lith Hall, Club Hippo and the Get Down.

Big Sean, who will perform at Virgin Mobile FreeFest's Festival Stage at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, just dropped his video for "Marvin Gaye and Chardonnay   . " It's a party track from Sean's debut Finally Famous , featuring hookman-for-hire Roscoe Dash and Sean's mentor, Kanye West (who supplies some of his weakest bars in a long time). The Crayola-inspired video was directed by Hype Williams, the veteran director who has struggled creatively ever since the days of big-budget videos evaporated.