Amy Winehouse entered heavy rotation on New York City's most influential hip hop station, HOT 97 . "You Know I'm No Good," the first single on her new album Back To Black (out March 13th) grabbed Ghostface Killah's attention and he lent his talent to the track. It's getting billed as his song featuring Amy, but don't get it twisted: it's 100% hers and this is how new artists break in America. With over 5 plays a day to the five boroughs and parts of...

Due to less than exemplary record sales, the world’s third largest label EMI merged its subsidiary labels Capitol and Virgin , creating a not-entirely new entity called the Capitol Music Group (CMG) . Internally, the shift resulted in the promotion of Virgin CEO Jason Flom to CEO of CMG, the release of Capitol Chairman Andrew Slater , and the overall reduction and rearrangement of both labels’ executive staff. CEO of EMI, Eric Nicoli spoke...

All of the original Wu-Tang Clan members (except Ol’ Dirty Bastard R.I.P.), RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspektah Deck, Masta Killa and U-God , announced 8 Diagrams (out this summer on SRC records), the group’s first album in 6 years. In classic Wu-Tang style, the title of the LP comes straight from an oldschool kung-fu movie directed by Lau Kar Leung . Spokesman RZA promises the content will also be as innovative as...

Broadcasting live from the Kodak Theatre in LA February 25th, the Grammy Awards have just listed their nominees for this year in 24 categories. Up for Best Motion Picture Of The Year are fate-inspired Babel , gangster epic The Departed , perspective-reversed war film Letters From Iwo Jima , the hilarious Little Miss Sunshine , and critic-exalted The Queen . Actors Leonardo DiCaprio ( Blood Diamond ) ,...

Coachella announced this year's headliners including a reunion of Rage Against The Machine , Bjork , and the Red Hot Chili Peppers – all of whom are repeats from previous years. Nevertheless, it will be another groundbreaking event. The three day festival , held in Indio, California, managed to gather Rage members Zack de la Rocha , Tomo Morello , Brad Wilk and Tim Comerford for the first time...

Today, Lily Allen and MTV announced her first 7 city tour across America, entitled “Discover And Download.” Immediately following the US release (Jan. 30 on Capitol Records ) of her debut, Alright, Still, Lily will finally give her American fans what they’ve been craving: a sassy live show at a local venue. Tickets for all shows go on sale Saturday, January 20th, though anyone signed up to MTV.com’s Insider newsletter will receive...

This week Waxploitation launched its 3rd Annual Auction For Darfur , a charity to benefit an area of western Sudan under mass siege and slaughter. The musically diverse record label will be auctioning off a wide range of artist albums on eBay with proceeds going to the Save Darfur Coalition and Human Rights Watch . The Save Darfur Coalition reports, "It has been...

The 27th annual British Record Industry Trust (BRIT) Awards nominees have just been announced. A music industry sponsored institution that has more recently favored the views of the public, the BRIT awards has fewer categories than most ceremonies, focusing mainly on the year’s most popular British and international artists. Contrary to what that may mean to some, several Giant Step favorites are heavily featured with outstanding chances of winning. In the British category, Lily...

Last Friday, Sheridan Square Entertainment , owner of V2 North America , axed the label in order to shift focus to digitally distributed media. Consequently, V2, a giant in the American independent label world and home to Moby , the White Stripes , and the Raconteurs , laid off all 35 of its employees, including president Andy Gershon. Keeping afloat with modern times, Sheridan Square is hoping to capitalize on the internet download market. A possible merger...

Y'all ready for a Lily Allen digest? Unless you have been living under a rock these past few months, you already know that British sensation Lily Allen is causing a major stir in the US. Not only is Allen is recognized across the boards as an artist to watch in outlets such as The New York Times, Vibe, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Spin and The Los Angeles Times , she also ranked #1 on Blender ’s list of “25 Reasons to Love ’07” and #1 in URB ’s Future Music issue. She...