Blog Posts by Craig Rosen

Photo: The Image GateKanye West is a magnet for controversy. Just a day after the release of his latest album, Yeezus, he's in the middle of another one over a lyric in a track on the album. In the album's opening song, "On Sight," 'Ye raps, "A monster about to come alive again / Soon as I pull up and park the Benz / We get this b--ch shaking like Parkinson's."

That lyric would make any person with common decency cringe a bit, but the folks at the American Parkinson Disease Association are particularly disturbed by it. "We find these lyrics distasteful and the product of obvious ignorance," Kathryn Whitford, VP of the organization, told TMZ.

Is Mayer's new song about Swift? (Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris)You've got to hand it to John Mayer. He and his marketing team are friggin' geniuses. Rather than just release a lyric video with some groovy background designs for his new single, "Paper Doll," they've enlisted viral Internet sensation Joanna Rohrback, the woman behind the "Prancercise" fad, who does her thing to Mayer's new tune as the lyrics scroll.

If that wasn't enough of a pop culture convergence to make your head explode, get this: The song appears to be about Mayer's one-time girlfriend Taylor Swift, with the chorus, "You're like 22 girls in one / And none of them know what they're running from / Was it just too far to fall / For a little paper doll."

Did he or didn't he? That is the question. Lil Wayne took to Twitter early this morning to say that he didn't step on the American flag on purpose while shooting his latest video, "God Bless Amerika," but not everyone is buying it.

If you take a look at some of the lyrics to the song Weezy was performing, it only adds fuel to the fire. Wayne raps, "My country 'tis of thee / sweet land of kill 'em all and let 'em die / God bless Amerika / This so godless Amerika…the stars on the flag are never shining."

If you watch the clip from "God Bless Amerika," you can see — as Weezy maintains — that the flag was set up behind Wayne and it dropped to the ground as it performs. Weezy keeps doing his thing and sometimes appears to look down at the flag below his feet, but it doesn't appear that he's

Britney Spears and sons (Photo: Jon SooHoo)It was just last month we told you Britney Spears was doing the smurf with a new track, "Ooh La La," for The Smurfs 2 soundtrack. Now, Brit has gone one step further and enlisted her boys — 7-year-old Sean Preston and 6-year-old Jayden — to appear in the video.

In a recent interview with radio personality Ryan Seacrest, Spears revealed that her sons are the reason why she got involved in the Smurfs project. "They're obsessed with the Smurfs," she said. "We've seen The Smurfs movie a million trillion times and they were told they could be in the video and all this cool stuff, so that's the reason why I did it."

And Spears, ever-the-proud mama, was happy to report her boys did a good job. "They were actually really, really good on set," she said. "They were, like, acting and my oldest son Preston was right on cue every time they would tell him to do something."

Photo: Dimitrios KambourisHip-hop is still a game of one-upsmanship. Look at went down over the weekend: Kanye West's amateur-porn-star wife Kim Kardashian gave birth to their child and he's dropping Yeezus on Tuesday, securing that 'Ye will get plenty of publicity this week. But Jay-Z isn't just going to stand on the sidelines and watch his pal get all the attention. He's got his own big deal going down.

During last night's NBA Finals Game 5, Hova showed he's still a player by announcing his new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, will be released on July 4. But that's only part of the deal. Jay has pacted with Samsung, which has already purchased 1 million copies of the album — at $5 a pop— that they'll give away to Galaxy S III and Galaxy S4 smartphone users for free a full 72 hours before its traditional release, The Wall Street Journal reports. Users will be able to download the app to get the album later this month.

It's one of the first songs we learn as kids and something you'll continue to hear and sing throughout your life. It's the "Happy Birthday" song, officially known as "Happy Birthday to You," and now it's spawned a not-so-happy lawsuit.

Believe it or not, the song written by sisters Patty and Mildred J. Hill, first published in 1893, is not public domain. Rather, it's owned by the Warner Music Group — which means every time the song is performed on TV, in a movie or on stage, the music giant gets paid.

We can't help but wonder who — if anyone— forked over the cash when Marilyn Monroe famously crooned "Happy Birthday Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy in 1962. Lana Del Rey paid homage to that performance in the beginning of her 2012 song "National Anthem." Watch it below.

The Replacements on 'Saturday Night Live' in 1986. (Photo: NBC)

When I heard the news I was filled with mixed emotions. The Replacements, one of my favorite all-time bands, are reuniting. They'll play the Riot Fest in Chicago (September 13th through 15th), Toronto (August 24th and 25th) and Denver (September 21st and 22nd).

It's nice that their reunion came about organically, with singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson (of Guns N' Roses fame) joining forces to record tracks for "Songs for Slim," an EP to benefit former guitarist Slim Dunlap, who had a stroke last year. Drummer Chris Mars contributed a solo track and did the artwork, but didn't play with Westerberg and Stinson and most likely isn't part of the reunion.

Rita Ora and Madonna (Photo courtesy of Matrial Girl)Madonna has announced she has a new face. No, she hasn't issued a statement about plastic surgery, rather she and her daughter, Lola, have announced that 22-year-old Rita Ora has been chosen to the new face of Material Girl, their junior lifestyle brand.

If you're not familiar with lovely Rita, she's a protégé of Jay-Z and a singer in her own right with a trio of number-one singles in the U.K. — "Hot Right Now," "How We Do (Party)" and "R.I.P." — as well as "Ora," a chart-topping album.

Madonna and Lola, apparently speaking in unison, said, "Rita is a talented beauty but what really drew us to her is the confidence she oozes through her music and her unique sense of style. On stage or off, in photos or on the street — she's a magnet! This is what the Material Girl brand is all about!"