Blog Posts by Daniel Kreps

Last week, Adele canceled all her tour dates and promotional appearances for the remainder of 2011 to undergo throat surgery. While the singer has been wrestling voice problems for the second half of this year, insult was added to her injury this weekend when a Twitter trending topic suggested that Adele is secretly fighting a much more serious disease. "ADELE THROAT CANCER," in all caps, spent much of the pre-Halloween weekend in the popular Trends section, and the rumors had spread to the point that Adele's reps were forced to comment on them. Long story short: Adele does not have throat cancer.

Drake's Take Care is one of the most anticipated albums of 2011, and now we know what songs will appear on the album, all thanks to an MP3 player no one uses anymore. According to Hip-Hop DX, the Microsoft Zune marketplace initially leaked the 17-song track list. That's probably the first and last time an album has had its secrets disseminated by the soon-to-be-extinct Zune. (iTunes, meanwhile, leaks stuff all the time.) Drake's official site All Things Fresh, perhaps upset that they were scooped by Microsoft, later confirmed the track list, albeit with a few changes: "Hell Yeah F------ Right" is now the less explicit "HYFR" and the two prologues -- "Buried Alive" and "Good Ones Go" -- have been folded into "Marvin's Room" and "Cameras," respectively.

The official track list also revealed the guests that will appear on Take Care: Nicki Minaj, Rihanna on the title song, Rick Ross on "Lord Knows," Lil Wayne on three tracks, and the Weeknd on "Crew Love." Beyonce might have uninvited Andre 3000 from her "Party," but Drake recruited the OutKast rapper (as promised) for a guest spot on the previously released "The Real Her," which also features Lil Wayne (That version didn't include 3K.) That makes it three collaborations for Weezy and the reclusive Andre this year after Lloyd's "Dedication to My Ex" and Tha Carter IV's "Interlude." All Things Fresh also revealed Take Care's deluxe bonus cuts.

The hip-hop collective Odd Future have quickly ascended in the rap world because of their controversial lyrics, wild stage antics, and immature demeanor, but the group is now facing some serious backlash following their behavior at this weekend's Voodoo Festival in New Orleans. At one point during the concert, frontman Tyler, the Creator told the crowd how much he disliked photographers because they frequently had the best seat in the house, a barricaded section between the artist and the crowd. (For what it's worth, it is an awesome spot to watch a concert, but the sound gets muddled that close.) The other members of Odd Future shared Tyler's scorn for photographers, to the point where the group started emptying water bottles on the cameramen. Then, it escalated even more.

Heavy metal fans in the United States are surprisingly well behaved, but the same can't be said for Metallica enthusiasts in India. This past summer, officials in the Bronx, New York were concerned that Metallica's concert at Yankee Stadium would result in a riot. It didn't, but things ended chaotically after the band released the terrible Lulu canceled their concert in New Delhi this past Friday. The show was supposed to be Metallica's first ever gig in India, but just hours before the band was to perform, a security barrier was damaged, and the group decided to nix the show because of "safety concerns." However, those "concerns" ended up coming true because of the cancellation: Angry fans tore apart the stage, destroyed equipment, and hurled bottles at the crew.

Amy Winehouse's Lioness: Hidden Treasures, the singer's first collection of music since she died in July at the age of 27, will be released on December 5th, As the title suggests, Hidden Treasures digs into Winehouse's vaults for a hodgepodge of unreleased material, but it shies away from the new music Amy was recording for her follow-up to 2006's Back to Black. Winehouse's go-to producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi compiled the covers, demos, and a trio of never-before-heard songs for the posthumous disc, which started getting worked on just days after Winehouse's death.

"Our first guest is a good friend of the show. He... oh, screw it." If there's a silver lining in Justin Timberlake ditching his music career to become an actor, it's that the (former) singer's many movie roles allow him to visit Late Night With Jimmy Fallon every few months. The In Time star and Fallon wasted no time launching into the third volume of their beloved "A History of Rap," featuring hip-hop favorites by Young MC, Jay-Z, Kanye, and Naughty By Nature. It wasn't their sharpest lesson -- their brief rendition of J.J. Fad's "Supersonic" could have used more rehearsal time -- but it was worth it just to hear Fallon rap Ice Cube's benevolent rhyme, "I didn't even need to use my AK."

Here's the setlist, and click here to relive A History of Rap, Part One and Part Two:

Too busy searching for a last-minute costume to make a Halloween party soundtrack? There are a couple options out there: The Flaming Lips' 24-hour song, and the scarily bad Lulu. Or, you could listen to The Amp's spooky playlist, featuring tracks named after scary movies. Dozens of artists recorded songs that share titles with horror films, but we've collected the best of the goriest, from David Bowie and the Clash to Radiohead and the Misfits. Most of the time, the song was directly inspired by the movie (Roky Erickson's "I Walked With a Zombie"), and in some instances, the tune just happens to share a name with the blood-soaked picture (Ghostface Killah's "Child's Play" is about adolescence, not Chucky).

Below, watch the trailers for those scary flicks, and then listen to their namesake songs:

Cat People

David Bowie's "Cat People"

Halloween

Sonic Youth's "Hallowe'en"

The Shining:

Badly Drawn Boy's "The Shining":

Child's Play

Ghostface Killah's "Child's Play"

City of the

Adele's 21 keeps selling at a monumental pace, but it's not all good news for the British songstress: She has canceled all of her 2011 tour dates in order to undergo throat surgery. Adele twice postponed U.S. tours after suffering from voice problems, most recently laryngitis, and when the doctors' order of vocal rest did not heal the singer's cords, surgery was the only solution. In addition to the canned American dates, six U.K. shows were also axed.

"It is with deep regret that Adele has been forced to cancel her remaining live dates and promotional appearances in 2011," a statement on the singer's official site reads. "She is to undergo surgery to alleviate the current issues with her throat and a full recovery is expected. As a result, doctors have ordered her to rest her voice and completely recuperate before looking to schedule any work commitments."

Fortunately for Adele, these last few months of 2011 are relatively quiet in terms of award shows, though she will miss the