Blog Posts by Daniel Kreps

SNLKaty Perry's performance in the "The One That Got Away" music video suggested that the pop star might have caught the acting bug from her husband Russell Brand and developed silver screen ambitions. It's hard to recall the last time Britney Spears or Beyonce showed any genuine emotion in a music video, but there was Perry pretending to cry her eyes out in the "Got Away" video. However, if Perry wants her very own 'Crossroads', she'll first need to pass the ultimate test: Guest-hosting 'Saturday Night Live' on December 10th. Anyone could give their voice to a Smurf, but this will determine whether Perry can handle a live-action big-screen role.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage.comDiehard Rolling Stones fans might prefer to pretend that 2011 never happened. Sure, the 'Some Girls' reissue is coming out, but that doesn't cancel out the serious missteps Mick Jagger has taken this past year. First, there was his not-quite-Lulu-but-still-bad side project SuperHeavy, then his name was used for the chorus of 2011's most bothersome hit, "Moves Like Jagger." Now, Mick is a guest, along with Jennifer Lopez, and Will.i.am's new solo single "T.H.E.," or "The Hardest Ever." If you love 'Sticky Fingers' as much as The Amp does, we seriously recommend you don't click "play" below, because there's no going back after hearing this:

Araya Diaz/WireImage.comHarvard University, not content with sitting idly while Georgetown and their Jay-Z course were packing classrooms, has entered the 36 Chambers to offer their own hip-hop-oriented class. Instead of just teaching a class on Wu-Tang, however, the Ivy League school has gone one step further by actually recruiting GZA, a.k.a. The Genius, to serve as guest lecturer at the Harvard Black Men's Forum on December 1st. The rapper, who's easily the most scholarly member of the Wu, will discuss his creative process and participate in a Q&A, HipHop DX reports. If there's time left over, he'll hopefully also provide chess tutorials and read selections from the Wu Manual. And like any perspective college student with a 4.0 GPA touring the Boston area for higher education, GZA will also visit MIT, but for an entirely different reason.

Trouble ManWhile Kanye West and Jay-Z recently evoked the spirit of Otis Redding for 'Watch the Throne', T.I. has been seeking inspiration from another soul legend as the rapper works on his latest post-prison album: Marvin Gaye. Last time we heard from Tip, he was still deciding whether to call his upcoming LP 'Kill the King' (an ill-advised choice) or 'Trouble'. He's chosen the latter, with a small edit: T.I.'s next album will instead be called 'Trouble Man', which happens to share its title with Gaye's 1972 soundtrack for the blaxploitation film of the same name. That means 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' is still available, if any rapper wants it for an album title.

It's Christmas time again, the season of pretty lights, Santa Claus, and overbearingly annoying and incredibly overplayed TV commercials. Last winter, we were all nearly Pomplamoosed to death, and now we're already being threatened by this ad from Kohl's, featuring the worst song of 2011, Rebecca Black's "Friday." It's not even Thanksgiving yet! In the commercial above, Kohl's transforms Black's much-mocked, paint-by-numbers YouTube music video into a celebration of a midnight Black Friday sale.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage.comNot that many people have heard of the band On a Friday. The group, which consisted of a handful of British boarding school students, formed in 1985 in their native Oxfordshire, played a few venues around town, and recorded a few demo tapes in their five years performing under the On a Friday moniker. Then they signed a record deal and were forced to change their name to Radiohead, and you know the rest. However, remnants from that bygone era in the band's history still exist, and this weekend, two of the earliest songs the band ever committed to tape, "Everybody Knows" and "Girl (In a Purple Dress)," surfaced out of the blue, 25 years after they were recorded.

Anyone who's heard 'OK Computer' or 'The King of Limbs', or even 'The Bends' for that matter, will find nothing familiar about these songs; since they're from the mid-80's, the tracks share more in common with the Cure and the Smiths than 'Kid A'. However, just when you think you've been hoaxed by false advertising, Radiohead's most distinct instrument, Thom Yorke's voice (presented here in its 18-year-old form), enters the frame:

Mike Marsland/WireImage.comThe E Street Band is back! For the past six months, the future of Bruce Springsteen and his longtime backing band was in doubt following the death of the Big Man, saxophonist Clarence Clemons. However, with rumors of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame crew from Asbury Park plotting something next year, Springsteen and the E Street Band -- guitarists Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, drummer Max Weinberg, and the rest of the gang -- confirmed this weekend that they would reconvene in 2012 with a new album, their first since 2009's 'Working on a Dream', and a world tour.

We've already heard Amy Winehouse and Nas' "Like Smoke" from her first posthumous release 'Lioness: Hidden Treasures', and today brings a new music video from the collection for her Ruby & The Romantics cover "Our Day Will Come." Like post-death music videos from Michael Jackson, Nirvana, and Tupac Shakur, "Our Day Will Come" is composed of entirely of archival footage. Here, we see Winehouse at different stages throughout her career, from the days before her tattoos, trademark beehive, and piercings to her 'Back to Black' prime. Winehouse's legacy will likely get a similar tribute during the memorial section of next year's Grammys, but "Our Day Will Come" is a fitting remembrance of a singer who died too soon before her time. 'Lioness' is out December 5th.