[Video] Jhene Aiko Performs "The Worst" on Conan

Songstress Jhene Aiko continued her tour of late night TV sets, last night making her rounds at the Conan O'Brien Show on TBS to perform her song "The Worst." The beautifull, charming Aiko killed the track, as was expected with her having performed the song now on Jimmy Kimmel, Saturday Night Live with Drake and on Jimmy Fallon, maybe she'll also help Seth Myers settle in next week? Anyway, it's always a good day when you can wake up and hear Jhene sing, check out the full video streaming below.

[iframe id="http://teamcoco.com/embed/v/77764" height="360" width="640" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0""]


MTVU Woodie Awards

2014 MTV Woodie Award Nominees Announced

The MTV Woodies, the cable channel's reaction to indie music, announced the nominees for this year's award show, chosen by voters online yesterday. The nominees included a who's who of artists and acts that dominated the up and coming charts in 2013. In the hunt for the coveted "Woodie of the Year" are familiar names in Kanye West, Drake and Pharrell, as well as some more eclectic choices in Disclosure, Imagine Dragons, Lorde and Zedd. Chance The Rapper and director Austin Vesely are nominated for the "Best Video Woodie" for the "Everybody's Something" video. They will be up against some stiff competition from Disclosure ("Grab Her"), Passion Pit ("Carried Away"), Iggy Azalea ("Bounce") and Arcade Fire ("Afterlife").  Chance pops up again for his collaboration on "Life Round Here" with James Blake and Jhene Aiko and Mack Wilds round out a fairly solid list for "Breaking Woodie". Honestly, it's odd to find names like Beyonce and Jay Z on this list of nominees, which seem more tailored to Macklemore than the Grammys did a few weeks ago. Bob Dylan is nominated for a "Did It My Way Woodie". What's more 'My Way' than releasing an album (The Heist, Acid Rap) independently only to see it beat out the big guys? The line between independent and mainstream is being increasingly scrubbed away, and the 2014 edition of the Woodie Awards may be the best implication of that.

The MTV Woodies take place March 13 in Austin, TX, and will air March 16 on MTVU. Check out the full list of nominees below.

2014 mtvU Woodie Awards Nominees

Woodie of the Year:
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Pharrell
Drake
Zedd
Disclosure

Breaking Woodie:
Bastille
Martin Garrix
The 1975
Jhene Aiko
Sam Smith
Mack Wilds

Best Video Woodie:
Disclosure, "Grab Her"
Passion Pit, "Carried Away"
Chance the Rapper, "Everybody's Something"
Iggy Azalea, "Bounce"
Arcade Fire, "Afterlife"

Did It My Way Woodie:
Beyoncé — Released her new, self-titled album without any prior promotion.
Kanye West — Created an interactive music video experience for Yeezus
Arcade Fire — Creatively utilized social media, street art and pop-up performances to launch the Reflektor album.
Childish Gambino — Hosted impromptu album listening sessions in public parks for Because the Internet.
Bob Dylan — Created a 16 channel interactive music video for "Like a Rolling Stone."

Performing Woodie:
Tyler the Creator
Ed Sheeran
Jay Z
Arcade Fire
The National
The XX

Best Collaboration Woodie:
A$AP Rocky and Skrillex — "Wild For the Night"
Avicii and Aloe Blacc — "Wake Me Up"
Just Blaze and Baauer featuring Jay Z — "Higher"
Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons — "Radioactive (remix)"
Daft Punk and Pharrell — "Get Lucky"
James Blake and Chance the Rapper — "Life Round Here"

College Radio Woodie (Best College Radio Station):
Ball State University (WCRD)
Boston University (WTBU)
East Stroudsburg University (WESS)
Eastern Illinois University (WEIU)
Indiana University (WIUX)
Texas State University - San Marcos (KTSW)
University of California - Berkeley (KALX)
University of Illinois - Champaign Urbana (WPGU)
University of South Carolina (WUSC)
William Paterson University (WPSC)


Grading The 2014 Grammy Winners

Pharrell Williams, Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers

So, back in December, around the time the Grammy nominations were officially announced, I wrote a post titled "Grading The Grammys" where I gave my two cents on what I thought of the nominees, who I thought should win and who I thought actually would win. The music industry equivalent to filling out an NCAA tournament bracket in March, I watched yesterday as my picks were scuttled fairly quickly. Using the mentality that it is better to recognize many rather than few and spread an award rather than smother one artist with them, my choices for Grammy winners was a bit different from what actually went down last night in LA. Read on to see who I thought would win, who actually did and how that makes me feel, here below.

Record of The Year

Nominees:

- "Get Lucky" - Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams

- "Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons

- "Royals" - Lorde

- "Locked Out Of Heaven" - Bruno Mars

- "Blurred Lines" - Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. & Pharrell

Actual Winner: "Get Lucky" - Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams

My Prediction: “Royals” – Lorde

Breakdown: I read somewhere in the lead up to this year's Grammys that the award show could very quickly devolve into a sort of Lifetime Achievement Award for Daft Punk, who did have arguably the song of the year in "Get Lucky" which seemed to be on an endless loop throughout the Summer. "Royals" certainly had its own run, but looking back it was somewhat ridiculous to think she could overtake Daft Punk.


[Video] Jhene Aiko & Sampha Perform at Future Festival

BBC Radio 1 has been celebrating its Future Festival with a series of inspired performances from some of the tope rising acts across the music landscape and yesterday had Jhene Aiko & Sampha perform as part of the event. Aiko, whose performance followed appearances this week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live, gave the audience a live rendition of her song, "The Worst". Playing on the ominous Drake theme in the room (both artists appear on Nothing Was The Same), Sampha took over to perform his sonically endearing song, "Too Much". Check out both performances, streaming live below.


[Video] Watch Drake Impersonate Lil Wayne, Jay Z & More on 'SNL'

So, as you may have heard by now, Drake hosted Saturday Night Live this past weekend. The larger-than-life Toronto rapper took to his Degrassi roots, acting in the skits that, believe it or not, came out pretty funny. Drizzy was at his best while impersonating Lil Wayne and Jay Z in a Hip-Hop version of "Before They Were Stars" hosted by a hilarious Sway, played by Keenan Thompson ("If you're black, you know me from the wake up show, if you're white-you know me from this hat"). Drake (or the SNL writers) cleverly take advantage of the Degrassi background to project what it would be like, for example, if Eminem was on Felicity before making "Kim" or what Rick Ross would have been like as a Teletubby. Drake also goes to a Bar Mitzvah and participates in a digital short. Check it all out, streaming below.

Drake Bar Mitzvah Monologue:

SNL Digital Short:

Full Episode


A$AP Ferg: "DTM Awards '14" ("Trophies" Remix)

A$AP Ferg has spent the past few months relishing over the big victory he scored with his recent release, Trap Lord, which has been in constant rotation over here at RubyHornet since it dropped. Today, as  "DTM Awards '14", the New York City and A$AP Mob rapper dropped his remix to Drake's "Trophies" and also announced a tentative release date for the full A$AP Mob project with a tweet, pointing at March 4 for the official release. Check out the latest from the 'Hood Pope' streaming here below.

Screen Shot 2014-01-08 at 12.57.33 PM


Best Music Projects of 2013

Photo by Bryan Lamb

With new projects from established musicians like Daft Punk, Kanye West, and Neko Case to up and comers like Chance the Rapper, Lorde, Disclosure, 2013 was a huge year for music. Through a very scientific method, the Ruby Hornet staff has gone through the eclectic mix of 2013's various project releases from hip hop, R&B, indie rock, soul, techno, EDM, and more to deliver our definitive list of 2013 music projects. Check out our list below!


Sampha Premieres "Courtesy" on BBC1

Sampha, who took off from where he was last year by linking up with Drake, yesterday stopped by BBC Radio1 to debut his latest song, "Courtesy" as part of a 28-minute mix he did for the station. The song comes in at the 19:50 mark of the player below and is a soulful, instrumental affair, stripped down to Sampha and the keys as he croons over the melodic arrangement. Recorded live at Maida Vale with Benji B, the track is a furtherance of the more soulful side of Sampha since his days working in a more up-tempo atmosphere as part of SBTRKT. One thing is for sure, we should be seeing plenty of him for awhile to come.