Now that the smoke has (mostly) cleared from the Kanye and Lil Mama embarrassments at the VMAs, maybe it’s time to talk about the positives from the evening. After a fairly quiet summer, Wale jumped back in the spotlight as the house performer at the MTV awards show. A few days later, he was named as the opening act for Jay-Z’s upcoming Blueprint 3 tour. With the recent release of his second official single (“World Tour,” featuring Jazmine Sullivan), it’s already been a great September for the D.C. native.
As he preps for the Hova tour and readies his debut album (Attention Deficit, due November 3), Wale’s busier than ever…but not too busy to chat with Complex about his MTV gig, his live band, and touring with Jay. Read on for the interview and to listen to “World Tour”…
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Playmate Sara Jean Underwood was looking good at the Tabu Lounge out in Vegas. [Moe Jackson]
Common and McLovin remake Training Day. Funny stuff. [Nah Right]
Looks like MTV might be leaving Times Square at the end of the year. [PopCrunch]
Find out what a girl’s alcoholic beverage of choice really says about her. [Holy Taco]
The Hundreds teamed up with SE Bikes to create this two-wheeled banger. [Daily Drop]
Looking at almost naked pics of girls you’ll never meet is always fun. [Double Viking]
Don’t feel bad if you’ve put on weight recently. Here are some advantages of being fat. [Flisted]
Check out the 10 most controversial iPhone apps. [Coed Mag]
It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here! Fourteen years after its tragic demise, sketch troupe The State finally convinced MTV to release the DVD collection of their show, which drops tomorrow. If you were lucky enough to watch it when it was on, you know it was the most innovative comedy of its time, influencing everything from Human Giant to Lonely Island to…well, maybe not Chappelle’s Show, but you get the idea.
The show birthed an insane number of comedy VIPs in screenwriting, acting, and directing, and nearly all of its members continue to work with each other on various projects; Reno 911!, cult comedy classic Wet Hot American Summer, and the new Comedy Central show Michael & Michael Have Issues (premiering this Wednesday) are but three. After the jump, watch The State’s 10 Best Skits and check out a (now updated) chart we ran in our February/March 2008 issue that details the cast’s interlocking post-State collaborations…
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It’s hard to believe, but Ryan Sheckler is still only 18. Since he turned pro five years ago, he’s earned both (a) veritable shitloads of skateboarding awards and sponsors and (b) a constant stream of naysayers who scoff at his reality show (MTV’s Life of Ryan) and money-out-the-ass style. In that sense, Ryan reminds us a little of Soulja Boy—he’s undeniably good at what he does but pisses people off because he enjoys making a lot of money and acting like a teenager. Know this: Ryan is playing the game, and he’s winning. Feel free to hate, but it is what it is.
On deck for the skater is his official clothing brand, RS by Sheckler (available at JCPenney). Who will buy Ryan’s budget-friendly collection of T-shirts, jeans and accessories? “The kids at the skate parks that like what I wear,” he says. “Their parents are not going to drop $80 on a pair of jeans that their kids are going to put holes in. So go buy $39 jeans and have [the kids] put as many holes in them as they want.” Ryan was recently in town to promote RS, so we got up with him to talk about TV breakups, bad injuries and his favorite rappers. Read on for The Complex 7 as well as pics from the RS collection….
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Believe it or not, MTV actually has a new show that focuses on…wait for it…music, of all things. Who woulda thunk it? Seriously, though—$5 Cover, which premieres at midnight tonight, has a very promising premise: It’s a documentary-style look at the lives of up-and-coming musicians in Memphis. And when it comes to repping M-Town, there’s no one more devoted than director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan). The 15-episode MTV series is a long-marinating passion project for Brewer, who hopes to shed light on the grassroots music scene in his adopted city.
We recently spoke to Craig about $5 Cover—yep, he’s excited about it—and also to put him through The Complex 7 treatment. Read on for Craig’s thoughts on women with big toes, New Balance sneakers and string cheese, plus a trailer for $5 Cover…
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Cast members from The Real World: Brooklyn pose before being forced to run their garments. We wish.
What happens when a completely contrived reality series moves to a real-ass New York City borough home to real-ass people who will really blast a second hole in that ass if you look at them the wrong way? The world will find out tonight at 10 PM EST when MTV premieres The Real World: Brooklyn. Well, it would if the show'with all its manipulated racial, sexual, religious and socioeconomic tension'weren’t complete bullshit.
The eight fraudulent fame whores whose names we won’t even put on blast here were no doubt guarded from the Brooklyn realness, so Complex can only imagine what could have been if they’d stopped being polite and actually experienced these hallmarks of real life in BK…
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It looks like MTV is picking up the reality show/Kutchfest known as Beauty and the Geek, which they will allegedly be remaking with a new “celebrity” angle. That’s cool, even though it’s more than a little predictable: get a bunch of IT professionals and Weird Al fans, then drop in a party-vanload of MySpace-famous SEC coeds and Entourage guest stars, and watch the ensuing cavalcade of alpha-male transformations and warm-fuzzy changes of heart.
That’s why we suggest flipping it the other way: make the geeks famous, and then watch as civilian women struggle with choosing between tertiary fame-by-association and..their natural instincts. Now that’s entertainment! Check out our round up of 5 sure-fire celebrity geek casting choices…
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Who said MTV doesn’t care about music anymore? Sure, they replaced most of their music programming for reality shows like Run’s House and The Hills, and then axed TRL, but they’re trying. They launched a new video show FN-MTV with Pete Wentz and yesterday, they announced their newest website, MTV Music. It’s taken them a hell of a long time, but the original home of the music video has finally realized that people no longer watch them on TV.
A flashed-based video site in the same vein as YouTube and Hulu, MTV Music will open up the MTV vaults and allow users to play all their favorite music videos, as well as their favorite MTV moments like Unplugged performances. While we’re happy MTV has shown some serious interest in music videos again, we feel like they’re kinda late to the party. For our music video needs, we just hit up YouTube'why should we stop? To answer that question, we analyzed both sites to see which one should be getting our clicks…
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It sure does pay to be an MTV VJ…or does it? Throughout the years, some fine women with memorable personalities have introduced videos for the network. Each leaves their post for a bid at true superstardom, only to fade back into obscurity. While their male counterparts like Tyrese and Pauly Shore have gone on to semi-success, the females seem to be cursed.
The latest recovering VJ to make a run at it is Vanessa Minnillo, who is jump-starting her acting career with a role in this summer’s action parody Disaster Movie. Whether she’ll transcend the MTV label or retire to become Nick Lachey’s baby mama remains to be seen, but the patterns of history are definitely against her. After the jump, we compiled some of the fly chicks who couldn’t overcome the curse.
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Call it the Complex convergence. Our June/July cover guy Nick Cannon invites our August/September cover dudes Pharrell and Clipse to perform their hit single, “Mr. Me Too” on this week's episode of Wild 'N Out: Season 3, premiering tonight at 10PM on MTV.
