It's the penultimate week of the year and 2013 is trying to do all it can to stay memorable. Jay Z and Rick Ross came together once again for "The Devil Is a Lie," a song with a great beat produced by... well, that's where things got interesting. Angel Haze expressed issues with her label and took the very bold step of leaking her own debut album—and got what she wanted. Grimes signed to Roc Nation—hopefully that means she'll make some appearances on DJ Mustard beats.
Though it was Beyoncé's week last week, she went ahead and took this one too. (Very greedy, today's super-mega pop stars!) Everyone found out how many records she sold (an ungodly number), and she continued to drop videos from her visual album. Oh, and the remixes for Future's "Sh!t" finally came out, at which point the world immediately started deconstructing Drake's verse for subliminals.
What the hell happened in music this week?
RELATED: Beyoncé Has Broken The U.S. iTunes Record For Most Albums Sold in its First Week
RELATED: Grimes Signs Management Deal With Roc Nation
RELATED: Angel Haze Attempts to Leak Debut Album "Dirty Gold" Amid Label Frustrations
Date: December 16
"With Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP II passing double platinum status before the end of the year, he releases the music video to one of the biggest songs from the record; 'The Monster.' Eminem teams up with 'Rap God' director Rich Lee who gives the viewer an intense sit in on a therapy session lead by Rihanna. —Justin Davis
Date: December 17
"Future's 'Shit' is one of the best street singles of the year. It's a bleepy Mike Will banger in which Atlanta's Autotuned prince seethes at lames in a memorably stilted flow. Today brings the highly anticipated remix of the track featuring Future's tour mate Drake as well as Juicy J, which will appear on DJ Esco's No Sleep mixtape that drops at 3 p.m. ET today.
Drake doesn't cop Future's flow but he does subsume his incredulous anger, taking direct aim at unnamed foes. Who exactly is he going at this time? Only time may tell." —Jordan Sargent
Date: December 18
"Angel Haze threw caution to the wind earlier today by leaking her debut album Dirty Gold. Scheduled for a March 3 release date, Haze voiced her frustrations with Republic Records for delaying the album as it was originally intended to come by year's end. The 22-year-old Brooklyn rapper went on a Twitter 'rant' before uploading Dirty Gold to SoundCloud and sharing it with her fans." —Edwin Ortiz
Date: December 17
"Grimes, indie rock's pop star, has signed a management deal with Roc Nation, the label announced today. Roc Nation, under the stewardship of Jay Z, manages a number of artists from across the musical spectrum including rappers (Meek Mill, Wale), producers (DJ Mustard,Ludwig Goransson, No ID, Timbaland), engineers (Kuk Harrell, Rob Kinelski) and songwriters (Shea Taylor, BOOTS). The label also manages a number of acts from outside the worlds of hip-hop and major label pop, like M.I.A., Matthew Dear and Haim.
Grimes is expected to release her fourth solo album—and first since her 2012 breakthroughVisions—in 2014." —Jordan Sargent
Date: December 19
"Rick Ross releases his new single 'The Devil Is a Lie' featuring Jay Z. The song is from Rozay's upcoming album Mastermind. The two rappers have a rich history of collaborations, starting with the remix of Ross' first major single 'Hustlin' in 2006. They've since worked together on 'Maybach Music,' 'Free Mason,' Kanye West's 'Monster,' '3 Kings,' and most recently 'FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt' off of Hov's Magna Carta Holy Grail." —Edwin Ortiz
Date: December 16
"Over the weekend, we reported that Beyoncé's self-titled 'visual album' was already head for the No. 1 spot on this week's Billboard 200. We also noted that it had the potential to be her biggest selling first week since the relase of 2006's B'Day. Bey has now not only broken her own debut week record, but she has broken the record for most digital albums sales in one week on iTunes in the United States." —Claire Lobenfeld
