the buzz log
Jay-Z for Free
Hip-hop megastar Jay-Z has set the Web on fire with his new album, Blueprint 3. That was the plan, but not quite this early.
A few songs from the upcoming record have leaked online, sending searches soaring for "blueprint 3 leak." Yahoo! lookups for "jay z blueprint 3" have also been bumping up all week.
While some of the rapper's tracks got out early, fans can rest assured they will get the whole album online on September 1, for free. MTV's "The Leak" and Rhapsody, the digital entertainment site, have teamed up to stream the record a good ten days before the release date.
On Sept. 11, the day the album goes on sale in stores, the New York native will give a concert for charity at Madison Square Garden to support the New York Police and Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund. The rapper appeared with a grateful Gov. Paterson, the fire commissioner, and the New York borough president to promote the show, which must have been a first.
One blogger who heard the unauthorized leaks called the tunes "dope." You can decide for yourself, soon enough.
Buzz Multiplex: A Bloody Notorious Defiance
You've just watched the most historic inauguration of your time. Do you then sneak into the screening about the rapper, the based-on-a-true tale of World War II resistors, a mall cop comedy, or the 3D-freakout?
Actually, the freeby inauguration theatrical screenings aren't until Tuesday, so if you want to avoid the politics, this weekend's the time to watch these eclectic offerings. (And no, we don't advocate sneaking in, even in these hard economic times.) Here are the three most-searched movie openings for this three-day weekend, as people look for ways to get out of the cold.
1. Notorious (PG-13, limited release). Biggie Smalls didn't even live a quarter-century before he was shot in 1997, and his case remains unresolved. Interest has also been focused on Lil Kim's displeasure over her depiction in the bio-pic. The screenwriter's asking the music artist to see the movie before she judges, but she may want to pass given the largely unimpressed reviews who prefer the soundtrack (up 358% in lookups this week, incidentally). Still, combined searches for the late rapper and his movie pushes "Notorious" as the most-searched film this week. Most interested in the big-screen story are folks in Washington D.C. — as though they don't have enough excitement coming up.
2. My Bloody Valentine 3D (R). Winter has become Hollywood's horror wastelands, but people (especially ages 13-44) love checking out things that may scare the pants off them. For those who actually care about the reviews, this heartwarming, albeit "absurd," throwback stirred Newsday's critical affections as a return "to those entertainingly scary days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the golden age for modern horror films." The Daily Sentinel says its "style... proves that a bad movie can still make for a great time at the movies." Given the interest from men and women alike, "Valentine" slashes the mark as the gruesome, scream-inducing, mature date movie of the week.
3. Defiance (R). "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and "Hotel for Dogs" jockeyed for the third slot, but Daniel Craig's dramatic crossover from his James Bond day job just squeaked in. Critics admire the tale about four brothers saving more than 1,200 people from the Nazis, but they don't necessarily love the Hollywood-style execution. Then again, the storytelling's brought to you by Ed Zwick, master of swollen-valor films like "Blood Diamond" and "The Last Samurai." Once again, Zwick successfully tugs at male audience Search strings (63% male versus 37% female).
Filed under: Movies, Rap Music, Horror, Notorious B.I.G.
The Buzz Week in Review
Can we talk? Rap? Debate? Apologize? Naysay rumors? Steal words? In a week stocked with papal blessings, Democratic face-offs and last-minute filings, Buzz readers looked up what personalities had to say... or didn't say.
No Cosby Rap
With "State of Emergency," comedian and actor Bill Cosby will have nearly 40 albums to his credit. Most have been stand-up performances, but this time the legend has gone feel-good hip hop. Well, sort of. All the rap on the album comes from guests. (Come on, not even as Fat Albert 2.0?) Online interest in Cosby rose more than 1,200% in the past week, with nearly 1 out of 5 searches coming from kids 17 and under. Expect to hear a lot more about Cosby in May, when the compilation debuts and his profile in the Atlantic Monthly hits newsstands.
Not Saying Boycott
Emotions have run hotter than a fiery torch over the 2008 Beijing Olympics... but are people ready to talk boycott? Well, they're not pondering the concept online: Queries into "boycott beijing olympics" have been low, and dropped 19% this week. But if those concerned about the "tibet and china conflict" (+357%) are still torn between boycotting the games or supporting the athletes, Yahoo! Sports writer Josh Peter's overview of the political, historical, and economic reasons why "no one benefits" may help break the tie.
Say What?
Dodging the issues. Nitpicking on character. Empty rhetoric. And that was just debate moderators. Viewers canceled bingo plans, popped popcorn, and verified the time for the ABC News "clinton obama debate schedule" online. The anticipation gave way to ire as people waited an hour for moderators to get to the issues. Among the many analyses, the high buzzer was a Yahoo! Finance story summing up the criticism of riled citizens. How riled? So much so that searches for "charles gibson" and especially "george stephanopoulos" spiked—and a cruel fact of Search is that broadcast journalists don't get much online attention unless they're 1) smoking hot; or 2) stoking rumors of a way to exit a $15 million dollar contract.
Also spiking in Buzz this week...
—Former "Sex and the City" star Cynthia Nixon spoke publicly about her breast cancer treatment on ABC's "Good Morning America."
—The Associated Press reported the dismal statistic that one out of five Iraqi veterans suffer mental problems.
—While some Americans were mad at ABC News and China, the Chinese government expressed "shock" over CNN's "malicious remarks" in a Situation Room segment and demanded an apology, according to the AP.
Filed under: Politics, Rap Music, Week in Review, Olympics, Wrap Up
Tupac Lives on in Buzz
Last week, the Los Angeles Times broke a provocative report from a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. The story linked rapper-actor-style-mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs to the 1994 shooting of Hip-Hop legend Tupac Shakur.
The response was immediate. Diddy issued a furious denial, and the paper's website absorbed nearly 1 million hits—"more viewers than any other story on latimes.com this year."
The only problem? The L.A. paper was duped. According to Smoking Gun, the report relied on FBI papers fabricated by a delusional, dumpy, and incarcerated con-man named James Sabatino. Whoops. The Southern California publication has since apologized.
In Buzz, readers have followed the swindle's repercussions with interest. Reports from Rolling Stone and Reuters, via Yahoo! News, have posted triple-digit scores. The Y! News item is currently the third most popular entertainment story for the past 24 hours. More recently, a New York Magazine piece vaulted upwards. It connects the faulty journalism at The Times to the bad reporting portrayed on HBO's "The Wire."
Hoaxes may come and go, but nothing dims the fascination searchers nurse for Tupac. In the last week alone, huge numbers of people turned to the Web for more on the slain musician's lyrics, music, quotes, and poems. One of the most popular look-ups for the iconic rapper? "Proof tupac is still alive." Maybe The L.A. Times should get on that.
Filed under: Rap Music, Tupac Shakur
American Gangster Rap
Jay-Z's been counted out a few times, particularly after his disappointing return from retirement. Regardless, the King of New York is once again sitting pretty thanks to his upcoming album “inspired by” the movie “American Gangster.”
As the story goes, the iconic rapper was so moved by a September screening of the Denzel Washington movie, he set out to put his feelings to music. Jay-Z's aural interpretation of the Frank Lucas story (Hollywood-style) may be the most important rap concept album of the year—or the only rap concept album of the year. Regardless of its place in the canon, advance reviews of Jay-Z’s quick-turnaround project are hailing it as a return to his original sound.
New Yorker critic David Denby may lament the deification of a gangster in the Ridley Scott-directed film, yet we think both Jay-Z and Frank Lucas are street antiheros that even the New Yorker can’t depose. Searches for “jay z american gangster album” surged 177% over the past week, a sign the King may soon be back on his throne.
Filed under: Rap Music, Soundtracks
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nidal Malik Hasan | Breakout! |
| 2 | Fort Hood Shooting | Breakout! |
| 3 | Tyrannosaurus Rex | Breakout! |
| 4 | Fort Hood | 43518% |
| 5 | Tropical Storm Ida | 4377% |
| 6 | Willie Aames | 3325% |
| 7 | Shannon Dedrick | 3299% |
| 8 | Gretchen Rossi | 2702% |
| 9 | Epic Mickey | 2583% |
| 10 | Lee Harvey Oswald | 1907% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danica Patrick | +194 | 207 |
| 2 | Fort Hood | +185 | 185 |
| 3 | Angelina Jolie | +114 | 164 |
| 4 | Rihanna | +39 | 157 |
| 5 | New York Yankees | +54 | 154 |
| 6 | Alicia Keys | +139 | 153 |
| 7 | +1 | 153 | |
| 8 | NFL | +6 | 138 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
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