Luny Tunes and Tainy Hit the No. 1 Spot

The new album by Luny Tunes and their protege, Tainy, Los Benjamins: La Continuación, has already spawned a summer hit. The first single, "Vete," performed by the duo Erre XI, is on heavy rotation at radio statons across the nation. The production team's album debuted at No. 1 spot on the Latin charts according to Soundscan. The launch party for the album was held last night at Miami's Cielo nightclub. They will soon be filming the video for the single, which is set to be directed by David Impelluso.

Yankee at Mexico's Festival de Radio de Exa

On Saturday, May 19, Daddy Yankee performed before 15,000 eager fans at the Festival de Radio de Exa in the Palacio de los Deportes. He peformed four songs: "Rompe," "Machucando," "Impacto," and "Lo que Pasó, Pasó" (what? No "Gasolina"?) After the performance, he fle wback to PR to film the finale of the American Idol-esque show "Objetivo Fama," where he received a standing ovation for his performance.

Yes, ladies and gents, DY continues to be a hit in Latin America, but here's my question -- seeing as he has a major US release coming up, shouldn't he be doing the rounds stateside too? But, hey, what do I know?

In any case, bust the photo taken while he was in Mexico — and can someone tell me if that's a green pom-pom homegirl in the left is holding up? Ha!

2007 PREMIOS JUVENTUD NOMINEES

Here's a list of the URBAN nominees for the music category of the Premios Juventud, which will take place June 19 in Miami (snide commentary included).

MUSICA

La combinación perfecta (THE PERFECT COMBINATION):

1. "Bendita tu Luz" - Maná / Juan Luís Guerra
2."No No No" - Thalía /Aventura
3. “Noche de Entierro” – Wisín y Yandel / Daddy Yankee/ Héctor el Father / Tony Tun Tun & Zion.
**THIS ONE DEFINITELY GETS MY VOTE, THOUGH I FIGURE SHAKIRA PROB. HAS THIS IN THE BAG
4. “Te lo Agradezco, Pero No” Alejandro Sanz / Shakira
5. “Torre de Babel” – Wisín y Yandel / David Bisbal


¡Qué rico que se mueve! (LOOSELY TRANSLATED, THIS MEANS, "HOW GREAT HE MOVES" AND IT'S A DANCE AWARD)

1. Anahí
2. Chayanne
3. David Bisbal
4. Dulce María
5. Shakira (UHMMM, SHOULDM'T SHAKIRA AUTOMATICALLY GET THIS?! LOL)


Voz del momento. (VOICE OF THE MOMENT)


1. Aventura
2. David Bisbal
3. RBD
4. Yuridia
5. Wisín y Yandel
(I DON'T KNOW IF I'D GO AS FAR AS TO NAME ANY OF THE ABOVE THE VOICE OF THE MOMENT....)


La más pegajosa. (THE CATCHIEST SONG)


1. “Celestial” - RBD
2. “Como Yo Nadie te ha Amado” – Yuridia
3. “Pegao” – Wisín y Yandel (IRONICALLY, THE SONG TITLE IMPLIES THE SHIT IS CATCHY SO IF THEY DON'T WIN, IT'S KINDA GAS FACE FOR THEM)
4. “Quién Me iba a Decir”- David Bisbal
5. “Ser o Parecer” – RBD


Me muero sin ese CD. (I'D DIE WITHOUT THIS CD)
(Mi disco favorito)
1. “Amar es Combatir”- Maná
2. “Celestial” - RBD
3. “Habla el Corazón”-Yuridia
4. “Los Vaqueros” – Wisín y Yandel (OBVIOUSLY MY VOTE GOES TO THEM, BUT I THINK THE AWARD TITLE IS SO DRAMATIC... I MEAN, IT'S A GOOD ALBUT BUT NOBODY'S DYING OVER NOT HAVING IT! SIMMER DOWN, FOLKS!)
5. “Premonición”- David Bisbal


Mi concierto Favorito. (MY FAVE CONCERT)

1. Maná
2. RBD
3. Ricky Martin
4. Shakira (LOVE W&Y BUT THIS ONE SHOULD GO TO SHAKI)
5. Wisín y Yandel


Mi Video Favorito (MY FAVORITE VIDEO)

1. “Angelito”- Don Omar (OMAR WINS FOR ME... THE SETTING FOR THE VIDEO, THE MOOD, THE CINEMATOGRAPHY... ALL OF IT WAS TOP-NOTCH AND A PERFECT FIT FOR THE SONG)
2. “Celestial” - RBD
3. “Noche de Entierro” – Wisín y Yandel/ Daddy Yankee/ Héctor el Father / Tony Tun Tun & Zion
4. “No No No” – Thalía / Aventura
5. “Ser o Parecer”- RBD



Mi Artista Urbano. (MY URBAN ARTIST)

1. Daddy Yankee
2. Don Omar
3. Ivy Queen
4. Rakím y Ken Y
5. Wisín y Yandel
** THIS ONE'S A HARD CALL... W&Y ARE HOT RIGHT NOW, BUT OMAR HAD A GOOD YEAR AND YANKEE IS THE CRITICAL DARLING... I'D SAY IVY IS A LONG SHOT AND,EVEN THOUGH "DOWN" WAS ONE OF THE BEST SONGS OF 2006, I DOUBT RAKIM Y KEN-Y WILL NAB THIS... BUT THIS ONE'S TOUGHER TO CALL THAN USUAL...)

Votes or predictions, anyone?

New songs from Divino and Notch

Daniel "Divino" Velasquez, who released two gold records (Todo A Su Tiempo and Todo A Su Tiempo Platinum Edition) has yet to get his due, despite his gift for melody and his collabos with many high profile artists. He's currently featured on the cut "Pobre Corazón" off Ivy Queen's Sentimientos album. To check out his skills and listen to the cut, visit:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/04-pobre-corazon-mp3-nh9.html

You can also catch his song off the various artists album, K-Libre:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/03-queda-consumado-mp3.html

And while we're on ther subject of new music, here's Notch's lead single off his forthcoming solo debut, Raised By The People:

http://www.zshare.net/download/01-back-it-up-m4a.html

Baby Rasta's solo album

If a picture speaks more than a thousand words, then this one speaks volumes — and they ain't good.

Poor Baby Rasta goes solo and he clearly got such a crappy budget that they had to do a wack-ass illustration for his cover. Damn shame, especially since Baby Rasta and Gringo are pioneers in this game and the yung'uns seem to not know anything about them... This cover looks like it could be an illustration on a sack of Rap Snacks chips! Like whoa...

In any case, his album, La Ultima Risa, is out now through his Ilegal Life imprint (which is distibuted by Universal Latino).Yyou might have heard the lead single, "Toma Nena," but the album has some cuts I think are a lot stronger, so you should definitely pick it up...

Wisin Y Yandel team up with Jesse Terrro

Those of y'all who don't know who Jesse Terrero is need to start reading the credits for all the damn hip-hop videos you watch but, just in case you're too lazy to do that, Jesse is the cat who has done most of the G-Unit videos (among them 50's "Many Men" and "Candy Shop" and Lloyd Banks' "Fire"). His first reggaetón video was Daddy Yankee's "Rompe," which he codirected with Carlos Perez. Remember that apocalyptic junkyard motif and all the krump dancers? Yup, that's Jesse. In any case, he also directed the fiasco that is the movie Soul Plane but, hey, we all make mistakes... it's just too bad that that was his first feature film...

In any case, dude is mad talented and, since he's a Dominican cat from Queens who grew up on hip-hop and has a name in that circle, all the reggaetón guys itching for that major crossover are on his jockstrap. And now Wisin y Yandel are wisening up and recruiting Jesse for their "Yo Te Quiero" video, which they filmed in L.A. on Tues. and Wed.

I gotta give it to W&Y for doing their research-- as far as collabos go, they've done pretty well for themselves. That R. Kelly joint was dope ("Burn It Up") and now they're planning some big collabos with R&B artists...

Vico C News

The Philosopher of Latin Rap, the one and only Vico C, had a great concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina last Saturday, May 5. He's allegedly the first urban Latino artist to perform there (although, as I've said before, everyone claims to be the first to do everything and it's hard to dispute since, to my knowledge, there's no list detailing which artists have REALLY been the first to do anything... Book idea, anyone? Hmmmm...) In any case, he's in the studio recordinga new album -- more details on that soon!