Plan B

Plan B 
 has debuted the second single from the soundtrack to his new film iLL Manors. The track, which is titled 'Lost My Way', can be heard by scrolling down to the bottom of the page. Download

The film, which stars Riz Ahmed, Nathalie Press and Dannielle Brent, is a semi-autobiographical tale focusing on six characters struggling amid crime and violence in Forest Gate in London.

iLL Manors is scheduled for release into cinemas on June 4, with the soundtrack set to follow on July 16. 'Lost My Way' itself will come out on July 2 and follows the album's title track in being released as a single.

Speaking to NME previously about the film, Plan B said: "I was inexperienced and didn't have a lot of money, and I guess some people didn't like the fact I was making a film. I never went to film school, I didn't know the technical terms for films, so there was a lot of prejudice towards me."

Flo Rida

Flo Rida 
 Downloadhas long been known for using vocal stars (Ke$ha, Sia) and anthemic samples (Etta James' "Something's Got a Hold on Me" for "Good Feeling") to provide the hooks for his singles, but on "Whistle," the rapper takes the reins all by himself. The result is a sun-drenched, happy-go-lucky tune that's sure to provide Flo with a horse in the summer anthem race. Lyrically, "Whistle" is perhaps his least subtle single ("Can you blow my whistle, baby?" he sings on the chorus), but the song's whistle hook is bound to make listeners forget all about it, assuming they're not all whistled-out from last year's "Moves Like Jagger" and OneRepublic's "Good Life." Flo's not a formidable singer, so his latest offering may lack the pop pizzazz of "Good Feeling" and "Wild Ones." But with the track's care-free vibe, the rapper's transgressions are easy to forgive.

Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake 
hosting the event and several musical performances.Download

Adding musical star power to the corporate event were Taylor Swift, Lionel Richie, the Zac Brown Band, which performed "Colder Weather," followed later by performances of Juanes and a cappella gospel group Take 6.

The meeting, which also served as the 50th birthday party for the world's largest retailer, started at  8 a.m. ET in Fayetteville, Ark.

Company executives stressed the firm's solid financial performance and highlighted a commitment to integrity amid a Mexican bribery scandal that has led to much criticism. But there was more entertainment than typical at shareholder meetings.

Timberlake at one point was shown in a backstage video. "My duties are going beyond hosting," he said. "It seems to be running the gamut." He then handed out towels and coffee pots to Wal-Mart staffers asking for those items before the star MC introduced a video about a family of Wal-Mart employees.

"It's incredible to absorb and watch the impact Wal-Mart makes" on people across the globe, Timberlake said.

Rosalind Brewer, president and CEO of the company's Sam's Club unit, also made several musical and broader entertainment references in looking back at past milestones her business has achieved over the decades.

For example, she called the 1980s "the decade of Sam's Club," as the first such club opened in 1983. But she also mentioned that the '80s were the decade of the likes of Michael Jackson.

Following the 1990s, about which she cited James Cameron's Titanic, among other things, the 2000s brought the world Beyonce, Harry Potter and more Sam's Club success, she added.


Adding musical star power to the corporate event were Taylor Swift, Lionel Richie, the Zac Brown Band, which performed "Colder Weather," followed later by performances of Juanes and a cappella gospel group Take 6.

The meeting, which also served as the 50th birthday party for the world's largest retailer, started at  8 a.m. ET in Fayetteville, Ark.Billboard

Company executives stressed the firm's solid financial performance and highlighted a commitment to integrity amid a Mexican bribery scandal that has led to much criticism. But there was more entertainment than typical at shareholder meetings.

Timberlake at one point was shown in a backstage video. "My duties are going beyond hosting," he said. "It seems to be running the gamut." He then handed out towels and coffee pots to Wal-Mart staffers asking for those items before the star MC introduced a video about a family of Wal-Mart employees.

"It's incredible to absorb and watch the impact Wal-Mart makes" on people across the globe, Timberlake said.

Rosalind Brewer, president and CEO of the company's Sam's Club unit, also made several musical and broader entertainment references in looking back at past milestones her business has achieved over the decades.

For example, she called the 1980s "the decade of Sam's Club," as the first such club opened in 1983. But she also mentioned that the '80s were the decade of the likes of Michael Jackson.

Following the 1990s, about which she cited James Cameron's Titanic, among other things, the 2000s brought the world Beyonce, Harry Potter and more Sam's Club success, she added.

Pink

Pink 

Download has been hospitalised with severe stomach flu, she has revealed.
The 32-year-old singer, whose real name is Alecia Moore, tweeted a picture of herself in a hospital bed with a drip in her arm.
And she accompanied the image with the caption: "Maybe it's cause my mum was an ER nurse all my life- but throw me in a gown and a hook me up to an IV- and I'm a happy girl. Stomach flu sucks but morphine doesn't."MTV
However, she later explained that the morphine reference had been a joke.
She tweeted: "Thanks for all the get well wishes. And no-they don't give morphine for flu. I might have ulcers again. Because I care too much. It's a gift."
Pink recently dissed Chris Brown for miming at an awards show.

The XX

The xx

have announced their second album will be titled 'Coexist' and released on September 10.Download

The London trio, who played six new songs at their live comeback in the capital last month, recorded the follow-up to their 2009 self-titled debut in their own London studio.

The band's Jamie Smith once again took on production duties on the album, which they began work on in early November 2011 before completing the sessions last month.

Speaking to NME, singer and guitarist Romy Madley Croft said the new songs show the evolution of the band over the past few years. "I've been thinking that I hope people enjoy it as a separate thing. The first album exists – we're not trying to make it again, she said, before adding:

We've just grown up, and although this isn't a 'grown up' album, we’ve evolved. It's just us growing a bit more. I hope people enjoy it as a continuation, rather than us trying to make the first album again.

She added that although she's "happy we've progressed" the new material is "not prog rock".

The band have been largely silent during the making of the album, other than revealing it would be influenced by "club music" and posting regular YouTube embeds on their blog, xx-xx.co.uk.

To read a world exclusive in the studio interview with The xx, where they give the full inside story on the making of 'Coexist', pick up next week's issue of NME, which is on newsstands and available digitally from next Wednesday (June 6).

The xx are due to play at Italy's Traffic festival tonight (June 8), ahead of their slot at Primavera in Portugal tomorrow (9). They then play a number of global live dates before returning to the UK to play Bestival on September 7.

Nicole Scherzinger

Nicole Scherzinger 
has expressed her gratitude for her British fans and to The X Factor, as she made her return to the UK version of the show.
The former Pussycat Dolls star, who did a season as a judge on The X Factor USA last year, is filling in as a guest judge while show bosses continue to ponder a replacement for Kelly Rowland.

Nicole tweeted: "Super excited to be back in London for @TheXFactor! Can't wait to find more unique and interesting talent.
"Looking forward to seeing my UK fans in London at the 02. I'm so grateful and blessed to have them!!! #secondhome."
Nic filled in for Dannii Minogue (who this year turned down a full-time return to the show) back in 2010, when Dannii was on maternity leave.MTV
And once she'd finished her guest slot this week, she tweeted: "Great day w/ @theXfactor @officialtulisa @gbarlowofficial @walshlife! We saw some amazing talent! Thanks UK for always being so kind to me! #grateful."

Rumer

Rumer

DownloadOn Boys Don’t Cry, the follow-up to her million-selling 2010 debut Seasons of My Soul, Rumer has recorded versions of tracks written by men in the 1970s. It doesn’t quite have the subversive qualities that Tori Amos’ similarly themed 2001 album Strange Little Girls had – with the possible exception of her take on Neil Young’s A Man Needs a Maid, where the sense and meaning of the original are somewhat altered by its being performed by a woman in 2012.

Often, with its covers of songs by Todd Rundgren, Hall & Oates, Stephen Bishop, Paul Williams, Clifford T Ward, Gilbert O’Sullivan and Jimmy Webb, Boys Don't Cry feels like Rumer’s deep immersion in the pantheon of arcane US and UK MOR rock prompted her to construct an alternative canon of commercial tunesmiths requiring critical rehabilitation. In almost every instance she inhabits the songs to such an extent that they feel like her own compositions, even when the titles at first seem inappropriate.
Williams’ Travelin’ Boy is one of two tracks here by a songwriter formerly covered by Karen Carpenter, whose voice Rumer’s resembles to an uncanny degree. Not for nothing did she recently receive the approbation of Richard Carpenter to go along with her plaudits from Elton John and Burt Bacharach.
The object of the project was, she says, to make a record that described the solace and anguish she’s experienced since achieving success and fame. Hence all the songs – including Travelin’ Boy, Ward’s Home Thoughts From Abroad and Flyin' Shoes by Townes Van Zandt – about rootlessness and longing to be home.BBC
It goes without saying that Rumer’s performances are uniformly technically flawless and models of restraint. Boys Don't Cry works superbly as a companion piece to Seasons..., the harmonic richness of the music and lush chord sequences showing exactly where her allegiances lie: Be Nice to Me is Rumer doing Rundgren doing Laura Nyro doing Bacharach, and Travelin' Boy suggests an album’s worth of collaborations with the composer of Rainy Days and Mondays would be no bad thing.
Boys Don’t Cry posits Rumer as a throwback, albeit a glorious one, to a bygone era, when the songwriting verities of the Brill Building were transposed to LA’s Laurel Canyon. Fabulous stuff.