We’ve been slightly (if justifiably) Beyoncé-crazy here lately, but don’t think it’s escaped our notice that her friend Kelly Rowland is keeping at least as busy promoting Here I Am. In the last week Rowland released two videos: “Lay It On Me,” featuring Big Sean, and “Down For Whatever.” The collaboration is the bigger-budget affair, not least because it’s already been a somewhat successful single already. In addition to Big Sean, the video features a Slinky, a chaise lounge made up of shirtless men, and an elephant. “Down For Whatever” is darker and much clubbier, with visual and electronic strobes and back-up dancers. Rowland will also be appearing in a video next week: she has a cameo in Beyoncé’s “Party,” which premieres on BET’s 106 and Park on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 6PM ET. Also in the video: J. Cole, who replaces André 3000 on the single remix.

[Image: Getty Images]

There might not be anyone who is as endearing, fashionable, and well-connected as La La Vasquez. Yes, she’s a humble “basketball wife,” but she’s spent years as a radio DJ and later a VJ at MTV, and she’s now an actress and style icon in her own right. Basically she’s done it all, worn it all, and hung out with some amazingly cool people at the same time. As a tribute to her evolving style and her lasting friendships in show business, we’ve created a mega-gallery of La La through the years, from her early days at MTV where she was a jeans and t-shirt gal, to her Full Court Wedding, to today, where she can hold her own at Fashion Week with the best of the best, like her pals Beyonce, Russell Simmons, Kelly Rowland, and of course, Po and Dice.


[Photos: Getty Images]

Beyoncé is, without a question, a once-in-a-generation talent. Blessed with a wonderful singing voice, incredible athleticism, striking beauty and, most importantly, an unrivaled competitive spirit, she has established herself as a star of both stage and screen. In honor of her 30th birthday today, we decided to take a look back at the thirty most important moments in Beyoncé’s life that made her the person she is today. Enjoy!

DATE: September 4, 1981
EVENT: Thirty years ago today, Houston resident and aspiring music manager Matthew Knowles and his costume designer wife Tina welcomed a bouncing baby girl into the world, one they named Beyoncé Giselle Knowles. If this had never happened, well, you wouldn’t be reading this list, that’s for sure!

DATE: 1988
EVENT: At the tender age of 7, Beyoncé competed in her very first talent show. She sang a stirring rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” which earned her a standing ovation, a first place prize, and the seething jealousy of the 15- and 16-year-olds she competed against.

DATE: 1990-1991
EVENT: Gaining confidence after her talent show victory, Beyoncé and five other girls were recruited to join a Houston-based group called Girl’s Tyme. It was during this time that she met her future Destiny’s Child group members Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson, and LeToya Luckett (who joined in 1993). After gaining local acclaim, things turned sour after the group unsuccessfully tried out for Star Search. This would mark the first of many times that personality clashes would lead to fractures in Beyoncé’s personal and professional life.

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Beyonce Live 4 Intimate Nights

If you haven’t already caught the scoop, Beyoncé has an affinity for numbers; specifically, the number four. Front and center at last night’s second of “4 Intimate Nights with Beyoncé” at Roseland Ballroom (the first of which took place on Sunday, the FOURteenth), the lady of the hour took the stage to break down the numerological fondness and dazzle superfans and music industry elite alike. Because she usually performs for audiences ten times the size of the 2,500 capacity venue, tickets for this coveted concert series were a hot commodity, and with VIPs like Diddy, Russell Simmons, Ne-Yo, and The-Dream looking on the balcony, a ravenous crowd chanted the singer’s name repeatedly before the show’s 10 p.m. start time. Homegirl has unwavering disciples, and as we were soon reminded, she deserves each and every one of them.

The well-rehearsed, ninety-minute show —whose setlist was identical to Sunday night’s show—began with Beyoncé narrating the initial chapters of her career’s autobiography. From militaristic practice sessions at nine-years-old with the initial members of Destiny’s Child to securing their deal with Columbia Records in 1995, Bey’ ran through the timeline of her passionate path, stitching performance snippets into the fabric of her tales. Cut-down, crowd-pleasing hits like “Bills, Bills Bills,” “Say My Name,” and “Independent Women Part I” perpetuated a roar of approval that crescendoed when the introduction to “Survivor” was liberated by the diva’s all-female band. “With a lot of success comes a lot of negativity,” admitted the star as she launched into the female-empowerment anthem, graciously crediting her former cohorts Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams while also justifying the song’s endurance-focused sentiments.

There is often calm after a tumultuous storm, however, and once Beyoncé was finished discussing the uneven footing of her early days as an artist, she shared with the audience how powerful it was when she finally “found love.” Right on cue, the opening notes to the then-new couple’s very public relationship confirmation, Jay-Z’s “’03 Bonnie and Clyde,” hit our nostalgic radars, and as you might imagine, the crowd lost their minds. Before transitioning into a quick Dreamgirls story, Bey’ also performed her other Hov-centric hit, “Crazy in Love,” graduating from a slower, re-worked, funk version of the song into the full, familiar rendition, showcasing the video’s stomping strut that we all know and love. By also revisiting other iconic choreography that fans relentlessly study and mimic throughout the show, Bey’ managed to create a sea of “Single Ladies” hand-twirling and, once she got to the material from 4, lots of attempts at her “Run The World (Girls)” stankyleg-riverdancing.

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DEAD JUGGALO FOUND IN OHIO RIVER AND OTHER LESS HARROWING GATHERING OF THE JUGGALOS UPDATES
The body of a 24 year-old Insane Clown Posse fan was found in a section of the Ohio River located in Western Kentucky on Sunday afternoon. He was wearing a Gathering Of The Juggalos wristband, which leads the Kentucky state police to surmise that he was attending the festival. Meanwhile, over at Deadspin, writer Emma Carmichael went undercover and transformed herself into a Juggalette and traveled to Cave-in-Rock, Illinois this weekend; she just published a hilarious and fascinating exposé of the festival largely comprised of “t*tties and drugs.” [Rolling Stone, Deadspin]

BLACK SABBATH PLANS REUNION TOUR, STUDIO ALBUM
Don’t call it a comeback! Original Black Sabbath members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward have reunited. Since the band’s split in 1979, Geezer has actually become a geezer, which is something we suppose is both ironic and inevitable. Nobody is talking about how much money they’re getting to do this, but we imagine it’s a lot. [Birmingham Mail via The Quietus]

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Non-Elvis Participant In The Kiss Identified
After 55 years and “at least a half a dozen” impostors, Barbara Gray (with the help of Vanity Fair in getting Alfred Wertheimer to overcome his pre-ordained skepticism) has identified herself as “Elvis‘s blonde” in the iconic tongue-touching photo The Kiss. The backstory is pretty interesting, too. [Vanity Fair]

Kelly Rowland Has The Worst Luck When It Comes To Timing
It’s bad enough that Kelly Rowland is constantly characterized as losing a (nonexistent) battle with Beyoncé. Last night, she suffered a wardrobe malfunction…at a club show in New Jersey, two days after Nicki Minaj did the same on national television. After the show, she tweeted, “New Jersey crowd was amazing!! hope you enjoyed the show and didnt mind the peekaboo LOL!!! #kanyeshrug #stuffhappens” At least she didn’t compare herself to Hitler. #kanyeshrug [EW Music Mix]
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We love a good rumor as much as the next pop-culture junkie, but thanks to the internet, gossip has sort of spiraled out of control, and sometimes, we like to think of ourselves as rumor-busters—like when we busted rumors about Beyoncé‘s album getting pushed back…by calling her publicist, which no rumor-monger had yet bothered to do.

Now we have more evidence to support our continuing “Destiny’s Child are not beefing” coverage. We’re not so naïve that we blindly believe everything that Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland have to say on the topic, of course, but the rumors have been getting more and more ridiculous in the face of what seemed to be growing evidence to the contrary.

When we heard that, at the launch party for Rowland’s Here I Am, the duo (and Michelle Williams) had been as friendly as Rowland claimed on Tuesday that they always had been, we reported as much. But one thing puzzled us: why was Beyoncé only photographed entering and leaving the party, and not at all with Rowland, inside? The New York Daily News gossip blog Gatecrasher gave us an answer this morning, which may also explain what has continued to fuel rumors.

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Despite what sassy producers and rumor-baiting media outlets might try to lead you to believe, the members of Destiny’s Child continue to insist, they remain friends and have neither beef nor competition. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Kelly Rowland, Beyoncé, and, as Rowland would chidingly remind those who forget, Michelle Williams closed the door on the case last night at the Top of The Standard Hotel in New York City. The trio of independent women gathered for a launch party celebrating the release of Rowland’s third solo album Here I Am. Also in attendance: Big Sean (who appears on the album), Estelle, Maxwell, and Terrence J of BET’s 106 and Park, among others.

[Images: Getty Images]

Kelly Rowland‘s new album Here I Am drops today, and last night she participated in a live Q&A with Billboard to discuss the record, its R&B/Hip-Hop chart-topper “Motivation,” and Destiny’s Child reunion rumors.

Rowland, thrilled at the success of “Motivation” (not only for its own sake, but because it signaled that the record would not be pushed back again, as it had last year), was breathless with praise for all of her collaborators, but especially for Lil Wayne’s verse on her single: “I literally was at a loss for words.” To hear Rowland tell it, her process in preparing the record was not dissimilar to Dr. Dre’s in preparing Detox (though she herself did not make that comparison). “The only thing that could have been holding me back would be myself,” she told Billboard.
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Jeff Bhasker has worked with a slew of talented artists, penning and producing songs for Drake’s Thank Me Later, Alicia Keys’ The Element of Freedom, Jay-z’s Blueprint III, and Kanye’s 808s and Heartbreaks and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. With legit hits under his belt, it should be no surprise that his discerning ear also has some strong opinions. But sometimes, opinions are like a-holes, are they not?

Yesterday, when the producer who most recently worked on Beyoncé’s 4 album (“I Care,” “Party,” and “Rather Die Young”) took to Twitter tocriticize former Destiny’s Child vocalist Kelly Rowland’s current hit “Motivation,” you could almost hear the record player come to a screeching stop. Confused as to why a song “with the weakest beat and melody of all time” could catapult Kelly to #1 on the Urban chart, Bhasker wound up justifying the feat by crediting at the song’s featured verse from rapper Lil Wayne.

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