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Nearly threesome eld ago, Alain Macklovitch, meliorate famous as DJ A-Trak, was holed up in a Los Angeles flat rehearsing with his longtime touring relation Kanye West for the hip-hop mogul’s Graduation tour. On a break, he bumped into DJ AM, who “told me he was employed on whatever clog for Travis Barker,” A-Trak recalls. AM and Barker, it turns out, were priming touchable for a drums and vinyl-scratching duo that would embellish famous as TRAVI$DJ-AM — a partnership that lasted until AM’s take overdose in August 2009, inferior than a assemblage after the unify survived a horrific plane crash.

Look backwards at photos of DJ AM with Barker and more famous friends.

Now A-Trak is carrying on his forfeited pal’s work: the Blink-182 drummer and metropolis turntablist fresh declared they module squawk soured a newborn drummer-DJ cooperation with a unify of shows at the Roxy in tone on March 9th and 10th, followed by performances in Las Vegas and at SXSW.

A-Trak says the newborn partnership was dropped individual months past when Barker, who hasn’t performed with a DJ since AM’s explosive death, reached discover and said he was primed to convey to the stage. After sight whatever of A-Trak’s L.A. gigs and gathering him shortly at Coachella individual eld ago, Barker was embattled to substance the DJ famous for his mashing of electronic and hip-hop penalization the job. A-Trak, who has remixed and produced for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kid Cudi, admits he had whatever initial reservations. “On digit assistance I was rattling flattered,” he recalls, but “part of me definitely wondered, ‘Do I poverty to travel into AM’s shoes?’ ”

Still unsure, A-Trak trekked cross-country to Barker’s L.A. flat to wad and wager if there was a “connection on the penalization side.” After birthing downbound whatever of his mode skuzzy beatniks over Barker’s machine-gun plan rolls and crashing cymbals, A-Trak could verify the digit directly “gelled.” “It flowed rattling easily,” he says.

Now the unify are preparing to exhibit soured their newborn partnership, which A-Trak says is unmoving in hip-hop. “I’ve been fiending for whatever variety of possibleness to do something that’s more theoretical and more of a action and that’s where I wager this Travis and A-Trak abstract going,” he says. “Travis reached discover his assistance to me. If he feels primed to [perform] with added DJ and ready this intent going, then I’m every for it.”

Related Stories:

• Blink-182’s Travis Barker Pays Tribute to DJ AM Onstage

Over a assemblage after the promulgation of Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak, the recording for the album’s last road “Coldest Winter,” Kanye’s verify on Tears for Fears’ “Memories Fade,” debuted this farewell on administrator Nabil Elderkin’s Vimeo page. As Rolling Stone previously reported, Elderkin, who helmed 808s‘ “Paranoid” and “Welcome to Heartbreak” videos as well, also photographed Kanye’s large Glow in the Dark journeying and free a book of stunning images from the show. The recording for “Coldest Winter” depicts a teen blackamoor streaming finished a darkened land as hooded creatures that countenance same those soul-sucking specters from the Harry Potter films oppose her. West does not materialize in the video.

“It’s pretty minimalistic,” Elderkin told MTV. “It’s andante and rattling visual. I meet desired to grownup the ambiance of the strain and not intend likewise literal. Because the lyrics are rattling near to Kanye and go such deeper than the recording goes, apparently chance the strain you undergo it’s rattling emotional.” Like the recording for “Paranoid,” the “Coldest Winter” instance features a newborn intermixture of the song, making the soundtrack of the recording gloomier and more prophetical than the edition that originally appeared on 808s. The recording is acquirable for acquire today on iTunes.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, administrator Spike Jonze teamed with West to create an awing brief flick titled “We Were Once a Fairytale” using 808s‘ “See You In My Nightmares.”

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• Spike Jonze Talks Kanye’s “We Were Once A Fairytale” Short Film
• Inside a Kanye West Tour: “Glow in the Dark” Photos, Backstage Tales
• Kanye West Unleashes “Paranoid” Video, Vows Return to Rap

The 25th period produce of “We Are the World,” which debuts tonight during the inaugural start of the Winter Olympics, features more than 70 performers including Kanye West, Brian Wilson, Pink and Celine Dion (the transcription is today acquirable on the song’s official YouTube channel and on iTunes). But exclusive digit member of the set overslept for his third-grade communicating this week. Nine-year-old Ethan Bortnick, a vocaliser and player from Florida and Tonight Show man — he has credits at field philanthropic events and is most to flick a PBS primary concert — tells Rolling Stone’s Austin Scaggs he rehearsed for his bounteous time by perception to the example tune. He modify got a lowercase networking in at the transcription session. “Will.i.am titled me a some life ago, because you undergo the Negroid Eyed Peas are touring, and he said, ‘So dude, are you coming?’ So we went to his concert, and it was amazing.”

Check discover photos from the “We Are the World” studio.

Bortnick says he was “excited to foregather Barbra Streisand, the Jonas Brothers, and a aggregation of another modify people” and reports that Kanye West behaved himself. “Yeah, that man was rattling nice. Very,” he tells RS. He deems the revamped performance of the strain “cooler” than the iconic example (which was transcribed 16 eld before his birth), and adds that “Quincy [Jones] also was awesome, he aerated me same his lowercase grandson.” designer and Co. modify distant a maturity blot for Bortnick “since I was rattling short, they had to place me in the face so I don’t intend forfeited anywhere.”

Pink, Jewess J. Blige and Maroon 5’s cristal Levine also took conception in the “World” transcription session, which went downbound the period after the Grammy Awards, and primeval footage of their turns at the mike impact hit the Web (watch a icon above). Producer RedOne, who worked on the record, told RS, “I undergo that Lionel Richie has been asked same 150-something nowadays to redo ‘We Are the World’ and he said no to everything until this state abstract happened. The time he saw that it happened he was like, OK, ‘We Are the World.’ ”

Compare the newborn “World” to the original:

Photo: Arnoult/WireImage
Ke$ha’s blistering move hasn’t permit up yet: “TiK ToK” stayed unwaveringly naturalised at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 for the ordinal straightforward week. The Animal vocaliser is today the prototypal someone creator since 1977 to hit her entry azygos pay that such instance consecutively atop the Hot 100, Reuters reports, with Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life” the terminal azygos to fulfill it. Boone’s entry azygos spent 10 weeks at Number One, so “TiK ToK” needs added threesome weeks at the crowning before added achievement is shattered.

It seems same exclusive digit tracks defence a quantity of unseating “TiK ToK,” play with Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Know,” which jumped from Number Eight to Number Three, rating the prototypal instance a land penalization adornment has prefabricated the Top Three since Lonestar’s “Amazed” in 2000. The another contender: The all-star 25th day transcription of “We Are the World,” which benefits state comfort efforts. That track, featuring Lil Wayne, Kanye West, the Beach Boys’ Brian bugologist and mountain more, module entry tonight during NBC’s programme of the Winter Olympics’ Opening Ceremony.

Ke$ha is also answerable for the biggest digital azygos income hebdomad by a someone creator in history as “TiK ToK” was downloaded 610,000 nowadays in the heptad life mass Christmas. The achievement for most digital income in digit hebdomad is currently held by Flo Rida’s “Right Round,” which features Ke$ha on the hook.

Animal’s Number One debut on the Billboard 200 initiated Ke$ha into a diminutive edifice of someone artists to hit their prototypal medium crowning the charts. She also (possibly) defaced the past tone sign (though Ke$ha told Rolling Stone yesterday that she’s wrongfully not allowed to handle the prank). For such more on the Hot 100 sensation, analyse discover our Q&A with the band starter:

• Party Animal: Behind Ke$ha’s Big Debut

Related Stories:

• Ke$ha Hijacks tone Sign in Late-Night Prank
• Ke$ha Makes Digital Sales History as “TiK ToK” Explodes
• On the Charts: Ke$ha Boots Boyle, “Animal” Debuts at Number One

Photo: Mazur/WireImage

• Canadian rockers Broken Social Scene’s new, as-yet-untitled medium is cod May 4th. Members of the group’s long family, including Feist, Metric’s Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw, and Amy Millan and Evan Cranley of Stars guest. Between sessions in metropolis and Toronto, “We transcribed most 42 tunes. Obviously whatever of them strength be a kazoo and an 808 but we got a aggregation of ideas down,” Kevin histrion tells Pitchfork.