Author: Kimle Nguyen

DJ Swivel is no amateur to the music business. At 27, he has achieved in a short amount of time what many mixers and producers hope to achieve in a lifetime. Within 5 years of graduating a sound engineering program, Swivel has worked with a handful of A-list artists.  His biggest achievement to date is becoming the full-time audio engineer to global superstar, Beyoncé Knowles. He’s a humble guy too. In his spare time, he’s been known to help out D’Pryde. He recently extended a helping hand in mixing Pryde’s newest single, “Bottom Dollar,” off the June 3rd Flagship…

Electronic artist Steve Aoki collaborates with former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Kid Cudi on the dubstep inspired track “Cudi the Kid” for Aoki’s debut album Wonderland. Each artist in this power trio brings something grand to the collaboration: Cudi’s progressive hip-hop style, Barker’s high energy on the drums, and Aoki’s skill at mixing. This single is sure to draw new listeners from hip-hop, electronic dance music, and rock. The provocative music video starts off featuring young versions of each artist taking a bus ride with the devil. The artistic, or rather psychedelic, visuals will capture your attention until the…

Akira Yoshizawa, known as the grandfather of modern origami, would have turned 101 today. (He passed away in 2005, at the age of 94) Google honored the origami artist with a one-of-a-kind Google doodle on its homepage today. According to the New York Times, he “pioneered a system of origami notation that allows readers of any language to follow a set of printed instructions. Using dotted lines to indicate the folds and arrows to indicate the directions of the folds, the system is widely used today.” Simply put, he made it easier for the general population to…

The film adaptation for the best-selling trilogy The Hunger Games has cast stuntman/actor Chris Mark as a “District 5 Tribute Boy.” Although Chris Mark plays a minor role in this film, many Asian-Americans who have been frustrated with the lack of Asian representation in big-budget films will be pleasantly surprised when the young actor debuts his exciting stunt work on the big screen. (Marks is half-Chinese, half-British.) Marks has done stunts in popular movies including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Kick-Ass, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and Jumper. [youtube id=”4OuBHM6zt4g” width=”600″ height=”350″] The…

It seems that there may be some beef brewing between Rihanna and Chris Brown’s current girlfriend, Karrueche Tran. The Twitter feud started on March 3rd when Rihanna tweeted an Instagram photo of some rice cakes that is being interpreted as a racist jab at Tran, who is half-Vietnamese. This all happened a little after the controversial collaboration between the two on a remix to Chris’ “Turn Up the Music” single and the remix to Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake” song. Coincidence? You be the judge.

American Idol’s 400th Episode Musical Theme: Stevie Wonder (Males) & Whitney Houston (Females) Guest Mentor: Mary J. Blige Jessica Sanchez- I Will Always Love You [youtube id=”ayYNAEs0few” width=”615″ height=”315″] Twitter Chatter: @CaliforniaKingg: If Jessica Sanchez wins I seriously believe her career can end up being legendary, her vocals are insane! #FAN @happyhexer: Wasn’t feeling song that Jessica Sanchez sang (contrary 2 what judges said), but there’s no doubt she’s mad talented! Want 2 C more of her. @mackenzielintz: dangggg ok. not a fan of the girls on AI bt jessica sanchez knocked it out the…

Somong candidly reveals details on his involvement with Ja Rule’s single “Drown” from Pain is Love II (PIL2). Preview “Drown,”- Ja Rule featuring Somong [youtube id=”yiVdS4q4HlE” width=”615″ height=”315″] He says: How drown was started was I structured the lyrics and then I played the piano and I came up with a melody and I paired it. And after capturing it in song form, I presented it to Rule. One day he just came in and it was like… it was random. He just came into the studio and he asked me if I had anything and I told him…

Filipino rapper, Rel Princeton, talks to Jackfroot.com about his latest album, Crash Landing, that’s expected to be released by this summer; the masterminds behind its creation; and how the project has given him a different perspective on racism, life, and music. Your music has seemed to mature a lot since you put out “Spotlight” with Ray J. How did you find your new musical direction with this album? I found my musical direction by getting lost, by taking two steps forward only to take five steps back, by having to re route only to end up in the same…

Jeremy Lin, who was known to crash on his brother’s and teammate’s couches before “Linsanity” began, now has a place to call home. Lin finally settled on a fully furnished lower Manhattan condo on the 38th floor of the W New York Downtown Hotel after the New York Knicks guaranteed him a contact with the team. The Wall Street Journal reports that Lin looked at 20 apartments before settling on the 1,182-square-foot unit. The hotel is listed for $13,000 a month, but a better deal was negotiated with Lin– although the negotiated price was not disclosed to the media.

Swizz Beatz holds a press conference in South Korea announcing his partnership with O.N. Media and his plan to bring Korea’s “K-Pop” to the United States. “It’s a new expression and the world is open for new things. I think right now K-Pop in Korea is leading in that area, and I would love to be the one to introduce that to the West,” announces Beatz. “The biggest thing with K-Pop is how much it’s elevated to the next level. A genius like Kanye West and other geniuses that are smart enough to work with K-Pop groups understand that music…

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/37614641″ comments=”true” auto_play=”false” color=”ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″] “Live My Life” is off Far East Movement’s upcoming album DIRTY BASS. The single will hit iTunes on February 28th. What do you think of the track?

Talk about a one-man team. Jhameel is an underrated artist with a lot of talent. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter who writes and produces all of his music. This says quite a lot when a majority of artists these days usually have a whole team backing their efforts. “Music is like the perfect language” Here’s a fun fact: If you’ve watched the recent Verizon Droid Razr commercial, you may have already heard his song “Collision” that was used in the background. Get to know this San Francisco based artist with this exclusive Jackfroot interview that delves a…

Producer and songwriter, RedOne, reveals that Justin Bieber has been in the studio working on a dance track with Far East Movement. “The Bieber thing, I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention it right now, but … I did a few songs with Far East Movement, and one of the songs … to me, it’s a smash. And Justin sang the chorus. It’s a really good song, and I think people are gonna dance like crazy to it,” RedOne shares with MTV News. While the details are still hush-hush, this could be a big opportunity for…

As we move closer into the 2012 year, more emerging singers and artists are arising from every corner. The Jackfroot staff has been keeping a close eye on all of the hot artists on the rise, as well as watching new ones coming up as well. Our team decided to narrow down and compile a list of some of the hottest 12 artists to keep an eye on in 2012. This list is in no particular order and we apologize if we left anyone out. All of the artists that are on this list were carefully selected and…

Jay Park’s first full-length album New Breed has topped the iTunes R&B charts in numerous countries including the US. His success is largely attributed to his diehard Korean fan base and his innate knowledge of Western culture and trends that stem from his Korean-American background. Upon hearing the news of his albums successful launch, the K-Pop star takes to Twitter to thank his fans. “Damn # 1 on US iTunes already?? That shit cray! Thanks for the love ya’ll glad to see ppl still enjoy good music!!” The album contains 15 songs with features from Rob Knox, Dynamic Duo,…