MIAMI (Billboard) – When the Mexican Navy gunned down notorious Mexican drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva in December, tribute videos started popping up on YouTube almost immediately. They showed pictures of Beltran Leyva, aka "el Jefe de Jefes" (the Chief of Chiefs), with stacks of money, guns and bags of cocaine as the backdrop to catchy corridos (narrative ballads) exalting his life and times.

Such exhibitions of adulation,

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Ne-Yo has cast doubt on Lindsay Lohan's pop return after the actress/singer abandoned plans to record more songs with the R&B hitmaker.

The singer worked with Lohan in 2008 on her single Bossy and made arrangements to head back into the studio to record more music together for her forthcoming third album.

But Ne-Yo has not heard from Lohan since and he's not sure he ever will.

He tells PopTart, "We were doing some stuff and then it just fell off and hasn't more...

Sade, "Soldier of Love" – Like a long-ago lover not quite forgotten, Sade has returned to steal our hearts with more beautiful, uncategorizable music.

It's been 10 years since her last album, a fatal hiatus for almost any other artist, but just another hibernation for a woman whose disdain for fame only deepens our fascination. Sade's voice sounds unchanged, a unique emotional instrument that conjures visions of rain-streaked

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Courtesy of NME -- Rapper looks to Gill Scott-Heron and Nina Simone for inspiration

Kanye West has revealed he is currently in the studio recording new material.

Speaking on his Kanyeuniversecity.com blog, West hinted that he'll be taking a further step away from rap on the album, and likened himself to a "true poet".

"I'm so happy to be back in the studio making new music. I will bring you the best

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NEW YORK (AP) -- In the months after her husband died, Corinne Bailey Rae was fixated on the grieving process — specifically, whether there is a right and a wrong way to mourn.

It's not as if Rae acted inappropriately after the death of Jason Rae from a drug overdose in 2008. The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, who dazzled the music world in 2006 with her sunny, silky self-titled debut, dropped out of sight after the

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LONDON (Reuters) – Global recorded music sales fell around 10 percent in 2009, and are down a huge 30 percent since 2004, after rampant piracy ate in to traditional and legitimate digital sales, the industry's trade body said.

The IFPI said in its annual report that the industry had seen positive developments in 2009, with more than a quarter of all recorded music revenues now coming from digital sales after the industry

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Courtesy of NME -- Band set to continue releasing new music despite quitting live circuit

Nine Inch Nails are set to release new music in 2010 despite recently selling off their musical equipment after they quit playing live.

Frontman Trent Reznor posted a message on the band's official website, Nin.com, explaining that there would be new band material released later this year, as well as the fruits of a new musical

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