Madonna

Madonna will wrap her Confessions tour Thursday at the Tokyo Dome as the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist.

Madonna
Although final numbers are not all in, tour producer Arthur Fogel puts the tally at $193.7 million from 60 shows that drew nearly 1.2 million in paid attendance.
That gross narrowly puts Madonna over Cher's benchmark of $192.5 million. However, it took Cher an endurance-testing 273 shows between June 2002 and April 2005 to reach that mark on her marathon Farewell tour.
Madonna's Confessions tour, which began May 21 in Los Angeles, followed the same model of the $125 million-grossing Re-Invention tour in 2004 and the $75 million-grossing Drowned World tour in 2001.
Rather than visit 100 global markets a la mega acts like the Rolling Stones and U2, Madonna opted to play multiple nights in a limited number of major international locales. The strategy has led to a staggering $400 million in ticket sales in just six years.

DJ Shadow

With a new album that mixes hyphy with indie rock and his trademark cinematic instrumentals, Josh Davis looks to expand his audience

In April, DJ Shadow unveiled the first taste of music from The Outsider, his first album in four years, and some longtime fans scratched their heads. The track "3 Freaks" found Shadow flanked by hyphy stars Keak Da Sneak and Turf Talk for a banging hip-hop track--far removed from the cinematic instrumentals of his past work.

And while The Outsider, due September 19 via Universal, does not abandon Shadow's musical roots, it is by far the most hip-hop-focused record of his career. Other guest rappers on the project include Q-Tip, the Federation, David Banner, E-40, and longtime collaborator Lateef.
Bay Area native Shadow (real name: Josh Davis) became enamored with hyphy--a gritty, up-tempo style of hip-hop--in early 2003 while listening to local radio during car trips from his house to his studio. But it wasn't until the middle of last year that he started creating his own hyphy beats and reaching out to local artists to join him in the process.
"Until January, hyphy was largely (limited to) a 20-square-mile radius in the world," Shadow says. "I went to New York in October last year to tell people this album was coming, and everybody said, 'Hyphy? Who? What?' Four months later, they were like, 'Oh, we love hyphy. We get it."'
Still, that didn't prevent friends and label personnel from discouraging Shadow to release an album combining commercial hip-hop with rock ("You Made It"), mind-expanding instrumentals ("Artifact," "Triplicate"), and psychedelic folk ("What Have I Done").
"Some of the feedback I was getting was, 'Well, why don't you do a whole rap album, and then a rock album after that?' But for me, I don't just listen to rap for six months and then rock for six months," Shadow says. "I wanted to make a record that reflects entirely and completely what inspires me, and where I feel like my interest is musically right now."
On his fall tour, Shadow's shows will feature live rapping from a rotating cast of guests. At least one in-store event is in the works for the album's release date, as are more intimate appearances during the tour where Shadow will field questions from fans.
"I think a common misconception among some in my fan base, and maybe even at my own label, is that I'm happy in my own little box and I don't really want to sell a lot of records and I don't want radio play," Shadow says. "Of course I do. Anybody who makes music, whether they admit it or not, wants to be successful with what they do. I don't consider myself the type of artist who will ever be in the top five, but what I do can work with a lot of people."

Rakim

Hip-hop's greatest MC blazes through a set of seminal tracks and proves that although his output has dwindled, his skill hasn't.
SAN FRANCISCO--Aging gracefully in the rap game is no easy task.
Just ask Flavor Flav.

Rakim
At 38 years old and without an album release since 1999, legendary rapper Rakim has provided no way to judge if the years have been kind to his flow, widely considered to be the greatest of all time.
But in a jaw-dropping performance at Slim's in San Francisco last night, the self-proclaimed microphone fiend put any doubts to rest, blazing through a set of songs and lyrics that are forever etched into hip-hop culture.
Backed by famed New York DJ Kid Capri and wearing a dark velour sweatsuit, Rakim took the stage to a deafening applause for a relatively small venue. He basked in the response for a moment and then jumped right into "My Melody," the insta-classic from 1987's Paid in Full, Eric B. & Rakim's debut album.
Eric B. & Rakim's Paid in Full.
It was clear from the outset that Rakim was on his game, performing tight turns of phrase and lyrical gymnastics with ease. While the incessant shouts of Kid Capri and wordy boasts of opener Ras Kass struggled to get the crowd hyped up, Rakim's mere presence on stage commanded the room's attention.
The set included tracks from Rakim's two solo records and his four albums with Eric B., reciting phrases that MCs have since mimicked countless times, from "flip the script" and "don't sweat the technique" to "pump up the volume" to "it's been a long time."
Rakim's lyrical content is about as limited as it gets. He raps about how tight his flow is, how he can out-rhyme anyone on the planet, and that's about it. But when can actually out-rhyme anyone on the planet, who's to argue?
As on all of his albums, the beats simply provided a head-nodding backdrop on which Rakim painted his lyrics. Eric B. raided the catalog of James Brown for samples long before it became standard operating procedure in hip-hop, so the beat of every song seemed to have a terribly familiar air to it.

And Rakim did answer the biggest question hanging over the performance, saying he's going to release his long-anticipated solo album in January. He performed a brief snippet of one song off the record, called "It's Nuthin'." Rakim signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath six years ago but the two were never able to finish an album due to creative differences, and it's unclear on what label his album will be released.
But logistics aside, on this night, Rakim rapped it best himself on his classic "Follow the Leader": "I can take a phrase that's rarely heard / Flip it / Now it's a daily word."

Eminem

Eminem has another divorce hearing, clears up Re-Up reports; Timberlake to host MTV Europe Music Awards in Denmark; K-Fed preps pre-order promotions; pop singer gets engaged to Playboy Playmate; Epic drops INXS. Eminem divorce proceeds, Re-Up set for December 5

Eminem(MP3)
In a year that has seen his best friend killed, his second divorce from wife Kimberley Mathers, and the rap world rife with rumors of his retirement, Eminem is set to end it with a bang. The Grammy- and Oscar-winning rapper said today that his previously announced mixtape, originally intended to put the spotlight on some new artists on his Shady Records, has now turned into a full-blown album. Eminem Presents: The Re-Up will now hit stores December 5 and feature new material from Eminem himself, as well as 50 Cent, D12, and Lloyd Banks. Eminem produced most of the tracks on the album, which also features news artists like Stat Quo, Bobby Creekwater, and Ca$his. "But what happened is that the material was so good and the tracks were getting produced like a regular album," Eminem said in a statement. "Instead of putting it out there rough and unfinished, I thought we should add some other new tracks, make it a real album and put it in the record stores to give these new artists a real boost." Eminem also squashed reports that the album would be a tribute to Proof, saying that it was simply a chance to highlight the new artists. "The D12 album and those unreleased songs with Proof are coming," said Eminem. "But The Re-Up is about these new artists and these new songs. It isn't fair to them or to the memory of Proof to mix them up." While Eminem is set to release new music, he continues to get his personal life in order as well. The rapper--real name Marshall Mathers--attended an hour-long mediation session in Macomb County to continue divorce proceedings with his wife, Kimberley Mathers. This is the second divorce for the couple, who were married from 1999 to 2001 and then reconciled and remarried earlier this year for just 82 days.