Backstage Pass

The one-two punch – “Living Well Is the Best Revenge” and “Man-Sized Wreath” – that opens R.E.M.’s new album “Accelerate” is its most potent in more than a decade, a sure sign that the band is shaking off whatever issues have plagued them on recent albums.

But it doesn’t quite break into the Top 5 openers in the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers’ impressive history. Here’s a look at the band’s best opening salvos:

5. Reckoning (1984, IRS): “Harborcoat” and “7 Chinese Brothers” helped define what the “college rock” movement of the mid-‘80s would become. They were songs that were as brainy and sentimental as an auditorium filled with English majors, but they also managed to still rock hard enough to hold their own against the tough guys.

If the Internet seems a little slow tomorrow afternoon, if the phone lines go down, there's a simple explanation: Jonas Brothers.

The teen phenoms will headline Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre (get ready for all the Jonas Beach signs) on Aug. 8 and at Madison Square Garden on Aug. 10. Tickets are $32.50 to $82.50 and go on sale at noon tomorrow through Ticketmaster, 631-888-9000.

And for those who missed her the last time around, Miley Ray Cyrus will play a free show at Rockefeller Center on July 25, as part of the "Today Concert Series." Make your camping plans to stake out some space on the plaza for that show now. Also part of that free show series: Mary J. Blige (May 9), Chris Brown (June 6) and Rihanna (June 20). Full schedule

PHOTO: Hollywood Records 

Sorry kids, you're going to have to wait to do your "Crank Dat" dance in front of Soulja Boy. He has canceled his tour, including an April 14 date at Nokia Theatre Times Square, to work on his new album.

More upsetting for the Backstage Pass, it means opener Lil Mama will be a no-show too.

Tickets can be returned at the point of purchase.

PHOTO: Interscope Records 

Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" (J) jumps into the No. 1 spot this week, pushing Usher's "Love in This Club"
 to No. 2, after her American television debut on "Oprah" boosted digital sales of her single 82 percent.

Lewis -- who won on "X Factor," the British equivalent of "American Idol" -- has already topped the charts at home and is set to drop her debut album "Spirit" in America on April 8.

Her seven-place surge to the top spot likely ended the No. 1 chances for Chris Brown's seemingly unstoppable "With You," which slides 2-4, passed by Ray J and Yung Berg's "Sexy Can I," climbing 7-3. Sara Bareilles' "Love Song" rounds out the Top 5.

Madonna's single "4 Minutes" debuted at No. 68, but should bust into the Top 10 next week now that it's available for purchase. 

PHOTO: Leona Lewis for J Records. 

The Allman Brothers Band has postponed their annual run of shows at the Beacon Theater -- this year's run was 15 shows between May 5 and May 24 -- due to Gregg Allman's ongoing battle with Hepatitis C.

“I’m getting better but I’m still tired,” Allman said in a statement.  “I need to be at 110% to do the shows the way we do them.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the support and understanding my Brothers and our fans have given me.”

Rescheduled dates will be announced soon and ticket holders are advised that their tickets will be honored at the new shows. They have also canceled their appearance at their Wanee Festival in Florida on April 11 and 12, though the festival will go on as scheduled.

Consider this band officially made.

Diddy's "Making the Band" protogees Danity Kane prove their No. 1 debut was no fluke returning to the top spot with "Welcome to the Dollhouse" (Bad Boy/Atlantic) this week on sales of 236,000.

The ladies kept the "Now 26" compilation at No. 2 for a second week, while last week's No. 1, Rick Ross' "Trilla," slipped to No. 3. Newcomer Flo Rida rode in at No. 4 with "Mail on Sunday," which sold 86,000 copies on the strength of the smash singles "Low" and "Elevator." Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" rounds out the Top 5.

Gnarls Barkley's new album "The Odd Couple" managed only No. 18 on sales of 31,000, after its release date moved up three weeks with little notice.

PHOTO: Danity Kane for Bad Boy Records/Atlantic. 

Bayside debuted its new video "Carry On" this afternoon and it's currently the featured clip on MySpace.

Though the Long Island guys are currently a long way from home on tour with The Starting Line, they will return to film a concert DVD at Looney Tunes in West Babylon on May 12. The DVD will be packaged with the reissue of "The Walking Wounded," due out on Victory on July 22.

The band is also setting aside June to write the follow-up to "Walking Wounded," tentatively titled "Shudder" in Los Angeles, with David Schiffman as producer. "Shudder" is set to come out on Sept. 30.

Singer/guitarist Anthony Raneri says the band has loved having time to prepare for the new album and it shows in the songs. "It is going to be the fastest, most energetic, catchiest and most exciting record we have ever made," he said in a statement. "We are feeling youthful and excited as people and I think it is going to come out in the music."


PHOTO: Bayside by Matt Wysocki for Victory Records.

You gotta hand it to the Cooks. They are the brainiest contestants left in this “American Idol” season.

David Cook’s version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” via Chris Cornell’s recent dirge-like cover showed that he’s going to continue to position himself as the risk-taker, the “edgier” candidate.

But Kristy Lee Cook’s decision to take on Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”? That was sheer genius. Appealing to the cross-section of country fans and all those red state voters with their fingers on the redial button was brilliant. She’s a better tactician than whoever was running Hillary Clinton campaign before. I was half-expecting a Drudge Report call-to-arms, but don’t worry I’m sure Kristy Lee will get one next week.

If she keeps positioning herself as traditional-values girl (over the intensely religious Brooke White, no less), she’s going to stick around for weeks to come. If only she could transform this gamesmanship into actual, you know, talent.

So what does this mean for the rest of the gang? Well, Chikezie and Ramiele should be worried. They may not deserve to go this week – especially not Ramiele, whose “Alone” was pretty strong – but Kristy’s power play will likely take one of them out.
Also, someone needs to help David Archuleta besides his stage dad, who Simon Cowell was clearly calling to the carpet this week. Poor lil’ David got saddled with an up-with-people-ish David Foster track instead of doing something popular or, well, entertaining. I’d say he should hire Kristy Lee, but she’s going to be around for a while.

David Cook, “Billie Jean”
Michael Johns, “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions”
Syesha Mercado, “If I Was Your Woman”
Carly Smithson, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”
Ramiele Malubay, “Alone”
Brooke White, “Every Breath You Take”
David Archuleta, “You’re the Voice”
Chikezie, “If Only for One Night”
Jason Castro, “Fragile”
Kristy Lee Cook, “God Bless the U.S.A.”

BOTTOM THREE: Chikezie, Ramiele, Carly
WILL BE CUT: Chikezie
SHOULD BE CUT: Kristy
ACTUALLY CUT: Chikezie

So I was talking with "Idol" Season 5 heartthrob Ace Young yesterday (more on that soon) and he mentioned how he and Levittown's Kevin Covais are still close. In fact, when Covais was in Los Angeles last year shooting his movie debut "College," Young says he insisted that Covais stay at his house.

"He's really like a little brother to me," said Young, who will release his debut album through Universal on June 3. "And I loved playing Long Island on the 'Idol' tour because of him. It felt like home to me."

"Chicken Little" Covais, however, may have to wait a bit longer for his movie to hit the big screen. The movie, which stars Drake Bell, has been pushed back a few times and though it has tentatively been set for April 11, it may get pushed back again to August since Bell's other movie "Superhero" is just getting into theaters.

Covais has taken a leave of absence from Hofstra and is pursuing acting and singing full time. He has taped a future episode of "American Idol Extra" on Fox Reality Channel and he has relaunched a mySpace page, though it doesn't have any music at the moment.

Young and Covais are both part of the book "Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul," which Young will sign copies of at Borders in Westbury on April 12. Young's story in the book also has another Long Island connection, since it was written by Setauket writer Lise Hintze.

PHOTO: Kevin Covais, Drake Bell and Andrew Caldwell in "College" for Lionsgate Films.

Corey Hart, "Never Surrender" (the song Chikezie should sing tomorrow)

It’s “Songs from their birth years” week on “American Idol,” an odd placement considering how close it is to ‘80s week. (And seeing how badly the second Beatles week went over, wouldn’t it have been better to move a more current week up in the schedule?) Oh well, now that we’re heading into the homestretch, it feels like the right time to dispense some free advice to the Top 10:

David Archuleta (1990): Lil David – or should I say Lil David’s folks? – seem to know his strengths and weaknesses pretty well, aside from that whole “We Can Work It Out” debacle. And there’s plenty of songs in his wheelhouse from ‘90. I’m thinking Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” or Michael Bolton’s “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” are on his shortlist and maybe “Love Will Lead You Back” from Long Island’s own Taylor Dayne. But he’d be better off stretching a bit with Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” or maybe Mariah’s “Love Takes Time.” Just please no Phil Collins.

Jason Castro, Ramiele Malubay, Syesha Mercado (1987): Jason needs to recapture the kinda-edgy, kinda-sweet success of “Hallelujah” and there are some good possibilities for him, though they’ll probably be eliminated by rights issues. U2, Springsteen and R.E.M. would be great for him. (“With or Without You” would drive the nation’s teenage girls into a frenzy.) Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” could work or one of the Bon Jovi hits.

Ramiele needs a big week if she’s going to hang around. There are plenty of cute songs from 1987 that would work for her – from The Jets’ “You Got It All” or Lisa Lisa’s “Head to Toe” to all the Expose hits. But I think she should come out of left field and do Billy Vera’s “At This Moment,” which is due for a comeback, don’t you think?

Syesha needs to stay away from the Whitney this week, but still needs a big ballad. How about Heart’s “Alone” or Kenny Loggins’ “Meet Me Halfway”? But I can’t resist suggesting Michael Jackson’s “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” his duet with Siedah Garrett. Siedah, Syesha. Syesha, Siedah.

Chikezie (1985): I expect big things from Chikezie this week because he has a strong slate of songs to work his countryfied-soul magic on. Anything from Wham!’s “Careless Whisper” to Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” to Chicago’s “You’re the Inspiration” should be great. But a good left-field choice – Corey Hart’s “Never Surrender”? Jack Wagner’s “All I Need”? – could boost Chikezie to a whole new level.

Panic at the Disco, "Nine in the Afternoon"

Who says punctuation isn’t important?

When last we saw Panic At the Disco, they were all about hyper-literate emo, circus imagery, guyliner, closing doors and that ever-crucial exclamation point.

For its sophomore album “Pretty. Odd,” the Las Vegas quartet has dropped the exclamation point from its name and seemingly turned into a completely different band, one with well-crafted songs steeped in Beatles grandeur, Beach Boys harmonies and other pleasantly surprising ambitions.

The Beatlesque first single “Nine in the Afternoon,” complete with horn flourishes and a streamlined hook that is hard to shake, was no fluke. It was the throwing down of the gauntlet.

Aside from Brendon Urie’s distinctive vocals (and even those are bolstered by new harmonies and less-frantic phrasing), nearly nothing else from the band’s multi-platinum debut “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” remains.

There’s a New Orleans jazz feel to “I Have Friends in Holy Places.” There’s “Folkin’ Around,” which oddly sounds like a countrified “I’ve Just Seen a Face.” And there are loads of gorgeous pop songs, including “Northern Downpour,” an acoustic gem that sounds like Panic’s take on a “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” ballad.

Like their mentors Fall Out Boy did on “Infinity on High,” Panic at the Disco has taken a quantum leap forward in terms of ambition and execution. “Pretty. Odd.” is the exact opposite of the sophomore slump – a sophomore smash they can be proud of.

Well, at least it's staying in the rock and roll family. The CBGB Gallery space on the Bowery, next to the legendary punk club, will soon be another Morrison Hotel Gallery space, in addition to the rock photography galleries already in SoHo, L.A. and La Jolla.

The first show is set to be "Rockers," an installation from rock photog Bob Gruen, including shots from the heyday of CBGB and Max's Kansas City. Part of the exhibit, which will open April 24, will transform the gallery's main space into a teenager's bedroom.

CBGB, which was the epicenter of the New York punk scene in the '70s, and its gallery next door, closed in 2006 after a lengthy lease dispute with its landlord.

ABOVE: Artist rendering of the new Morrison Hotel Gallery storefront. 

The new Madonna single "4 Minutes" is confusing on so many levels. It's an OK song, but I've never heard her sound so overwhelmed by a producer before. Sure, Timbaland is an artistic (and commercial) force, but Madonna's collaborations generally sound more, well, collaborative. This sounds like a Timbaland track that could have been done by anyone from Keri Hilson to Nelly Furtado. Is Madge really trying to go incognito? My other question is: Why is this track being introduced through a Sunsilk shampoo commercial? Were the Apple people not interested? Is Old Navy all full? Did the writers' strike delay keep it off of "Grey's Anatomy"? Or are Madonna and Warner Bros. simply going through the motions on the release of "Hard Candy," seeing as she is set to go to her new Live Nation deal once the project is over? Hmmm.

Oh Mandy, well you came and you gave without taking. But they sent you away (and
left us with the bland, key-challenged Kristy Lee Cook,) oh Mandy.

It's not that rock and roll nurse Amanda Overmyer was great -- after all, she
did start her "Back in the U.S.S.R." in the wrong key -- but at least she was
interesting and she looked at the contest from an adult perspective.

My sadness over Amanda was tempered though over my joy that Carly Smithson landed in the bottom three after her bludgeoning of "Blackbird." The judges
looked on in horror as their underperforming Irish ringer failed to win
America's hearts. There really are some things you can't sell.

We'll miss you Amanda, especially when you rock out to our beloved Joan Jett.

According to Wikipedia, the band's name is supposed to be spelled out in all caps, though if you want to get technical it's actually ラブ・サイケデリコ. Hailing from Japan, Love Pyschedelico has been around for a few years, but it recently picked up a bit of juice from an Idolator post -- even though the site mistook guitarist Naoki Sato for a girl.

But there's no mistaking the lovely singer, known only as Kumi. She and the guy have a catchy tune called "Your Song" that's notable for two things.

One, it's actually a well-constructed and not entirely derivative pop number -- a rarity, coming from Japan. And two, Kumi seems to have studied at the Alanis Morissette School of Canadian English. She sings most of the song in her native tongue, but on the chorus she successfully wraps her mouth around a hard "R" like the Jagged Little Pill herself. All in all, it's a curio, but a thoroughly enjoyable one.

A compilation album, "This is Love Psychedelico," due April 29 on Hacktone Records, will mark the group's U.S. debut. Check out the video, below:

Ryan Star has a new home -- on the Web, that is. Rstar.net has undergone a renovation, serving as a central hub for all the random pages that musicians have these days (MySpace, PureVolume, Facebook, whatever).

Ever the grass-rootser, Star promises on the site: "You will never get some ---- update or response from my label pretending to be me. You will get me."

Check out the slick production on the song "Last Train Home," which was featured in the recent film "P.S. I Love You," at http://rstar.net. The song starts automatically.

Ringo Starr & His All Starrs, who this time out include Men at Work's Colin Hay, Billy Squier, and Edgar Winter, will play Radio City Music Hall on June 24 and North Fork Theatre at Westbury on June 29. Tickets for both shows go on sale April 5 through Ticketmaster.

Though Starr recently released his solo album "Liverpool 8" (Capitol/EMI), his All Starr tours are generally something different. "My live shows are a peace-and-love fest," he said in a statement. "That's my main promotion, really."

PHOTO: Ringostarr.com 

Good news for Blues Traveler fans: The John Popper Project is heading out on tour. No NY dates yet, but given Popper's following here, that will probably change.

The tour has good timing: A new documentary on the now-defunct New York rock club Wetlands Preserve (titled "Wetlands Preserved") is reminding fans of the nascent days of the jam-band scene, when acts like Blues Traveler, Phish, Spin Doctors and Dave Matthews were still under-the-radar phenomena playing small clubs for stoned, barefoot, ever-twirling fans. The Popper Project may get some additional buzz (buzz, get it?) from the film. And the band is touring with Wetlands regular DJ Logic in tow.

So far, Popper has scheduled seven nights, all in Colorado, between Mar. 25 and Apr. 2.

Listen to the track "Took," from the group's self-titled debut (released by Relix Records, the music arm of the classic-rock mag, whose editor just happened to direct that documentary), here.

Yeah, this is the show I was expecting last week, filled with bad performances, annoying arrangements and all-around butchery of some of the Beatles’ greatest songs.

As it turned out, the ones who stuck to the originals most fared the best – as long as they didn’t make any mistakes, like Michael Johns’ off-key “A Day in the Life” and Amanda Overmyer’s wobbly start on “Back in the USSR.” That means David Archuleta’s safe “The Long and Winding Road” became the best by default, followed by David Cook’s “Daytripper,” which did not need the Vocoder solo.

Of course that was the least of the atrocities of the night. Chikezie sounded fine on “I’ve Just Seen a Face” until he countrified it and sounded like a bad “Saturday Night Live” skit. Carly Smithson beat “Blackbird” to near death with an Evanescence-ish delivery.
Were it not for Kristy Lee Cook’s awful “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” a lot of early favorites could have been vulnerable.

David Archuleta, “The Long and Winding Road”
David Cook, “Day Tripper”
Syesha Mercado, “Yesterday”
Brooke White, “Here Comes the Sun”
Ramiele Malubay, “I Should Have Known Better”
Jason Castro, “Michelle”
Carly Smithson, “Blackbird”
Michael Johns, “A Day in the Life”
Amanda Overmyer, “Back in the USSR”
Chikezie, “I’ve Just Seen a Face”
Kristy Lee Cook, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”

BOTTOM THREE: Kristy, Chikezie, Michael
WILL BE CUT: Kristy
SHOULD BE CUT: Kristy
ACTUALLY CUT: Amanda

The newly exclamation-point-less Panic at the Disco has put its new album, "Pretty. Odd.," up on MTV's The Leak.

"We're so sorry we've been gone," the band sings on the opening track, "we were busy writing songs for you!"

Check it out here.

Kid Rock's "Rock and Roll Revival Tour" comes to Madison Square Garden on May 15 with an interesting supporting cast: There's Lynyrd Skynyrd, whom Rock inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame last year, but also Reverend Run and -- in one of the more unlikely musical pairings -- Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 22 through Ticketmaster.

In case you didn't get the memos, here are a few more album releases announced recently:

Phantom Planet will release "Raise The Dead" April 15 on Fueled By Ramen. It's available for pre-order on the label's website, or if you want a sneak preview, listen to the now-available digital single "Do the Panic" at the band's MySpace page. The band comes to Roseland Ballroom May 7 and 8.

Counting Crows will drop "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" on Geffen Records March 25. A mix of acoustic and electric songs, the disc features production by Brian Deck (Modest Mouse) and Gil Norton (Pixies). Download the combo single "1492" and "When I Dream of Michelangelo," which showcases both aspects of the new album, at www.CountingCrows.com. No proof of this theory, but the title may come from "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning," the old British movie starring Albert Finney as the classic Angry Young Man.

In the 1980s category:

The Wedding Present releases its Steve Albini-produced disc "El Rey" on Manifesto Recordings May 20. The title may be a nod to the famous El Rey nightclub in Los Angeles, where frontman David Gedge has been living for the past year or so. Says Gedge in a press release: "While I’m not going to claim that this is my ‘L.A.’ album, there are some references. I suppose the themes are lust, jealousy, betrayal, regret, obsession, super-heroes… the usual."

Tears for Fears co-founder Curt Smith will release "Halfway, pleased" (note odd use of lowercase) on his own KOOK Media label (note odd use of uppercase) on May 20. It's his first solo album in 10 years.

Release dates? Who needs 'em?

Gnarls Barkley announced yesterday that they would move up the release of their new album "The Odd Couple" from April 8 to, well, today. The album is already on sale at iTunes, Rhapsody and Amazon for download and will be in stores this week.

Why the move? According to a band spokesman, "With the shifting seasons, furtive romantic entanglements and fierce college basketball rivalries, the latter half of March can be confusing. People need to be soothed and inspired now."

Hmm. Well at least Gnarls Barkley has the hot single "Run" to drive interest in the album.

Last night, the Raconteurs announced that they finished a new album, "Consolers of the Lonely," earlier this month and it is coming out in all formats on March 25. The first single is "Salute Your Solution" and the video for it comes out -- you guessed it -- on March 25.

What does it sound like? Good question, but no one knows. The band isn't doing any press or giving anyone an early listen to the album. "We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and THEN marketing and promoting it thereafter," the band said in a statement. "The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it."

It's an interesting bit of logic there from Jack White and Brendan Benson because unless all the Raconteurs' fans all run out and buy it in the first week, which they say is not a priority, wouldn't reviews and promotion end up "defining" the album anyway? (I, for one, don't think critics "define" any album for anyone ever, since music fans are smart enough to make up their own minds. But maybe I should just graciously accept the Raconteurs' hype of my profession's power.)

In the movie world, when companies refuse to allow critics into a movie beforehand, it's usually a sure sign that it's terrible. But given White and Benson's track records, that isn't necessarily the case. We'll all just have to wait and see together.

PHOTO: Gnarls Barkley by Jeremy and Claire Weiss for Atlantic 

Eddie Vedder unveils his new protest song "No More" through MTV's think.mtv.com website, the first single from "Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran" (Sire), in stores tomorrow.

Those two area dates for Van Halen have been rescheduled. They are:

Tuesday, May 13 at Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ

Friday, May 23 at Madison Square Garden, Manhattan

Rumors abounded about Eddie's unspecified medical ailment, which derailed the tour. Eddie has struggled with cancer and rehab, though his ex-wife, Valerie Bertinelli, claims the problem is not the latter. Still no official word, though.

She's known as the kid sister of Rufus, but Martha Wainwright is an artist in her own, er, wright. Anyone who saw Rufus's two-day Judy Garland tribute at Carnegie Hall in 2006 will remember how little Martha not only stole the spotlight during her wild, audacious version of "Stormy Weather" but also brought the amazed crowd to its feet.

Now Martha is following her eponymous debut disc with "I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too" (Zoe/Rounder), to be released June 10. (She likes attention-grabbing titles: She once released an EP whose title was merely a string of vulgarities.) The disc is a star-studded affair, featuring Pete Townshend, Donald Fagen, Garth Hudson and, of course, Martha's famous mother and aunt, Kate and Anna McGarrigle.

Check out a new track, "You Cheated Me," up for a limited time at Martha's MySpace page, which also features a live recording of "Stormy Weather."

For Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the high-priced escort known as “Kristen” caught up in the prostitution scandal that brought down Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the clock on converting her 15 minutes of fame/infamy into a music career has started running. But she’s probably used to that.

After an initial wave of interest in her music, especially the single “What We Want,” led to radio airplay and online sales on Thursday, curiosity started to give way to indifference or even anger yesterday. “The jury is in and the response has been extremely negative,” said Sharon Dastur, program director at New York’s influential pop station Z100, which began playing “What We Want” on Thursday, but removed it from its playlist yesterday. “The reaction was almost 95 percent negative.”

Dastur said the station played the song because of its importance to pop culture, not because of its musical value. When the station was flooded with responses ranging fom that song “makes me want to scratch my eyes out” to “I’d rather listen to the Paris Hilton album in its entirety than hear that song again,” Dastur said she knew it was time to pull it after only six plays.

On the online retailer Amie Street, where Dupre’s songs “What We Want” and “Move Ya Body” are for sale, purchases dropped dramatically yesterday. Neither song was in the Top 200 Friday, though the massive sales on Thursday led both songs to the top two spots for the week and the month.

New York DJ Jay Smooth, who remixed Dupre’s “What We Want” with Snoop Dogg’s hit “Sexual Eruption,” saw his combination crack YouTube’s most watched videos yesterday, which led to mixed feelings. “It feels strange to get the most attention for my most frivolous work,” said Smooth, a WBAI hip-hop DJ who first posted the remix on his influential illdoctrine.com blog. “My hope is that people will see this and check out my work on more substantial topics... or see that it showcases the creativity in hip-hop.”

Smooth said yesterday that he was torn about keeping the mash-up online, but he did want to try to do something positive for Dupre. "I felt bad for the girl and all of the negative attention that was going to be heaped on her," he said.

Dastur said Dupre’s future in music doesn’t seem too bright, though “Nowadays, you never really know.”