MarvinGaye

NEW YORK (AP) - Lenny Kravitz has signed on for his first leading film role, playing singer Marvin Gaye in a biopic that will be shot next year. The rocker's publicist Carleen Donovan confirmed the news Tuesday. Kravitz has played supporting roles in the past, including a small part in "The Hunger Games...

It's been said that today's true R&B singers are the last of a dying breed. Longtime fans of the genre lament that it's not what it once was, having been diluted by dance and hip-hop influences as of late. Nonetheless, great R&B has flooded 2012, by the likes of newer artists like Miguel, Frank Ocean, Elle Varner and Emeli Sande. Fresh ...

This Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) put the red roses and boxes of chocolate aside and turn up the volume in the bedroom with The BoomBox's playlist. We've gone back in time as far as the '60s to find 10 R&B and soul albums that tickle the heart and will leave you floating on cloud nine. Fr...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Grammy award-winning singer John Legend surprised a high school choir Tuesday at the Kennedy Center to help start a program encouraging young artists to confront social issues with their art, in honor of the late Marvin Gaye...

Calling Jay-Z an "icon of American excellence," Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson is using the hip-hop mogul's life and lyrics as the basis of a new course. Dubbed 'Sociology of Hip Hop: Jay-Z,' the class focuses on how Hova fits into African-American culture and the world of business...

Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images G.O.O.D Music rapper Big Sean received yet another big-league boost recently, when he landed revered video director Hype Williams to helm the visual for his Kanye West-assisted third single 'Marvin Gaye & Chardonnay.' ...

Rapper Big Sean has had a long road to success. Though he was immediately signed to G.O.O.D. Music in 2005, after kicking one freestyle in front of Kanye West, the Detroit MC has seen his 'Finally Famous' album debut delayed time and again...

With Fantasia gearing up to play gospel legend Mahalia Jackson and casting soon to begin on a Tupac Shakur biopic, the BoomBox got to thinking about other iconic musicians whose lives deserve the big-screen treatment. What follows is a list of 10 possible music biopics and the superstars we nominate for the lead roles...

Since signing to Young Money at the tender age of 13, Lil Twist has been the youngest member of Lil Wayne's omnipresent rhyme family. This month, the Dallas native turned 18 years old, and with that comes a brave new world. "I'm not just a kiddie rapper anymore," Twist tells The BoomBox of his overall growth...

Once controversial, the practice of sampling is now generally regarded as a viable artistic method of production and a mostly legitimate commercial endeavor. Good public reception of a sample-use often depends on a combination of factors including what is sampled, who is sampled, and how that sample is used to create something new...