DJ White Shadow Says ‘Born This Way’ is “Complex”

When Lady Gaga leaked the lyrics to “Born This Way” online last week, the pop star also revealed the production team behind her highly anticipated next single. Along with Gaga and Interscope producer/songwriter Fernando Garibay, the music is credited to DJ White Shadow — a Chicago producer and mixtape specialist whose real name is Paul Blair.

As one of the primary collaborators on the Gaga’s “Born This Way” album, DJ White Shadow says that he is spending “20-hour days” in the studio to help finish the set in time for its May 23 release. Still, the producer found some time to check in with Billboard.com and share a few details about his collaboration with Gaga, her new album and the sound of its first single, which is set to debut on Feb. 13.

Billboard: How did you come to work with Lady Gaga on “Born This Way”?
DJ White Shadow: Gaga was listening to my mixtapes after someone she knew heard me DJ in a club in L.A. One day Gaga e-mailed me and asked me if I made my own beats. I said yes, sent her some, and she hit me back, this time on the phone, asking if I wanted to work with her on some stuff. I said okay.

When and where did you record the song “Born This Way”? How would you describe the sound of it?
She made it. She came up with the idea, she wrote it. She is a genius. We recorded it around the world, on the road, in whatever was available. It sounds like it reads, but not like you think until you hear it.

Did you work on any other album tracks?
Yes. I have been working on this record for well over a year. It has been awesome. Sonically it is much more complex. It’s beautiful. Like a golden spaceship touching down on a rainbow runway in a field of fresh mint.

What are you working on now?
Finishing this record. Making remixes. Listening to yacht rock. The usual.

Source: Billboard

“Hello Hello” Duet Exclusive to “Gnomeo” Film Only

The duet song, “Hello Hello,” between Lady Gaga and Sir Elton John will not be included in the Gnomeo & Juliet Original Soundtrack . According to The Press Association , the soundtrack to the animated film (confirmed by label Buena Vista Records) will only feature Sir Elton John. The actual duet can only be heard when one makes a visit to their theatre. It will also not be released to the radio.

How Lady Gaga Made the Rest Look Ordinary

Before you get stuck into what will be an extremely illuminating read, take a few seconds to draw up a mental list of every massive popstar of the last 50 years. Now start crossing names off. Start with everyone who couldn’t actually sing live, everyone who doesn’t write their own music. Keep on crossing the names off when the popstar isn’t funny or self-aware, doesn’t care about their fans, has never sported a costume made entirely of dead Kermits, isn’t open about their sexuality, has no political viewpoints and – this is the tricky bit – is simultaneously selling tens of millions of songs. Chances are you’re probably already down to two or three names by now, and the only one whose music you’ll hear on the radio today is 24-year-old, Lady Gaga.

Of course, it doesn’t take a list of crossed-out names to tell you that Gaga defines this era of popular music, and the public debut of her phenomenal new single Born This Way ahead of May’s album of the same name, will propel Gaga’s fearless, inventive, sex-charged pop juggernaut through at least another 18 months. Born This Way already sounded like a hit when Stylist first heard it in demo form last spring. Now it’s ready to face daylight – the song is a confident, stylish equality anthem likely to raise a few eyebrows and, most importantly, it’s got a cracking tune.

Most popstars succeed because they make what they do look easy but Lady Gaga makes her job look impossible, and she’s set some impressive targets for anyone looking to take her throne. Kylie Minogue’s take on it is that Gaga “dropped a meteor in the middle of the pop landscape”. In 2010 alone – when she didn’t even have a new album out – Lady Gaga became the first artist in Billboard history to send her first five singles to number one. Gaga became the first living person to reach 10 million fans on Facebook, The Fame became the top-selling album in digital history, and Gaga was nominated a record-breaking 13 times at the VMAs. She became the first person to reach six million followers on Twitter, and the first artist in history to reach 1 billion views of her videos on YouTube. Her Monster Ball tour played to over 150 sold out nights and grossed £83m, while Forbes calculated that Gaga herself earned £39m.
Read More →

Lady Gaga to appear on new PETA Billboard

Sure, Lady Gaga’s infamous “meat dress” may have drawn the ire of PETA, but that hasn’t stopped the animal-rights organization from featuring her — along with fellow icons Pink and Mariah Carey — on a brand-new billboard, set to be unveiled Tuesday in Los Angeles.

It’s part of PETA’s “Fur-Free and Fabulous” campaign, and, despite the fallout over her Video Music Awards outfit, Gaga was chosen because, as PETA puts it in a press release, “Her anti-fur stance … has been unwavering.”

“Gaga’s out-there outfits never include real fur,” the statement continued. “Last year, when she wore a dress made of fluffy Kermit the Frog dolls, [she] explained, ‘I thought it was commentary on not wearing fur, ’cause I hate fur and don’t wear fur.’ ”

With the new billboard, Gaga, Pink and Carey join a list of stars who have teamed with the organization to come out against fur. Last year’s “Fur-Free and Fabulous” ad featured Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

Source: MTV

Propagaga: Open!

It’s finally coming guys! On the midnight between Feburary 1st and 2nd of 2011 (GMT), a new era of Fandom will begin. It’s been exciting for us, and the most exciting part is, that the release is only a beginning. Propagaga is a platform that will be built upon, added to and constantly developed.

On the first day we will release 1 page and more in the days after.

‘Born This Way’ Leads New Era of Outcast Anthems

In the 1970s, when disco was in full swing and rock and roll was posturing its way into arenas, four goony, glue-sniffing kids in Forest Hills, Queens, threw on leather jackets and began bashing out two-minute tunes with titles like “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Beat on the Brat.” They called themselves the Ramones, and not only were they probably the first punk band on planet Earth, but they were most definitely outcasts, in every sense of the world.

Of course, the Ramones certainly weren’t the first musical outcasts. Theirs is a legacy that reaches all the way back to the dawn of recorded music, from the likes of the Hoosier Hot Shots and Slim Galliard, scatting madman Cab Calloway and the “shocking” Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, to midcentury curios like bizarro bandleader Spike Jones, deep-fried ’60s oddballs like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart and even contemporaries like the Cramps and the Talking Heads. But unlike any who came before them, the Ramones helped usher in an era — and a genre — in which being odd was championed. It would continue through the 1980s, thanks to the Heads, West Coast punk acts like Black Flag and the Minutemen, and college-radio darlings like R.E.M. — and, of course, the eternally outcast world of heavy metal — then truly break through in the ’90s, with the chart-topping success of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins, and the rise of hip-hop outfits like the Wu-Tang Clan, the Pharcyde and the incomparable Kool Keith.
Read More →

BORN THIS WAY – THE LYRICS

BORN THIS WAY
WRITTEN BY: LADY GAGA
PRODUCED BY: LADY GAGA, FERNANDO GARIBAY, DJ WHITE SHADOW
MIXED AND ENGINEERED BY: DAVID RUSSEL

INTRO:
It doesn’t matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M
Just put your paws up
’cause you were Born This Way, Baby

VERSE:
MY MAMA TOLD ME WHEN I WAS YOUNG
WE ARE ALL BORN SUPERSTARS

SHE ROLLED MY HAIR AND PUT MY LIPSTICK ON
IN THE GLASS OF HER BOUDOIR

“THERE’S NOTHIN WRONG WITH LOVIN WHO YOU ARE”
SHE SAID, “‘CAUSE HE MADE YOU PERFECT, BABE”

“SO HOLD YOUR HEAD UP GIRL AND YOU’LL GO FAR,
LISTEN TO ME WHEN I SAY”

CHORUS:
I’M BEAUTIFUL IN MY WAY
‘CAUSE GOD MAKES NO MISTAKES
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY

DON’T HIDE YOURSELF IN REGRET
JUST LOVE YOURSELF AND YOU’RE SET
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY

POST-CHORUS:
OOO THERE AIN’T NO OTHER WAY
BABY I WAS BORN THIS WAY
BABY I WAS BORN THIS WAY
OOO THERE AIN’T NO OTHER WAY
BABY I WAS BORN-
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY

DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON’T BE!
Read More →

Gaga calls into the Ellen show

Lady Gaga leaks lyrics to “Born This Way”

Lady Gaga gave PerezHilton.com exclusive permission to reveal the opening lines to her new single, Born This Way , which is out in less than two weeks. According to Perez, the track “more than lives up to the hype” around it and that the album will “change culture”. The opening lyrics to the track are:

The leak is a reaction to the #ThankGod4Gaga trend on Twitter earlier today. Upon seeing this, Gaga tweeted:

#thankgod4gaga is trending!? More like #thankgod4monsters! Maybe I should leak the lyrics to Born This Way today, whatdya say #leakitgaga ?

Update: More lyrics have leaked:

New “Born This Way” Song Title Confirmed

Vice President of Music Programming at BET, Stephen G Hill, revealed hearing 6 new Gaga tracks on Twitter Monday night. Describing the tracks as “crazy” and “pushing things forward” Stephen said the songs had “aural energy that had my speakers gasping for water afterwards.” Commenting even further on the songs, he revealed a track called Edge of Glory , a “phenomenal” track which may be related to something similar Gaga tweeted this past September.