Today's Pick

Dawn Richard, most commonly known as the former Danity Kane member turned one-third of Diddy Dirty Money, is looking to launch her solo career with her official music video for her new solo single "#SMFU (Save Me From You)," the lead single off her upcoming album "GoldenHeart," the first in a trilogy of solo debut albums. Showing off her vulnerable side, the soulful ballad itself is a slow burner, but at the core is Richard's distinct vocal timbre, something that always made her stand out.
The New Orleans native, is emotionally wounded in the black-and-white visual. Despite having gone solo, she reunites with five other dancers, four as backups in chorus scenes and another beside her during verses, which gives the video an interpretive feel rather than a linear storyline. One wonders if Richard is talking about her disbanded buddies in the Druski-produced short film.
"I don't need your protection from danger/I don't need you to shield from harm/I don't need you to save me from a robbery/When you are the one whose stolen my heart," sings Richard, with her pain-filled vocals. The 28-year-old R&B star cries her heart out in the emotional clip, which shows a vulnerable Richard gazing into the camera as tears run down her face: "I'm tired of waiting, I'm tired of calling/Only for you to let me down/My heart is vacant, no more tears falling." Beside shedding tears, Richard also busts a move with her girl friends.
The video compliments this heartfelt ballad nicely. The singer explained the video concept: "I was going through something really, really bad and instead of me trying to keep things private, I like to give my vulnerability, make it strong, and put it out there," she said. "And I feel like there's a lot of people who pretend to be a hero, but they really are the villains in this story. From female to dude, ya'll can relate to that. Whether it's your best friend, your boss, or just the person standing next to you, and I wanted to tell that story. That the hero isn't always what you think he is or she is."

Chris Brown is back and this time he is not smashing windows. Instead, he is stripping in his new wintery video for his synth-anchored track, "Strip," serve as one of the campaign's lead singles along with "Biggest Fan," from his upcoming fifth studio album, "Fortune," which is expected to land in March. The track was also appears on his latest rap-only mixtape "Boy In Detention." While Brown continues his side hustle as a rapper, the recently released "Strip" proves he's not abandoning his R&B leanings anytime soon.
Produced by Tha Bizness that features Brown's partner-in-rhyme rapper Kevin 'K-Mac' McCall, "Strip" finds Brown singing compliments to a stripper before inviting her back to his place. The R&B song features booty-bouncing mix of pulsing beats and '90s-styled melodies. It's a bouncy synth-heavy track with Brown crooning sophomoric double entendres to a stripper that, if he was in high school, would lead him into a lifetime of detention.
There may be lightly falling snowflakes in the Collin Tilley-directed visuals for Brown's scintillating strip club tune, but the clip is steaming hot. The Virginia native delivers a clip set in a snow capped mountain locale. The cold outside can't beat the heat inside a spacious pad where he's surrounded by women frolicking around in bras and panties while others play a game of spin the bottle. The most surprising element of the video is the look of surprise on Brown’s face when they follow his instructions.
The video is perfectly apt for the light-hearted lyrics of the song. It opens with a shot of Brown standing on a mountain wearing a winter jacket, cap and shorts. It then switches to a house party where the 22-year-old blond superstar, along with collaborator McCall, dancing and posing with his shirt off in a room brimming over with scantily-clad women, and later next to a hot tub of vixens clad in barely-there bikinis as snow begins to fall.

New York-based indie pop band FUN. have dropped a beautifully-made music video for "We Are Young." The first must-see music video of 2012 is a gorgeous, gasp-inducing thing, a swirling, slow-motion snow globe of imagery that gradually envelops the band, and guest vocalist Janelle Monáe, who recorded her vocals in Europe then sent them over to the band, who later in the year supported the singer on her Campus Consciousness Tour. This, apparently, is what FUN. looks like.
Formed by frontman Nate Ruess in 2008, the three seasoned musicians immediately wrote and recorded their debut album, "Aim and Ignite," and FUN. subsequently supported various bands like Paramore, Panic! At the Disco and Jack's Mannequin and secured a spot in an Expedia commercial with their song "Walking The Dog." The eye-catching clip and bombastic new single lead up to the release of their upcoming sophomore album, "Some Nights," FUN. serves notice that 2012 may very well be their breakout year.
"We Are Young," a depiction of the message of solidarity and celebration of the underdog that warrants the track's "anthemic" label. The song it's promoting is actually really good too - a big, bold ballad that just keeps building and building, one that manages to capture both the wide-eyed optimism and the burgeoning, world-weary pessimism of millennial youth. Slightly touching, sublimely pretty, the rare marriage of style and substance, you will pump your fists to it, send your bodies sailing to it, cry to it and, most importantly, shout along to its anthemic chorus.
The Marc Klasfeld-directed clip sees the pop-rock group performing the song at a bar and their show goes on uninterrupted although the bar where they perform turns into a total chaos due to a violent brawl when people start to pick up a fight and attack each other, but the band are undeterred by the brawl and continue their show as if nothing happens. he 26-year-old Alternative Soul singer Monáe is also wearing her signature starched tuxedo and immaculately-coiffed hair, she appears in the middle of the bar fight standing motionless.

Professor Green plays a sweet loverboy in his new music video for "Never Be A Right Time," the third single featured in English rapper's recent released exceptional sophomore album, "At Your Inconvenience," a story that is easy for anyone in a relationship to relate to, and sees the singer reuniting with regular collaborator Ed Drewitt as guest vocals.
The 'Read All About It' rapper firmly established himself as one of the UK's most exciting new talents around when his debut album "Alive Till I'm Dead" crashed into the charts at No.2. Green is joined in the studio by a live band and backing singers for the recording of the track, which sounds very Mike Skinner-esque. And yes, that's a massive compliment because he's a legend in our eyes and it's worth noting that Green is on his way to greatness too.
Fresh from the chart-topping success of his single "Read All About It," the 28-year-old rapper is back with yet another top notch tune, "Never Be A Right Time," and it sees him going through he turmoil of deciding when to break up with his girlfriend, and struggling to find the right moment to end his crumbling relationship. It's a nice chill out track.
The highs and lows that come with a relationship are portrayed in the soppy video and is a nice accompaniment to the track. A change of pace for the cocky word smith as Green gets all soft and gooey on his new track "Never Be A Right Time." The Hackney native laments over the complications in trying to tell a loved one its over, its all wonderfully emotive and perfect for this time of year, especially if thinking about breaking up with your girlfriend during the winter months is your thang.

Rocking a perturbing new hairstyle, Sean Paul is back with a new video. When he came in to the WiLD studio, he said he was working on something his fans would love! The Jamaican pop rap and reggae singer gets to live every guy's most outrageous fantasy on his second video for the trance-inspired dance-floor track "She Doesn't Mind," the second single from the Jamaican recording artist's forthcoming fifth studio album, "Tomahawk Technique."
Paul channels his inner Akon in this synth-heavy attempt at crossover success with "She Doesn't Mind." The dancehall beat track, a fusion of electro-pop and Hip Hop, again has the infectious vibe Paul runs with but with a tinge of Electro making the track sound averagely good. While his previous infectious, dancehall attempt with Alexis Jordan did not impact the US charts, this might due to the fantastic video it accompanies.
The 38-year-old dancehall superstar transforms himself into a clubber with this trance-inspired high-energy dance anthem. The song finds the Jamaican singer instructing girls on the dance floor how to get a guy's attention. The song was co-written and produced by the Dance-Pop hitmaker Benny Blanco, whose impressive resume includes Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl," Ke$ha's "TiK ToK" and Bruno Mars'"Grenade." The clip is just roar! The ladies aren't scanty but certain things that happen during the video says that she doesn't mind. Paul sexes up TSA in the Evan Winter-directed video.
The dancehall star sends his female partner-in-crime through security, where she is frisked by a female attendant, but neither seems to mind. Meanwhile, he waits in the airport as the female flight attendants cater to his needs. "The main concept of the video is that we've all been through security, we all know it starts to feel a little personal perhaps when they start patting you down and doing that whole thing," explained by Winter. "We decided to take it a little ways extra and make it so that we get a little sexy with going through security." You'll never look at airport security the same way.

Katie Armiger continues to mature and prove she's a talent to be taken seriously. Armiger's sound is pop-country, and she's wise to continue to stay true to that style. The 20-year-old singer wants to "Scream" since she has held it in too long and she has to let it out. She shows off her big voice in newly released video for her new song "Scream," which is about dealing with getting dumped.
Armiger was first inspired to pursue country music after winning a Houston, Texas city-wide competition. She has released three albums in the past few years and has continually gotten better with each album. Written with Sarah Buxton and Blair Daly, "Scream" is her latest single off of "The True Confessional: Confessions of a Nice Girl." The track, may be her most polished and professional single to date, finds her making strides both as a songwriter and a vocalist.
Like the narrator's own day-to-day life, "Scream" plays like a quietly ongoing tumult of pent-up emotions followed by a sudden and dramatic release. The song's first verse is relatively surface-level, as Armiger recounts a meeting with her former lover in which she meets her "replacement." "I just smiled and shook it off," she says, only later to "scream at the top of my lungs" to vent the oncoming feelings of hurt and jealousy. It's a simple but effective portrayal of the near universal experience of putting on a brave and front only to crumble once the spotlight is taken off.
From start to finish, the lyric and performance are characterized by a definite air of believability. While reckless emotion is a hot trend right now, Armiger's more graceful reaction to getting dumped stands out. You should never 'scream' in church, but when the one you love is marrying someone else, it's probably forgivable. "You see me driving kind of frantically, with the invitation in the passenger seat," Armiger explains of the concept of her new "Scream" video. "But you don't know if I'm going to stop the wedding."

Los Angeles indie rock band Foster The People are exploring stranger territory with their new lip-enhancing video for "Call It What You Want," the third single off People's Choice Awards nominees' breakout debut hit album "Torches." Foster The People's priority is to experiment and create rather than to lavish in fame, or if it's just a super fun, tongue-in-cheek kitschy kind of video.
"Call It What You Want" is a melange of increasingly creepier images set to the band's characteristically up-tempo indie pop. It finds frontman Mark Foster singing about how in today's society, people are too ready to conform instead of being themselves and doing their own thing. It's probable the song was influenced by the band's irritation with the music industry's attempts to pigeonhole them.
Foster and his bandmates find themselves suddenly living in a mansion in the Ace Norton-directed clip, where, to say the least, they don't quite seem at ease. The imagery includes Foster shooting six female fans, whose shirts spell out "Foster," with his hand in the shape of a gun. Norton explained its concept: "The video is about the void you create in our life when you have everything you want. How with success, people tend to fill that void with meaningless things. It's about the creative extremes we go to when time passes by us at light speed; how boredom gets our minds racing into beautiful tangents. It's about the surrealism of the mundane."
The new video for "Call It What You Want" is the most lavish of their young career. On one hand, the clip, with its nondescript gaggle of female fans and Hollywood mansion setting, seems to be making a statement about the band's new-found fame following the surprise success of their Top 10 summer smash "Pumped Up Kicks." While on the other, there's just a whole lot of creepiness, with no rhyme or reason, going down.