Akon‘s camp has released the cover art for his upcoming project Freedom and its accompanying track listing. Make sure you pick up the sure-to-be-smash album when it hits stores December 2nd.

1. �Right Now (Na Na Na)�
2. �Beautiful� feat. Colby O�Donis & Kardinal Offishall
3. �Keep You Much Longer�
4. �Troublemaker� feat. Sweet Rush
5. �We Don�t Care�
6. �I�m So Paid� feat. Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy
7. �Holla Holla� feat. T-Pain
8. �Against the Grain� feat. Ray Lavender
9. �Be With You�
10. �Sunny Day� feat. Wyclef Jean
11. �Birthmark�
12. �Over the Edge�
13. �Freedom�

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The biggest-selling album of 2008 plans to get even bigger before the year’s end.� Lil’ Wayne plans to re-release The Carter III with all brand-new songs (really???) although Universal has yet to confirm.

Already sitting pretty with the title of the hardest working man in hip hop, Wayne recently revealed on his ESPN blog that he’s working on The Carter IV, in addition to a 20-track mixtape on his website, and a collaborative album with T-Pain due in 2009.

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Whether a fan or not, there was little escape from Alicia Keys‘ “No One” this year.� Appropriately so, the singer/songwriter/actress leads the list of nominees for the 2008 American Music Awards with 5 nominations alongside Coldplay, who snagged 4.

Keys strikes nods for artist of the year, favorite female artist– pop or rock music, favorite female artist– soul/rhythm & blues, and favorite album for each for her multi-platinum-selling As I Am.

Coldplay ranks among those up for artist of the year, favorite band, duo, or group– pop or rock music, favorite artist– alternative rock music, and favorite album (for Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends).

Other artists who were nominated today were The Eagles (who also scored 4 nods for artist of the year, favorite band, duo, or group– pop or rock music, favorite artist– adult contemporary music, and favorite album– pop or rock), Lil’ Wayne, Chris Brown, Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Mariah Carey, Daughtry, Flo Rida (really?), Rihanna, Carrie Underwood, Usher, and Kanye West.

Airing on ABC, check for the 2008 AMA’s November 28th live from LA’s the Nokia Theatre, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

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I was on my way to the gym last night and this song with this crazy DJ Khaled/rock-infused-sounding track was on the radio, and my display said it was some cat named Kevin Rudolf featuring Lil’ Wayne, “Let It Rock”. I typed a note in my sidekick, and basically forgot about it until this afternoon, when I downloaded the track.

I LOVE IT! Trust me, this is heat– can’t wait to play it at my gig tomorrow night.

Then I started to wonder, who is Kevin Rudolf. A google image search turned up a few snaps from his Miami-based myspace page, but since my office has Myspace.com blocked (just typing myspace.com x-ed off the Firefox window… twice), I was left with trusty Yahoo! Answers.

Well He’s a producer, He played the guitar in a black eye peas song, I forgot which one. He played the guitar for a lot of famous singers and rappers, including Nelly Furtado, Jt and Timbaland, David banner, Lil Kim, Mya, and LL cool J

Chuuch.

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Straight from the Olympics into super-stardom. Phelps will be hosting the premier episode of Saturday Night Live‘s 34th season.�

The 14-time gold medal-winning swimmer will make his acting debut Sept. 13 on NBC.

Phelps won eight gold medals at the Beijing Games, and the events in which he participated consistently garnered high ratings.

Hip-hop star Lil’ Wayne will be the program’s musical guest.

I wonder how he’ll do with live comedy. Will this be the beginning of a movie career? Probably not, he’s still got a lot of swimming to do.�

Source: Variety

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Whether you consider yourself a hip-hop fan, or just a pop fan, you won’t be able to avoid this track. Captained by arguably our generation’s biggest Billboard melody maker, T-Pain, he collaborates for the second time this year (so far!) with Lil’ Wayne for the ear candy track “Can’t Believe It”.

While it won’t be receiving any ASCAP awards (who knew you could rhyme “Wiscansin” with “what’s happnin’?”) the video is a sleek slideshow of green screens that won’t get boring to look at anytime soon.

Thr33 Rings drops later this Fall.

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The marketing force behind Nas‘ self-(or Untitled)-album may have been lukewarm (and a bit misguided I might add), but it didn’t stop the rap pioneer & Queens NY native from topping this past week’s Billboard charts, knocking Lil’ Wayne‘s The Carter III from atop its reigning spot. The Def Jam signee tops the charts with 186,000 units sold, while Weezy still brings in devastating numbers at 105,500.

The soundtrack to that damn movie with some singing old lady Mamma Mia!i slipped onto the charts at number 3 with 91,400 units moved, barely topping Coldplay‘s Viva La Vida at #4 with 90,300 more sales.

Check out more of last week’s big sellers here. And yes, Rihanna is still making a whole helluva lot more paper than you and I combined with her expanded Good Girl Gone Bad selling yet another 41,300 copies (which has been on the charts since its release last Spring!)

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