Christina Aguilera bares all in the cover art of her forthcoming album "Lotus". The 31-year-old songstress wears nothing to cover her skin, but her long blond hair is strategically placed to cover her breasts and a white light effect conceals her lower body part. She stands on the center of a lotus flower as if she emerges from it. Set to be released November 13, the seventh studio installment of the "Beautiful" singer has "Your Body" as its lead single. When announcing the album, she explained the meaning behind the moniker, "Album title: Lotus. Representing an unbreakable flower that survives under the hardest conditions and still thrives." "If you love 'Fighter', you're going to love my new album," she gushed about the new record in an interview with Lucky magazine. "As a 31-year-old woman, I've been uncovering my independence, and it's been really fun to explore in the new songs." On another occasion, she told Ryan Seacrest, "This album is about self-expression and freedom. There is a lot I have gone through personally over the past few years, and this record represents a rebirth for me. The record is about freedom and getting back to the root of who I am and what I love to do."

Having a super successful "Tha Carter" album series, Lil Wayne is now eying to launch one or two more thriving franchises by prepping a sequel for "Rebirth" and "I'm Not a Human Being" each. The plan is revealed to MTV News by Young Money president Mack Maine on the heels of victorious "Tha Carter IV".

Talking about the follow-up to "I'm Not a Human Being", Maine says, "He's, like, 12 songs in, and he went crazy. He went left. He's in Martian land right now." Although the project is crafted back to back with rock-influenced "Rebirth 2", the 28-year-old label boss assures that the two efforts will be unlike one another.

"He gets to show his rock side, he gets to show his gangsta side and talk to the women on one side," Maine gushes before adding, "On 'I Am Not a Human Being', he is definitely showing some weirdo, left-brain, I'm-not-from-here type side. He can say what he wants. There are no boundaries, there are no limits."

"He captures all those different audiences, and then at a concert or a show, you bring all those different people together," the rapper continues. "You bring your 'Rebirth' rock people, you bring your 'Carter' people, and you bring your 'I Am Not a Human Being' [crowd], and you have a great show. That's why we sell out arenas every night."

Beside recording the two albums, Weezy also focuses on making the follow-up to "We Are Young Money" album with everyone in the label being put together for another star-studded affair. "It won't take long. Too much creativity for it to take a long time," Maine previously said to XXL Mag.

Weezy released "Tha Carter IV" in August. It bowed at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 200 by selling a grand total of 964,000 copies. A year prior, Weezy dropped both "Rebirth" and "I'm Not a Human Being" in February and September respectively. Both of the albums debuted at the second places on the U.S. album chart.

Through "Tha Carter IV", Weezy scored the second-largest sales week of the year. The first biggest sales week of 2011 was still held by Lady GaGa with her "Born This Way" which sold more than a million last July. However, it should be noted that the Mother Monster got such a huge selling number with the help of 99-cent sale pricing on Amazon, while Weezy didn't use such tactics.

Talking about Weezy's achievements, Maine once said, "Wayne set a standard and they [Young Money's artists] all trying to follow that." He added, "If you follow our artists, you always see Gudda saying he's in the studio. Drake's working on his new album now. In between he'll be touring to promote it."

"Nicki works her ass off. She just came off tour with us and jumped right on the tour with Britney Spears. Tyga's on tour with Chris Brown and trying to work on his album. Gudda, Millz, Lil Chuckee [they're all] working. They all following the format."

The Young Money camp continues to diversify it's talent. According to Rap-Up the label had added rocker, Porcelain Black to it's roster. The singer joins UK pop star Jay Sean and rocker Kevin Rudolph as a growing number on non rap acts call YM/CM home. Black was introduced at the 1st show in Providence, RI on Lil Wayne's "I Am Music II" North American tour. Her 1st single is titled “This Is What Rock ‘N’ Roll Looks Like,” and features Lil Wayne is suppose to hit iTunes on March 29. It will be interesting to see if Wayne will continue to make rock influenced songs. His 'Rebirth' album was either hit or miss with most fans.

Lady Gaga could not remember much about her celebration on Sunday night after winning three Grammy Awards, but during a Monday appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," she did manage to recall that she had yet another big announcement to make.

"Oh, this is a very exciting new announcement," she said during the appearance, in which she revealed that she and Madonna have no beef over Gaga's smash single "Born This Way," which some critics and fans have said resembles some of Madonna's 1990s work. "I am going to be taping a special for HBO of the Monster Ball." HBO confirmed on Tuesday (February 15) that the singer's first solo HBO concert special will air on May 7. The program will be taped during Gaga's February 21-22 shows at Madison Square Garden and will be titled "Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour at Madison Square Garden."

"Lady Gaga is the single most exciting music talent on the scene today," said HBO president Sue Naegle in a statement announcing the deal. "We're especially thrilled that she'll be creating unique new elements for the special that will make the show an even more memorable experience for our viewers."

The HBO show will begin airing a few weeks before the release of Gaga's highly anticipated Born This Way album, which hits stores on May 23. It will be directed by Laurieann Gibson, who has choreographed most of Lady Gaga's videos, including "Poker Face," "Paparazzi," "Telephone," "Alejandro" and "Bad Romance."

Gaga also dropped the news that the "Born This Way" video will be out soon and that it is a collaboration between her own Haus of Gaga and fashion photographer Nick Knight.

The singer admitted that she didn't remember much about Sunday night's post-Grammy party, but she remembers that "it was fun. I do remember being called 'drunky Gaga.' " Renowned for her elaborate entrances, Gaga said that Hussein Chalayan, the Turkish designer behind the egg-shaped device in which she was carried into the Grammys, wanted to make sure everyone knew it should be referred to as a "vessel." Joking (we think), Gaga told Leno she spent three days inside the temperature-controlled device.

 Gaga also explained that the "vessel" was intended to signify rebirth, specifically the birth of a new race "with no prejudice ... against anyone."

Karen Civil writes:

XXL’s EIC Vanessa Satten had the opportunity to sit down with the Detroit lyricist and his newest signees—underground supergroup Slaughterhouse, which consists of Royce Da 5’ 9”, Joe Budden, Crooked I and Joell Ortiz, as well as buzzing Alabama upstart Yelawolf—to talk about their plans to take over the rap game as Shady 2.0.

According to Em, this new roster signifies a rebirth of his company Shady Records, which, founded in 1999, lost steam after several members parted ways (Obie Trice, Stat Quo, Bobby Creekwater) three years ago. “Slaughterhouse, it’s kinda phase two of Shady,” Em says in the story. “The new generation of Shady Records.”

While it was no surprise to rap fans that Marshall Mathers was interested in signing the super lyrical crew of his former rap partner, Royce, Em’s deal with up-and-coming Southern rapper, Yela, came as a surprise to the hip-hop nation. But, similar to Slaughterhouse, Em started out as a fan of quick-tongued Alabama MC. “I saw the video to ‘Pop the Trunk,’ and I was like, ‘Yo, this is fuckin’ dope,’ Em says. “I took the CD home that I had already had and started listening to the s***, and I was like, ‘Fuck, he can spit.’”

With the new Shady in tow, Eminem may be ushering in a return to wordplay in hip-hop, something that hip-hop heads have been missing from the genre for quite some time. “It just feels good to put lyricism in the forefront again, in my eyes,” Joell Ortiz says in the article. “Some of my heroes, when I came up rhymin’, were Biggie Smalls, Big L—rest in peace to all these—Big Pun. Dudes who were passionate about the way they put words together, the message they sent when they rhymed, and just bein’ ill with the pen. And I feel like this group, and Yelawolf and Em, are dudes who stand for that. And it’s good to see the pure form gettin’ shine again.”
 

XXL ISSUE HITS STANDS FEBRUARY 8TH.