There’s been a lot of cool music lately, and some hot live performances and concerts as well. Here’s a list of some people that have put it down on stage. During his concerts, R&B crooner Usher is known to grab a lovely lady from the stands and commence to grindin’ on her.

Nicki Minaj, who refuses to rest after the release of her debut album, “Pink Friday,” performed for her hometown fans for Thanksgiving.

“Rudeboy” Rihanna killed it in Lyon in 2010, here’s video. And here’s a cool gallery of her “Rock in Rio” performance.

Alicia Keys and Beyonce tore Madison Square Garden up in 2010, two divas, one song. #Over.

Keri “Ms. Keri Babay” Hilson did her thing in an intimate performance before the Oscars earlier this year, doing a cover of “I’m Ready for Love.”

Nicki Minaj donned a fire red wig and set the Summer Jam on flames last month. Here’s the vid.

Finally, Keyshia Cole and Monica shared the stage recently for their duet “Trust,” and the crowd melts in their arms.

Janelle Monae brought her classical-afro-punk-futuristic spazzed-out soul to Tempe, Arizona, this year and BLAZED IT.

Erykah Badu gave a monumental performance in hi def on the “Chappelle Show” on Comedy Central.

Robin Thicke and Snoop Dogg may both be married, but you wouldn’t know it by the hot video, “It’s in the Mornin.”
I mean, wouldn’t this kind of hotness be reserved for matrimony?
Like “Arsher” would say “Oh.My.Gosh.”

Cassie Ventura’s long-delayed Bad Boy album, “Electro Love,” was supposed to surface sometime in 2008, but was shelved because of the whirlwind that was Day 26 and Danity Kane.
In 2009, Diddy was supposed to put the finishing touches on the album and whet the appetite of the music-buying public by leaking a few cuts. The cuts didn’t exactly set the world on fire.
Then, Diddy started his “Last Train to Paris” project, his latest album that incorporated ex-Danity Kane member Dawn Richards, and British protegee’ Estelle.
Then, Jonelle Monae’s project pushed Cassie even further down the priority chain.
It’s been hard for Cassie, the cute vocalist and Diddy eyecandy with the half-bald-head to garner any attention (unless of course you count the “hacked” photos), but yet the Bad Boy camp insists an album is in store.
Should Cassie leave Bad Boy? If she did she’d only be following a choir full of inspiring and aspiring singers and rappers that have left, including the Lox, Carl Thomas, Loon, Cherie Dennis, Black Rob, and 112 to name a few.
Is it time to go? Will Diddy ever be consumed with anybody else’s project? Or does he simply want to be the top star on Bad Boy?

For now, Cassie is more widely known for her half-shaven head than for her musical talents.

Wait, maybe Diddy wants it like that.

Cassie’s cut “Official Girl”

Alex Cuba (Alexis Puentes) has been rocking out since most of you have been in elementary school.

He’s only been doing it 90 miles south of Florida. On an island.

That’s okay, pull out a nice Cohiba and enjoy the Cuban-Canadian singer in this happy joint (his first video done in English) that reminds you of why weddings are must-go’s — even if you don’t like the couple.

“If You Give Me Love” is on Cuba’s first U.S. release in stores now.

It’s turning into the Summer of Nicki Maniacal. Young Money’s hottest artist has scored her first No. 1 record, with “Your Love.”
And if this summer’s buzz and the Hatorade associated with it is any indication, Minaj will score again and again.
You can put that on anything.
Not since Lil Kim and 50 Cent’s “Magic Stick” has a record with a female rapper on it scored so high on the charts.

All of this is without an album, mind you.

Minaj’s first single, “Massive Attack,” was quirky, artistic and widely panned by music critics, but “You Love” has rebounded nicely.
And you can put that on your sideburns.

Super producer and now artist Sean Garrett and hip-hop’s new queen, Nicky Minaj have released a new video, titled “Get It All,” for the stans out there.
At first glance this definitely looks like some “Saved by the Bell” stuff, but maybe that’s the demo.

Garrett is hoping to get his shine on after helping other people make hits, while Minaj is trying to lob grenades while people throw shade.

With leading-lady looks and a voice as crisp, easy going and heavenly as a tall glass of water, Amel Larrieux was the hip-hop generation’s Sade in the late 1990s:  As one half of the duo, Groove Theory, their song “Tell Me,” was a certified banger for the ‘Love Jones” set.

Larrieux struck out as a soloist and released “Infinite Possibilities” in 2000 and enjoyed moderate success — but something was missing.

Remember, this was the time of scandalous rap videos and ‘BET Uncut.” The market for innocent, reflective groove music was still small, and largely the realm of only two male singers: the sugary D’angelo and watery  Maxwell.

Larrieux, turned off by market label politics and the pressure to do “something extra,” to sell records, started her own label: Blisslife. She toiled for three  more albums, largely in the underground, as her fans, many of whom still swear they love her, let her die.

Yes, her fans let her music die, opting instead for the homogenized pseudo-drivel that pangs our ears on modern radio today.

Of her time with Groove Theory, she has offered: “”You have to make a bunch of compromises and .. you know, I just couldn’t go on forever. We wanted different things and a combination of that and the label wanting different things from us just made me decide that it was time to move on.”

When Epic Records pushed her to try other things after the “Infinite Possibilities” album, which peaked at No. 79, she said at the time: “I was asked to tone it down as a solo artist, which is one of the reasons why I was really glad to leave the major label where I was signed.”

Free as a bird, she released “Blackbird,” which spawned the minor hit, “For Real” (hey, I loved that joint) but it lacked the umph that made superstars.

But that’s all water under the bridge, right? Because Groove Theory, complete with Bryce Wilson, has announced a reunion for this year, which means more hits like “Baby Luv.”

These days you’d get laughed out of an A&R’s office if you used the word, “funk,” and “soul,” in the same sentence.

And let’s be honest, artists have been using the word” soul” migh-ty loosely for perhaps the past decade.

But with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, it’s almost a reserved description. We don’t really know what to call this vocal powerhouse backed by a band of precision horses.

Just when we settle on a few superlatives such as “easy going,” and “pop tune,” and even “jazzy,” we get long, strident horns, a syncopatic hip-hop beat.

These people are bad.

To know why you have to know about Daptone Records, a throwback music house that takes its cues from the 1960s Motown sound and a few high-meter points since then.

But you’d also have to know that the Dap Kings, who contributed generously to Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” album, were the Soul Providers in a past life, specifically the 1990s.

As for that gutterbucket soulfulness issuing out of lead vocalist Sharon Jones? That’s that down South (Augusta, Georgia to be exact) spirit-anointed howl that just takes the record over every now and then.

Enjoy them.

That’s what the New York Times is saying after a sitdown with rapper Drake, the biracial kid from T.O., better known to a TV generation as Jimmy from “Degrassi: The New Generation.”

Drake unpeels a layer of his soul in the interview, confiding that he feels “unsafe in Toronto at all times.” (The rapper, who knows success in the rap game came rather quickly, said he was robbed at gunpoint in Toronto last year.  “I’m a one of one. There’s no one else you can hate as much as me if you hate money, or you hate success.”

During the interview he exchanged texts with who he said was Halle Berry: Evidently LeBron James was trying to hook Drake up with Berry’s cousin and the Hollywood star was feeling him out.

Read: Drake, Rihanna dating … or just snuggling? (PIC)

Drake also has been linked romantically with Rihanna.

“I was a pawn,” Drake was quoted in a newspaper as saying about his fling with Rihanna, which began with an invite to write with the ‘Russian Roulette’ singer. “You know what she was doing to me? She was doing exactly what I’ve done to so many women throughout my life, which is show them quality time, then disappear. I was like, ‘Wow, this feels terrible.’ ”

Watch: Rihanna performs with Drake @ Toronto concert (VIDEO)

Drake used the experience for a verse on ”Fireworks” dedicated to Rihanna, though he is careful not to say her by name. “I could tell it wasn’t love/ I just thought you’d f—ed with me/ Who could have predicted/ Lucky Strike would have you stuck with me,” Drake raps on the song, referring to the Manhattan bowling alley where the two reportedly made out. “Damn, I kept my wits about me, luckily/ What happened between us that night, it always seems to trouble me/ Now all of a sudden, these gossip rags want to cover me/ And you making it seem like it happened that way because of me.”

But is he the face of hip-hop? I mean, just last year it was his mentor, Lil Wayne. Before that it had been Slim Shady, and even this guy. And is that a title you really want?

We all know what happens when you get hot.

The “Sex Inventor” Trey Songz has released yet another video, this one, titled, “Already Taken.” And you thought music video budgets were dead? Not when they’re for inventors, or movie soundtracks like “Step Up 3D“.