M.I.A. Protege Rye Rye Speaks Out About Tour Cancellation

When Rolling Stone wrote about Baltimore's sauciest spitfire, 17-year-old MC Rye Rye, in our Hot Issue this year, the young rapper was getting ready to tour with A-Trak to support her debut album, Go! Pop! Bang!. She recently pulled out of the jaunt without explanation, but is speaking out to explain why she made the tough decision: she's pregnant.

On her blog, Rye Rye writes, "To all my fans,I was suppose to be on the A-Trak tour but because of personal reasons i was pulled in the direction of not doing it. Things happen for a reason some happen at the the wrong point of ya life but no one knows why or for what reason only God. So yes I was blessed with a child. At first i was teary eyed and my first thought was to get rid of it. I asked God for guidance and i went to the hospital 4 times and each time i had a breakdown and i knew what direction God was pulling me in. WHAT GOD HAS FOR YOU, NOBODY CAN TAKE!!! AND HE DOESNT GIVE YOU MORE THAN WHAT YOU CAN HANDLE. i feel as tho i had a baby and i had to much integrity to abort her my mom was on the table about to have me aborted and seen my heartbeat and changed her mind. I'm young but I'm also grown and right now its alot on me. BUT THESE THINGS DIDNT STOP ME ONLY MOTIVATED ME TO WORK 10TIMES HARDER!!!!!! And i have alot of resect for the label for understanding and backing me and willing to work around this so we can release an amazing album."

For more on our 2009 Hot List, check out our Hot Hub.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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