JAY Z HOOKS UP WITH MARIAH

The busiest producer in town, Jermaine Dupri has spilled out that Jay-Z is going to do a remix of Mariah Carey's new single, "Bye Bye". The song has been selected by Mariah's team to be the second single from her "E=MC²" album that was released on Tuesday, April 15. Dupri said that he spent some studio time with Jay-Z to rework on "Bye Bye". While the original is about Mariah losing family members, Dupri said that the remix version will be in happier tone aka more upbeat. "The remix for the Mariah record is crazy," Dupri told MTV "Young Hov and Mariah crank it up, and myself, JD - a.k.a. Barry Bonds - cleans up." No words yet on where the remix version will appear. Mariah's album is set to take the number one spot

NEYO UPDATE

His new tracks have been regularly leaked in the past two months, and his new album "Year of the Gentleman" is coming quicker than expected. Ne-Yo explains to Billboard.com why the set that follows the 2007 "Because of You" is coming sooner than expected. "I wanted the third album to be something a little different from the first and second as far as the essence and the sound of what I was doing," Ne-Yo explained. "So I was going to chill for a minute and really take some time to figure out what I wanted that to be. Fortunately, it didn't take me that long, which is why the album's coming out now." The first single from the June 24 album has been confirmed to be "Closer", the upbeat-dance piece that was produced by Stargate and will be released as a single on April 22. Two other singles have been leaked recently called "Used To U" and "Let's Just Be". In the Billboard report, it is confirmed that there will be two other joints, namely "So You Can Cry" and "What's the Matter". Those taking the production include J.R. Rotem, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and production group Entertainment crew. Ne-Yo is serving a co-headlining tour with Alicia Keys and Jordin Sparks that kicks off today (April 19) in Hampton, V.A.. The jaunt came after he was dropped as the supporting act of R. Kelly in December last year. He is also seeking other ventures outside music by nabbing deals with Fox Atomic and Cartoon Network for a movie and TV forays respectively.

OMARION RECORD DEAL IN TROUBLE

It looks like Omarion's musical career is under threat now after he was dropped by his label. The rapper who was engaged to Columbia Records, reportedly has no longer continued his courtship with the label. The news was confirmed by an inside source who told BlackVoices.com. Apparently, the reason behind the drop is yet to be revealed. Neither Omarion nor the record label's representative have released their statements regarding the report. Omarion's partnership with Columbia started in December 2003, after he decided to split with his boy band B2K. During his time working with the label, the R&B singer has released two albums, "O, which was released in 2005 and "21", in 2006. From the two albums, it was "O" that achieved more commercial success as its selling reached 735,014 copies in U.S while 21 only sells about 119,000 copies. Meanwhile, speculation on his future after the split from Columbia is rising and reports from BlackVoice.com suggests that he could end up on Capitol Records.