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Spotlight

Terrific Twitter Trio of the Week

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Lots of musicians tweet — but all that Twitters is not gold.

That’s why you’ll want to check out SPIN.com every Friday to see whose tweets we’re reading this week — then update your TweetDeck! (Obligatory Self-Promotion: …while you’re at it, be sure to follow @SPINmagazine!)

This week’s winners:

  • Arcade Fire
    @arcadefire

    Why You Should Follow: These Canadian indie rockers surprised everyone by beating out Eminem, Lady Gaga, and Lady Antebellum to win the Grammy Album of the Year trophy for The Suburbs. Their win was such a surprise, in fact, that thousands of people took to Twitter to ask, “Um… who are these guys, anyway?” These confused tweets have become something of an Internet meme, documented on the hilarious Who is Arcade Fire??!!?? Tumblr. Of course, the people tweeting “WTF?!” could’ve just Googled the band – or, better yet, visited their Twitter page. Then they could have at least tagged @arcadefire in their tweets! You won’t find too much action on the band’s page – they mostly post news updates (“Shepard Fairey will be DJ’ing before set tonight in LA”) and cool Twitpics announcing the places they’ll be visiting next (like this one) – but we have to give them props for taking a break from their post-Grammy celebrations to tweet a big “thank you” to all of their fans.

    Best Tweet of the Week: “OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. Thank you EVERYONE.”

  • Esperanza Spalding
    @EspeSpalding

    Why You Should Follow: Like Arcade Fire, Esperanza Spalding made waves when she seemingly came out of nowhere to win Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards. Spalding, the first jazz artist to win the award, beat out tween idol Justin Bieber, which didn’t sit well with the pop star’s faithful Beliebers. They tweeted death threats at Spalding and even hijacked her Wikipedia page and changed her middle name to “Justin.” For several days after the awards, Spalding’s name was a Trending Topic on Twitter, mostly because of the hate being spewed by enraged Bieber fans. In addition to being Best New Artist, Spalding is a Twitter newbie – she joined the social networking site this past summer and still hasn’t quite gotten into the swing of things, tweet-wise. But since the Grammy Awards, she’s gained several thousand more followers (including the Roots’ Questlove, a Twitter king), so it’ll be interesting to see if she starts tweeting more often – and if she ever addresses the crazy tweeny-boppers calling for her execution.

    Best Tweet of the Week: She tweeted “what an amazing night!!!!” after – you guessed it – the Grammys.

  • Lil’ Kim
    @LilKim

    Why You Should Follow: You don’t want to mess with Lil’ Kim. She might cut off your head… on an album cover, that is. The feisty rapper has been involved in a bitter feud with Nicki Minaj ever since Minaj first hit the scene; Kim lashed out at her for “stealing [her] look,” then Minaj called her a “has-been” in an interview. On Valentine’s Day, Lil’ Kim released a new mix tape, Black Friday, and the feud got even uglier. The mix tape’s cover shows Lil’ Kim holding a sword and sitting in a pool of Minaj’s blood, with the hip-hop star’s decapitated head lying next to her. The mix tape – which sold 113,000 copies in 28 hours, according to Lil’ Kim’s Twitter – also disses Minaj in a couple of songs. But Lil’ Kim doesn’t consider this “real beef,” as she tweeted on Tuesday: “This is not beef. Real beef is when someone gets shot 5 minutes later. CHILD PLEASE!!!” Um… let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Follow Kim (and Minaj, too, while you’re at it) to keep up with the feud; now that swords have been drawn (literally), it seems these two are headed for a full-out battle. Are you #teamlilkim or #teamnickiminaj?

    Best Tweet of the Week: “Alright my #teamlilkim army & warriors. I have officially pushed the george bush button. Move in & bring back medusa’s head #blackhawkdown”