Life On Planet Wayne Inside the hermetically sealed, perpetually stoned, compulsivelyimprovished bubble around the world's most endearing gangstaOne night in March, an elevator opens onto the 23rd floor of a midtown Atlanta skyscraper, and Lil Wayne steps into the alcove of his luxury condominium. His place takes up the entire floor of the building. Still, to enter the apartment proper, Wayne must affix a digit to a biometric fingerprint scanner, which unlocks his door with a satisfying pop. Inside, massive windows offer breathtaking panoramic views of the city. Perhaps to avoid competing with such vistas, the decor in the apartment is...

The Very Pink, Very Perfect Life of Taylor Swift The world's biggest new pop star is a little bit country, a littlebit rock & roll, and all control freak. What's behind her drivefor success?On a bright sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, Taylor Swift is on good behavior, as usual. In high school, she had a 4.0 average; when she was home-schooled during her junior and senior years, she finished both years of course work in 12 months. She has never changed her hair color, won't engage in any remotely dangerous type of physical activity and bites her nails to the quick. At 19 years old, she says she has never had a cigarette. She says she has never had a drop of alcohol. "I have no...

Bringing It All Back Home With his third great album this decade, Bruce Springsteen tackleslove, loyalty — and the ultimate deadlineThe Band on Bruce: Their SpringsteenA candid look at the legend from his "greatest friends" — the E Street BandThe sound is classic amateur 1966 — chaotic, jangling guitars, impatient drumming and crude raging-hormone vocal...

Sean Penn: The Rolling Stone Interview Oscar's bad boy goes off the deep end on art, life, politics andwhat his kids think of him going gay in Milk.One afternoon in January, Sean Penn answers the door of his Bay Area home, shoeless, in jeans and a gray thermal undershirt, his hair sort of crazily mussed, looking as if he's just woken up. It's a couple of minutes past noon.To say that Penn has "aged well" is to employ a nonstandard usage of the term. He does not look younger than his 48 years. His forehead is baroquely creased, his long face haggard, his hair soaring and gray-streaked and parted down the middle. Something Penn is...

Bush Apologizes: The Farewell Interview We Wish He'd Give W. comes clean - on his dad, Condi's farts and the time Dickwaterboarded the house boyDespite a financial crisis for the ages, the catastrophic collapse of a Republican Party crippled by his political legacy, and the highest presidential disapproval rating in the history of American polling, outgoing commander in chief George W. Bush has not completely lost his sense of fun. When Rolling Stone caught up with him at the White House shortly after the holidays for what would turn out to be his final extended sit-down interview as president, the graying but still quite fit Texan had...

Brad Pitt: The Rolling Stone Interview The actor on fame, life with six kids and how playing an old manmade him grow upBrad Pitt is having technical difficulties."I normally need my kids to do this," he mutters, as he attempts to connect my iPod into his stereo. "They're so beyond me in technology, it's hard to keep up. Our seven-year-old was searching the word 'weapons' on Google the other day and ended up on some white-supremacist site. I'm sure now we're on all kinds of watch lists." Eventually, Pitt gives up and summons an assistant, and soon enough we're listening to Townes Van Zandt. Pitt has never...

The Best of 2008 The 50 Albums of the YearTV on the Radio partied as the world collapsed, Dylan hit the vaults, Lil Wayne topped hip-hop and Metallica thundered back Read...

Britney Returns A year after her very public meltdown, Britney Spears is back towork and out of trouble. But what has the comeback cost her?• Video: Go Behind Britney Spears' Cover Shoot• Britney Spears: The Rolling Stone Cover Gallery• Britney Spears' Life in Photos: A Timeline of Her Rise, Fall and Comeback• Behind the Britney Story: Q&A With Writer Jenny EliscuThere's an understanding among those who know...

The Hot List From a futuristic pop star to Ambien tripping, the 70 hottestbands, actors, drugs, movies of '08 and beyondIllustration: Shepard FaireyYes we did. Barack Obama's on his way to Washington, Britney's got a new album, gossip girls are dying to kiss vampires, and Mickey Rourke — Mickey Rourke! — is an Oscar contender. The 2008 Hot List is full of hopeful surprises — just like the man headed to the White House.• ViewList: The 2008 Hot List

The Top 12 DVDs of 2008 Pop in these 12 Blu-ray beauties, which also look good on standardDVD (I said good, not ridiculous good), and get yourself rocked1. The Dark KnightEverything gleams like sin on the Dark Knight BD (that's what they call a Blu-ray disc, get used to it). From the man in the Bat suit (Christian Bale) to the Joker in cracked clown makeup (Heath Ledger), the movie is a potent provocation decked out as a comic book. And oh, boy, is it a looker. If BD is the future of home-theater viewing, then The Dark Knight shows you why. Images...

The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time Our blue-ribbon panel of 179 experts ranks music's finest vocalists1 | Aretha Franklinby Mary J. BligePhoto: Goodwin/Redferns/RetnaBornMarch 25th, 1942Key Tracks"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Respect," "I...

What Makes a Great Singer? By Jonathan LethemThere's something about a voice that's personal, not unlike the particular odor or shape of a given human body. Summoned through belly, hammered into form by the throat, given propulsion by bellows of lungs, teased into final form by tongue and lips, a vocal is a kind of audible kiss, a blurted confession, a soul-burp you really can't keep from issuing as you make your way through the material world. How helplessly candid! How appalling!Contrary to anything you've heard, the ability to...