When last heard from, local rap trio Troop 41 was earning a gold record for "Do The John Wall," a hit video about the Raleigh-born hoops star that has amassed more than 12 million YouTube views since going viral in the summer of 2010. They're in another video that might be edging toward virality, local rapper Bobby James' "Hometown." Since hitting Youtube last weekend, "Hometown" has picked up more than 112,000 views.

"I have no clue how it's gotten so many," says James. "It did get posted on some blogs around here, and we've been promoting it on Twitter and Facebook. I guess the word just spread."

Dre Cannonz shot the video and also produced the track, which appears on James' new mixtape "Darkskin and BadHair" and features a sample from Adele's "Hometown Glory." James and Troop 41's members have known each other since being in classes together at Enloe High School, and the "Hometown" video features local landmarks including Dorton Arena, Shaw University, Raleigh Convention Center's "Shimmer Wall" and various downtown streets.

"I pretty much just thought about locations you drive by every day that people know, and think, 'This is Raleigh, where I'm at,'" says Cannonz. "Shots of colleges, game footage, people having a good time."

The tone is affectionate, but the song's lyrical references to "North Crack" and "dope dealers on the boulevard" will probably dampen the enthusiasm of chamber of commerce types.

"We're trying to keep it positive," Cannonz says with a laugh.

Adele Live in London (8pm, NBC) - Matt Lauer interviews Grammy-winning singer Adele, and portions of her performance at London's Royal Albert Hall are also featured.

Secret Millionaire (8pm, ABC) - In the Season 3 premiere, Southern California artist Scott Jacobs and his 18-year-old daughter spend six  days in Newark, N.J., living on less than $75 between them and looking for folks to help while they do volunteer work.

Oprah's Next Chapter (9pm, OWN) - Oprah visits Neil Patrick Harris and his partner David Burtka and the couple's young twins. They discuss coming out as gay men and their decision to have children.

Miss USA Pageant (9pm, NBC) - Andy Cohen and Giuliana Rancic host the 61st annual contest, featuring 51 women competing for the sash-and-crown prize.

The Glades (9pm, A&E) - In the Season 3 premiere, a group of UFO enthusiasts accuse the FDLE of covering up a wealthy man's alien abduction and subsequent death.

MTV Movie Awards (9pm, MTV) - Russell Brand hosts the event in Los Angeles. "The Hunger Games" and "Bridesmaids" lead the nominees, with eight each.

Keep reading for more TV!

So if you're a high school student who would like to get your "Glee" on (only in a much cooler way), here's your chance: Community Chorus Project is looking for a few good singers. A few score good singers, actually.

Local arts entrepreneur Lauren Hodge assembled the initial Community Chorus Project last year, which debuted with fine performances of R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" and Adele's "Rolling in the Deep." Recorded and filmed at Manifold Recording Studio with arrangements by Shana Tucker and The Beast's Eric Hirsh, videos went out far and wide, earning the approval of R.E.M. Now they're looking to do it again in August, this time covering Radiohead, Ben Folds Five, Bruno Mars and others. Members of Lost in the Trees, Megafaun and The Old Ceremony are among the local musicians participating.

If you want in, auditions will be May 12 at UNC-Chapel Hill. For details, go here.

Good news. Season 4 of "Live from the Artists Den" begins tonight on UNC-TV. Well, actually it airs on Sunday morning at 1 a.m. (which is when all Season 4 episodes will air).

But either way, you're going to want to record it.

The first episode features an intimate concert by Adele. Other artists featured this season are Death Cab for Cutie, The Fray, Amos Lee (with Calexico), Kid Rock, and Iron and Wine.

The good people at Artists Den sent us a really cool prize pack to give to a lucky reader. The pack includes a Death Cab for Cutie t-shirt (size Large), a cd of "Arists Den vol. I" featuring Ed Harcourt, David Poe, Motel Bed and others, and a dvd of The Swell Season's performance on the show from 2008.

To win, send me an email with your mailing address by midnight on Wednesday, April 4, and we'll randomly select a winner.

Good luck!

The Bachelor (8pm, ABC) - It's the season finale and it seems pretty certain the doofus bachelor picks the witchy bachelorette, right? Enh, who cares anymore. Courtney and Lindzi meet Ben's mom and sister, and Ben proposes to someone (cough-Courtney-cough). In the 10 o'clock hour, Ben and the "winner" review their very public courtship and reveal their plans for the future.

The Voice (8pm, NBC) - The Battle Round continues.

Alcatraz (9pm, Fox) - An innocent man from Alcatraz resurfaces to commit crimes.

Live from the Artists Den (10pm, UNC-TV) - The full season of this music series doesn't begin until April 1, but thanks to UNC-TV's pledge drive, we're getting an early taste: a performance by Adele recorded in February 2011 at the Santa Monica Bay Woman's Club.

Smash (10pm, NBC) - Vocal problems begin to plague Ivy. Meanwhile, Julia finds it difficult to stay away from Michael and Karen books a gig as a Bar Mitzvah singer.

Navajo Cops (10pm, National Geographic Channel) - A new series following a Navajo police force on the largest Indian reservation in North America. In the premiere, officers try to track an unidentified creature after receiving numerous reports of people hearing strange noises in the middle of the night.

For the second straight year, an act with Triangle connections will be center-stage at next February's Grammy Awards. Where it was Arcade Fire this past year, next year it will be Bon Iver -- whose frontman Justin Vernon used to call Raleigh home.

Bon Iver scored nominations in the prestigious record and song of the year categories for "Holocene," a track from the group's eponymous 2011 album. That was part of a four-nomination haul including best alternative album and even best new artist.

The latter category is odd because "Bon Iver" was the group's third release -- and its first two both made the top half of the Billboard 200 album sales charts. One of the other best-new-artist nominees also has North Carolina connections, Fayetteville rapper J. Cole, nominated on the strength of his chart-topping album "Cole World: The Sideline Story."

Industry observer Sean Ross, executive editor of the Ross On Radio newsletter, cites Nicki Minaj as this year's worthiest best-new-artist nominee. But he predicts that Minaj won't win because she and J. Cole "will cancel each other out," which might allow Bon Iver to sneak in there the way Arcade Fire did for album of the year back in February.

"Then it's Bon Iver's people-who-propelled-Arcade-Fire vote versus The Band Perry's combination mainstream-audience vote and the never-insigificant 'I don't really follow new music but I hear they're good' vote," Ross said.

The nominations were announced Wednesday night at a Grammy concert at Staples Center in Los Angeles, where the awards will be presented Feb. 12. As expected, Adele's top-selling "21" album led the field with six nominations. Bruno Mars, Mumford & Sons, Rihanna and Lady Gaga all picked up multiple nominations in the major categories, too.

As for other nominations of North Carolina interest:

Eric Church, an Appalachian State alumnus from Granite Falls, was nominated for best country album, up against a field including Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum and Jason Aldean.

North Carolina School of the Arts alumnus Jim Lauderdale, a two-time winner in past years, earned a nomination for best bluegrass album -- and also appears on a Tom T. Hall tribute album nominated for best children's album. Among Lauderdale's competition in the bluegrass category will be Brevard's Steep Canyon Rangers, sharing a nomination with comedian/banjo player Steve Martin.

Asheville guitarist Warren Haynes, a veteran of Gov't Mule and Allman Brothers, was nominated for best blues album.

Durham-based Merge Records, which captured last year's best-album Grammy with Arcade Fire, picked up a best-recording-package nomination for the expanded deluxe version of the same album. Zooey Deschanel, who records with M. Ward as the Merge duo She & Him, was also nominated in best song written for visual media, for the "Winnie the Pooh" song "So Long."

Marsalis Music, the label of Durham jazzman Branford Marsalis, scored in the category of best large jazz ensemble album for "Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook."

Levon Helm's live album "Ramble at the Ryman," nominated for best Americana album, includes "Anna Lee," written by Greensboro's Laurelyn Dossett. That song has already been on one Grammy-winning album, Helm's "Dirt Farmer," which won best tradtional folk album in 2008.

ADDENDUM: Another nominee with local connections is recording engineer Miles Walker, who grew up in Raleigh and mostly works out of Atlanta. Walker engineered records that scored a total of eight nominations, including hits by Rhianna, Katy Perry and Wiz Khalifa, sharing the nomination on two of them -- Rhianna's album-of-the-year nod for "Loud," and Perry's record-of-the-year nomination for "Firework."

SECOND ADDENDUM: I received a pretty detailed response about who does and does not qualify as a "new" artist in Grammyland from another industry pundit, former USA Today music editor Ken Barnes. I'm fascinated in wonky stuff like this, so I'm passing along the whole thing:

As a 25-year Grammy voter, I've watched the definition of a new artist "evolve" from super-strict (one prior guest appearance on someone else's album disqualified Whitney Houston from new-artist consideration in the '80s) to the current, almost-anything-goes guidelines.

It's basically a wording problem at this point; if the category were called "best emerging artist" or "breakthrough artist" or something like that, it wouldn't be such a communications problem. Basically what the Grammys try to do is establish whether, with a particular album, an artist has achieved a breakthrough to the general public. If Bon Iver was considered a critical/indie/minority-taste hit prior to this record, then the Grammys would declare them eligible. If the Academy felt a breakthrough had occurred with a previous record, based on sales, airplay, critical acclaim, buzz, mass acceptance, etc., then no.

With only rather generally worded guidelines, it's always dicey, and standards tend to waffle. So there's always one or two "new artists" that stick in journalists' craws, for good reason.

Well, there's no reason for the Triangle to feel slighted about Adele's Durham show getting called off. Now word has come down that all of Adele's tour dates for the rest of the year, in England as well as America, have been canceled. Here's the announcement:

It is with deep regret that Adele has been forced to cancel her remaining live dates and promotional appearances in 2011. She is to undergo surgery to alleviate the current issues with her throat and a full recovery is expected. As a result, doctors have ordered her to rest her voice and completely recuperate before looking to schedule any work commitments.

Adele's cancellation is part of a run of bad luck this month at DPAC, including postponement of the venue's Aretha Franklin and Loretta Lynn shows. But one has to admire DPAC's verve, because venue management is still in there pitching. The 2012 tour schedule has just been released for another singing legend with a shaky attendance record, George "No Show" Jones, and he's coming to DPAC on Aug. 18. Jones made his NC State Fair show as scheduled this month, so anything is possible.

The diva gods are not being kind to Durham Performing Arts Center this month, with Adele and Aretha Franklin calling off dates. And now country legend Loretta Lynn's show is off. She was to play DPAC Sunday night, but the date has been scotched due to illness according to a post on Lynn's website:

Loretta regretfully must cancel her shows for Ashland KY, and Durham, NC for this weekend, due to illness. Doctors have diagnosed her with the beginning stages pneumonia, and will continue to need rest. Loretta is doing well and is disappointed but feels confident she will be ready for upcoming November dates.

DPAC management hopes to reschedule the date.

UPDATE (10/24/11): Hot dog, they did reschedule it -- to Jan. 8.

Chalk up another righteous booking for Durham Performing Arts Center, which will play host this fall to Adele -- the young British neo-soul singer who has had the top of the charts locked down for much of this year with her album "21." Adele's label just released her latest tour schedule with six new dates, one of which is Oct. 8 at DPAC. Ticket details are not yet available.

UPDATE (6/24/11): Tickets will go on-sale Friday, July 22.