Yesterday Oscar winner and according to J records "R&B singer" Jaime Foxx made his way to Oprah Winfrey's daily middle American pow wow for his first television performance of his new single "Unpredictable" sans Ludacris. After a mindless chat that made all the women in my office check to see if their gaydar was malfunctioning, Mr. Fox picked up the microphone and tried to prove that he earned his triple threat status of Actor/Comedian/Singer.
NMT=New Music Tuesdays
Things are about to get either really great with Chris Brown or they are about to head south. I say that because I think we are being primed for overexposure. The young R&B singer has been hustling his single "Run It". Today the official album drops and you can catch the new video for his second single "Yo" right here. But wait there's more...
It's the Monday following a long holiday weekend. Most times during long wekends we are so wrapped up in our personal goings on to pay attention to what's happening with our favorite music artists. So it kinda seems appropriate to play a little game of "What Had Happened Was..."
After Chris Brown's first single "Run It" featuring Juelz Santana bubbled under on BET for quite some time, it seems that he is MTV's newest R&B golden boy. From to a live TRL performance to being repeated almost one time too many during the few segments MTV actually shows videos, his popularity has increased. Good for him.
But, what do you think of Chris Brown?
Damn, it's already Thanksgiving which means that along with the 5lbs we'll all gain comes the realization that the year is almost over. And, that gets us to thinking about all we are thankful for. So before the turkey goes into the oven and all your unwanted relatives start trampling through your house, let's run the list of the top 5 things we are thankful for in R&B in 2005.
It's Tuesday y'all... so it's all about new music.
As we creep up on the holiday season, R&B artists we haven't heard from in a while have started pushing new music. The R&B-Poplet we all love to hate, Ashanti, has a best of/ greatest hits kinda thing that she is calling Collectables By Ashanti coming out Dec 6th. The cd has 6 "rare" remixes of singles & album tracks and 4 new songs including her new single "Still On It". Her remix guest list includes Nas, Juelz Santana, Caddillac Tah, Cam'Ron (oh boy!), Black Child and Free. (as in Free from 106 & Park?)
I'm not hating. So, let's just get that out of the way. I'm just making observations. Is it me or are there two Gwen Stefanis, maybe more? You've got the one Gwen Stefani that sings pop. She's the same Gwen Stefani that has L.A.M.B. Then you have the "other" Gwen Stefani. She sings R&B. She hangs out with Pharrell and Eve (uh huh, ok) and at any given moment two Asian chicks might appear and breakdance in Adidas sweatsuits.
This week has been a celebration of Big Boi's record label Purple Ribbon. The R&B artists signed to Purple Ribbbon include Scar, Janelle Monae and of course Sleepy Brown. SOHH Soulful saved one of the best for last. Enjoy your weekend.
From an interview with Sleep Brown:
For as much as he’s contributed to the careers of Outkast and the scope of hip hop and urban music period, Sleepy should be writing award acceptance speeches on the regular, but obviously it hasn’t happened that way for him. Sure, people groove to his sound of his voice and move and memorize his melodies. But he’s still shied away from by labels at the end of the day.
Being the only female in an all male , mostly hip hop camp can be intimidating for some women, but Purple Ribbon's Janelle Monae hopes that "Time Will Reveal" that it's all a part of her master plan. Big Boi cast his net far and wide and got lucky with this Kansas native. Feel her flow.
From SOHH's interview with Janelle Monae:
“Sure, I think I’m sexy,†says the impeccable, fully-clothed dresser. “Naturally women have a sex apppeal about them. But the fact that I make things happen for myself is sexy. Being sexy is in the eye of the beholder. To me sexy is handling my business, being focused and accomplishing goals.â€
SOHH Soulful loves when new soldiers enlist in the soul music army.
One of them up at bat for Big Boi on his Purple Ribbon record label is Scar.He's the hybrid-funk, soul crooner coming out of Mississippi by way of London, England. Get to know him.
The results have been publicized from Saturday's taping of the Vibe Awards in Los Angeles. Mariah Carey emancipated her Mimi across the stage a few times bringing home trophies for Best R&B Voice, Album of the Year (Emanciaption), Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for "We Belong Together". And if that wasn't enough, today the re-release of her cd comes out with four extra tracks including the already heavily rotated "Don't Forget About Us" as well as a video for "Get Ya Number" only released abroad.
The SOHH teams sums up the Vibe Awards well here. But don't peek if you want to be surprised.
Tuesday is the day for new releases and don't front on Madonna's Confessions On A Dancefloor, because other than Mariah's rerelease us R&B heads have nothing but Ginuwine's Back II Da Basics to look forward to. And I think we all agreed it wasn't that hot. Didn't we?
Over the last few weeks, I been seeing posters of Brandy all through the hood. Now being a Brandy fan to the death, I was kinda pissed that I missed any news of a new cd. Then I realized she's not advertising a new cd, she's not promoting a movie nor is she pushing a new show. Homegirl is selling a line of wigs. WTF?
Now for those of you that don't understand where I am going with this, let me explain a little. To me, Brandy in the studio is amazing and not to be fucked with, so imagine my dismay when I see these wig posters all over the place.
Don't get me wrong, if 50 cent can pimp video games, movies etc.... then Brandy can pimp wigs. However I do hope that in between trying on new wigs she is dipping in the studio with Rodney Jerkins somewhere in there. I would be pissed if the next album, if there is even going to be a next album, sucked because she has been wasting time playing dress up.
Selling wigs.... that is not why I've been buying her cds all these years. It's kinda like sending your daughter to college to be a doctor and after graduation she says she is gonna sell Mary Kay. An honest living, yes... but a disappointment nonetheless.
I have been biggin' up Floetry on here for a minute now. I mean the girls are dope! Marsha has her thing going on and Natalie is doing hers and it works. But, and there is always a but. Where the hell were y'all last night?
I headed down to SOBs here in NYC to see Floetry's last show. It's hot to see an act like that where its the right size so you can get all up in a person's mug. That's what I had planned to do.
The show was scheduled for 8pm. Tony Hussle opened for them I think. After the music kinda went south and it all started looking crazy, me and my friend dogdged out to McDonalds. We scarfed down the value meals and headed back to SOBs. We go in and ordered a drink. The we send about 30 text messages each and here it is now 10pm and chicas ain't even rolled onto the stage yet. So I am like aiight, I got the I-tis big time off that value meal. It's 10 o'clock. I already missed Eve on UPN and maybe I can save the night by getting uptown quick enough to see the last of "Making of the Band". And again, chicas still have not even fallen up into the venue yet. You hear what I am saying? So I said WTF? Then, I left. I bounced.
What's worse is I didn't catch "Making The Band" but I hope Aubrey is still on. But yea, so I want to know why Natalie and Marsha was so damn late as to make me self inflict all that and still miss the damn show. Imma fool I know.
Listen to the new single here. Have good weekend y'all and pray for me.
The Billboard R&B charts are beginning to get stale. Since last week, not much has changed. We've still got Destiny's Child with the #1 R&B cd in the country with #1s. Y'all better quit playing and "Stand Up For Love"!
There have been a few slides down the chart but that's because hip hop has had such a surge of new releases. However, other than Toni Braxton slipping to #16 on the R&B/Hip Hop charts and Lyfe Jennings surprisingly moving up to #20 not much else has happened. Alicia is still "Unbreakable" and Stevie is still declaring this is "A Time To Love".
And what about Keyshia, Mariah, Ray J, Chawlie...Last Name Wilson and the rest of them? They are still holding strong. But look out, Floetry's got something to prove next week.
In the meantime check out the Billboard Hip Hop/R&B Chart as well as SOHH's commentary.
Seems like there has been some confusion on what's the real deal with Mary J. Blige and her next project. Is it a full length album of new material or is it a greatest hits kinda joint? Well, I guess someone got their "ish" together and made a decision. Mary J. Blige will release Breakthrough on December 20th, a full length album of new material.
Apprarently there was a plan to release Reminisce, a greatest hits thing with like four new songs. It was like a filler until Breaththrough was complete, well I guess they sped things up when folks started liking what they heard. (now y'all know this is all just hype?)
Natalie and Marsha released their new cd Flo'Ology today. I posted the link to the new single SupaStar featuring Common a while a go. They are performing this Wednesday and Thursday at SOBs in New York. Imma catch the show then dig in to this new joint. On the offset I am not as excited about it but I do want to give it a full chance so seeing them perform it live might do just do what it do baby!
Otherwise this week's releases have been dominated by hip hop. 50 and his crew got it on lock. But in other news you know Destiny's Child always got something to be told. Well I guess they are feeling blessed and are spreading the wealth. They've just recently given $1 million dollars from the Survivor Foundation to the St. John's Downtown and the Bread of Life. The generous donation will go toward the development of transitional living apartments for people who are homeless as a result of personal or natural disasters. I love it when The Blacks! rally together.
So, since there is a lot of new music out... what new cds y'all buying?
Most people probably gave Whitney Houston a standing ovation at the BET 25 because she looked "normal" in Cissy's wig. Not to take anything away from her near 20 year career of great songs and performances; she looked "normal" in comparison to how we've seen her lately. I guess we didn't realize that the hit show "Being Bobby Brown" was filmed prior to her publicized trip to rehab. She has had quite a bit of time to conjure up her next big idea, a new album and musical.
In early 2006 Whitney plans to release an album of original songs as well, she has sanctioned a musical based on her many hit singles. No release date, title or anything has been leaked so we'll all just have to sit on our fat asses and wait to see what she comes up with. If she stops bumpin' long enough she might have a comeback similar to Mariah's and certify this as the era of the "return of the divas".
So it seems like Jay-z's little island spice, Rihanna, is making her acting debut in the next "Bring It On" flick tentatively titled "Bring It On Yet Again". Supposedly she plays herself. Supposedly she does a great job (I'm wondering who else could better play Rihanna than Rihanna). Supposedly she is going to be performing a diddy but the song has yet to be confirmed. I speculate that the Jigga man hasn't figured which song she should sing versus which song Solange Knowles should sing. Solange is one of the main characters and if she is anything like her big sister then she will aim high for a hit on the soundtrack. But again, that's just the SoulMan's speculation. Whatchu think?
SONY's golden boy John Legend still seems to be on the move with his cd. RnBDirt.com reports that he has a video for "Number One" but it's only available on the German version of Launch.com. Whether that is the only place it's available... your guess is as good as mine, but since you can watch it there, why bother looking for it elsewhere. Ya feel me?
I've always been a Destiny's Child fan. I remember back when them other two original puppets, Latoya and Latavia, use to get their strings pulled by Beyonce.
Yesterday Kelly Rowland stopped through 106 & Park. Looking good as always, she was probably in town because Beyonce performed at a benefit at the Wall Street Cipriani. When Julissa and Mad Linx asked her what was her favorite dance song of all time... she said "Crazy In Love". When they asked her what were some of her favorites from the new #1s cd she responded "Check On It" by Beyonce.
In all fairness she named a couple other songs, but to have Beyonce's new song as one of your favorites already is just gross. Those girls are so brainwashed in the whole campaign to support Beyonce that they lose not only their breath, but their whole identities.
Last night the blacks showed out for the BET 25th Anniversary special. The only question I have is, if this is the silver anniversay, why did BET feel like they had to fit everything into one night? You know how when it's the 100th anniversary of Disney World or if it's Walt Disney's birthday, they celebrate all year long? But no.... we've got to show George Clinton, Donnie McClurkin, New Edition, Bobby & Whitney, Nelly, all the past BET vj's, Bob Johnson and his kids, Debra Lee, Diddy, Bow Wow and Snoop all in one night. It just ain't right.
But since we are accentuating the positive, here is is SOHH SoulMan's Top 5 Best Moments of the BET 25.
5. Whitney Houston borrowed one of Cissy's good wigs. Yay!
4. R. Kelly's "Step In the Name of Love" officially replaced Franky Beverly & Maze's "Before I Let Go" as the black feel good family song
3. New Edition turned it out w/ Bobby Brown
2. LL Cool J passed his sex symbol torch to Nelly
and the number one moment of the BET 25 was:
1. Mary J. Blige came out looking like Janet Jackson with abs and apple bottom and all of a sudden we were mad at Kendu for more than making Mary raise his nappy headed kids
And like you I just have one more lingering question, who let Tommy Davidson in and is he jealous that he is the only one from In Living Color who's best work was on In Living Color? Even that phat booty Puerto Rican fly girl made something of herself.
So today R. Kelly released the dvd for Trapped in the Closet (Chapters 1-12). I for one am glad. With the whole thing being played in pieces all around the damn place, it would be good to have them all in one video. And get it all in one sitting. I think the narrative style is hot. But that MTV performance was wack, remember that? Do y'all remember when he performed all the characters on a set all by himself on the MTV Awards. I still say that was a last minute plan.
But anyways you can get it all on dvd at amazon.com or at a bootleg jump off near you. R. Kelly has had some pretty good videos prior to this. Remember the whole Mr. Biggs saga. Well you can watch an all R. Kelly video channel on AOL Music.
Usher working up his acting chops and trying to take it to the serious Hollywood level (but in baby steps) with his movie "In The Mix". It's about some club dj, doing something and a singer and a something else with a this and a that. But the Usher man trying be triple threat. He wants that slash kinda title like: Usher Singer/Actor/Philanthropist.
I've haven't seen the flick yet but I'll be watching to see just how many times Usher let's out his inner Bad Girl.
