June 2008 Archives

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Hot 97 morning show hostess Miss Jones has been given the boot.  Known for chastising some of your fave r&b stars like Keyshia Cole and Danity Kane, and more infamous for her culturally insensitive remarks ("Tsunami" song anyone?) the popular New York station has finally opted to cut the washed-up singer from their roster. From what I hear Big Boy will be making the leap from LA's Power 106 to take over the reins from Jonesy.

If you're into old school R&B you probably remember her work. [Peep This]

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A little birdie tells me that Ms. Badu-Badu-Badu has got another bun in the oven... That's right! Seven & Puma have a little brother or sister on the way... Congrats to Erykah on a new bundle of joy -- best wishes on a safe pregnancy and delivery!

Remember when Erykah was pregnant with Seven?

Let's help her out with some baby names -- with a brother named Seven and a sister named Puma, what would you name Erykah's newest baby girl or boy?

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Beyonce was spotted all hugged up on Idris Elba -- but no worries Hov, it's just for her newest role as wife to the unfaithful Elba in the upcoming thriller Obsessed. B is also playing Etta James in Cadillac Records. I can't decide which I'm more interested to see -- whether B can pull off Etta -- or how she'll fare in a non-singing, non-comedic role. How do you feel about B's acting skills?
What's your favorite role so far? Carmen Jones in MTV's Carmen? Deena in Dreamgirls? Foxxy Cleopatra in Austin Powers? Did anybody see Xania in Pink Panther? How about Lilly in The Fighting Temptations?

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Gotta HOT track for y'all that is slated to land on Fantasia's third (and currently untitled) album... It's called "Broke" and I love it. Hopefully you will too. It's likely that "When I See U" producers MIDI Mafia are behind this one as well because from what I hear they are producing her entire new album... Check it out below:

Nice old school feel...

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Jennifer Hudson premiered her video for "Spotlight" yesterday. I like it -- ladies don't you hate it when your man be on that stalker ish, blowing up your phone and stuff? It's nice to put a visual to Jen's vocals.

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Last night pretty much confirmed it for me -- people are missing the good old days. Nostalgia was up in the building like a muhfugga... Hands down my favorite performance was Al Green's (including the tribute which featured -- WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN IN MY LIFE??? -- Maxwell)

I loved John Legend's presentation and Jill Scott (what did you think of her HAIRCUT?) Anthony Hamilton, Maxwell and Al Green himself. Marvin Sapp also did an extraordinary job but I don't know how many gospel folks I have in here that were checkin for him so I'm gonna focus a little more on the pop/r&b musc. Al Green being the old school legend that he is fit right in with all the nostalgia going on up in the Shrine last night.


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VH1Soul is one of my favorite channels -- not just because they play the videos that never seem to get any play elsewhere, but also because they air some of the best music documentaries ever made. Last night I stumbled on "Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones" -- which I've seen before but it's been quite awhile (the doc was made in 1990). I've always been awed at Quincy Jones' 60-year career and the way the interviews are interspersed with him in the studio with different artists and his work is really special. Check your local listings because I believe VH1Soul will be showing it throughout the week... Quincy Jones fans in the UK should also be on the lookout for the BBC doc "Quincy Jones: The Many Lives of Q" which has also aired in four parts throughout the month, Part 1 is posted below.


Quincy Jones will also be honored with BET's Humanitarian Award during the BET Awards tonight.

They say music can save the soul, but despite having a music career that is at the top of the charts, Amy Winehouse's high has been so literal it's put her at an all time low. She was recently diagnosed with emphysema and within the last year she's been hospitalized several times for everything from blackouts, dehydration, exhaustion and of course the everpresent overdose rumors -- despite singing "No, No, No" in her hit song "Rehab," Winehouse has made a few unsuccessful attempts to kick her habit (which is rumored to be crack, heroin and who knows what else). Meanwhile she continues to attempt a singing career - despite the emphysema diagnosis she's still on the bill to perform at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday and the Glastonbury Music Festival.

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The BET Awards air live tomorrow night at 8pm EST -- and I remember recently reading that T-Pain is leading the awards race with 5 nominations... Here's the rub though -- each of his nominations is for a collaboration and with three of the nominations in the Best Collaboration category (for "Kiss, Kiss", "Good Life" and "Low") he has a 60% shot at winning that one... Anyway it got me to thinking -- is T-Pain better as a side dish than the main course (or would you just leave him off the plate altogether?). Personally I was anti-T-Pain when I first heard him but that damn "Buy U A Drank" was so catchy I had to stop hatin' (well not completely -- stay tuned for a "Stop This Now" T-Pain Edition).

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Chante Moore's first album in 8 years Love The Woman was released earlier this week June 17 via Peak Records. Here's her lead single "Ain't Supposed To Be"

Chante has a few live shows coming up in Cali. Check the dates below:
July 20 Oceanside Pier Amphiteater Oceanside, CA
Sept. 19 Hyatt Newporter Newport Beach, CA
Sept. 21 Thornton Winery Temecula, CA

I have a copy of the CD and I suggest putting it in to unwind in the evening...

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Anybody else feeling like JD is rushing things with his new Island Urban/So So Def signee Dondria aka Phatfffat? Her single "Can't Stop" is on sale at iTunes NOW and her album Dondria vs. Phatfffat is in stores JULY 29. Check out the YouTube of the single below.


Mariah Carey ft. T.I. "I'll Be Loving You Long Time"

I'm back with another edition of Stop This Now (inspired by HK's blog of the same title) and this time I am gunning for the r&b pop chicas that are long on looks but short on talent...and clothing!No disrespect to my boys Rock City who wrote this jam -- but sometimes I feel like telling Pussycat Dolls "Hoe Sit Down" ala Maceo

Somebody should tell them they need to grow up for real and put some clothes on!

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Eric Benet is back with the single "You're The Only One" from his upcoming new album Love And Life due out this Fall on Warner Bros Records. Take a listen below:

I like it, but from what I'm hearing it's not an entirely new song -- just one he decided to include with this project. Eric went back to his roots and recorded most of this album in Milwaukee -- I hope it paid off because I love his voice and I'm looking forward to hearing the full album.

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If you were around Friday afternoon you know the comments got a little heated over the R.Kelly verdict... Someone put forth the opinion that R.Kelly is the undisputed King of R&B and myself and a few others objected. So let's have a thorough discussion about this. Who do you think is the greatest male r&b singer of this generation and why? To give Kells a fighting chance let's stick to singers born after 1967 (Kelly's birth year) so he won't have to contend with Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Al Green and all those other singers we already know are better than him (*wink *wink)

Ashanti performed the National Anthem at Game 5 of the NBA Finals this Sunday

I like how she freaked it a little bit at the end -- she hits all the big notes but on some of the lower notes she sounds average and almost drops words.

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There are hella DJ's pissed at Jermaine Dupri right now for saying the DJ is Dead, most of them predicting it's only a matter of time before he starts singing the hook he wrote for Jay-Z's "Fallin'" ('I know I shouldn't've did that/I know it's gonna come right back') but lets face it this dude has been lucky as a leprechaun in his career AND despite all the digs about his looks and his diminutive stature -- the man did land Janet Jackson. So I figured I'd post a few videos and let you guys decide -- is JD just an overrated cornball? Is he a genius? Or is he both at the same time?

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This weekend Core DJ's Founder Tony Neal put together an Old School mix in homage to his father, who helped provide many of the records in his current collection. Here's the playlist and download link to his mix that I decided to share with you:

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R.Kelly has been acquitted of all 14 counts of child pornography.

I honestly cannot believe it myself. What do you think of the verdict???

Ashanti hit up TRL yesterday to perform "Way That I Love You" and discuss her new "I Declare Me" platform...

She also discusses her fascination for autopsy shows... Hmmm. Ashanti has been everywhere lately -- it's good to see a label really stand behind their artist and promote them. I know I throw a lot of digs her way in Hot Press but I think Ashanti pulled off a great TRL performance here and I have to give it up to her for handling her biz like a true professional.

Konvict/Interscope artist Ray Lavender has released his video for "Stay" - it also features appearances from Akon and Tank.


"Stay" Official Music Video - Ray Lavender

Ray looks mmm mmm good. Not really feelin all the ho-hopping (ex to the next and back again) in the video though.

The Collabo Edition

Nas ft. Keri Hilson "Hero"

This morning a friend of mine hit me on iChat to complain that one of his favorite Janet Jackson classics had been sampled...

Janet Jackson "Come Back to Me"

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I'm a big Robin Thicke fan so I was happy to receive this mp3 "Magic" yesterday. It's cool -- but I don't enjoy it quite as much as his collabo on The Carter 3 with Lil Wayne "Tie My Hands"

"Magic"

New Kids are back! And they know just what you want -- beaches and scantily clad white girls


*Big shout out to hk over at seedgiveslife for inspiring this post.

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Prince Rogers Nelson turned 50 this Saturday (June 7) and according to E! his purple majesty celebrated Friday by hitting up Teddy's, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, with pals for drinks. On Saturday, his actual birthday, he stepped out with two young brunettes for the Lo Hi Fi party at Hollywood spot Green Door. My favorite music network VH1 Soul made a much bigger deal out of the event -- by holding a Prince marathon all weekend. So I figured I'd have a mini-marathon of my own in honor of the man who earned me my worst childhood spanking (Ma Dukes caught me reciting the lyrics to "Darling Nikki" -- I was 6).

After introducing it's accompanying dance last week, Ray J recently unveiled the video for his single "Gifts". What do you think? Is it hot or not?

Check Estelle's latest vid "No Substitute Love"

I like how she continued her trend of cameos -- anybody else a "Project Runway" watcher? Christian Siriano was all up in the mix, along with Amanda Diva and Kelly Rowland. What do you think about the video?

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I had the pleasure of interviewing Janet Jackson yesterday as part of a teleconference with a select few fellow bloggers... And I'm sorry to tell you guys this but it's looking like the label is not planning to allow any more singles from Discipline to be released.

Here's what Janet had to say when I asked her what her next single would be:

"That’s pretty difficult to say, only because of the record label at this point. We started off with “Feedback” and the label and myself haven’t quite seen eye to eye since the "Feedback" single so they’ve kind of basically stopped all promotion. I’m trying to figure out a way to say this, but just to say it and to be quite honest, they just stopped all promotion whatsoever on the album so I don’t think you’re going to hear another single off this album."

Damn. What is going over there at Island???


She also revealed some details about her upcoming "Rock Witchu Tour":

"It’s a completely different show, like nothing before in the past. My real goal is to try and do every single I’ve ever had... so I have to figure out how to fit that into two hours and yet give them enough so they don’t feel hungry for more of that song in particular."

As for why she chose to title the tour after her song "Rock Wit U":

"It’s fitting to me, fitting to what the show will be like. It’s a dance show, it’s all upbeat I want it to be a party onstage, a party in the arena. I’ve always said when people come to these shows I want them to forget about all their problems all the drama in their lives and just have a good time, just let it go for a couple hours and bring some happiness into their lives. It’s going to be one big party, I want to 'Rock Witchu.'"

Last but not least Janet wanted to make sure fans know she has been keeping up with the internet talk about her not making to Europe to promote Discipline:


"I just want to let the fans know because I’ve been reading a lot what the bloggers have been saying about the record and not hearing it on the radio and stuff like that, so I just wanted to let them know where things were as well and where it was all coming from. I’ve heard people talking about me not coming to Europe in support of the record just to let them know that it was definitely in my heart to go to Europe and to support this album but it’s about teamwork, it’s not something I can totally do on my own. Unfortunately things have turned out the way that they have with the differences between the label and myself, which we have been having for the most part from the beginning. So I just want to tell them again thank you very much for all the love and all the support and I they understand the entire situation and I’m really excited to see everybody on tour. I’m really looking forward to that it’s going to be a lot of fun."


Read the full SOHH news story this Saturday to learn more, including details about Janet's book Me which is due for release in November.

I'm a lil hip-hop heavy this week so here goes...

Lloyd ft. Lil Wayne "Girls All Around The World"

Usher, Nelly, Chris Brown, Lil' Wayne and Mariah Carey are scheduled to perform at this year's BET Awards, June 24 at L.A's Shrine Auditorium.

T-Pain leads this year's BET Award nominations, with five nods. I think T-Pain is a bonified hitmaker but it strikes me as odd that he would lead this years nominations. Am I being a music snob?


The awards will also honor Al Green with a lifetime achievement award and Quincy Jones will receive an award for his humanitarian work.

Source: PEOPLE

Janet Jackson made a surprise visit to The View yesterday to hand deliver "Rock Witchu Tour" tickets to fan and View host Sherri Shepherd


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Shame on me for real for letting the release of Usher's Here I Stand overshadow the latest project to drop from the legendary Al Green Lay It Down which also came out May 27th. I picked it up this weekend and was not disappointed in the least -- my favorite song so far is "Just For Me". Check out this clip about the making of Lay It Down which features collaborations with Corinne Bailey Ray, John Legend, Anthony Hamilton, James Poyser and The Roots:

Leona Lewis landed the upcoming cover for Blender Magazine

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The Brits are still getting mad love musically -- Diddy recently was quoted by UK's Daily Mirror saying he wants to work with Lewis on his next album: “I want that girl on my next album. I’m a huge fan. Not only is she so, so beautiful, she has a great voice. She is extremely talented, and it’s great she’s from England. She has one of the best voices I’ve heard. I’m already thinking about my next album and definitely want to make it work, so she’s on it. I had Christina Aguilera on my last album, but it’s all about Leona Lewis on my next.”

Sean Garrett has announced a release date of June 24th for his upcoming album Turbo 919 He also released the following promo pic late last week.

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Ummm, don't know about that mohawk he's sporting - yikes... Nice Porsche though :-)

Click to hear his single "Grippin'" ft. Ludacris


Turbo 919 will be released via Interscope Records / Bet I Penned It
www.myspace.com/seangarrettmusic

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