FREE Magazine: January 2008

My latest scribbles: reviews of The Dream Love/ Hate, Van Hunt Popular, Q-Tip The Renaissance, Estelle Shine, and Angels & Airwaves I-Empire. Catch it if you can...

Upscale Magazine: February 2008

My latest scribbles: reviews of the latest greatest hits packages from Teddy Pendergrass and Lou Rawls. Also got the chance to chop it up with Luther Vandross' mama for this issue. Although the piece was severely truncated, we chatted about the man, the music, and the compilation of the new boxed set, Love, Luther. Cop that.
And, yes...I jacked the jpeg from YBF.

::Will E. Makeit?::

If the results of the past primaries are any indication, I'd place my bets on O-Dog.


Tomorrow, all my folks in DC, MD, and VA will get the chance to rock the polls. Make sure you get up off yo' arse and vote!!!


But with the final primaries not wrapping up until June, it could still very well be a photo finish.

Stay tuned...

WTF?!

The Grammy committee must have been on some raw uncut shit when they decided to run this ad...

I mean...I don't get it. There's NO comparison between these two artists. This ad has the audacity to imply the "apples and oranges" comparison with Aretha and Christina. With all due respect to Christina, she's got miles to go before she can even affect a mere fraction of the influence that Aretha has in the realm of popular music. This ad reminds me of when Ashanti was given the Aretha Franklin Award at the 2002 Soul Train Awards. At that point, she was a new artist that hadn't even been on the charts for a full year. It's all laughable in the long run, because her career experienced a steady decline since her
debut album was released that year.

Speaking of Aretha, it reminds me of an interview on allhiphop.com where Joss Stone confesses to essentially stalking Mrs. Franklin in attempts to land a duet on Stone's sophomore album, to no avail. Big Ree-Ree basically took the passive-aggressive approach, which adds to the comedic nature of the story...

http://allhiphop.com/stories/alternatives/archive/2007/03/12/18135669.aspx

Blankly put: Aretha's a legend. Even if she's accumulated more pounds than hits over the past few decades, her resume speaks volumes. If anyone is going to be put on a scale with her (no pun intended), they're going to have to be worth their weight in gold. Today's industry is filled with artists that are ascribed a legendary status even before their debut album hits the street. They're virtual celebrities by association with stints on reality TV series, magazine profiles and cover stories, and rants on celebrity worship blogs. All of these criteria feed the hype machine and dictate a new artist's worth before their records have actually been released. Just think...If Aretha had to compete with the same media machine back in 1967, her incomparable voice would have fallen on deaf ears. The world would have truly missed out on a great talent, indeed.

Oddly enough, it seems that this is exactly what the industry wants: deaf ears. Their intention seems to be to steer critical attention away from the vocal ability towards the energy and hype that the music and the media creates. Enough ranting for now...

Dear Virgin Megastore...

1. Your crappy listening stations are always broken.
2. Your staff is always dumb as nails.
3. Your "sales" have contributed to the smothering of the beloved mom & pop record shop.

As the music industry implosion nears completion, I wish you a slow and painful death...
Have a nice day ;-)