music-news-from-breakups-to-the-lastest-buzz
Catch a Falling Star: Nelly
Nelly. Photo by reeb0k2008.
Actually, if you think about it, Nelly’s six or seven year run was longer than probably should have been expected. The St. Louis rapper’s career was more or less based on a gimmick-Nelly pretty much spilt the difference between your average singer and your average rapper…and make no mistake, he was pretty average at both. The failure of his current album “Brass Knuckles” and his label’s yearlong campaign to turn shit into sunshine to no avail should put the cap on the career of one of the biggest selling pop rappers in recent history.
Make no mistake, Nelly was a superstar from the moment he appeared on the scene in the summer of 1999. At a time when Midwest rappers from Bone Thugs n Harmony to Eminem were making waves, the rapper was in the right place geographically, and his sing-song flow had massive amounts of pop (and youth) appeal. Despite the occasionally sexually explicit lyric, he was the MC that was playable to a street audience as well as the Nickelodeon set.
[…]
Blueprint 3 Track Listing: This Could Be Good!!
Hip-hop heads have been buzzing about two major releases scheduled for the end of 2008-Kanye West’s “808’s & Heartbreak” (is it really a hip-hop album if Kanye doesn’t rap?) and Jay-Z’s Def Jam finale “Blueprint 3”, which is rumored to have been produced almost in it’s entirety by West.
An alleged tracklisting for BP3 has surfaced on the net, and although its’ validity is being questioned, there might be something to be hopeful about if this […]
New Music In Stores & Online 9/30/08: Robin Thicke, Ben Folds, T.I. & More!
Talk about ending with a bang. This last day of September 2008 (which, if I’m not mistaken, is also the last day for Grammy eligibility for next year’s ceremony) brings out some big guns (I just realized I made a bunch of firearm references in a column that strongly features an artist who just got sentenced to jail for firearms possession… I swear it was unintentional). Nevertheless, there’s something for just about everyone in stores this week. Here’s what you have to look forward to :
Robin Thicke “Something Else” : You know, a lot of folks like to say “I loved (name artist) when no one else liked them”. Robin Thicke is one of those artists I can say that about. The blue-eyed soul singer broke through two years back with his second album, “The Evolution of Robin Thicke”. Although he had to tone down his sound a little bit to get a hit, it was a pretty solid album. His third album, “Something Else” hits stores today and promises yet another collection of uptempo soul thumpers (like the first single “Magic”) and romantic ballads. Not bad for the son of Jason Seaver.
[…]