Here’s what’s going on in the music world this week.
*R. Kelly is writing his autobiography with the help of celebrity biographer David Ritz, who collaborated with Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin on their biographies-Aretha’s was an autiobiography and Marvin’s was released posthumously. This is wrong on so many levels. First off, do you honestly think Kells is going to tell the truth about his life? Is he going to admit to marrying Aaliyah? I don’t see this going well at all, simply because if he was to write a true autobiography, he would be up shit creek legally. Secondly, I just don’t find the guy interesting-today’s artists don’t really have the backstory that a lot of the legends have, and Kells is not exactly a creative genius, so even from a songwriter’s or musician’s standpoint, what would there be to say? Finally, isn’t this cat illiterate? How can a dude that can’t read write a book?
Nick Jonas (I’ll admit that I have no idea which of the Jonas Brothers he is…I would imagine he’s the lead singer) has formed a new group called The Administration. This band has three former members of Prince’s New Power Generation-Sonny T., Michael Bland and Tommy Barbarella. I can’t find the news article anymore, but, Jonas alleges that the songs have a strong Prince influence. I call shenanigans. Those of you who watched the Grammy nomination special last week saw Nick & The Administration perform (unless you took the opportunity to take a bathroom break) and the song they played sounded nothing like Prince. It sounded like a Hanson B-side. My take on it? Those NPG guys need some serious cash, and Nick Jonas is seriously deluded. It’ll be interesting to see how this album does, since the last Jonas Brothers album performed below expectations.
Finally, in some Grammy news: Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” (actually not a bad song for what it is) was pulled from the category it was nominated for (Best Song from a Motion Picture) because it wasn’t specifically written for the film it was featured in (“The Hannah Montana Movie”). Those Grammy folks sure are weird. You can make three albums and get nominated for Best New Artist, but if you write a song, somehow get it placed in a movie, you can’t get nominated for Best Song from a Movie? huh?
Miley’s beef with the Grammys may not be as big as Rick Ross’s. The gargantuan Florida rapper apparently is pissed off about being overlooked for Best Rap Album at the Grammys and addressed it in a mixtape remix of Beyonce’s “Video Phone”. OK-first of all, let’s look at the rappers that were nominated: Eminem, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Common and Flo-Rida. All of those artists (obviously excluding Flo-Rida) can rap circles around Rick Ross. Em and Common might have made shitty albums, but at least they have skills. Ross can’t rap AND his music sucks! I guess, though, if they put Flo-Rida in a category and omitted me, I’d be pretty pissed too. Because who would want to be left out of something in favor of Flo-Rida???
