After trading barbs in the press with her boss, RCA executive Clive Davis, Kelly Clarkson has decided to patch things up. For the past several months, the two have been locked in a tug of war over the fact that Clarkson bristled at (and ultimately refused) Davis’s suggestion that Clarkson’s current album, “My December”, be adjusted a bit (by outside songwriters) to make the album more pop-friendly. Kelly, who co-wrote every one of the album’s tracks, has hit below the belt several times, referring to Davis’s fairly advanced age (74) in a few interviews. Perhaps Clarkson’s worried about the effect her comments have had on sales-while “December” (which is actually a solid piece of work, think Pat Benatar with a little splash of Pink) has sold a solid half-million copies in a month, the two singles from the album have failed to make a significant dent at radio, and the album will have a long way to go before even coming close to the 6 million sales recorded by her last album, 2004’s “Breakaway”.
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Friday Throwback – Scenario
I was just 15 years old and heard a track called Check The Rhime. I was floored. I had no idea who A Tribe Called Quest, affectionately now know to me as simply Tribe, was. They were three guys who created this sound of rap music that was very jazzy and soulful. Q-Tip had this helium sounding voice and Phife Dawg called himself the Five Footer. DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad rounded out the group. But it wasn’t until I heard a track called Scenario that I really started to understand the difference between what was good and bad in rap music. The posse cut featured another group called Leaders Of The New School (LONS) and it was just insane. It also made Busta Rhymes and he probably owes his career to it. Scenario made me wish I could rap.
- Did you know that Bo knows this, and Bo knows that, but Bo don’t know jack, cause Bo can’t rap?
- Phife knew were he stood as he calls himself, “short, dark, and handsome”.
- Check out Reggie Noble smiling.
- Wow, how, now, wow, how, now brown cow?
- You understand the time frame when the references are Bo Jackson and Arsenio.
- Spike Lee looks absolutely no different 16 years later, except I’m not sure if he still wears the X hat.
- Q-Tip is my man but I may never fully forgive him for making out with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice. Tupac could get it, but not Q-Tip.
- I don’t understand anything Busta says, but when you’re most well known for the line, “Rahhh rahhh like the dungeon dragon,” does it even matter?
- Young Busa Bus had mad charisma and also lacked the extra 100 pounds Busa Bus carries today.
- “Checkady-choco, the chocolate chicken.” Whenever you have a chocolate chicken, life is good.
- What’s up with the crazy hand signals Q?
I know that people say that Midnight Marauders is THE CLASSIC Tribe album. Yes, it’s great. But it doesn’t have Scenario on it. And to me, that’s their signature song and that’s why I can never go against The Low End Theory. Will they ever get back together and record again? Who knows, but even if they don’t, I’ll just throw this track on once a month and be fine.
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R-Tel Way Better Than K-Tel
Rob Thomas, who still insists matchbox twenty (or however we’re spelling it this year) is an ongoing enterprise, is ready to be a music mogul. Having already proven that he can write a hook better than any other songwriter this decade, that’s probably a good call for Thomas’ Sony BMG Epic backer.
The new label is called RTel Records, which is too retro for words. The label’s first signing is Garfield Mayor. Remember Garfield’s name. We’ll be profiling him on the main site when he cuts his tracks, but you can listen to some nice low-key alt sounds. The vocal dynamics are reminiscent of Thomas at times, but as Garfield’s page points out, there are a lot of sounds in there, including David Gray, Ben Harper and Paul Simon. All good there and I definitely hear some David Gray, but like Thomas, Garfield apparently can rip into a song, listing Zeppelin and Foo Fighters as well.
Take a listen at his MySpace page for now and enjoy. I’m putting in an advance order with the man himself.
Spinning In The CD
Check out Shop Boyz and Party Like A Rock Star. If anything has summer hit written on it, this may be the one. Go explicit. We double dog dare you.