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  • Friday (I Mean Monday) Throwback – The Pleasure Principle

    I tried to get this done on Friday, but oh well. Monday it is. I’ll still try to write them on Fridays in the future.

    Did you know that when Janet Jackson was 17, she did what people told her?

    The Pleasure Principle was the last of the singles from her coming out party album Control. And while it might’ve only been the 6th single of a 9 song project, it’s video is one that I adore. It’s bootyful.

    • Janet was looking a little like Michael with the knee pads. Wait, MJ wears shin guards.
    • I now want to dance in a warehouse in my bare feet like Kevin Bacon. Ok, maybe not, but it looks cool.
    • She’s even wearing a wristband. I wonder if she stole that from James DeBarge.
    • It’s the pleasure principle, principle, oh ohhhh ohhhh oh.
    • How many people have broken something trying to run and tip the chair like that?
    • Check out that cabbage patch. That was like Jerry Rice in the end zone.
    • I see an ode to her big bro in there.
    • My buddy Kenny Threeths, Arsenio Hall, and me were there three biggest Janet Jackson fans I knew.
    • Everything about this video is cool except that fake back flip off the box.

    Now that Janet has left Virgin and is going to be making records under Island/Def Jam, can she take it back to her glory days? Probably not. The one thing that can take her back to the top is risky. But if she wants to make it back to the top, it might be something she simply has to do. The first thing is that she has to politely dump Jermaine Dupri. We don’t want him trying to ruin her in the industry. Do it nicely. Secondly, call up Willis Jackson. Third, change your name to Charlene, and you and Willis can be together once again. I think it can happen. And then maybe he can be happy again.

  • Usher & Tameka: No Ribs, No Ring?!?!??!?!

    What does the 11th hour cancellation of Usher’s wedding to future baby momma/former stylist Tameka Foster have to do with his music? Well, if you’re the cynical sort, it could be plenty. Usher has an album coming out this fall (a very important one, actually, considering that his last album, “Confessions”, sold 10 million copies in the U.S.). Remember the gambit Usher’s publicity folks ran prior to “Confessions”‘s release, suggesting that Usher’s relationship with TLC’s Chilli was put on ice because he got another woman pregnant? While no hard facts suggest that it’s the case, I can’t help but wonder if this whole young man/older woman/Usher’s upset mom thing is just a publicity stunt set up to create awareness about Usher’s upcoming CD. If so, it’s sort of genius and sick at the same time…I mean, come on, do they really expect the general public to believe that the wedding was cancelled because Usher wanted a finely catered wedding and Tameka wanted barbecue to be served??

  • The Ongoing Saga Of Kelly & Clive: Kiss & Make Up?

    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”.