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??
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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”.
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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.