Alexis Jordan has made me so very happy this spring. The 18-year-old former America’s Got Talent contestant, now signed to the Jay-Z/Kanye West-run Roc Nation label, has just released her official debut single, “Happiness.” I first heard the song via a Sony sampler I picked up from one of my local record stores’ giveaway box last month, and ever since, it’s been getting heavy rotation on my car stereo system, usually at such an extreme volume as to embarrass and/or totally annoy my teenage son. “Happiness” represents the kind of delicious unexpected meeting of two distinct flavors that commercials for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups celebrated when I was a kid. Instead of chocolate and peanut butter, here we have a defiantly un-guilty pleasure teen pop song built over a composition by up-and-coming Canadian hipster-bait trance-house artist deadmau5 called “Brazil (2nd Edit)”. “Happiness” isn’t just based on a sample of the deadmau5 song. It is the deadmau5 song… only with the Alexis Jordan song slathered all over the top of it like so much sweet, sweet, frothy, frothy Ready-Whip. A genius proposition executed in genius fashion, sure to turn as many people on to Miss Jordan as it will to Mr. mau5. This week, the song’s video premiered on Vevo. You can also currently pick up a free download of the song by signing up for her e-mail list at her website.
Back in 2003, Jay-Z and partners Desiree Gonzalez and Juan Pérez opened up the original 40/40 Club sports bar in NYC, which also fashioned itself as a night club. You may remember Jay-Z referencing it in the song Dirt Off Your Shoulders.
The club has since opened up in Atlantic City and in Vegas, but the Vegas club has since closed down.
He made the Yankee hat famousThe name 40/40 club is a baseball term and is a reference to a player who hits 40 home runs and steals 40 bases all in the same season. The first ever player to do it was Jose Canseco in 1988. Since then, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Alfonso Soriano have also done it. Willie Mays has stated in the past that if it was such an important thing to do, he would’ve done it every year.
According to Rolling Stone’s website, Boston Red Sox slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz has opened up his own Santa Domingo nightclub and titled it “Forty-Forty”.
And I don’t think Jay-Z and his partners are very happy about that.
“[Jay-Z and Perez] have accused Ortiz of trading on the fame, value and goodwill of their name through his club Forty/Forty and its website, www.fortyforty.net, which they say has caused their business ‘marketplace confusion and damage,” reads the lawsuit. Jay-Z’s suit goes on to argue that the shared name isn’t accidental, as Ortiz “has been a patron [at the 40/40 Club] on several occasions long before he opened his infringing Forty/Forty Club.”
Now, Big Papi hasn’t ever come close to joining the exclusive 40/40 club as base stealing isn’t his game. He’s going to be lucky to join the 20/1 club this year if he keeps playing the way he has been. So maybe “Forty-Forty” means something entirely different to him.
Jay-Z’s Yankees’ biggest rivals are the Red Sox. And Jay has rhymed that he made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can. But that can’t be a part of this right?
Dr. DreI looked at the calendar about three times and no, today isn’t April Fool’s Day. That was last week. Thus, I think you can believe the news about Dr. Dre’s Detox update and not be considered a fool if he pulls the ball away Lucy-style from us.
And I’m definitely gonna be putting out the album this year. Finally. I think everyone is gonna be happy with it.
Within that is the news that Dr. Dre and Jay-Z collaborated on the song Under Pressure, which hopefully isn’t an Ice Ice Baby remake. The song may drop within a couple of weeks.
It’s been 11 years since Dre last dropped an album. Will Detox finally come out? The only thing I’m sure of is that it won’t be the hip hop opera that he once promised.
Photo of Dr. Dre shared by Wikipedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
