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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Kanye West

  • BET Awards Action…It’s Fantas…Wait A Second…


    Hey, anyone notice that the Soul Train Music Awards didn’t happen this year? Well, after last year’s debacle, during which damn near NO ONE who won an award showed up, the organizers decided to pull the plug on the show after two decades.

    Well, one definite reason the Soul Train Awards’ power faded was because of the advent of the BET Awards. Since it’s inception in 2001, it has become the place where R&B, rap and gospel’s elite united to be honored. Add in the fact that they honor the film, television and sports world as well, and…well, I think the rest of this paragraph kinda writes itself.

    Anyway, this year’s nominees were announced today, and the leading nominee is…

    …(squints)…

    …T-PAIN?!!!!!???!!??

    Yup, Tallahassee’s finest (forgive me, Tallahasseans, I know no better) received five nominations, and not a one for his own work. Thank Kanye West, Chris Brown and Flo-Rida for the plethora of T-Pain love. Man, he has got the easiest job of anyone in the music industry. Dude doesn’t even have to sing.

    Anyway, the other multiple nominees were pretty standard: the aforementioned West and Brown, plus Li’l Wayne, Mary J. Blige and Alicia Keys, among others. Pleasant surprises included the love shown Erykah Badu, who got a pair of noms, plus the presence of British export Estelle in the Best New Artist category. Also nice to see Raheem DeVaughn get a pair of noms, and they recognized Chaka Khan, who’s made arguably the best R&B album in the past 12 months (Although they tossed her in the “BETJ” AKA “Old Fogey” category).

    A head scratcher included the entire Best Female Hip-Hop category. Any category in which Kid Sister and Li’l Mama are among your finalists should probably be scrapped sooner than later.

    Still,this promises to be an interesting show, with performances from Usher, among others,and the lifetime achievement award set to go to Rev. Al Green. The show airs live on June 24th, and you can find a complete list of nominees here: http://www.bet.com/specials/betawards08/

  • Random Music Geekdom Plus A Tribute To Phyllis Hyman

    There’s so much crap I could talk about. Beyonce and Jay-Z are officially married, Kanye’s tour is getting rave reviews, Stone Temple Pilots may be recording an album soon, Weezer’s new album cover is indescribably gay, Winehouse is a hot mess…yada, yada, yada. But since I don’t really have anything to focus on, and there’s not a whole lot of really *musical* musical news going on right now, I figured I’d freestyle a little bit and back off a little from the typical topics, so…

    1) Please check out popdose.com. That site features contributions from some of the geekiest music geeks I’ve ever laid eyes on, and that’s said with lots of affection. I don’t always agree with what they say (and they share the typical suburban white attitude to a lot of R&B and hip-hop that gets under my skin from time to time…sidenote: why is it that if you’re black and you point out a trait that seems to be common to another ethnicity, you’re seen as a militant?), but they love their Eighties, they love their Michael McDonald, and they’re all very good writers. It is, hands down, my favorite music-related website around. Bookmark it, but make sure you read here first 🙂

    2) Because I’m a music geek like the Popdose guys, I’m starting to compile a list of the 500 Greatest Albums Made Since My Birth (for the record, I was born sometime in late spring 1976). There’ll be no Beatles, and the best of Motown will get left off, but I actually think I’m gonna go waay over 500 and then will require some paring down. Stay tuned. I’ll probably post it here when I’m done.

    3) I was a little bored (intentionally, I needed some chill time) last night and found myself wandering around YouTube, when I came upon a video clip that moved me so much I had to share it with you.

    Most of you do not know who Phyllis Hyman was. She actually never charted a single on the Billboard Top 100 singles chart (this was back in the days when R&B artists had to cross over in order to chart pop), although she scored something like 17 Top 40 R&B singles over the course of her career (hitting #1 with 1991’s “Don’t Wanna Change The World”. She was equally capable of singing jazzy torch songs as she was singing songs that subtly hinted at funk. She toured Broadway with the Duke Ellington tribute musical “Sophisticated Ladies”, and performed songs written by everyone from Barry Manilow to Hall of Famers and Philly Soul architects Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff. In the process of a nearly twenty-year career, she set the stage for mature R&B vocalists like Anita Baker and Sade.

    This performance is from a show that dates somewhere between 1986-1987. She apparently had just lost a good friend, and the writer of this song, Linda Creed (who also wrote “Betcha By Golly Wow” and “The Greatest Love of All”) had also just passed away from cancer. The woman is sobbing throughout the entire performance of the song and yet still gives it her all. It is a touching performance, almost painful to watch. But listen and you will fall in love with the power of this woman’s voice. I’ve been talking to friends lately about vocalists’ ability to inhabit a song. It’s what separates mere singers from legends. It’s what separates an Ashanti from a Mary J. Blige, you know? Phyllis was not only a great singer, she was a master interpreter.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=pgT7AyPmjfM (here is the live performance)

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=uucSuUiKvcg (here is the original studio version of the song)

    http://terrencesays.blogspot.com/2006/11/saturday-morning-video-phyllis-hyman.html (a link to a 1992 performance on the Arsenio Hall show)

    Phyllis apparently felt the pain of the lyrics she sang in a very acute fashion. Racked for years by addictions to food and alcohol, feeling like she never got her due as a performer and suffering from bipolar disorder, she committed suicide in 1995.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Hyman

    http://www.phyllishymanstory.com/ (a book on the singer’s life was recently published)

    This, folks, is real music. Enjoy.

  • Potpourri: Mariah, Kanye, MJ and more…

    …Titled after my favorite category in “Jeopardy”. Word to Alex Trebek…
    There’s nothing major to report, so I’ll just shoot a couple of short takes over…
    Apparently there was some poll in the U.K. (they do polls a lot out there) asking what the greatest song in British history was. I can’t remember where I was reading this, but I do remember that Oasis had the #1 and the #2 songs. Now, I don’t dislike Oasis at all, but isn’t that a lot like doing a similar poll in America and giving the Top Two spots to Lenny Kravitz??
    How about The King of Pop, folks? The 25th anniversary re-issue of “Thriller” sold about 160,000 copies last week. As an older album, it’s ineligible for the Billboard album charts, but if it was, it would have placed at #2 right behind Jack Johnson. Guess Neverland Ranch is staying open.
    Mariah’s new single is out-entitled “Touch My Body”. Right now, I’m torn between liking it and thinking it’s completely silly. This song almost sounds beneath her (very similar to the way I feel about Janet’s “Feedback”), but it’s…cute. Yeah, that’s a good word. Cute.
    Listen and judge for yourself:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlHmyCxU-Ng
    Finally, because a post of mine isn’t complete with a Kanye reference: is it me or does the video for “Flashing Lights” make absolutely no sense? Then again, if you’re one of the Kanye critics, seeing him get beaten with a shovel might do something for you. Enjoy!!