Has hell officially frozen over?
Nearly four years after the release of the instantly classic Back to Black, and after a never-ending and almost mind-numbingly horrible bout with drugs, arrests, and some serious man trouble, Amy Winehouse may finally be releasing her next album in the not-so-distant future.
Sometimes, I make myself sick. I waited for the LeBron James ESPN special, “The Decision,” like it was a Michael Jackson music video premiere. (Remember the time?) I sat in front of the television and waited for LBJ to moonwalk, spin, grab his crotch, and scream “Shamon,” at Jim Gray. But, alas, that never happened. Instead, LBJ broke northeast Ohio’s heart, and told the viewing public that he planned to take his talents to [W]ade County, Florida, thereby turning the Miami Heat into some kind of NBA version of the United States circa the middle of the 20th century: young, rich, and with world domination on their minds. Of course, the analogy probably doesn’t hold all that well, but still, if I may borrow my friend jmscott’s hashtag, it’s #nbaimperialism if there ever was. I guess that makes the Boston Celtics England or something. I don’t know. I digress.
Although the super homies, D-Wade, Chris Bosh, and King James have yet to adopt a nickname, I’m inclined to refer to them as Miami Thrice (kind of wack, I know, but you know you want to see those three dressed like Crockett and Tubbs.) or as The Triumvirate. I don’t know if that makes the Lakers the senatorial elite or something, but Wade especially better watch his back. Read more »
It’s not easy being an icon.
Eminem’s first three albums are essential, autobiographical, to-the-minute accounts of the thoughts, dreams (or nightmares) and experiences of an antagonistic, complicated and unlikely superstar, and they’ve sold millions of copies. Eminem captured the zeitgeist of the early 2000s, and remains as integral a component to the cultural landscape of that era as Jim Morrison is to that of the late 1960s. By the release of 8 Mile, Eminem seemed like an indestructible force in pop music, immune to the fickle, constantly shifting nature of pop culture; but then he developed a nasty drug habit. And then Eminem released Encore in 2005, and suddenly the magic was gone.
And then he was gone as well, disappearing to his mansion outside of Detroit and privately battling an addiction to prescription drugs, which was only exacerbated by the violent death of his longtime friend and mentor, Proof in 2006. After an OD in 2008 scared him straight, Eminem got the monkey off of his back and recorded last year’s Relapse during that process. Although Relapse is unquestionably rife with evidence that Eminem is a top notch emcee, it was the first time that his graphic, horrorcore-inspired content drove listeners away rather than reeling them in, and overall it paled in comparison to his previous work.
Surprisingly, this is a sentiment stated multiple times by Marshall Mathers himself on his latest release, Recovery, an album clearly fashioned to be the true return to form for the best-selling artist of the 2000s. And most of the time, it is.
Drake’s official debut album Thank Me Later is arguably the most feverishly anticipated Hip Hop release since his mentor/boss Lil Wayne unleashed the instantly classic Tha Carter III back in 2008. And in all honesty, they are both fantastic albums…but they couldn’t be any more different from one another.
Yesterday, the official tracklisting for Eminem’s upcoming 6th studio album, entitled Recovery (and set for release June 22nd), leaked onto the internets, and it most definitely sent the message boards into a frenzy.
A few months back, Just Blaze, one of the producers for the album, and Eminem himself, touted Recovery as a new beginning for the legendary Detroit emcee, and unlike anything he’d ever done. Of course, I simply interpreted that as “less serial killing and hotter beats,” respectively.
Well, I was almost right; I forgot about “collaborations with pop divas.”
Combining the fearlessly experimental, quirky soul disposition of Erykah Badu, the Afro-futurist bent of Parliament/Funkadelic and OutKast, along with a complete mastery of an indefinable, genre-jumping form of pop music (ala Prince, Michael Jackson), Janelle Monae’s The ArchAndroid will at the very least impress the hell out of you.
Clocking it at about 70 minutes, and pulling from practically every and any genre you can imagine, what is initially stunning about Monae is how capably she bends and contorts her voice and persona into such varied musical settings, and yet crafts an album that is cohesive and meticulously organized. The ArchAndroid is a sprawling, jaw-droppingly fresh and relevant debut album from a young artist possessed with an intense reverence for her pop and soul forbearers, as well as the kind of raw talent, charisma and ambition that may see her reach those same heights one day.
It’s hard to call something an instant classic when it’s only been out for a week. But fuck it, I’m calling it now: Janelle Monae’s The ArchAndroid is an instant classic, and I am almost sure that it will be massively influential on the future of popular music.
“Our visions begin with our desires.” –Audre Lorde
For the last three weeks I’ve literally sat on pins and needles worried about my family/friends in Nashville. I’ve clicked channel after channel hoping for a news update about the widespread flooding in the city. Each time I went searching for news I was bombarded by corporate oil spills and possible terrorist attacks. For days ABC, CNN, NBC, CBS, and the like chose to feature news stories that provide epic material for future Hollywood blockbuster movies. But, the question is: what about the flooding in Nashville? What about the hundreds of people who have lost their homes and cherished photos? What about the people who have to start, yet again, building a life for themselves and their families? Do their stories matter?
Honestly, I do not mean to romanticize this tragedy, but I am utterly upset at the lack of sustained news coverage. You would think that the national media would actually do its job and report “national” news, but, of course, these stories are not sexy. They do not solicit a type of entertainment consumption that we have grown accustomed to consuming. They don’t show naked brown and black bodies gyrating to the rhymes of hip hop. They don’t show Steven King’s gore. They are not about sex, conspiracy, espionage, lies, and betrayals. Simply, they involve everyday people who are casualties of Nature a force that does not discriminate in its wondrous and disastrous workings unless it’s assisted by the Word Bank’s debt loan program then it does specifically target individual countries like Haiti and Indonesia.
In high schools and colleges popular portrayals make male athletes out to be strong, powerful… and invincible? The worst part is that lots and lots of misogynistic males buy into this hero-worship and view becoming an athlete as a lifestyle. Like when the teenage jocks are at the “coolest” parties and only hang out with the other athletes. Or when college guys won’t let go of letterman jackets because they cannot be defined by anything else. And then being a jock becomes a lifestyle on an entirely different level when athletes go “pro”. None of this is to say that sports are destructive or that an athlete does not have a valid or constructive career. But it is to say that males who are portrayed as physically superior, stronger, and more important than the rest of us, they are often prone to abusing their strength and power.
The National Coalition Against Violent Athletes states that:
Former linebacker for the New York Giants and current member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Lawrence Taylor, has been charged with third degree rape of a 16 year old girl, who he allegedly solicited for prostitution. Read more »
Just seven years after Andre 3000 shattered every boundary and limitation Hip Hop ever really had with The Love Below, B.o.B. stands as the ideal culmination of that album’s incredible influence. Compelling, audacious, and genuinely upbeat and life-affirming (rather than “conscious,” pessimistic or whiny), B.o.B.’s The Adventures of Bobby Ray is definitely “Hip Hop,” but it may be the best Pop album you hear all year too.
On March 17th, 2009, Amy Winehouse made international headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Charged with assault after allegedly punching dancer Sherene Flash in the eye at a charity event, Winehouse walked into a media circus when she showed up at a London courthouse that day. Paparazzi were everywhere, scrambling to grab a quality shot of the embattled soul superstar. The court date forced Winehouse to cancel her “comeback gig” at the Coachella Music Festival in California, and would not be her first or last brush with the law.
In comparison to our previous cases (D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill), Amy Winehouse has only dropped out of site musically; all you have to do is hit up a celebrity news/tabloid blog site to find the latest happenings in the twisted, dysfunctional world of Amy Winehouse.
Four years after an unprecedented and controversial rise to fame with the masterful Back to Black, It seems that Amy Winehouse is hopelessly lost in a sad, never-ending maze of drugs, violence and heartbreak. The obvious question arises…
WHAT THE F@%! HAPPENED?!