#their r&b roots are ones i recognize and that informs the music they make

[xcziel]

XG - voxx line cover of Say My Name by Destiny's Child

this gave me pure joy

[shemakesmusic-uk]

HARD FEELINGS, the new collaborative project of Hot Chip's Joe Goddard and Amy Douglas, have signed to Domino and unveiled their debut outing 'Holding On Too Long' which is teamed with a Katie Paul-directed video. Douglas says of their debut single, "'Holding On Too Long' is the common denominator of the entire musical union of Amy and Joe. In this "opera of sad bangers" here is its key aria, its "Un Bel Di" from Madame Butterfly or the "Mad Scene" from Lucia Di Lammermour, the unforgettable moment of the story wherein our heroine stands up defiantly and has her moment to wail, scream and cry her pain and fury centre stage to the world." HARD FEELINGS was formed after Goddard reached out to Douglas on Twitter after hearing her work, and simply asking: "Amy, can we make a thing?" [via Line Of Best Fit]

After recently announcing her debut album Flaw Flower is due June 25 via Illegal Data, London-based musician Harriet Zoe Pittard, aka Zoee, is sharing another slice of her multi-faceted art-pop sounds with her new single'Host'. Speaking about the track, Zoee said "‘Host’ describes the disconcertingly replicant-like nature of a once starry-eyed lover who becomes increasingly detached. The video is inspired by The Twilight Zone and was shot on location in a forest close to where I grew up in Berkshire."

Nashville-based songwriter Madi Diaz releases 'Nervous,' a new single about recognizing unhealthy coping mechanisms. The song’s frank lyrics are bellied by infectious guitar and Diaz’s buoyant voice: “I know why I lie to myself // I’m not really looking to get healthy // I have so many perspectives I’m losing perspective I make me nervous.” The accompanying video was shot in Nashville and directed by Jordan Bellamy. It was inspired by and includes an homage to the final scene of Andrei Tarkovsky's film The Stalker, a film that has always resonated with Diaz through its otherworldly nature, as well as its thoughtful and often anxiety inducing pace. “You know when you hold a mirror up to a mirror and you get an infinite amount of reflections from every angle? That’s what ‘Nervous’ is about,” says Diaz. “It’s when you’re in a loop of looking at yourself from every vantage point until you’re caught up in your own tangled web of bullshit. It’s about catching yourself acting out your crazy and you’re finally self-aware enough to see it, but you’re still out of your body enough and curious enough to watch yourself do it.”

Buzzy duo XVOTO have announced that their eagerly-awaited debut EP will be arriving on June 4 on One Two Many. Sharing new single ‘Friends’ alongside the news, Jazz Alonso explains that the track is rooted in “the people who have irreversibly changed you and then having to pretend you’re unphased by them when you’re in the same room. Meanwhile you’re trying to work out what your new boundaries are: can you talk about the past? Can you cry together? Can you show how much pain you’re in around them? ‘If you fish me, I’ll play dead’ means: if you make a move, I’ll pretend I’m dead inside and don’t want you back.” Accompanied by a new vid, Jazz adds, “For this video I always imagined an aquarium because of the fish lyrics and because I think looking at fish in a tank is a really nice symbol of looking back at a relationship: you’ll always have your take on it and feel you have control over that narrative cause it’s a memory, but the reality is that truth is fluid and moves. You’re not looking at an image, you’re looking at something that’s alive. Then the scenes of us getting tattooed on our backs are symbols for something beautiful that scars you - you might move on from something but it’ll still inform the way you move forward. In the video there’s some cheating, some reminiscing, some beauty and some pain.” [via DIY]

Ashe has released new cut 'Me Without You' as the latest singe off her debut album Ashlyn. It comes teamed with a Jason Lester-directed video. Ashe says of the new single, "'Me Without You' is my follow up to 'Moral Of The Story'. It's saying you thought that I needed you to be who I am. There is my past relationship...I had multiple people... You know, assumed that I needed them in my life to feel confident or to be me and "Me Without You" is just this record that's like, ‘Ooh, I am so good on my own'." [via Line Of Best Fit]

Mia Nicolai is a true internationalist. Born in Amsterdam to a Russian mother, she learned from a young age to move between languages and cultures, accepting them as equal. This all fuels her future-pop vision, a trans-genre approach laden with colour, one that picks from multiple sources. New single 'People Pleaser' is a surging, coherent, ultra-potent offering, a song that dwells on identity, and the processes by which it is defined. "This song is about the journey towards finding yourself," she explains. "It can be very difficult to be true to your inner values when all you do is please the people around you instead of your inner needs. I’ve always come across as a strong-minded person. But in reality, I’m capable of helping everyone BUT myself. At some point I felt so uncomfortable in my own skin that I couldn’t even breathe properly..." We're able to share the dazzling new video, directed by Isabelle Griffioen and produced by That’s What She Set. A surreal but completely engaging experience, it embodies everything Mia Nicolai sets out to do - put people on the back foot, and alert them to her presence. [via Clash]

Singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams has shared her poignant new single 'Mess It Up' and its accompanying video via Interscope Records. Directed by Matty Peacock, the video for 'Mess It Up' finds Abrams attempting to bake a cake and repeatedly dropping the gorgeously frosted final product on the ground. That bittersweet back-and-forth between determination and disappointment is a perfect match for Abrams’s incisive lyrics, which simultaneously convey a deep longing for forgiveness and an unshakable sense of frustration. Produced by and co-written with her frequent collaborator Blake Slatkin, the track’s stark guitar work and driving rhythms slowly take on a powerful momentum, ultimately building to a sweetly triumphant climax. [via Vacancy]

Vocalist and guitarist Maya Delilah shares the visuals for her new single 'Need A Word With Cupid'. The track unravels into a punchy number that gives you a hit of both dopamine and female empowerment. Written about realising your worth after a relationship breakup, Maya’s lyrics are little witty statements that we can all use to remind ourselves who the hell we are. “Last Tuesday morning I just realised you’re shit” – it’s the truth. The video sees her waiting in cupid’s reception ready to get her money back because, damn, this boy was not worth her energy. At. All. 'Need A Word With Cupid' is a brilliant narrative that’s not only relatable but also incredibly good. Brimming with smooth guitar tones and a catchy beat, this is a single that leaves you wanting so much more. A self-love anthem for the modern woman, 'Need A Word With Cupid' is an indie-pop bop. Maya says: “'Need A Word With Cupid' was written after my breakup when I felt a sudden hit of empowerment after the realisation that my ex was not worth another tear over. It’s an energetic and uplifting song with soul influences and of course a guitar solo to end.“ [via LOCK]

With her debut EP Digital Meadow arriving on May 28, Dora Jar is sharing the video for her single ‘Multiply’. “I am my truest form when I am changing shape, morphing sounds, and shifting my point of view,” she says of the forthcoming EP. “This project is an exploration of my impulse to shape-shift. That’s my ambition.” [via DIY]

Telenova's new-arriving single 'Tranquilize' makes it two-from-two for the band, deeper solidifying their rich blend of sounds while showing how it can move into further areas, taking on new energies - or emphasising other energies - as more songs come to light. 'Tranquillize', for example, has a heavier weighting on that live instrumentation, giving the song this more alt-pop-meets-R&B spin when combined with Angeline's brilliant-as-ever vocals. As she explains, the single was the first for Telenova, written on the day they began working with one another. "I was actually flicking through a thesaurus and the word ‘Tranquilize’ jumped out at me, it just rang so nicely on the tongue and was so inherently visceral," she says. "I was humming gibberish over the hypnotic Rhodes chords that Josh had laid down, and we heard what sounded like ‘Poseidon’s on the water’ - it was the first time in a writing session with Ed and Josh, and the first time I’d been in a writing session where a poetic, literary lyric idea like that wasn’t shunned and coined as ‘unrelatable’.  It resonated. We followed the thread, playing into Siren mythology as a metaphor for falling in love - the power of attraction to transfix and tranquillize you." The single also arrives with an official video clip, directed by Angeline - solidifying her multi-talented craft. "I wanted to capture the world of the song in a Lynchian-inspired dreamscape - starry-eyed and a little unhinged - but like, David Lynch meets Gucci," she says. [via Pilerats]

International superstar P!nk has more than two decades of experience topping the global pop charts, and she is here to continue her reign with the new single 'All I Know So Far'. 'All I Know So Far' was produced by pop mastermind Greg Kurstin and co-written with the songwriting duo Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. The single comes off of her upcoming album All I Know So Far: Setlist, due out on RCA Records on May 21. The accompanying video for 'All I Know So Far' tells Pink’s life story with help from Cher, Judith Light, and Carey Hart. The visuals, directed by longtime collaborator Dave Meyers, also features an appearance from her daughter Willow. The new album will feature live recordings from her 2019 'Beautiful Trauma World Tour' along with a recording of her highly-buzzed MTV Video Vanguard Award acceptance speech. P!nk’s daughter Willow will also make an appearance on the album with the song 'Cover Me in Sunshine', which the singer previously shared back in February. [via Consequence]

[wceleopoldo14]

The Science Behind Why Pop Music Sucks

The blues is the title given to a style of music created by African People on the end of the nineteenth century. My favourite genre in music must be Tejano. I like Tejano as a result of once I hear it, I always really feel like I am listening to the tales of a real arduous working Mexican-American. My step father brought Tejano Music into my life and for that I thank him, because Tejano is not only Spanish music. Just like everyone else who listens to their "music" Tejano is a lifestyle. To many it's just a bunch of Mexicans singing about ineffective issues, but to me Tejano is the heart and soul of the Valley. Certain we hear about many new artists that come and try to convey their hip-hop and rap music, when their music is the kind that has no that means to it. I'm not one to talk and disrespect their onerous work, as a result of I listen to some of it additionally. But I do not forget my heritage and the place I come from. You may assume that I'm just a kid that doesn't know what I am saying, however I do. If I'm born Tejano, www.magicaudiotools.com and I'm raised Tejano. Then take into account me Tejano. How would outstanding historic musicians reminiscent of Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Mozart, and so on. react to how music sounds immediately? Take Mozart, for example. Mozart never witnessed an electric guitar being performed. Would this fascinate him? Confuse him? Shock him? Would he scoff at how little "classical composition" there is in a punk rock track? Or would he take pleasure in its freshness and innovation? I am aiming at a discussion on extra electrical based mostly genres (pop, rock, electronic, and so forth.) as opposed to extra traditional genres (people, bluegrass, and many others.). Not all chord progressions will suit a Pop music. As a matter of truth, upon analyzing among the biggest hits in Pop music, it is evident that many of them share the same chord progressions. That stated, there may be plenty of Pop 2.zero in Rihanna, probably the most modern of all pop singers She is fluid — a singer, a rapper, a toaster — equally snug with R&B ballads, EDM thumpers and modern day pop musicians dance hall slither. And there's flexibility in Beyoncé, too; her rapping on Every part Is Love," her collaborative album with Jay-Z this 12 months, was impressive, however she is such a ferocious singer that anytime she veers from that, it seems like solely a dalliance. 1. Do not insist that pop be hip. An excellent chunk of mainstream music beneficial properties inspiration from more reducing-edge stuff — all the time has. (Keep in mind when The Monkees went psychedelic ?) But plenty of it performs by different guidelines: It could possibly be rooted in Christian contemporary music, emo, or mushy rock That does not make it much less significant; it simply takes work to understand these different legacies. It's cool in case you discover John Legend corny, however respect that for tens of millions his grounding in group harmony singing and Bacharach balladry indicators sophistication. Respect values aside from your individual. American adolescents understand a cluster of music grounded in the racial origin of performers, they are saying, and likewise combine into one group varied music forms of British origin, corresponding to punk, new wave and reggae. In addition they recognize "classic" rock of the '60s and '70s as a category, heavy steel, American arduous rock, Christian music (including Christian pop and black gospel), a mixed jazz-blues grouping, and a cluster of music the researchers name "mainstream pop." School college students and different older adolescents make more distinctions than youthful ones. Beyoncé's excessive-idea visual album Lemonade , for instance, takes listeners on a daring new type of musical storytelling within the fashion of Prince's Purple Rain (1984), Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (1988) or, perhaps extra just lately Kanye West's 35 minute movie Runaway (2010) and Lana Del Rey's Tropico (2013). Simple Rationalization: The chemical and neurological reactions within the brain that music stimulates will be enhanced when the music is each composed with extra advanced euphoric" moments, and when the listener is educated or skilled in what to listen for in music. The dehumanizing noble savagery behind such passages is simply barely disguised. Whereas breathlessly praised for his or her artistry," black musicians are by no means allowed to make sophisticated" or refined" art. For these writers the very notion appeared laughably incompatible with black music. The end result, Hamilton writes, was a close to-incoherent double normal": black artists have been derided as ‘Toms' for aspiring to make cash, then castigated for conforming to expectations of musical blackness on the part of white listeners" — a gaggle, in fact, to which all these critics belonged. I do not suppose it can come as a surprise to lots of audiophiles, but human hearing most definitely does not have a linear response curve. In reality, throughout Job 5 - what was considered the most complex of the tasks - many of the test subjects may hear variations between tones with as much as a factor of 13 extra acuity than the linear model predicts. Those that had the most talent at differentiating time and frequency variations between tones were musicians. One, an electronic musician, might differentiate between tones sounded about three milliseconds apart - outstanding because a single period of the tone solely lasts 2.27 milliseconds. The identical topic did not carry out as well as others in frequency differentiation. One other professional music was distinctive at frequency differentiation and good at temporal differentiation of the tones.

Conclusion: There's some scientific proof backing the broadly voiced complaint - on the internet specifically - that pop music is getting worse and worse within the 2000s and the 2010s. The music is slower, melodically easier, louder, more repetitive, extra "I" (first-particular person) focused, and more offended with anti-social sentiments. The 2010s obtained by far probably the most music quality down votes with forty two% from people polled on which decade has produced the worst music since the 1970s. So much of the expertise listening to music — gospel and in any other case — is feeling it, catching the spirit. Earlier than Franklin begins the title track, the Rev. James Cleveland asks for a witness. Then Franklin takes over. It's just her voice, the reverend on piano and a testament to the extraordinary: I was blind, and now I see. The experience of its overwhelming you happens whether or not a survey of music folks deems it canonical. But if canons are being shaped and published, why not embrace this one alongside the same old suspects — your Sgt. Pepper's" and Rubber Soul" and Highway 61 Revisited" and Pet Sounds"? Superb Grace" is a landmark, too. You do not want an inventory to inform you that. God knows. However that's not fairly enough.

[elwoodbonner424-blog]

25 Greatest Pop Songs Of 2018

Ambient is a mode that describes a large spectrum of music. The swing period made stars of many popular singers together with the young Frank Sinatra , Bing Crosby , Dinah Shore , Jo Stafford , Perry Como , Peggy Lee , Patti Web page , and David Whitfield Two notable innovations had been the addition of string sections and orchestral preparations and extra emphasis on the vocal efficiency. 2 The addition of lush strings will be heard in a lot of the favored music all through the Forties and Nineteen Fifties. Within the early 1950s because the dominance of swing gave strategy to the normal pop music era, most of the vocalists related to swing bands became even more widespread, and were central figures in common music. There have been a couple of educational tasks that have discussed homogeneity of music. In 2017, Noah Askin and Michael Mauskapf researched What Makes a Quantity One Hit , utilizing EchoNest knowledge. They discovered that songs that attain the very best echelons of the charts bear some similarity to other in style songs that are out on the same time, however they should be unique in certain methods. That's, they should be optimally differentiated." Similar to this article, they produced a music similarity rating referred to as typicality." Not like our method, this metric controlled for style. That's, songs had been in contrast within their style of hip hop, rock, country, and many others. somewhat than the entire Billboard chart. We had them produce their typicality rating for songs reaching the highest 10, and the results are considerably similar to ours (line going up = songs are more similar), although the trend only begins in the Nineteen Nineties, with songs changing into extra numerous from the late-50s to late-80s. I have been pondering just lately about what it is that provides rise to 'good' and 'dangerous' pop music. I think pop music is a singular style, since industrial success and significant acclaim don't necessarily go hand-in-hand. It is doable for a pop music to be massively profitable but be universally panned by critics. Nevertheless, it's nonetheless fairly frequent for pop songs to be loved by the masses and receive optimistic reviews. A number of examples that instantly spring to thoughts are the likes of Royals, Uptown Funk, Get Fortunate, and Any person That I Used To Know which all enjoyed great success whilst receiving mostly positive reviews. Nonetheless, then again you've gotten the current success of Shape Of You which of them has garnered mostly lukewarm to negative critiques regardless of dominating the charts.

The piano, in particular, has been an unparalleled outlet for those seeking escape, artistic expression, and easily fun and joy. The modern piano has 36 black and 52 white keys, making a total of 88 keys and www.magicaudiotools.com is played using a keyboard. The piano was first invented round 1700 and is used for a lot of forms of music including classical, jazz, traditional and popular. Typically regarded as the best musical instrument to begin enjoying it is highly versatile, has a large-range and a grand ability to alter dynamics. You like music and want to know what you're talking about in an effort to be the one whom all of your friends and family will depend on when they wish to know more about pop music. Pop is the short time period for "Fashionable" and it encompasses a lot of music. Since what's fashionable modifications with time, lots of various kinds of music will depend as pop. You'll be able to construct your musical information and familiarity with the world of pop music with a little help from wikiHow. See more on how after the jump.

After all, real causes for shame are riddled via pop historical past: American widespread tradition has its deepest roots in slavery, the blackface minstrel present, ethnic vaudeville comedy, brothels and burlesque, religious revival actions, rural poverty, urban segregation, mob-run clubs and labels, wheeler-dealer rip-offs and plenty of different not-so-fairly chapters. Cultural theft, pandering, shock and other crass strikes are sure up with pop innovation and creativity. Be crucial, however don't get on excessive horses, as a result of very few of our artistic heroes might be disentangled from these dubious, typically tragic associations.So one might ask: does at this time's church leadership have a responsibility to edify its congregation by presenting each shorter and longer pieces, in quite a lot of kinds, from completely different eras and for various mixtures of devices? Isn't this the best way to …put together God's people for works of service, in order that the physique of Christ may be built up…"(Eph. 4:12)? Contemporary Christian worship songs are sometimes lovely, exciting, and inspirational, but for my part, to summarily eradicate all different kinds of music just isn't reflective of latest life. Such a apply is not going to solely forestall younger churchgoers from recognizing and remembering hymns and different sacred music from the past 500 years — it might also produce in them an underdeveloped artistic sense. They might discover it difficult to enter and performance in a culture that also values intellectual achievement and the art of music in all its guises.We have minimized the music industry, but did rock stars emerge regardless of the most important labels or in part because of them? I believe the large commerce-off we used to have was that loopy, risky individuals who can't even gown themselves could make thousands and thousands as recording artists as a result of that they had 20 staffers around to put their pants on for them. If you're bananas, you are great onstage, but offstage you must be led round and talked to love a ninety-12 months-previous ("RIGHT HERE IS THE MICROPHONE. WE WANT YOU TO SING NOW.") since you are unimaginable, and that's a relationship that requires two parties.Meanwhile, Nogueira can also be putting on music live shows particularly composed for the enjoyment of CI users. He and his colleagues within the Auditory Prosthetic Group at the college's German Hearing Heart organized meetings between composers and CI customers, who shared details about the expertise and their experiences with music. The musicians then wrote electroacoustic numbers impressed by what they'd discovered and by the patients themselves. We have been aiming at music that can be similarly perceived by CI users and normal hearing listeners," says Nogueira.Some, like Eric Clapton (Tears In Heaven") and Carlos Santana (Supernatural"), are '60s veterans who traveled a protracted, exhausting street to mainstream pop success. Then there are the MTV-era stars, who convey the glamour and technical perfection of vintage Hollywood to modern music: Janet Jackson (That's The Approach Love Goes"), Toni Braxton (Un-Break My Heart"), Mariah Carey (One Sweet Day"), and Sheryl Crow (All I Wanna Do"). Different current-day pop icons —a mong them Li'l Kim, R. Kelly , and Snoop Dogg — have crossed over to the mainstream from the r&b and rap charts, just as Religion Hill and Shania Twain have executed from their original base in nation music.

[remonamcinnes70-blog]

Different Types Of Music Genres

We highlight the artists and musical movements that defined the year. Classical music is generally a classification masking music composed and performed by professionally trained artists. Classical music is a written tradition. It is composed and written utilizing music notation, and as a rule is performed faithfully to the score. In frequent utilization, "classical music" usually refers to orchestral music typically, no matter when it was composed or for what objective (movie scores and orchestral preparations on pop music recordings, for instance). Truthfully, when you ask me, hazard music is something you DEFINITELY ought to by no means consider music. In case you suppose metallic is "all screaming" then it's best to take a hearken to hazard "music." What's musical about someone having a psychological breakdown and destroying a bunch of issues in their path? Nothing? Yeah.

Zabel, Gary. Adorno on Music: A Reconsideration." The Musical Occasions a hundred thirty:1754 (April 1989): 198-201. There are even some electronic-only music festivals in the summer for the extreme followers, offering three-to-5 day lineups of all the world's prime DJs and music artists producing techno and electronica. Americans could acknowledge Nina Kraviz or uncover new local favorites like Bobina, Arty, Eduard Artemyev, and Zedd. A vocal and instrumental type of music based mostly on a pentatonic scale and a characteristic twelve-bar chord development, blues developed from African American spirituals, shouts, work songs and chants that discovered its earliest stylistic roots in West Africa. Blues has been a major influence on later American and Western fashionable music, finding expression in ragtime, jazz, massive band, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, country music, conventional pop songs and even fashionable classical music. Electronic music legend Isao Tomita's debut album "Snowflakes are Dancing" reaches the top 50 of the pop charts and receives 4 Grammy nominations. Tomita is called the Wendy Carlos of Japan, well-known for synthesizing classical works. Some easy insights can nonetheless be taken. Hip-Hop is method ahead of the opposite genres (d'oh). People comes in second however since there is only one folk artist (Bob Dylan) in the evaluation it isn't representative at all. Pop is the genre with essentially the most number of musicians and its average vocabulary size (2464 phrases) is close to the typical vocabulary measurement across all artists (2677 words). Identical thing applies to the Rock genre as nicely. Yet polystylism is so broad, it also consists of composers and works drawing on nonmusical parts. Examples include composer Andrew Norman, who is highly influenced by structure. His works embrace Farnsworth: Four Portraits of a Home " and Frank's House," alluding to architect Frank Gehry. vívoactive three Music is appropriate with our Join IQ retailer, where you can obtain watch faces, widgets and apps that remodel this smartwatch into your watch. Hold tabs on when your Uber is arriving, flip on your lights at home with the SmartThings app, and even use the AccuWeather MinuteCast app to seek out out when the rain will start.

Gaetano is among the finest musicians in Italy and will all the time be remembered for his rough voice and for the heavily ironic lyrics of his songs and his social protests. He was a preferred and influential determine, broadly re-evaluated by 2000s music. The '90s music scene was dominated by grunge and punk rockers. After all, you had your poppy woman and boy bands (Back Avenue Boys, Spice Girls, and so on.) but pumping out of your audio system most of the time was the onerous core, shredding sounds of a guitar. And Daniel Lanois I imply come on now you're simply trolling, this is a list for musicians and irrespective of how vital he was as a producer he was a decidedly average and completely unremarkable musician when in comparison with the competitors. However 1968 witnessed a wealth of traditional music additionally, as artists picked up the musical baton of 1967 and ran with it. Right here, with a selection of the year's best singles, is just a small sample of what was out there to the music lover 50 years ago. Soundtracks, or so-called "movie trailer music" or "epic music," should undoubtedly rank within the high tens. It has the power of the orchestra and a distinct melody all throughout the timeframe of a pair minutes. Think of all the movies you might have watched and a couple of great soundtracks. This pathfinder is intended to facilitate interdisciplinary analysis in conventional Southern music types for undergraduate or graduate college students of music, folklore, American Research, history, cultural studies, Southern studies and associated disciplines. Specifically, it identifies multimedia sources at UNC-Chapel Hill and online to assist college students higher perceive each the context (social, lyrical, and musical origins, influences, and impacts) and the content (kinds, themes, and instrumentation) of conventional Southern music styles.

With Bowie, the clues have been all there. But with Prince, you didn't really see it coming. Yes, there were rumors of drug use and an emergency aircraft touchdown , however his death on April 21 was a punch in the gut. The greatest songwriter , performer , and musician of his technology, Prince's music was as idiosyncratic and transgressive as pop music gets. Nobody wrote about fucking better than Prince, before or since. To label Prince classic rock" feels sinful: Prince made Prince music, and Darling Nikki" isn't exactly blowing up basic rock radio like Hotel California." Prince fused a number of genres—funk, soul, R&B, and, sure, rock—with out neatly falling into one category. However Prince additionally marked one thing of an evolutionary finish for rock music: After him, rock stars appeared backward greater than they did ahead, and they certainly appeared more to rock's personal previous than they did to other genres.

One of the best ways to get really good at genre identifying is to expand maritahorder59886.xtgem.com your listening experience. Choose a track, Google what genre it's from, take heed to it and make notes about what's distinctive. Repeat this step as much as you may, most preferably throughout different genres. Noise music is a vital component of several extreme punk subgenres. Modern Pop Music is actually pretty good in the event you dig deep into the genre and find genres like Art Pop, Baroque Pop and Experimental Pop. Also, there's Indie Artist with giant influences and http://www.audio-transcoder.com/ some Pop Rock that's additionally worth listening to. MARTIN: In the event you're simply becoming a member of us, we're speaking with musician and composer Jae Sinnett about the way forward for jazz. What does that say? How do you - how do you interpret what which means? Does it imply that it's a good news, bad information story? That people who understand and recognize music are still looking for it out, gertrudedelancey3.wikidot.com or is it that there's just got to be this ongoing struggle to keep up house for jazz amid all the business pressures? They've at all times been there.

[onestowatch]

Hollyy Starts 2021 With Soulful Double-Side Single Release

Retro-soul band Hollyy have hit the ground running in 2021 by dropping not one but two new soulful and summery singles. Inspired by the vocals of Sam Cooke and the instrumentation of Wilco and Whitney, this double-sided follow-up to their debut EP, Miss the Feeling, serves as a harmonious and sentimental preview of what fans can expect from the Chicago natives.

Ones To Watch was able to talk with the band about their latest singles and what their plans are for the foreseeable, hopefully pandemic-less, future.

Ones to Watch: How has your perspective on your music changed since the release of the Miss the Feeling EP?

Tanner: I don't think too much has changed from a music perspective, to be honest. But I can tell you that back in September, we were hopeful that by Summer 2021, we would be living a normal gig and tour-filled life. That glimmer of optimism has since faded more and more into the realistic likelihood that it will not happen. Other than that, we've been working even harder at recording, writing, and producing our debut full-length. We're also busy enhancing our studios and gear as well so we can plan virtual shows to wrap up the winter and spring.

Brandon: We've been writing a lot over the last year, and the pandemic has informed my perspective. It's maybe not a giant shift, but I certainly find myself trying to be more honest about my emotions or the events that are shaping my life.

You guys started 2021 full speed ahead with not one but TWO singles coming out on Feb. 19. What made you all want to release a double side, and why these singles?

Tanner: Double-side records have an interesting history in Funk and R&B record labels in the 60s and 70s. We think it's a cool concept to keep alive as it's mostly gone away in the last couple of decades. And then, especially with our musical influences being so deeply rooted in these genres and funk/soul/r&b artists, we love doing anything we can to pay respect and honor traditions. "Hesitate" and "Sailing" didn't make it on to our 2020 EP, but we felt they melded very nicely together and complete a satisfactory double-side record.

Brandon: Yeah, "Hesitate" and "Sailing" were written and recorded before the pandemic, and we had to stop our usual routine. They compliment each other well and make a good bridge between our 2020 EP and what we've been working on over the last year.

What are y'all's plans for future releases? (Unless it's a secret, of course, and you want to surprise your fans.)

Tanner: We're forever recording new music! Eyes are still on the prize for doing a full-length album, but especially with where we're at with live music. Almost everything gets continuously placed on hold, and there are a lot of release ideas to consider. Singles, double-sides, videos, virtual performances, all of this comes into consideration right now, and we're also in the works on everything just laid out. It's a busy winter and spring, but it's fun!

Brandon: We've been busy writing and recording, and there's still a lot of work we need to do, but I'm excited for people to hear what we've been working on.

Fans recently had the chance to see you play a live studio session with Audiotree. How did all of you feel leading up to the stream? Were you nervous, and if so, what did you do to stay centered and show ready?

Tanner: Playing an Audiotree session has always been a dream, especially being a band from Chicago, so I guess there was a tad bit of added pressure, but overall it just felt so good to unleash and play an energetic live set. It was exciting to get into a rehearsal schedule again leading up to the set since we haven't consistently been able to do that much over the past year. In terms of dealing with nerves in our band, we pick up each other when we recognize someone is nervous or anxious before a performance. We try to keep things light and make sure that at the end of the day, we're all having fun!

Brandon: I was nervous! It's been a while since we were able to play together, and I felt the pressure of putting on an excellent performance after months of not being able to practice.

Do you feel more or less able to be vulnerable nowadays?

Brandon: I've been trying to open up more this last year and broaden my perspective on the world and what matters to me. I've always been very introspective, but lately, I've been trying to understand different perspectives and how I can relate.

Pete: I think a sense of vulnerability comes and goes. The everyday drudgery of bad news sometimes gets to me, and I sort of go numb for a week or a two just trying to process everything. Usually, it's new music or a good movie that brings me back down to earth and helps me feel more human.

What are the best parts/worst parts of your day?

Tanner: *laughs* Reading the news for sure.

Brandon: Honestly, the days have just been blending together for a while. Meeting a few days a week, even if it's online, to work on new music or the next project has kept me sane and focused.

Pete: The best part is usually finally being able to focus on music in some way, shape or form, pretty much the only thing to look forward to, haha.

I saw recently on the band's Instagram that Pete recently refreshed the "Songs For Hollyy" playlist on your Spotify artist page! In your opinion, what makes a great playlist, and which song on it is your favorite?

Tanner: We certainly don't refresh that playlist as much as we bounce new songs and suggestions over to each other on text or Slack, but these playlists are fun because they usually really are reflective of who our most recent inspirations are.

Pete: I know many people get wrapped up in playlist making like artists making a setlist, but for me, playlists are more like a record of the time they were created. Mostly they're songs that stick out to me and grab me in the moment, but I find in retrospect that usually those songs were indicative of the mood I was in and what was going on in my life.

"Hesitate," produced with the help of Nixon Boyd (Royal Mountain Records & Hollerado), and "Sailing," are now both available for streaming and with a 45 vinyl in the works!

[theteenagetrickster]

Nashville nation, R&B, stone and also hip-hop performers to watch in 2020

Nashville artists towards watch in 2020: Ingrid Andress, Devon Gilfillian, Kalie Shorr and extra

Matthew Leimkuehler, Dave Paulson as well as Cindy Watts Nashville Tennessean

Released 6:00 AM SHOCK THERAPY Dec 22, 2019

Whether they are actually making country, R&B, stone, hip-hop or even soul, there's a brand-new game of artists that Nashville ought to look out for in 2020. Breakout country excellence Ingrid Andress tops our checklist -- keep reading to see who else you should maintain your eye on.

Ingrid Andress

One year ago, Ingrid Andress failed to possess music out. The Colorado citizen was actually composing songs, commemorating her report cope with Detector Music Nashville as well as bothering with all she still needed to do to get her job off the ground.

Today her critically acclaimed escapement single "Extra Hearts Than Mine" is actually the only launching coming from a solo women musician to burglarize the Leading twenty on Advertising board's Country Airplay chart in 2019. She's preparing to launch her very first cd in March of 2020, as well as she's happening an arena trip with labelmates Dan + Shay.

" Ever before because February, when the initial track emerged, it's practically merely felt like a whirlwind, in all honesty," Andress mentioned. "I was actually certainly not counting on every thing to go as wonderful as it is actually. I am actually merely very brought down by it."

A self-described singer-songwriter who mentioned she "blogs about actual s ***," Andress has actually refined her craft because she was a child. When she was actually very youthful, Andress keeps in mind creating up jingles regarding doing jobs-- like regreting the long trip to the mailbox-- to make it through the activities. She wrote her very first song on the piano through the opportunity she was 8 years outdated. Andress really did not understand music occupations existed till she found a leaflet in higher university for Berklee College of Songs.

" I only presumed that everyone got genuine jobs, and also the only means you can be a vocalist is actually if you succeeded 'American Idolizer,'" she pointed out. "Yet, I really did not intend to be on 'United States Idolizer.' When I discovered out people visit college simply to research songs, I felt like, 'What possess I been actually performing with my lifestyle? Like, this is preposterous.'"

Songwriting was Andress' passage right into the performance planet. She went to Berklee University of Music and also has actually written tunes for musicians consisting of Bebe Rexha, Charli XCX, FLETCHER, as well as Dove Cameron as well as co-written with Sam Search, Alicia Keys and also Tori Kelly. She co-wrote her "Much more Hearts Than Mine" along with Sam Ellis as well as Derrick Southerland.

After college, Andress claimed she considered to transfer to Los Angeles "like everyone else," however took a random travel to check out Nashville. Everyone informed her it was actually the songwriting capital of the globe, and she desired to inspect it out for herself. When she got there in Music Urban area, Andress said she instantly knew she really wanted to keep.

" To this particular day, I don't know exactly how I was actually crazy adequate to steer from Boston to Nashville by myself as well as move certainly there, certainly not knowing any person," she pointed out. "Yet, I believe that you simply need to go along with your gut in some cases. Nashville merely possesses that sort of neighborhood that actually nourishes songwriters."

Kalie Shorr (left), Ingrid Andress as well as Devon Gilfillian (best) lead the Tennessean's 2020 musicians to enjoy

Andress listened to Nashville is actually a "10-year town," which signifies it takes a decade to breakthrough into country songs. Her line was actually a lot briefer. Regarding one year after she relocated to city, she complied with popular manufacturer Frank Rogers that revealed enthusiasm in her talent. Rogers aided her receive a posting deal, which suggested Andress could quit her job as a hosting server.

" It was actually extremely fast, which I was actually certainly not anticipating," she mentioned. "I think that was actually probably among the absolute best things that could've happened to me because it definitely required me in to the society of Nashville and also writing country songs as well as discovering exactly how to inform a tale."

As c and w relocated by means of the bro-country style, Andress exercised writing meaningful songs. She received disappointed as she viewed her friends receive slices on lighthearted jingles while her mental narration was actually bypassed. Andress mosted likely to Los Angeles, created popular song and had tracks tape-recorded by pop performers. She possesses no regrets.

" I'm actually thankful that I only adhered to what carried me joy rather of marketing my soul," she pointed out.

While the launch of her launching cd is actually still concerning three months away, Andress claimed she is actually presently focusing on the next one. She seems like she is actually learnt more about herself with the method and revels in the know-how she possesses an electrical outlet to share it.

" I think that there is actually a bunch of things taking place in culture straight now that individuals aren't always chatting about," she said. "I definitely love the reality that I possess this brand-new system to be capable to carry recognition to traits that I assume are necessary for our nation. It's ironic that it is actually phoned country and western, (so) practically, our company should be discussing things that are actually taking place in our country, you recognize?"

Gabby Barrett executes at the 7th yearly Following Ladies of Country party at the CMA Theater at the C And W Venue of Fame in Nashville on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.

Shelley Mays/ The Tennessean

Gabby Barrett didn't win "American Beloved" in 2018, yet she might requisition 2020. In approximately 19 months considering that she placed 3rd on the well-liked aired ability hunt, the Pennsylvania indigenous authorized a document manage Detector Songs Nashville and her debut solitary "I Chance" broke the Leading 50 at nation broadcast. She has accumulated much more than 130 thousand on-demand streams, and recently scored even more than 100,000 users on YouTube that caused 24.4 million video perspectives. YouTube called Barrett a 2019 Performer increasing.

" This has actually been a frustrating year in the best method for me professionally and directly," Barrett, 19, mentioned in a statement. "Viewing the reaction to my debut single, 'I Chance,' is so satisfying. Coming from the response along with flows, to listening to the crowds sing all the phrases at my shows-- as an artist/songwriter, it doesn't receive any better than that. The Lord is merciful, as well as I am actually truly blessed."

Her brand new track "The Good Ones" is actually out right now.

Caylee Hammack does at the 13th Yearly ACM Respects at the Ryman Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn.

. Larry McCormack/ Tennessean.com

Caylee Hammack

Caylee Hammack hemorrhages creativity, fire and resolve thus fully that she's a beacon in a sector of manies thousand.

Born in Ellaville, Ga., Hammack hoped evening as kid for God to "simply satisfy produce me different." A self-described hippie from a hillbilly town, Hammack made use of phony I.d.s to acquire gigs around her native South Georgia before she was old. She denied a college scholarship that will possess carried her to Nashville for a kid that ceremoniously damaged her center quickly after. She transferred to Nashville anyhow, rested in her vehicle in an Intended car park up until she could pay for an area to keep and after that her house got rid of down in a power fire.

" My dad possesses consistently mentioned that one of the most lovely and also best points are shaped in the fire," Hammack mentioned in a declaration. "Iron is nothing at all until you function it in a fire. Glass may not be blown without rigorous warm. You can't create anything wonderful or even solid without a little bit of warmth."

Hammack launched her debut singular "Family members Plant"-- which she co-wrote and co-produced in 2019-- and also it was actually the most-added debut song at nation broadcast through a female artist in much more than three years. Her initial cd will certainly be actually discharged in 2020, as well as she'll devote the springtime opening shows for Reba McEntire.

Kalie Shorr

Tastemakers all over the country noticed Kalie Shorr's launching cd, "Open Book" -- which's no tiny accomplishment for a self-released effort.

Kalie Shorr plays on phase during the 4th yearly Bentonville Film Festival on May 4, 2018, in Bentonville, Ark.

. Phillip Faraone/ Getty Images/ Bentonville Movie Festivity

But managing her very own show works marvels for Shorr, and also her spunky, self-penned tunes that do not possess to soften phrases or soften their sonic sides. "Schedule" is a convincing mix of pointy, Swift-esque country-pop as well as classic substitute apprehension.

Shorr's readied to reach the ground running in 2020 along with a brand-new printing bargain and also a headlining program at Nashville's Exit/In on Jan. 31.

Devon Gilfillian

Devon Gilfillian

Andile Buka/Contributed

Facility and religious, Devon Gilfillian's take on timeless spirit breathes along with originality. Socially, he mixtures the roots of American heritage-- stone 'n' roll, nation, spirit-- with a modern-day effect from Kanye West as well as Jay-Z, the nation's foremost music writers. Listeners simply require to listen regarding his most current single, "Unchained," for a taste of the depth Gilillian promises along with his music.

And listeners must hear a lot more soon from the Philadelphia-raised, Nashville-based Gilfillian. He discharges his Capitol building Records launching full-length, "Dark Gap Rainbow," on Jan. 10, 2020. A grad of opening up for Mavis Staples, Keith Urban, Brothers Osborne and extra, he'll take the cd when traveling following year as primary support for Elegance Potter's upcoming excursion.

Jenny Tolman (Independent)

A 23-year-old private nation songwriter spent three years writing and also capturing a principle cd. Ambitious? Yes. Excellent? Completely.

In her 2019 cd "There Goes The Neighborhood," Tolman welcomes listeners to her not-so-fictitious "Jennyville"-- a town where personalities revel in a "High Course Poor white" way of life, the projection asks for an one hundred per-cent chance of hearsay and working possesses little bit of to perform along with a nine-to-five.

Nation artist Jenny Tolman.

Politeness of Jenny Tolman/Special to the Tennessean

She harmonizes tongue-in-cheek peculiarity (" along with Louis Vuitton that were actually made in Hong Kong" she jests on singular "Higher Course White Waste") along with a painful integrity that is actually required coming from all ageless nation cds (I've got friends that really love the Pope, and also buddies that like their dope/ Suspect our team're all simply tryin' to discover a greater spot" she provides on "My Welcome Floor Covering"). As well as she does it with musical deepness that admires the artists who influenced her -- Amy Winehouse, Dolly Parton and Shel Silverstein.

" It takes folks with all of the emotional states that our company actually carry out experience as people," Tolman mentioned of her debut. " It's OK to feel factors. It's ALRIGHT to have a great time. It's OK to be actually challenged."

Bren Delight (Human-Re-Sources)

In 2018, pop/R&& B newcomer Bren Happiness began creating his 1st tunes.

Much less than 2 years later on, the smooth-voiced Nashville citizen has actually scored more than 3 thousand flows on Spotify. In Might, he released his debut, "Twenties," which increased adverse the dominating commitment of his very early singles. That's particularly correct in "Sugary food," along with jazz-meets-G-Funk bounce that's difficult not to salute your crown to.

In October, Pleasure opened for rap sensation Megan Thee Stallion at Vanderbilt, and also he's regarding to supplant the brand new year with Keith Urban, Jason Isbell as well as co. as a performer at Nashville's "Popular music Metropolitan area Midnight" gig.

Published 6:00 AM SHOCK THERAPY Dec 22, 2019

This content was originally published here.

[chicago-marlena]

Trip II: My Trip to Bronzeville!

For the purpose of consistency, this post has been broken up into two parts: my first and second trip to Bronzeville; experiences from two separate days. 

Neighborhood map of Bronzeville, Chicago | Source 

Hello everyone! I’m back with a new addition to my travels around the City of Chicago, with a very exciting entry for today! 

This past Friday, September 27th my classmate Alexis and I ventured to the historic neighborhood of Bronzeville! This trip has been my favorite thus far, as exploring the area offered themes of rich history, art, culture, and constant surprise. If you’re unfamiliar with the neighborhood, Bronzeville, also known as the “Black Metropolis” of Chicago, was considered the heart of the African-American community following the Great Migration in 1916 and is recognized for its historical significance, lively community, rich culture, and musical legacies, specifically in genres of jazz, blues, and gospel (Bean, 2016). As someone enthused particularly by African-American arts and specifically jazz history, you can imagine that I was ecstatic to take this adventure. Truthfully, I could go on and on about all the reasons I was excited to get to know this neighborhood, but let’s dive in to see for yourself.

PART I: exploring Bronzeville; rain or shine!

On the first day of my trip, I went in partnership with my classmate Alexis, who I later discovered is a born and raised Chicagoan. In contrast to my last trip, accompanying someone with insight from growing up in the city was helpful in navigating and noticing changes throughout the neighborhood.

Our first stop on our itinerary was mural located on the side of the “L” station 35th and State St. As to my knowledge and observations, the mural that was previously on the side of the 35th-Bronzeville-IIT station had been recently covered up, and is now just a painted wall. The original mural showcased the neighborhood’s name Bronzeville across the top and featured caricatures of artists in the likes of Mahalia Jackson (the “Queen of Gospel”), Etta Moten Barnett (actress/vocalist), Nat King Cole (jazz pianist/vocalist), Dinah Washington (pianist/vocalist), R. Kelly (singer/songwriter), Chante Savage (R&B/dance singer), and Duke Ellington (jazz orchestra leader/pianist), all notable artists who contributed to the Black Metropolis’ rich musical legacy and the nuance of the community (Biography.com, 2019). Side thought: while the previous mural did pay rightful homage, my thoughts on why it was covered potentially revolves around the recent scandal with artist R.Kelly and the neighborhood not wanting to be reflected through the uproar. Seems justified but sad to see the others go.)

35th-Bronzeville-IIT South entrance mural | Original photo

While we didn’t get a chance to see the previous mural, we did however get a chance to view this mural placed right by the entryway of the “L” station, depicting 6 landmark buildings in colorful tile, accompanied by a neighboring sign with the “Bronzeville Points of Interest” (two being my university!) While I couldn’t find any historical information on this, I believe the buildings feature Bronzeville’s historical landmarks of the neighborhood, potentially including the Wabash Avenue YMCA, the Chicago Defender Building, Unity Hall, Eighth Regiment Armory, and the Sunset Cafe/Grand Terrace Cafe (City of Chicago, 1984). Overall, I thought the vibrant miniature mural was a nice addition to the CTA stop and gives new/returning visitors a look into how the neighborhood values its history. The points of interest plaque made me feel like I was visiting a museum, despite living in the area this entire time; ultimately, it was refreshing.

Bronzeville points of interest plaque | Original photo

Next on our trip, we spotted Welcome Stele, additionally located on 35th and State St. The monument offers 3 differing sides, all displaying texts containing the Bronzeville’s historic leaders and figures within the neighborhood; including lawyers, businessmen, and officials. 

The first side view of the Welcome Stele | Original photo

This first side of the Welcome Stele focuses on the general theme of African Americans' business endeavors, most evidently highlighting the versatility and range in careers responsible for the commercial growth of Bronzeville. The latter half of the Stele displays where the neighborhood coined its name, as “Bronzeville” comes from the development of the bronze-beauty pageant by James Gentry who was a Chicago Bee and Defender.

The second side view of the Welcome Stele, depicting Bronzeville’s community figures and political milestones | Original photo

The third side view of the Welcome Stele, illustrating State St. once being the commercial hub of Bronzeville  | Original photo

Bronzeville Walk of Fame plaques | Original photos 

The next goal on our list was to successfully complete the Bronzeville Walk of Fame, from beginning to end, located on King Dr. between 25th and 35th Streets. The neighborhood’s walk of fame contains “ninety-one bronze plaques on medians, sidewalks, and crosswalks stretch ten blocks” honoring those who have made noteworthy contributions to the African American community from all walks of life and careers (enjoyillinois.com). 

As we began the walk of fame, we noticed the plaques showcased an incredible variety of notable Chicago figures, ranging from doctors to musicians to poets to architects to lawyers and boxers. The significance of the walk of fame truly resonated with me when I saw the number of plaques placed outside of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Vocational High School; the walk of fame serves to not only memorialize and commemorate Chicago figures but motivate future generations for success. While walking down the sidewalk, I additionally noticed the area’s value in the youth and younger generations through the plaques, advertisements for youth activities, and even positive messages on public benches. Bronzeville’s preservation of art, culture, and community promote positive messages to the youth, which I found touching considering the amount of stigma and stereotype around Chicago public schools.

“Youth r thought” engraving on public bench, located in school zone | Original photo

At this point in our trip, while I would like to note that it had started to rain (I apologize for rainy photos!) it didn’t stop us from making our next stop to observe the Bronze Map of Bronzeville after finishing the walk of fame. 

Upper righthand corner view of Bronze Map of Bronzeville | Original photo

The Bronze Map of Bronzeville best displays the neighborhood's rich culture and history through the institutions included on the map, some examples being the Quinn Chapel, Chicago Defender, Chess Records Studio, and the Illinois Central Railroad Station just to name a few. Ultimately, the map illustrates what Bronzeville used to be as a neighborhood; one filled with variety in opportunity, businesses, commerce, institutions, and community makeup. This overall theme can still be seen throughout the neighborhood today but with small changes and additions, but the map serves a reminder of the area’s roots and booming beginnings.  

~ LUNCH BONUS! ~

At this point in our trip, the weather had gone from a slight drizzle in rain to a full downpour, indicating it was a good time to end our trip and stop for lunch. In an attempt to escape this bad weather, Alexis and I decided to dine at Harold’s Chicken Shack, (124 E 35th St.) as we both frequented the establishment often and avidly enjoy their food (one of my favorite late-night meals!)

Lunch at Harold’s Chicken Shack | Original photo

Just as always, my lunch at Harold’s was delicious! I ordered the wing lunch combo which came with 4 wings, fries, bread, coleslaw, and a drink of choice, all for $6.50 (wow! incredible deal for a college student.) As someone who had only dined at Harold’s during the nighttime, I thoroughly enjoyed the lunch deal and felt that it was extremely filling and worth the price! (Other customers must have also shared this thought: during our visit, many workers from around the area were coming in and getting the deal for their lunch breaks, indicating the deal’s popularity). 

Harold’s Chicken Shack interior decoration. Something I always enjoy about the establishment: preservation of culture. | Original photo

Overall lunch rating = 5/5

Notes: incredibly filling, delicious hot sauce, the chicken was crispy, the staff was efficient and the overall environment was nice especially with the historical photos along the walls! 

If you’re looking for a quick but delicious meal, I definitely recommend the lunch combo. Ultimately, this meal was an extremely fulfilling way to end my first day of adventures in Bronzeville.

PART II: Boulevards & Sunshine! 

While my first trip to Bronzeville had to be cut short due to poor weather conditions, I decided I’d take another day to further explore the neighborhood. On this second day, the weather was nice and warm, creating a perfect climate for me to venture to a few more sites!

My first stop on this day was the Victory Monument, located between 35th street and King Drive. The bronze sculptor itself was constructed with the intent of honoring “the achievements of the Eighth Regiment of the Illinois National Guard, an African American unit that served in France during World War I...”, additionally showcasing a soldier on top of the fixture signifying all the Black soldiers who had died during the war (Chicago Outdoor Sculptures, 2009).

Right-facing view of the Victory Monument | Original photo 

Seeing this monument in person gives you chills as a spectator, whether you’re aware of the historical significance yet or not. At least this is how I felt seeing the monument for the first time. The posture and position of the soldier at the top radiates power and stoicism, accompanied by the additional figures below. While my favorite part of this trip will soon be discussed (hint, hint), I have to note that this part of the trip affected the most emotionally. While the reason for its creation can be saddening, I am glad the neighborhood prioritizes paying homage to its fallen soldiers and past generations. 

As I continued my walk down the street, my next stop was the Ida B. Wells-Barnett House, probably my most exciting stop thus far, as I admittedly didn’t know this historic landmark was located so close to me. 

Front view of Ida B. Wells-Barnett House | Original photo

Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist, suffragist, and Civil Rights activist who was known for leading an anti-lynching campaign in the United States during the 1890s (National Park Service, 2019). As a journalist, Wells wrote and recorded the gruesome reality of African Americans being lynched and began her anti-lynching campaign. 

Standing in front of her home really allowed her historical legacy to resonate with me, as this part of the trip was humanizing to the work she had done for not only the community but for African Americans as a whole. Detail wise I enjoyed the architectural style of the nearby homes and particularly enjoyed the maroon accents and stone/brick style exterior. Ultimately, this part of my visit was what made me most proud to reside in a neighborhood like Bronzeville. 

Finally, this last stop on my trip took me by surprise. On my commute back home, I stumbled upon the building that once housed the Sunset Cafe/Grand Terrace Cafe, a once-popular “nightclub that established Chicago’s reputation as a jazz center in the 1920s and 30s” and is now a current day beauty supply store titled “Urban Beautique” (City of Chicago, 1984). Jazz clubs and jazz music as a whole was a large contributor in shaping the culture and entertainment of Bronzeville, with notable artists like Louis Armstrong featured in clubs like these during the early 20th century. After reading the plaque and keeping these thoughts in mind, I was in awe after stumbling upon this landmark. 

Mural inside of Urban Beautique from the original jazz club | Source

Alternatively, on the exterior of the building, next to the Cafe’s historic plaque is a mural dedicated to the beauty store, filled with vibrant colors and a painting of an African-American woman with a hopeful expression. While some may question if visitors of the beauty store still hold value in the building that once was, I believe that the building’s change from popular jazz club to beauty shop is reflective of how communities interests and means of fulfillment change; beauty supply stores are increasingly popular in African-American communities, as they are not only hubs for supplies but great places to exchange hair/beauty advice and build connections while shopping. Although it is no longer the historic jazz club it once was, the building’s liveliness is still present within the store, just shifting to current-day community interests.

Mural outside of Urban Beautique, site of the original jazz club | Original photo

Ultimately, both trips I made to the neighborhood of Bronzeville were equally as fulfilling and eyeopening to a culturally rich community I had yet to take the time to explore. Prior to this trip, I have to be honest and admit I wasn’t aware of the historic milestones a neighborhood this close to me had experienced, but now I am nothing but thankful for this treasure I can return to. The music, the art, the culture, the sense of community, and the legacy all provide me with a sense of pride to be an African-American woman and assure me that future generations coming out of Bronzeville will share that same sense of pride and hopefully continue the neighborhood’s success.

Sources: 

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bronzeville, Chicago, IL/@41.8201572,-87.6351753,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x880e2bf824a02f89:0xcefdff19c5833998!8m2!3d41.8166444!4d-87.6167744.

Bean, A. (2019, June 12). The Incredible History and Cultural Legacy of the Bronzeville Neighborhood. Retrieved from https://www.chicagodetours.com/bronzeville-neighborhood/.

Bronzeville - Victory Monument. (2009, September 28). Retrieved from http://chicago-outdoor-sculptures.blogspot.com/2009/09/victory-monument.html.

Bronzeville Walk of Fame. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.enjoyillinois.com/explore/listing/bronzeville-walk-of-fame.

Mahalia Jackson. (2019, July 11). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/musician/mahalia-jackson.

Wbez. (2018, May 24). What's That Building? The Sunset Cafe Mural. Retrieved from https://www.wbez.org/shows/morning-shift/whats-that-building-the-sunset-cafe-mural/ad11a2c2-b786-4477-be32-7f93caf5439f.

[joshulanski-blog]

Dancing With The Stars 2009 Week 5 Recap: Donny Rules!

I started to create my typical "Dancing with the Stars" evaluation when I suddenly realized that I didn't feel like doing it. For the first time since the ABC television display started, I really wasn't that interested in what experienced occurred or even what was going to happen in the subsequent weeks. That was a mild bulb moment for me. But what Keara delivers to the table is not an additional pretty face with a nice voice - it is, rather, a distinctive combination of musical abilities that are adept much past her many years, matched with a serene, but youthful, vitality that retains her relatable to audiences of all ages. With an R&B acoustic audio somewhat reminiscent of a younger feminine counterpart to Bruno Mars, Keara (or 'guitarprincesskeara' as she's recognized to her 3000+ subscribers on YouTube) is ready to deliver a fresh edge to teen pop songs. I sat down with Keara just a few nights in the past prior to an exceptional performance supporting look at this web-site at the Concert For Our Future in Manville, New Jersey, exactly where she opened up about her desires and objectives for her promising long term in music.

Kathy Ireland. Will she be this yr's Josie Maran and get booted off the first week? Or will she use the athleticism she shown in the cinematic classic Essential Roughness and outlast the relaxation?

Aaron Carter Net Worth

Case in stage, singer Mya and model Joana Krupa. These girls are undeniably fantastic dancers and most likely the leaders of the competition. But who cares? Numerous viewers don't know enough about them aaron carter pictures to get invested and root for them.

Donny Osmond was a hit! His sister Marie was on back in season five of "Dancing With the Stars," and she produced it all the way to the last three regardless of being 1 of the weaker performers. Expertise-wise he's probably more powerful than Marie, and he has a great capability to perform the group. He completed his foxtrot with a twenty. During the team salsa, he was also easily declared the winner. Kathy Eire and Tony Dovolani. Kathy Ireland is a design, actor, Sunday school teacher and CEO. Will this well-known bikini design and company entrepreneur have what it takes to make it to the top? Her partner is beloved Tony Dovolani who has arrive near to the top of DWTS, but has never taken home the mirror ball trophy. His past partners were Melissa Rycroft, Susan Lucci, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Jane Seymour, Leeza Gibbons and Stacy Keibler. This group might get fingers-down in the looks division, but do they have what it requires to reach the end line? Perhaps so.

Nick And Aaron Carter

Next 7 days it's all about males compared to women on DWTS season nine: No much more of this pansy women compared to ladies and men compared to males stuff. Keep in mind to catch subsequent week's spherical of the competition on Monday evening at 8 PM Japanese/Pacific on ABC. Or just verify in with me. You know I'll be watching! Dancing With the Stars followers are psyched about the big Season nine premiere. In the meantime, here's a chance to get acquainted with the couples, weigh their probabilities for achievement, and capture up on the very newest DWTS information. Strap in simply because this appears to be a bumpy, yet thrilling season! There were several fans that were shocked by the reports when they had been broken in the media, and now that it has been announced that read this article will be appearing on the news display, it is certain that followers will be tuning in to watch what he has to say about the story.

Aaron Carter Net Worth 2018

Carrie Anne commented that whilst it was apparent he hadn't danced prior to, she liked that he revered the dance and display the joy of dancing, but he has to discover to use his heels. It began, curiously sufficient, when entertainer Donny Osmond's son Don Jr. "tweeted" congratulations to his Dad, noting that "You and Kym [Johnson] are going to get this season. You've received my vote every 7 days! Love ya!" Oops.

Aaron Carter I'M All About You

The marathon: The 9 remaining couples danced simultaneously for the first marathon mambo. At stake: much more judges' factors. The initial few tapped out obtained two points, while the final receives 10 points. If nothing else, Ashley inherited one thing from his famous father, George: the smile. He did a good occupation with the footwork, but it truly didn't do a lot to stand out from the crowd. With a four from Bruno, Ashley completed with a 15. He also was last in his group salsa. He's just not exciting, and I'm really not sure he wants to be there; for that purpose, he should be the male contestant to depart on Wednesday. You can see that this exercise plan is not like any crap marketed on Television. You will never feel tricked, and your money and time will be ell invested. It brings together a great established of workouts with a balanced and nicely planned diet which will assist you obtain incredible results in a fairly short period of time.

[gozel]

Feedback Loops

by Jace Clayton

(Originally published in the NYFA Quarterly

It’s party time in the Persian Gulf. I’m in the DJ booth, mixing Middle Eastern melodies and Western street beats to an Arab jetset on the roofdeck of the Dubai Hilton. Shopping Festival fireworks light the sky. I was invited to the United Arab Emirates by Shehab Hamad, one of the region’s more risk-taking event curators. He knew my work as DJ/rupture, and my label Soot , dedicated to rough diasporic breakbeats. Previously he’d invited Mutamassik, a Brooklyn-based DJ/producer whose style combines Egyptian roots with militant hip hop offshoots. Tradition literally gets scratched into the present during her performances. One of the things that make DJs so thrilling and so boring is the slim distinction between easy charlatanism and mind-melting talent. A bad DJ is little more than a jukebox. A good DJ is a jukebox with a nice musical selection. And a great DJ reinvents the familiar and/or the obscure, imprinting her or his own personality via realtime improvisation using only fragments of other people’s music. A successful DJ can be a desegregationist, coaxing hidden harmonies out of unlikely voices. When hip hop started in the Bronx, DJs such as Afrika Bambaataa would mix in any record so long as it contained a funky beat: James Brown to Kraftwerk to the Monkees. The type of mixing that Mutamassik and I do gains particular resonance with audiences who understand the Arab and African music we work with. Club spaces may be far from sacred, but they still operate along carefully codified rules, and when a DJ starts inserting sounds usually quarantined outside, people react. A potent DJ blend is both allegorical and prophetic: these sounds gel as if they were meant to be shared and reworked. So too, perhaps, the cultures that give rise to them. With DJing, you can achieve what Russian composer Ivan Tcherepnin called “interpenetration without interference”—the ability for different sounds to occupy the same space and yet maintain their individuality in full detail. I love to exploit this polyglot nature: in Dubai this meant layering classic Moroccan milhun vocals (semi-classical sung poetry refreshed by contemporary contextual twists) with high-energy Indian bhangra rhythms and the latest slinky black American R&B instrumentals (with their current vogue for Middle East exoticism). Taking advantage of vinyl’s plasticity, I adjust the playback speed of all these disparate songs onto a common tempo, enabling two or three records to play simultaneously without chaos. Thus, songs made years or decades apart can become synchronized and multiple, with various audience members reacting to and recognizing different elements in the deep but danceable mix. I’m fascinated by the frame-breaking possibilities of turntablism and sampling; but at the same time, I’m starting to view sampling as a very lazy gesture—innocent at best, creepily segregationist at worst. For example, if you’re sampling a sitar CD, it generally means that you can’t find—or can’t be bothered to look for—someone who actually plays the instrument. Sampling maintains cultural distance; collaborations require closeness. The difference is huge. It’s the difference between one-way cultural flow and the kind of dialogue that could lead to real community. Proper collaborations offer much more than sampling, but even they aren’t untroubled. World music festivals love “fusion” groups whose members draw on diverse backgrounds to produce an anodyne sound seemingly intended to reassure the predominantly Western, middle-class festival audience: world music as foreign music with its distinctive features rubbed off, now suitable for mass consumption anywhere on the globe; difference with a jazzy backbeat you can groove to; the exotic but never the extreme. Mainstream pop, reggae, and R&B offer an interesting solution: go synthetic. Star producers like Timbaland and The Neptunes have been inventing wildly creative pop songs for artists like Missy Elliott and Justin Timberlake with a decidedly eastward lean. Yet there is, refreshingly, zero reliance on a veneer of authenticity. These are the few producers who can afford to legally clear all their samples, yet more often than not they choose to fabricate a prosthetic North African beat, or to replay a quarter-tone violin harmony line on a cheap synthesizer. Brilliant or lazy or both? Does pop’s self-replicating, amoebic logic wipe out all others? Suffice to say that The Neptunes song I played in Dubai received the best crowd response. A glance in the other direction reveals an incredible culture of bootlegging, versioning, and westward exoticism in Arabic pop. At any Moroccan music store you’ll find endless cassettes such as HipHop Ray 2002! : a bootleg compilation that alternates rai hits with misattributed mainstream American rap. Or, a recent favorite of mine, the bootleg rai CD Compil Santana : the cover and CD artwork sports images of seven Moroccan vocalists . . . and Victoria’s Secret supermodel Laetitia Casta. Glamour becomes a universal glue. Musical influence spreads like wildfire, wafting across borders of nation, language, and religion. Yet, controlling notions of authenticity police virtually all genres. Leatherbound anarchists are quick to classify what is and isn’t punk rock; “keeping it real” is a constant refrain in hip hop; talk of “pure” flamenco abounds in Spain although Arabic influences are clearly audible in the vocal ululations and sinewy guitar style of Spain’s cherished “national” music. So how do we keep it real if our mission is to adapt multiple traditions into an idiosyncratic unity? All music springs from multiple roots, yet the history of the hybrid is no history at all, just an X on the map where the border-crosser left both lands.

People who are actively situating themselves within multiple traditions tend towards iconoclasm. For example, Turkish artist Serhat Köksal performs with samplers, saz, electronics, darbouka, and spoken word. His output swerves exuberantly between Anatolian folk, experimental electronic textures, and improvisation heavily inspired by Turkish cinema. The pastiche may seem wild, but Köksal has worked to refine his approach for nearly two decades. Critically, Köksal is operating with polydirectional influences—new avant-garde trends inform his saz and darbouka playing, and vice versa. Film reaches across media to impact his sound as well. The title of his last performance cycle suggests a lot: No Turistik - No Egzotik Improvise/Electro Folk Cut . Neither the “ancient wisdom” of Turkish folk nor the “contemporary currents” of electronic music take precedent. Instead they frolic and tussle, each available to be infected by, or infatuated with, the other. Vulnerability is a precondition to cross-pollination. Open ears, opens minds, open wounds.

In addition to my activities as DJ/rupture, I make music as Nettle. Nettle originated in my fascination with the concept of an album heavily influenced by Middle Eastern ideas, but not necessarily at the audible level. I was unsatisfied with the narrative poles of electronic music—loop-based dance pieces or abstract/ambient pieces without storytelling force. A suite of rigorous modal improvisation in Arabic music called taqasims offered the solution: I knew and loved their internal play between free-flowing improv and strict technical guidelines. I spent a year or two translating these ideas into pieces for samplers and laptop. Two albums later I still wasn’t satisfied: one-way cultural flows aren’t good enough. I wanted community, two-way translations, the squeal of a feedback loop. Earlier this year I was commissioned by a British arts council to transform Nettle into a proper live ensemble. Violin, oud, percussion, electronics, realtime sampling. I’d been involved in Barcelona’s Moroccan music community for awhile, but the Nettle project has upped the intensity of collaboration. A few days ago, Nettle’s violin and oud player, Abdelaziz Hak, brought up taqasims to explain his response to a beat I’d prepared for him. I broke into a silly grin. This is working. We’re starting to get under each other’s skin. Jace Clayton is a writer and musician based in Spain. He has performed around the world as DJ/rupture and Nettle and his essays have appeared in the Washington Post ,The Wire , and other publications

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2/5 BZ   - -  Karabesk

https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/26186

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2/5 BZ Etnik Market Etnik Paranoia

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/34182

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Mudd Up! with DJ/Rupture

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http://autonomicforthepeople.blogspot.com.tr/2004_10_01_archive.html

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https://www.nyfa.org/

*****

     arabesk : dj/rupture            (us-tigerbeat 6), chronomad live, serhat köksal aka 2/5bz live, dj            mormos & dj coconuts

                 23-avril-2005

22.00 - 7€

La gare            métamorphosée en riad underrail ? On fera tout pour :            scénographie orientalo-décalée, projections cali-graphiques, danse            du ventre piercée et épices…

Dj/rupture est le            maître incontesté du mix non-géographique ultra-dansant. Un son au            delà des genres aux rythmiques post-culturelles. Un mash-up de            rythmes arabes, techno, reggae, spoken word, folk, hip hop,            breakbeats, avant-noise et jazz effectués avec prouesse et            réussissant des connections musicales improbables, le regard tourné            vers un futur sans frontières.

Serhat Köksal est un            artiste performer d'Istanbul. Il mélange de l'electronica rugueuse            avec des sons des rues d'Istanbul et de la pop orientale saturée. Il            travaille aussi l'image en live, en déconstruisant des films turcs            des années ‘70.

Chronomad est le            projet de Saam Schlamminger, d'origine perse et résidant en            Allemagne. Il collabore régulièrement avec des membres de The            Notwist et Lali Puna et a sorti un album sublime sur Alien            Transistor, « Sokut ». Il manipule percussions            traditionnelles iraniennes avec de l'électronique et se situe ainsi            au-delà de toute forme de world music. La particularité du son de            ces percussions en contraste avec les manipulations électroniques            font appel à notre imaginaire universel. Pas de frontières non plus            pour Chronomad, mais plutôt un dialogue entre traditions ancestrales            et traditions à venir.

http://www.recyclart.be/fr/archives-2003-2011/arabesk-dj-rupture-us-tigerbeat-6-chronomad-live-serhat-koksal-aka-2-5bz-live-dj-mormos-dj-coconuts

[eyez-ff-blog]

○○ eyez | forty-nine

Beija sat at the back of the chauffeured SUV as she scrolled through her phone, one leg draped over the other as the flowing material of her black slacks seemed to move with help from the window she opened when she got into the car. She quietly answered emails as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear, llicking over her nude-painted lips as she encountered several gossip articles about being seen outside of the apartment alone. Her new hair was stick “shocking” the masses of social media, and everyone was wondering what Mrs. Cole was up to now. Whatever it was had a lot of celebrities involved, since the unusual influx of famous faces seemed to inflate within the past couple of days. Something was up, and everyone wanted to know what it was.

As a matter of fact, this was what she was on the way to do at that very moment—advertise her plans to the world for the very first time.

The last of the ‘Forever Boy Fright Night’ details were cemented into place, and what was once Beija’s dream was about to become a reality in two days. She actually appreciated Jermaine’s suggestion for them to stay in New York after Nicole’s shower a whole lot more now than she had already appreciated it then, because being able to just be near the center of the action was exactly what she needed. As stressful as everything had been, she had been able to handle it all with grace and without much stress. By October 27th, her hard work will have finally paid off, and the world would be exposed to Beija’s first endeavor under her brand. She wanted to extend far beyond the reaches of her husband’s fame, or even her own work within Dreamville. She wanted a legacy that would last a lifetime, and now she finally felt like she was on her way to doing so.

The more she thought about Jermaine, the more she thought to call him. The last big argument they had lingered in her mind even months later, but it surprisingly didn’t leave any foul taste within her mouth. It was to the contrary in reality—that release of energy between them was what she needed. She would never know what she could handle when it came to J unless he placed those things upon her, and she was glad that he finally came clean. It was becoming easier for her to do the same. It hurt to see one of the strongest men she knew tremble in fear and sadness before her, but the humanity she saw in her husband that night made her love him more now than she ever could have before. She’d never forget it or look to devalue it.

After answering one of her last emails, she yawned as she dialed the usual number, the contact name ‘Old Man’ flashing across her screen before a photo of a sleeping Jermaine showed soon after, letting it be known that he was receiving the call. Eventually, the line connected and she could hear the sounds of Elmo’s laughter in the background. “Hello?” J’s sleepy voice filled Beija’s ears and she still couldn’t stop herself from blushing at the gravelly tone of his voice.

“Hi. I’m almost at the radio station,” She said quietly. “Actually—can you make a quick stop at Starbucks? I really need some caffeine before I deal with this,” She spoke to the driver, and he nodded as he took a detour from the original path.

“Okay...you’re gonna do amazing. Just avoid anything Charlamagne gotta say unless he actually saying some shit. Listen closely to Envy, he might try to sneak some shit in there and have you in a sticky spot. Angela’s cool, she’ll most likely ask all the gossipy questions though,” Jermaine rattled off the information expertly and Beija took a heed to his words.

“Got it,” She answered to ensure she was listening to him.

“Also, don’t be nervous and know that you don’t gotta answer shit you don’t want to. Remember, it’s about Forever Boy,” He said.

“Right. Okay, well I’m about to go to Starbucks then I’m headed up there. You’re gonna listen in, right?” She asked.

“Yeah. Everybody in the group chat’s already listening to the radio too,” J chuckled lowly. “We’re rooting for you, mama.”

“Okay,” Beija smiled a bit before she sunk into the leather of the seat. “I love you, baby.”

“I love you, too. Kill that interview, B.”

Beija hung up the phone and she took a deep breath before she slid out of the car before heading towards the moderately sized coffee shop. She allowed her six-inch heels to guide her as they clicked against the concrete, and she could hear the clicking of cameras. She merely adjusted her light suit jacket before she headed inside of the establishment. Beija approached the counter and ordered an Iced Cinnamon Almond Milk Macchiato and a Blueberry muffin, and tried not to draw too much attention towards herself. A couple people did recognize her and she kept a placid smile as she took a couple photos, but she was out of the place in less than 10 minutes. She was actually ahead of schedule, so she wasn’t too worried about the time.

After another 10 minute ride to the radio station, Beija was ushered out of the car before the driver made sure she was completely out of the car, shutting the door. “Good luck, Mrs. Cole.”

“Thank you.”

She headed inside the building before she threw away her trash, and from the moment she was recognized she was led to the proper studio booth where the interview would be held. She slipped off her jacket as she entered the room, and Envy was the first one to stand to his feet to greet her. She shook hands with everyone before they took a seat.

“Okay, these are a summary of the questions we’ll be asking as we spoke over on the phone,” Charlemagne passed Beija the list of questions they had negotiated over some days previous—it was the only way she’d do the interview. “This is tentative so we may only cover a couple of these depending on how long the interview runs. Otherwise, we’re just having a regular conversation, having a good time. You ready?” He asked.

“When you are,” Beija nodded quickly before she relaxed in her chair.

She counted down the time in her mind, and eventually the ‘On Air’ sign on the wall lit a bright red.

“Good morning everybody—this is DJ Envy,” Envy began his usual introduction. “Angela Yee, Charlemagne the God, and we are The Breakfast Club. We have a special guest today!”

“Twitter dragged me for calling her this, but I still think she’s ‘Lil’ Beyoncé,” Charlemagne joked, and Beija let out a laugh. “Beija Cole is in the building,” He began to laugh as well.

“Well, you asked for that right there. Nobody told you to call me that,” Beija chuckled softly.

“I mean think about it—you and Cole even got the same initials. J and B. No coincidence,” Charlemagne egged on playfully.

“But for those who may not know who you are, tell them about yourself,” Angela chimed in.

“Well, as it’s been said—my name is Beija Cole,” Beija seemed to be proud to even say that. “I’m the head of the A&R department over at Dreamville Records,” She explained. “I’m also the wife of J. Cole,” She tried not to pay attention to the camera that was in the room, seeing that she knew it would be there.

“You guys have been married for a little bit now—almost a year. Congratulations by the way,” Angela complimented.

“Thank you.”

“But what has it been like? Your road to marriage and everything that entails has been under a microscope, and I know being a rapper’s wife isn’t easy. How have you been handling it all?” Angela’s angle with her questions seemed to be a bit more personal, and Beija picked up on the intention immediately. She didn’t see it as a malicious move, but she still had to be careful in how she tackled the questions.

“Well, it’s really just a normal life for me now—we’re both in the thick of the entertainment business so it’s not that hard. But when I’m at home, he’s not a rapper to me and I’m not an A&R to him. We’re just a couple, and we deal with what we deal with the best way we can,” Beija answered. “Between that and our daughter, I just remember that I am a part of a team and I can’t do it all alone.”

“Cole’s latest album, Sinner Reborn, has been hailed as the number one rap album of 2018 so far—it’s also been painted as one of his most honest and open illustrations of your relationship,” Envy began. “Was that a hard pill for you to swallow, to have everything out there in the open?”

“Initially. It was like pulling back a curtain and everyone then had a glimpse into your life,” Beija fiddled with her hands under the table to keep herself from growing too nervous. “I think anyone in my position would have been absolutely afraid, but after a while I realized that people were already making up rumors and talking about us when we were giving people bits and pieces. Now, nobody can really check us. Anything you wanna say about me or Cole has already been revealed by us at this point,” Beija said.

“When you first started as an A&R, you were initially in college, going to NYU. Now you’re responsible for pretty much all of the label you’re on—Dreamville’s first band, Twisted Elegance is predicted to nab a Pop Grammy nomination. J.I.D. has also been predicted for Rap, and Ari Lennox, one of your first finds, just might get the R&B album nom,” Envy continued. “With such blended styles of music, was this what you anticipated for the label, or is this a surprise to you?”

“It’s a pleasant surprise but it’s all that I ever wanted for my musical family,” Beija smiled as she spoke of the people she had grown to love like her own blood. “When I decided I wanted to be an A&R, this was exactly what I had hoped to accomplish within the industry. Dreamville has never been about just success—we love our music and the passion we place into every song or feature is genuine. To know that we are finally getting the rest of the world to catch on is truly a blessing. It wasn’t what I expected, but it’s happening at the right time for everyone,” She answered.

“So let’s see...Wife, Mother, Career Woman...what’s next? You saving the world?” Charlemagne joked, and the room let out a collective laugh.

“Uh, maybe? I do have an event coming up,” Beija felt like that was his way of transitioning into why she was truly there, so she took the baton and ran with it. “It’s for my new charity, the Forever Boy Project,” She explained.

“So you are why everyone’s in town,” Angela chuckled. “But is it a coincidence that it’s named after one of the songs from Reborn?”

“It was done purposely. Forever Boy was Cole’s dedication to my brother Rashaad, who was killed in 2002 at the hands of a Houston police officer,” Beija clutched her fists under the table to keep her tears from coming. “So the Forever Boy Project is my own dedication to my brother—I want to start a positive dialogue between Police and the public, and I want to put a good pressure upon lawmakers and enforcement to start seeing the black community as partners and not as a threat,” She summarazied.

“I think that’s dope—we need more conversation about what’s happening to these black men and women out there,” Envy answered. “So this is a Halloween party of sorts?” He asked.

“That and an introductory event, but we have a lot more in store that will cater to everyone—we have plans for something huge in March, but Cole and I both will be back for that announcement,” Beija smiled gently.

“Oh wow—see, what did I say? They’re trying to take over the world,” Charlemagne argued, and Beija let out another small laugh.

The interview went on in the same manner, basically giving the public a better glimpse of the enigmatic woman who just happened to steal J. Cole’s heart. By the end of the 45-minute interview, it seemed like there was a bit more of a personality added to Beija’s name, and she was satisfied with the way the interview went. She skipped any questions she didn’t want to answer, and navigated everything in a way that she was able to control and make things end in her favor. Most importantly, people now knew more about the charity.

Exiting the Power 105.1 headquarters, she felt a weight lift from her shoulders before she climbed into the SUV, and she checked her watch before she took out her phone, instantly going into full work mode.

“Where to now, Mrs. Cole?”

“To the venue first, please.”

The SUV pulled from the curb and she began to sort through her emails, from answering and confirming guest lists, to ordering she and Jermaine’s costumes. She kept her face within her phone the entire way before she was pulled in front of the large building. She hopped out of the car once the door was opened for her, and she hurried up the steps as she saw workers coming in and out of the building.

In the center of everything was the event coordinator and her publicist Lucas, who were talking to one another as workers were turning the broad and empty space into a fantasy world of darkness and frightening fun. Tables made for the 250 high profile guests were already within the space, with the tables and chairs dressed in soft black table cloth, and the workers were now building the stage where the DJ booth would be, along with an LED screen and space for people to move upon.

“Luke,” Beija called out, and the man turned around before he nodded respectfully. “Did you hear the interview?” She asked.

“I did; you did a great job! You hit all the points you needed and most importantly, we shed light on the charity. You sure you need me?” He asked playfully, and she laughed softly with a nod.

“Yes I do! Just in case somebody has an issue with something I said,” She turned towards the event coordinator before she gave the woman a soft smile. “So how’s everything here?” She asked.

“Okay so we’ve got all of the main things together—as you can see the tables have been decorated as you designed,” The woman began. “We’ll be putting up the curtains and décor after the stage has been finished. Tomorrow we will bring in the balloons and set the tables, along with rolling out the orange carpet for your guests’ arrival,” She continued.

“And the gift bags and thank you notes?” She asked.

“All have been finished and tucked away in the back. Also, the caterer just called me and said that the menu has been finalized and that he and his team are going out today to get the ingredients and things together,” The coordinator explained, and Beija nodded with a small smile.

“Great, looks like everything is on schedule. Lucas, can you make sure to call Maurice tomorrow about the website? I want to make sure that everything is ready for the launch tomorrow,” She said.

“I’ll call him and keep you posted. Also, I finished getting the Facebook and Twitter accounts together. Remember, you have to do an Instagram Live feed tomorrow before the party so you can talk to the public,” He explained.

“Gotcha. We’re on a roll right now—I feel good about this,” Beija said with a grin.

After spending some more time making sure that everything was going according to plan, Beija took a break to go get some lunch at one of her favorite spots in Manhattan. After lunch and a stop at the costume boutique to pick up she and J’s outfits, she headed back home to rest up. Tomorrow was the big day, and she had to make sure she was at her best.

Waking up the next morning, Beija started her day as any other—she spent some time meditating and exercising, and she spent some time taking care of and spending time with Janiya before she was dropped off at Ib and Nicole’s home. After that, she was left with the task of primping before the event. She visited the salon first and the beautician added some platinum blonde hair to her shortened locks to create a lengthy ponytail. Afterwards, she went to the spa and proceeded to get a manicure, pedicure, wax, massage and facial. She was going all out for the evening and that much was clear.

When she got back to the apartment, Jermaine was already getting work done on his face by the FX make-up artist; the young man carefully navigated her husband’s face as he tried to recreate the look of the famed Chucky doll. “You’re already looking scary as hell,” She said, and she giggled at the low hum of amusement that escaped Jermaine’s mouth.

“He’s been such a good sport—I’m actually almost finished,” The artist quietly commented as he continued to work on his face. “Soon as I’m finished, I’ll get to work on you.”

“Cool, let me go shower first, though. Have you showered and shit, J?” She asked, and she watched as he briefly nodded. “Okay, cool. Once you’re finished and I get out the shower, I’ll help you get in your shirt without messing up your face,” She said before disappearing into the master bedroom.

Beija took a shower with her usual coconut oil soap before she exited the shower, and then applie some cocoa butter before letting her body air dry. Once she applied some deodorant as well, she retreated to the closet where she hid the La Perla bag filled with goodies she splurged on for herself. Slipping on the Autografo tulle thong, she checked herself in the mirror as she pouted, her ample behind doing all but swallowing the material into her flesh. She chuckled lowly before she grabbed the customized strapless bra, putting it on to give her bust some lift and control. Next, she put on the garter belt she ha bought before she slipped on her stockings and fastening the straps of the garter belt. She grabbed her strapless dress and black boot heels, slipping them on before she looked at the nearly completed look. After sliding on her pearl accessories and lacy arm-length gloves, she gently laughed at the recreated look from Rihanna’s Victoria Secret Fashion Show look. It was probably Beija’s favorite ensemble she had ever seen, and she thought it’d be a perfect outfit to mash with the idea of Chucky’s sadistic bride, Tiffany.

She exited the room and she saw that Jermaine had finished with his costume make-up; he looked frightening yet amazing, and the look on his face when he saw her in her costume was exactly what she wanted. “Well, damn. Alright Tiffanna,” He playfully teased before a smirk tugged at his lips.

“Don’t even say nothing,” Beija laughed softly before she shook her head slowly. “You think you can get dressed without fucking up your face?” She asked as he passed her to go into the bedroom.

“I’ll try,” He said, and she rolled her eyes slowly before she sat down in the chair, allowing the make-up artist to start on her face.

Once the artist was able to get the green-colored contacts into Beija’s eyes, he proceeded to give her a look of a crazed murder, nearly covering the bottom half of her face in ‘blood.’ Once he was finished with his work, Beija paid him for his time and she was left alone in the living room before she entered the bedroom, seeing Jermaine finishing putting on the last of his outfit.

“You look deranged. I love it,” She laughed softly before he glanced up, chuckling a bit at her own make-up.

“Me? You look like you just ate a nigga,” He shook his head as Beija walked over to the vanity to apply some perfume to her pulse points, then she slid her shades over her eyes. “Where are the overnight bags?” He asked.

“Sitting on the couch in the living room,” Beija stood up straight before she smoothed out her dress. “You ready to go?”

“Yep, let’s go.”

Beija followed Jermaine out of the room, glancing over to grab his toy machete on the way out of the room. He’d forget his head if it wasn’t on his shoulders.

The luxury car that was rented for their arrival was waiting downstairs for them, and Beija checked her phone to check the time, just as the event coordinator was calling her. “Hello?”

“Hi, Mrs. Cole—just called to let you know that the doors just opened and we’re allowing guests in. As you asked, we have the photographers here to take photos. You should be able to make your arrival with Mr. Cole at about 9pm,” The woman said.

“Okay. Thank you so much for all your help,” Beija hurried to the car as Jermaine packed their bags in the back of the car.

“No problem! Have fun tonight, and congratulations,” The woman said before hanging up the line.

Jermaine helped Beija into the car, and the driver pulled away from the curb once they were situated in the back. “Do I need to take a short cut or anything?” The driver asked.

“No, take your time. We have an hour time window,” Beija said as she opened her Instagram app.

“You got it,” The driver rolled up the partition between the front and back seat, and Beija turned on her ‘live’ feature, making sure the camera was on her. She watched the number of viewers grow at a slower rate.

“Hi everyone!” She waved at the camera, and smiled a bit as a slew of comments filled the chat, from compliments on her costume to just greeting her. “So, just wanted to wish you guys a great weekend and a great Halloween coming up, but I also wanted to tell you guys about the website that’s launching tonight for the Forever Boy Project,” She explained. “I have created a non-profit sister organization to the Dreamville Foundation, specifically geared to helping the families of victims of police brutality. As you all know, I lost my brother Rashaad to police violence, and Cole and I have been working hard to start this organization up. Tonight is our Fright Night Ball, but more things will be coming soon that you all can participate in,” She nodded before glancing over in Jermaine’s direction. “Anything you want to add?”

“Uh,” Jermaine glanced into the camera, and Beija could see a surge in both viewers and comments about his appearance. “What’s up, y’all? Just wanted to say hey...also, there’s a 10% discount on all Dreamville merch this weekend in celebration of FBP. All money will go to the organization. Show us some love, and please go check out the website—this is a big day for my babygirl, so please support the movement,” Beija couldn’t help but to smile a bit at the enthusiasm in his voice.

“Thank you guys so much for all the support! We have a big surprise for all the fans so just keep an eye out,” Beija paused and caught a comment, and she laughed softly. “No, it won’t be like Black Friday; I won’t let that happen again,” She giggled.

“Oh! Just gonna dog me out,” Jermaine laughed as well before he peeked into the camera. “We’ll see y’all. Peace out.”

“Bye guys!” Beija shut off the video, and she chuckled as she shook her head. “Okay, now I’m officially nervous,” She said.

“Why? You can recite that speech from front to back...from what I can see on Instagram, everybody’s decked out in their costumes. I’m sure the place looks amazing, and you look fuckin’ stunning,” He slid a hand over her exposed thigh and she couldn’t help but to shiver a bit. “Everything’s going to go fine. If Rashaad were here, he’d be proud to see what you’ve accomplished—he is proud. And so am I,” He said, and Beija let out a small sigh as she placed a hand over his own.

“Don’t butter me up,” Beija chuckled before she laced their fingers, nodding as she squeezed his hand. “That does make me feel a lot better. Thank you,” She nodded gently.

The two stayed in a confident silence until the car pulled up to the curb, and she bit her lip as she watched one of the attendant workers approach the car and open the back door. The loud clicks and flashes of camera filled the atmosphere as Jermaine got out first, and he held his hand out to help Beija out of the car.

Beija walked alongside her husband on the orange colored carpet, making sure to pose for the camera to get all of the proper angles that the photographers wanted. She thought it was pretty amusing; she wondered if this is how it felt to be a celebrity on the forefront of the industry. As fun as this part was, she was sure that the work put in to be able to have fun at events or award shows was strenuous on the mind and body alike. She could only imagine how Jermaine felt when he worked on tour or even in the studio.

Once she got to the end of the orange carpet she was met with a set of press interviewers—Ib had briefed her on the fact that she’d be briefly interviewed by the likes of E! News, People Magazine, and other publications. She made sure to keep her answers short, sweet, and graceful. No matter what, her focus was upon her charity and she made sure to keep it that way.

She and Jermaine finally made it inside as the DJ announced their arrival, and the multitude of celebrity guests stood to their feet as they clapped for the ‘guest of honor.’ Beija waved shyly as she looked around, taking a moment to gaze at the elaborate and elegant look of the hall. The horror-themed decorations gave a sense of fantastical dread that kept with the Halloween theme. She was led towards the side stage, and she was passed a microphone along with Jermaine before he took to the stage to introduce her.

She watched as he took to the stage with not even a drop of fear and all she could do was smile as she watched him. “How y’all doing tonight?” He began as he ran a hand over the top of his head. “Y’all look crazy,” He joked, and the laughter that filled the hall. “As crazy as you do look, the reason we’re all here tonight is nothing short of an amazing effort from a thought provoking event that has happened way too much for our liking. There’s so many stories I could tell about the reason why we’re here, but I honestly couldn’t do it justice. So I’m not going to keep you guys long; let’s give a hand to the puppet master of what surrounds you tonight. She’s the founder of the charity we are introducing and representing tonight. Beija Cole,” He introduced, and Beija took a deep breath as she took to the stage.

She looked over the crowd of people as they applauded for her, and she smiled a bit as she took off her shades, allowing herself to see a bit more clearly. “Wow, thank you all for that—thank you for that introduction too,” She nodded towards Jermaine before she turned to face the crowd. “But I’m sure you all know a little bit about me...at least what TMZ will tell you,” She joked, her body relaxing when she heard some of the laughter from the crowd. “But tonight, it’s not even about me. Tonight, it’s about one of the greatest people I ever knew: my brother, Rashaad Demarco.”

“He was born on a foggy November morning in 1988 and for 14 years of his life, he blazed this world with his internal flame. For me, he was my guidance and my sense of clarity, but when provoked he could burn everything around him if he wanted to. He had the voice of an angel—all he ever did was sing Michael Jackson around the house. He made me fall in love with music...that’s all we ever did. We’d sneak into our parents’ record collection and listen to the music and just drift off to a land where our childish problems ceased and we could just be one with the beat. He wanted to be a singer, and he said that I’d be his manager or something like that,” Beija smiled softly to herself at the memories, allowing a long sigh to leave her lips.

“In 2002, that flame was violently extinguished. He was confused for a suspect in our neighborhood and was chased down and murdered by the police. It hurts even more because at that time, my father was an officer for the force,” She could feel the tension in the room as she went into true detail of the death of her brother. “It tore our family apart for a long time, and it is the main source of my severe depression,” She heard some gasps in the room, but she stood strong on the stage. “It was the first real thing I ever told my husband...about why I was the way I was, about my night terrors that I’d have concerning that day. I blamed myself for a long time for his death, then I blamed the system. And that’s why he made the song—my brother will sadly never get to see adulthood. He never got to go to college. He didn’t get to see me walk down the aisle, and he will never know his nieces or nephews. He is forever a child...immortalized in innocence.”

Beija took a quivering breath and blinked away the tears that threatened to fall. “And this is the reason why I started The Forever Boy Project. I’ve seen so many families share the pain my family had to endure, and I feel that it is a gross injustice. I want to move forward and forge a new bond between us as a community and the powers that be. I want to have conversations steeped in positivity, but I want action too. I want people to be held responsible for the families they tear apart. I need them to understand that there are more than too many ‘Forever Boys’ and ‘Forever Girls’ that have been wrongfully stripped of their right to live.”

“I know that the story I told may be tragic, and it is a heavy burden to carry. But tonight, let this be a celebration of something good to come. In front of you, sitting on your plates is a brochure I put together about all that I have planned for this charity. It’s a game plan you can be a part of if you so choose. I also have information, websites and phone numbers you can call. Alongside that is an envelope for you to donate money as well, if you want to. We have a silent auction going on tonight as well, so there’s many ways that we can participate and help other families that are dealing with such tragic times. I thank you all for coming tonight, and please—have a good time! It’s what my brother would want. Thank you,” Beija smiled through the immense lump in her throat as the crowd clapped for her, and she quickly left the stage before passing the microphone to the attendant. Jermaine was waiting for her at the side of the stage, and she took a deep breath as she embraced him.

“You good?” He asked, and she nodded as he kissed her forehead. “I’m proud of you. I know that was hard,” He said, and she repeated her nod as she ran her fingers down his arms.

“It was. But I did it,” Beija quickly dabbed under her eye with her fingertip before one of her tears could escape. She smiled up at J before she slid her shades back on. “But let’s go ahead and relax. The hard part’s over.”

The first part of the event consisted of a five-course meal: House Salad with Italian Dressing, Loaded Baked Potato Chowder, Charbroiled Oysters, Steak and Potatoes with Asparagus, and Red Velvet Cake for dessert. After dinner, the festivities truly began; the bar and dance floor opened for the guests, and Beija began to work the room, making sure to show her face and converse with the guests as they commended her on her charitable effort. As nervous she was to be around such high-profile names, she handled it to the best of her ability. Eventually the night gave way to the music and everyone was indulging in the endless supply of liquor. Beija and Jermaine took on their usual brown liquor, and as the party raged into the wee hours of the morning, the woman found herself more attached to her husband than usual. It usually didn’t take her much to want her man, but with every ounce of liquor that filled her system she found herself wanting nothing more than to get him alone.

The party ended around two in the morning and the couple were the last to leave. The two came out of the hall laughing and chattering as they piled into the back of the car they came in, the driver quietly driving them to their hotel room.

“I honestly didn’t even think anyone could dance like that. Shit was insane,” Jermaine excitedly recounted some of the people watching he had done throughout the night, and Beija was in a fit of giggles as she curled up next to his warm body.

“Aren’t you...so glad, that I don’t dance like that? You’d be so ashamed,” She laughed a bit as he shook his head.

“You were too busy being indecent to dance,” He mumbled as he rested his head against the back of the seat. “And you talk about me being vulgar,” He chuckled.

“I’m not vulgar. I don’t know what you mean,” Beija couldn’t help but to smile a bit at her own lie. “It’s your fault. I was a good girl before you corrupted me.”

“That’s what you think?” The two glanced at each other before Beija burst into laughter. “Exactly. Bullshit. No good girl pulls the shit you tried to pull with me tonight,” Jermaine’s voice deepened a bit as he reached to conceal them from the eyes and ears of the driver up front.

“Hey, I was just poking fun,” B laughed gently before she gently moved her legs into his lap. The slit of her dress revealed the shape of her legs, and she smirked gently at the deep breath that emitted from his body. Her eyes slowly closed as she felt his hand slowly glide up her leg.

“Grabbing on my shit ain’t fun for me. Not when I can’t take care of you right away,” He mumbled before he shook his head. “You’re an animal when the brown hits you.”

“Oh, whatever,” Beija chuckled as she grew comfortable against his body, the feeling of his fingers rubbing against her leg only enticing her more.

Eventually the two reached the hotel they booked for the evening and once they had checked in, they headed up to their suite. After settling in, the two got out of their costumes and washed off their faces. Beija turned the air on once she exited the bathroom, sighing as the cool air hit against her warm skin. She didn’t realize how much she had warmed up due to the alcohol.

“Where’d you get those from?” Beija looked over her shoulder at Jermaine, who was now sitting in the nearby chair as he scrolled through his phone. She glanced down at the bra and panties she was still in.

“These? I had a little extra spending money and I ordered them off La Perla,” She said, and she chuckled softly at the look of confusion on J’s face.

“It looks expensive,” He mumbled before she walked over to him, slowly moving to straddle his lap. She watched as he ran a hand along the material of her thong and she slightly shivered at his feathery contact.

“I wanted to feel cute tonight. And it’s not like I splurge all the time,” She pouted slightly as she watched his skeptical expression—he was able to make his usual animated expressions, even with the lowering of his eyelids from the liquor consumption. “Don’t you like it, daddy?” Her soft voice seemed to make him flunch, and she tried not to smirk at the way his expression softened.

“Here you go. You always hit me with that when you want something or you wanna get your...” He stopped speaking when she leaned in to kiss him, and she could hear the soft groan escape his lips as her lips moved to his neck. “...When you wanna get your way,” He managed to finish his sentence.

“I don’t want anything but you right now,” She confessed, wrapping her arms around his neck before she gazed into his eyes. She inspected his features and couldn’t contain her blissful smile as she gently tugged at his beard, giving him another kiss. “You’re gonna let all this go to waste?” She gestured towards the lacy pieces that clung to her brown skin, and his eyebrows raised as he cracked a smile.

“So that’s what you bought them for...?” He mumbled, and she giggled as he picked her up, slowly moving her towards the window of the suite. “And that’s why you’ve been actin’ up all night. You should have just asked,” He leaned down and placed a smooth kiss upon her lips, and she glanced back at the city below them through the window.

“Windows open, J? Really?” She whispered, and her thighs tightened around his torso when he smirked.

“It’s damn near three in the morning. And who gives a fuck...let’em see,” He leaned into her neck and gently nuzzled her flesh as she felt his hands proceed to peel her scant undergarments off her body. Every instance of his flesh touching hers sent chills down her spine, and she bit her lip as her hands slid into his hair. In the heat of their inebriation, there was no usual foreplay or teasing; he knew she was ready for him and from the way he felt when he inserted her, he was just as ready.

“Wait,” She said, and he halted his movements as he looked down at her. “Slowly,” She instructed, and he nodded as he held her close, his movements becoming more subdued and intricate. Her lips found his again in a warm embrace, and from that moment on his eyes burned into hers as he once again allowed his body to guide her to another place, somewhere so special that even drunken quickies felt like the most special moment of her life.

[womenofcolor15]

JUNETEENTH: FREE’ISH’ Since 1865 – Today We Commemorate The End Of Physical Slavery Of Blacks In America, And Celebrate Black Excellence

Happy Juneteenth! On June 19, 1865, the last enslaved African Americans were notified that they were finally FREE from slavery. Today, we celebrate this epic moment in history to remember our past and honor our ancestors. More inside…

Time to turn up for the culture!

Today is Juneteenth! It’s the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It’s also called Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, and Cel-Liberation Day

On June 19, 1865 Union soldiers – led by General Gordon Granger - traveled to Galveston, Texas and informed the enslaved African-Americans the Civil War was over and they were now FREE, a whole two years after the Emancipation Proclamation (Jan. 1, 1863) was issued by President Abraham Lincoln.  Due to the lack of technology and lack of white America wanting to give up their privilege and their slaves, the message took an unfathomable amount of time to actually get to the people who deserved to hear it the most.

Here’s a few other theories why it took so long for slaves to be informed of their freedom:

The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

Later attempts to explain this two and a half year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All of which, or none of these versions could be true. Certainly, for some, President Lincoln's authority over the rebellious states was in question. Whatever the reasons, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.

155 years later, blacks aren’t physically enslaved, BUT we are still not totally free. More like free”ish” with the way racism, systemic racism and social injustice plagues our country.

There’s still tons of work to be done to defeat the intentional barriers put in place after slavery was abolished, but, there's hope that things are (slowly) changing for the good. From police reform kicking into high gear around this country, to the current watershed moment of racists in corporate & everyday America - who uphold the systemically racist infrastructure - being called to the carpet and quickly abolished from their positions.  It's the reversal we love to see, even though we've been preaching about these very things for 400 years.

This year several major companies - including Nike and Twitter - and states have declared Juneteenth as an official paid state holiday. Earlier this week, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared Juneteenth as a state holiday. He made the announcement alongside producer/Virginia native Pharrell Williams:

Check it:

We’re still fighting and it’s starting to look like our voices are starting to be heard. However, racism is still very prevalent in the United States and those people will stop at nothing to preserve their history.

Gov. Ralph Northam announced plans to remove the Confederate Robert E. Lee monument in Richmond, VA earlier this month, which was a response to nationwide outrage over racial injustice and police brutality following the death of George Floyd. Robert E. Lee was commander of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War where he led the South's attempt at secession.

A Richmond judge pumped the brakes on the confederate statue being removed when he extended an injunction barring the state from removing the statue. Judge Bradley Cavedo said the statue is "the property of the people."

R&B crooner Usher penned an op-ed in the Washington Post about why it’s important Juneteenth becomes a national holiday. Below is an excerpt from his article:

“At the 2015 Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, I wore a T-shirt that caught a lot of people’s attention. The design was simple. The words “July Fourth” were crossed out and under them, one word was written: “Juneteenth.” I wore the shirt because, for many years, I celebrated the Fourth of July without a true understanding that the date of independence for our people, black people, is actually June 19, 1865: the day that the news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached some of the last people in America still held in bondage.”

”I have no issue with celebrating America’s independence on July 4. For me, wearing the shirt was an opportunity to inform others who may not necessarily know the history of black people in America, and who are not aware that Juneteenth is our authentic day of self-determination. It is ours to honor the legacy of our ancestors, ours to celebrate and ours to remember where we once were as a people. And it should be a national holiday, observed by all Americans.”

”Recognizing Juneteenth as a national holiday would be a small gesture compared with the greater social needs of black people in America. But it can remind us of our journey toward freedom, and the work America still has to do. We could observe it, as many black Americans already do, by celebrating both our first step toward freedom as black people in America and also the many contributions to this land: the construction of Black Wall Street; the invention of jazz, rock n’ roll, hip-hop and R&B; and all the entrepreneurship and business brilliance, extraordinary cuisine, sports excellence, political power and global cultural influence black Americans have given the world. And rather than observing Juneteenth as we do other holidays, by taking it off, we can make it a day when black culture, black entrepreneurship and black business get our support. A national Juneteenth observance can affirm that Black Lives Matter!”

”I proudly join the incredible people and organizations who have been working on this for years, among them the inspiring Opal Lee, a 93-year-old from Fort Worth, Tex., who has campaigned for the recognition of Juneteenth at the state and local level. There has never been a more urgent time than now to get this done. On Thursday, Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced that they are introducing legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Congress must pass this bill immediately.”

You can read his full piece here.

JEC Vice Chair Don Beyer (D-VA)—joined by Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA), the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH), the First Vice Chair of the CBC and a JEC member— re-released two recent committee reports that shed light on the racial disparities at the root of both the coronavirus and police misconduct.

“As a Black man in America, George Floyd—murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25—was more likely to die from the coronavirus, and more likely to die at the hands of law enforcement. But Floyd survived the coronavirus, a recent autopsy revealed, only to be killed by a police officer who kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds until he suffocated,” said Congressman Beyer (D-VA).

Congressman Beyer (D-VA) continued, “The end of Floyd’s life illustrates a fact that many experts have pointed out: the community that is bearing the brunt of the coronavirus is the same community that is bearing the brunt of police misconduct—Black Americans. Ahead of Juneteenth, it is important that we remember and reflect on all the ways that Black Americans have fought and still fight for freedom in a country that is supposed to be the ‘land of the free’—especially now as people take to the streets in the name of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and other Black Americans whose lives should have mattered to those they paid to protect and serve them.”

“This year’s Juneteenth celebration comes as our nation and the world confront the COVID-19 pandemic that has exposed deep inequities not just here at home but abroad," said Congresswoman Beatty (D-OH), First Vice Chair of the CBC and a member of the JEC. "The pandemic has disproportionately impacted the Black community and has laid bare disparities in healthcare, employment, housing, policing and our justice system. In fact, the unemployment rate for Black Americans is twice that for Whites, Black homeownership rates are approaching a 50-year low and the median wealth of Black families is one-tenth that of White families."

Congresswoman Beatty (D-OH) continued, "In this moment of crisis, it will take all Americans to work together to overcome the pandemic and to address the long-term systemic discrimination faced by the Black community which the pandemic has exacerbated. These reports issued by the JEC Democrats, under the leadership of Vice Chair Don Beyer, enumerate the many challenges Black Americans face due to structural and entrenched racism and show that the time is now to have a truth and reconciliation process to end racial disparities, unequal treatment and societal injustices that are the long-standing vestiges of slavery in America.”

  Today, we send all of you good vibes and energy. The fight doesn't stop now, though.  It never did.  It took 2 years of our people to get the message in 1865. Despite all of the advancements in society here in 2020, it may take even longer now for the entire world to really get the message. We demand equality, not tolerance.  We demand humanity, not pity. We demand respect, especially from those whose salaries we pay through our taxes and our hard earned income.

Celebrate Juneteenth to the fullest and continue fighting for justice for us all!

Photo: AllyTroops/Shutterstock.com

  The REVOLUTION Will Be VIRAL: YBF Celebs Protest Across The Country!

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/06/19/juneteenth-free%E2%80%99ish%E2%80%99-since-1865-%E2%80%93-today-we-celebrate-the-ending-of-slavery-in-the-us

[publicide]

MIXED MEDIA: Prince Prints

THE ANASTASIS OF PURPLE

Sex & Gender battle/balance in Prince's looks + music.

Pantone's Color of the Year has been percolating under our collective unconscious since Prince's PURPLE RAIN. Get your grind on with the Revolutionary Dynamics of our Femmessiah...

Found: New York Book Printing |  Princely Purple Ink on Shark Skin Premium Paper + Perfect Binding. | Full Color Digital Printing + Offset Services Manhattan NYC.

Welcome a flood of transubstantiation 

 PRINCE: Inside The Music and The Masks by Ronin Ro. 

Cover Review: Check out the crucial use of Pantone Purple spot-color Offset, printed to heavenly standards on ultra-matte Shark Skin premium paper. A tactile treasure with a sandy-soft feel, this next-level stock is a mastery of texture. Crack the perfect binding and you'll find your soul complete. Beyond iconic, this illustrated cover bears a photo from the musician's Parade era, transfixed with beatific vision. A magnetic mannequin, Prince looks on, frozen, serene as porcelain: a Byronic duotone Christ come to avenge funk, soul, rock and roll with a caliber of FULL-FACE-Faggotry unseen since Little Richard's retreat to the closet.

Riveting as it is informative, the book contents reveal clear, concise storytelling and musical criticism that read as fast as Mr(s) Prince Rogers Nelson could lick his guitar.

However...

The author, Ronin Ro, glosses over the profound gender expressionism of The Star. Barely mentioned—and deeply misinterpreted—is Prince’s mysteriously scrapped album: Camille, concepted + recorded from his divinely-developed feminine persona. Ro falls in with the bros at Warner Music—who resisted the record—reducing The Artists' composition to a simple, silly matter of "sped up vocals." Over and over, Ro commits to butching up the Queenly King of Sound, frequently excusing the artist's high heels and costuming with some variant of the "Chicks Dig It, Man" defense. Ew! Bret Michaels, Prince was not.

Custom Pale Pink Printing Inspiration | Full Color Printed Packaging + Clear-Foil Mylar Casing. | Printed then Abandoned: Camille, 1986. 

I relent. Ro is a wonderfully compelling journalist, fully illustrating Prince’s struggle to create boundary-free music for a culture deep in the trenches of sublimated segregation. A measly two decades after Vietnam and the Civil Rights creshendo, the 1980s brought on a pretense of post-racial “We Are The World” missionary colonialism, while radio-waves and neighborhoods remained divided. Prince united audiences, and set the standard to top every chart. With fairness, Ro gives ink to the anti-gay tensions rife throughout the artist's early tour with Rick James, among others. Of note: Run-DMC + LL Cool J’s impatience for the brilliance of Shiela E.’s stiletto-pounding percussive performances. Most puzzling: Prince’s bitter quest to “elevate” rap. The road to progress is always problematic.

After the label's bid to censor Camille, the material streamed into a proposed triple album, Crystal Ball, which then evolved into the live opera, Glam Slam Ulysses, co-written by David Henry Hwang—author of the Tony Award winning ode to genderfuck: M. Butterfly. Other tracks found their way into 1987's Sign o’ The Times, and 1994's Come. 

(Ed Note, The Scribbler departs from Ronin Ro’s Scholarship hereon.)

Looking past behind-the-times executives, it's possible Prince recognized he need not apply post-production tricks to access his innate force of womanhood. No one can deny, Prince has always been the master of Pitch-Play. And a respectful one at that. As his falsetto fails him during the production of 1991's Diamonds and Pearls, Prince bows to a more able avatar—gospel resounding through the pure kthonic power of Rosie Gaines, on the title track she belts: LOVE IS THE MASTER PLAN.

The holy unity of female & male iconography is inextricable from Prince's work. Beyond the binary, gender metamorphosis is concentrated in the esoteric Love Symbol. 

Love Symbol Design Evolution 1984-1994 | Vintage Press Release: “From now on, Prince will be referred to as O+>, the combination symbol for male + female which also served as the title for his most recent multiplatinum album.”

Prince famously changed his name to this unpronounceable (and unspeakable) icon Logographic in attempt to cut ties with his oppressive record label—the slick scoundrels at Warner Brothers trademarked his birth name, a brutal denial of the singer's independence and autonomy. As such, they had right to stifle his insurmountable body of work. Unfortunately, this kind of spiritual and legal robbery is common in the entertainment industry, with a long line from Louis B. Mayer's systematic drugging of Judy Garland, to Phil Spector's "motivational" gun-point murders, to Harvey Weinstein's strong-arming of everyone from Rose McGowan to Gwyneth Goop to HRH Winslet. Occam's Razor: not limited to unfamous "little people" like Geri Santoro and Sandra Bland, it happens on the A-List too.

I digress!—The name-change was a move made with much more significance than we can allot to a legal loophole alone. For The Purple One had reached at a point of no return—after 13 albums, several film projects, and a list of successful associated acts longer than Leviathan: he achieved artistic apotheosis. Exceeding the limits of time and space, fusion with his work was total. "I am music," He professed.

Later in life, He reclaimed His given name, but the Symbol would persist.

Watch, listen, learn while Larry King asks the tough questions with all the finesse of a drunk bus driver in this cryptic 1999 interview with The Star.

Full Color Offset Commercial Printing NYC | Lovesexy, and leading single “I Wish You Heaven”, 1988.

Prince's religious thesis was unique til the end, defying typical theology. A lifelong Christian and latter-day Jehovah's Witness: he would never abandon the sacred, ancient act of gender bending. Prince practiced a particular brand of find-Jesus-through-sex, and sang about it in just about every song. In a 2016 New York Times article, Touré quotes The Artist’s longtime manager, Alan Leeds: “For him the love of God and the sexual urges we feel are one and the same somehow…it all comes from the same root inside a human being. God planted these urges and it’s never wrong to feel that way. The urge itself is a holy urge.” Slain!

Custom Commercial Printing NYC | CMYK on Coated Stock + Saddle Stitch Bind. Spiritual subliminal-messaging exposed: information is free if you know where to look. | Purple Rain, “Darling Nikki”, 1984. 

Ever mystic, Prince hid this truth in plain sight as early as 1984, with the hypnotic, backward-looped choral-coda of his naughtiest: “Darling Nikki”. Notably, this very verse disturbed the indefensible Tipper Gore to her rotten core, prompting the construction of the Left Wing's bridge to the fascist Right with censorial "Explicit Content" stickers. (This here Writer-Witch wagers: it was YOU, Nasty Tip, who insidiously inspired the long line of liberal permissiveness for policed language, art, and thought. A policed future is a miserable one!) Tipper, of course, heard a voice that commanded submission to Satanic impulses; a testimony this scribbler will not refute—as Gore clearly has a direct line to Hell.

But Tipper isn’t always wrong. The Artist had been undeniably debauched, as rock stardom brings externalized sexual fulfillment. With sensual solipsism, a committed journey inward would present the next glorious level of consciousness. 

Prince believed the most sanctified of marriages were the utterly hidden and impenetrable ones; deep within the psyche, where our feminine & masculine selves find one another, spilling into harmonious, free-form unity. Brain, Body, Unlimited Identity: ascending into One. To Him, this Heavenly clash was transcendence itself, and the sole means of creative (read: immaculate) conception.

Duality gets extreme play in the soundtrack for Tim Burton's Batman. In an accompanying full-length MTV film, mutable morality and polychrome identity climax in the final number, “Batdance”, with an elaborate, double-cast of characters. Morphing from frame to frame, a circus of Batmen face-off against a chorus of Jokerwomen, who then splash over to the other side of the gender spectrum: and vice versa. IF ONLY the rest of us could transition by aid of ultraviolet light and sfumato fog alone!

Prince’s most potent confessions dazzle in the music video for Parade’s “Kiss”, where The Artist dances with a cloaked feminine form, his teasing Anima. Supreme, slippery and thriving: she demands relentless creativity and cunning to be reached. The elusive, sheer-sheathed companion is The Artists' shadow-self in spiked pointe shoes: subconscious, thus sacrosanct, able to travel back and forth to the underworld, retrieving every secret. A delightful game that is always worth it, should one have the strength. In all, Prince brings these sanctified truths to full-fruition in four minutes. For Carl Jung, the credited cartographer of the Anima-animus concept, it would take decades of digging—from his belly button to his brain—to make any coherence of this theory.

Film Still, “Kiss” directed by Rebecca Blake, 1986. Prince’s Shadow-Woman, La Qué Sabe, played by dance legend Monique Mannen. 

The Artist eventually found the externalization of this psyche-symbol in the form of Mayte Garcia, a thriving antecedent to the static Kim Kardashian—and author of the official tell-all, The Most Beautiful. 

Introduced to the prodigy when she was just 16, Prince was staggered by Garcia’s ecstatic ballet-belly dancing: idealized supernatural fantasy made corporeal. 

Like purple, red, and gold mercury—the pair would go on to perform with the unrepentant tenacity of crushing-creative love—a mind-blending, otherworldly mirror-dance unseen or heard of since Ovid's tale of Salmacis & Hermaphroditus. Prince + Mayte’s ending, however was less happy than the total unity of classical literature's Queer, river-bound lovers. 

In 1996, the momentary joy of their son’s birth would be followed by a mysterious death six days later. Do yourself a favor and NEVER watch the Oprah interview where they show a unified front—clenching tears, claiming their child is alive. We are still sobbing.

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Proving that even the most sacred of Pop Culture Saints are subject to fallibility, Prince burned every single one of the possessions he and Garcia procured for their lost child. A divorce and gag-order on his wife soon followed. 

Now, with Prince’s untimely death, Mayte is finally allowed the last word: “My whole body felt taken over with rage. It felt hot and toxic and lasted for a long, long time…I would never get over him,” she explains in her book, a hardback Pietà. Still, she moved on. While Prince would create until his last, painful day, little of his output would have the impact of Mayte’s behind-the-scenes work. Agency to the core: in the new millennium, Garcia snatched the chance to play puppeteer, offering a spell of choreography to Britney Spears’ turning-point production, “I’m A Slave 4 U”. With Mayte’s help, Princess takes King of Kings. Dearest Prince, Rest in Perfection.

Music Industry Promo Printing | Full Color Halftone Printing on Coated Paper. Come, 1993; V Magazine Postcard Mailer, 2016. 

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[songsalive]

Event: Sept. 30th Orange County Songsalive! Songwriters Workshop - Guest Speaker Songwriter, Emiko #songwritingcraft

Songsalive!, the largest international non-profit organization supporting, promoting and educating songwriters and composers worldwide since 1997 brings you another songwriting workshop. Learn how to write songs on the spot -- about virtually anything!

Are you a songwriter willing to take your songs to the next level? Workshop your songs to be the best they can be, and get them out to the world. The Songsalive! Workshops are open to all songwriters, composers, musicians, singers and music lovers and we've been doing this for 15 years!!!!

This is your chance to develop your songwriting in a supportive and intimate environment, meet invaluable music industry experts, network with fellow members, and be part of your local songwriters community. The first half is solely dedicated to an in-the-round critique workshop where writers present one song each - either on CD or live - with feedback and critique given by a guest speaker or the Songsalive! moderator (who in-turn allows some comments from attendees also). The second half is dedicated to a Music Industry educational and informative discussion/talk, often with an industry guest speaker, and plenty of time to talk and network.

WHEN: LAST SATURDAY OF THE MONTH

NEXT: Saturday, September 30, 2017

TIME: Starts 6:30 pm SHARP. Ends at 9:00 pm. Please be on time. Late arrivals are not supported. You need to come for the whole event!

WHERE: GOLDENWEST DINER (formerly Spires Restaurant)

13030 Goldenwest Ave.

Westminster, CA

Next to the 22 (Garden Grove) Freeway.

(Contact at end)

COST: Free for Songsalive! Pro Members. Non-members pay a donation of $10 to our non-profit efforts. Did you know that our team are volunteers? Lots of sweat and love in this production!

Make sure your membership is current, or join at http://www.songsalive.org/join.htm

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RSVP is ESSENTIAL to PARTICIPATE.

You MUST RSVP in order to be considered for a song critique by 9pm Saturday before the workshop. http://www.songsalive.org/events.htm or http://www.meetup.com/songsalive (Please note that being a member of Meetup.com does not constitute being a Pro Member of Songsalive! )

See more under BE PREPARED below.

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TOPIC FOR THE SECOND HALF:

"Songwriting on the Spot"

Our guest speaker will discuss how to come with the lyrics and music on virtually any topic, quickly -- and how she used those skills for her famous 30 Songs in 30 Days challenge.

Presented by Emiko

Deeply rooted in classical music, Emiko began her career at the tender age of just two and a half, retiring as a concert pianist by age 12. Her impressive catalogue of 3,000 songs has been put to good use; recognized by the Songwriters Hall of Fame in her early 20's, it was clear Emiko would make her mark as a songwriter and performer. She's graced the pages of Billboard, Music Connection, FM Sound, Keyboard Magazine, and countless other publications as an award winning songwriter for SONY/ATV, Universal Music Group, InGrooves, Fontana, and now 37 Records/McJames Music Publishing. Her music can be heard worldwide on TV shows, in films, and even on the theater stage. Known for her incredible ability to write complete songs on the spot (yes, music and lyrics), Emiko serves as Hammond Organ's songwriting clinician giving lectures and workshops at Sam Ash Music Stores nationwide, educating and inspiring songwriters of all levels, ages and genres. She is a roster artist for Hammond Organ, Alesis, Baldwin Pianos, Daisy Rock Guitars, On-Stage Stands, Blue Microphones, Lampifier Microphones, and StarrLabs Technologies.

www.emikomusic.com

Hosted by: Rod O'Riley

Rod O’Riley is the writing and performing name chosen by the humble and ordinary Rodney Dean Stansfield.  RDS is a guitar seller by day, songwriter by night, and many other things in the hours in between.  A native of Los Angeles, raised in his parents’ native Vancouver, BC, and schooled all over the West Coast.  Currently learning the fine art of bass playing, producing, and letting the computer take care of the hard parts.  Active as an organizer in science fiction fandom, he finds time (somehow) to be an activist for environmental and political causes.  And, of course, for the continued viability of live music and the venues that support it.  In other words, Rodney is a consummate dabbler.  And he is also Chapter Coordinator in Orange County for Songsalive! an international songwriting organization.

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BE PREPARED

1. It is essential to register your attendance in advance so that the coordinator knows how many to expect and ensure a successful workshop for all.

2. Members and Non-Members can attend the Workshop, however, ONLY Songsalive! Pro Members can present their song for critique or pitch.

3. First timers (whether Member or Non-Member) may only watch/audit the workshop (not present a song), but can participate in question/answer segment.

4. Songwriters presenting a song for critique/pitch must:

a. Bring at least 10 typed copies of your lyric sheet (with full contact details)

b. bring your song on CD or perform live (bring your instrument - unplugged/no P.A). All CD's must be burned to work on a CD Player. Please check the CD first - if it won't play in your car CD then it won't work at the workshop.

c. have CD labeled with track number / and instruments tuned and ready.

5.How Song critiques are chosen: Song Critiques are randomly chosen from those who arrive and are fully signed in before 6.55 pm (not whoever arrives first). We try and start sign in at 6.45 pm (depends on our set up needs). This does not guarantee we will get to all songs within workshop (depends on numbers). Any arrivals post 6.55 pm will be on a wait list and if we have the time will try to fit those in. Anyone who arrives post 7.15 pm will not be eligible to receive a song critique, even wait listed. Workshop starts on time, 7 pm.

6. Do I have to get a song critique? No. You don't need to present a song for critique to benefit from our workshop. Watch, listen, participate and meet fellow peers. It's all part of learning.

7. We do not support late arrivals. Please be on time to be fair to our participants and guests and stay from beginning to end.

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MORE ABOUT THE SONGSALIVE! WORKSHOPS

Our guest speakers represent all facets of the industry from A&R, publishers, successful producers, CD production and distribution execs and, of course, writers and composer who share their ideas, tips & techniques on all aspects of the songwriting craft.

Some topics include song structure, song production, lyric writing, finding inspiration, songs and the media, promoting your music online, how to tour, how to get songs in film and television, performing at your best.

Our workshops are designed for songwriters and composers (from budding to professional) who have written songs, or are in the songwriting stage, who want to further their craft, gain feedback on their music, and potentially get their songs out to the world. However, we also have singers, musicians, and non music types who attend as it's a great networking opportunity (singers looking for songwriters, or musicians looking for songs, as examples).

The goals of the workshop are about 1) the SONG and making it the best it can be 2) providing a community for our members to gather, network, collaborate and learn.

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SONGSALIVE! LINKS

More info on this Workshop and RSVP for this event: http://www.meetup.com/songsalive

The Songsalive! website http://www.songsalive.org

Join Songsalive! http://www.songsalive.org/join

Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/songsalive

Interact on our Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/groups/songsalive

[domenicstyers25-blog]

5 Workable Tips on teacher As well as Twitter.

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Are you a songs instructor who is encouraged to teach musical tools to your trainees? Some liked the experience, while others didn't care for it. I was stunned to find that in my area, private schools pay much less than public institutions do. I make sure this differs from state to state and also from private school to private school.

Currently You Could Have Your teacher Done Safely.

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If it wasn't for him, my teacher Jackie and also my teacher Heathers husband Mike I don't know what I 'd do. None of my schoolmates talk with him as long as I do. One more remark from my classmates or educator then I will certainly sick Jackie on them as well as the real supervisor Joe. One more fantastic gift that you can give your teachers are turkey, ham or any type of food that they can offer in their dinner table come Holiday. SYA is a best yoga exercise institute or a leading yoga college to find out yoga exercise educator training in Rishikesh via spiritual yoga exercise masters in India. To do this, you must recognize the common questions asked by many guitar educators that will certainly restrict you and stop you from coming to be effective. Not doing whatever you've prepared is not always a bad thing, but in my experience the bits planned for completion are almost constantly one of the most critical littles the lesson, the repay, the raison d'etre, the heart of the lesson. Pupils aren't the just one to encounter rude treatment, yet irregular chidings strike educators of color. An additional necessary component if you are considering ending up being a primary school instructor is that you are well arranged in your own life. The knowledge of Chinese is not needed as you will only be showing pupils that already know some English and will certainly not need a multilingual teacher. I'm discussing a deep appreciation for the traditional roots of education and also for the quest of reality and also understanding. Certainly, the salaries for instructor assistants differ depending on education and learning as well as training. From what I learn through more youthful educators today the pedagogical kudzu has actually been difficult to stop. Exactly what I do want to suggest, nevertheless, that we discover how reflection is taught with an open mind and some inquisitiveness, as opposed to just birding every little thing we think we bear in mind hearing our teacher state. It is a procedure of ending up being an outstanding yoga teacher who has dedication, persistence and love for their practice and others. Originally, guitar teacher software has come to be widely identified by lots of music educators available as this advancement has actually introduced and given a broad selection of opportunities as well as conveniences. There is the bow lanyard, for one; but instructor lanyards could also showcase beading that looks more like information now jcd (pyliantochi.info) jewelry than a basic rope or bow. This is very easy, yet it is fun and requires that every person take note, so that they comply with the story, and do not say a word that doesn't suit. The rule is that it needs to make good sense. I have actually had excellent comments from trainees in the process and understand I have it in me to be among those influential-type teachers that a lot of educators really wish to be. Nonetheless, managers have virtually pushed me out of it due to the fact that they think that, given that my trainees typically aren't sitting in neat rows taking generous notes while they nicely listen to me lecture, I don't have the correct class monitoring abilities they value.

[elliotsang]

Black Rhymes Matter: A Look At the Role of Race in Rap Music

It was late 2014 when things started to get really uncomfortable. The year was kicked off by the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in which black rapper Kendrick Lamar, whose introspective, socio-political themes and lyrical intricacy called back to the oft-celebrated olden days of the genre, was predictably nominated for Best Rap Album for Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, a concept album reflecting his days as a youth in the violent streets of Compton, California. Also nominated was Seattle-based Macklemore, whose unprecedented mainstream success in 2013 was seasoned with feel-good messaging about gay rights, sneaker culture, and middle-class whiteness.

And even though Macklemore didn’t really, like, mean to win, he did.

I

Hip hop was bred from black oppression. It roots in 1970s block parties in impoverished New York City, where many African-Americans, along with Latin and Caribbean immigrants, labored in poor inner-city neighborhoods over a hundred years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and a decade after the passing of the Civil Rights Act. The music itself originated in the combination of drum breaks from funk and soul records under vocals derived from the Jamaican music practice of “toasting”, which is a rhythmic talking or chanting over a beat by a performer referred to as a “deejay”. When an artist like Lord Jamar, a controversial rapper from the 90s New York group Brand Nubian, makes a comment saying that white people are “guests in the house of hip hop”, he is calling to the reality that black people created rap music and that therefore it exists as a prized possession of a culture that has historically endured so much.

The music came into the mainstream over the course of the 1980’s, growing to prominence along with AIDS and the War on Drugs which continues to leave an inordinate amount of Americans imprisoned, and a disproportionate amount of those being African Americans. Through all of this, hip hop became an art form through which the black community expressed the issues that plagued it. One of the earliest examples of this came in “The Message”, the celebrated 1982 single by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five which was the catalyst for creating a crucial subgenre of rap music sometimes referred to as “conscious rap”, which is typically defined as when a rap artist focuses his/her lyrics on social and political issues. Former LA Weekly and Grantland writer Shea Serrano is the author of The Rap Year Book, a best-selling novel chronicling what he and other authors dictate the most important rap song of each year beginning at 1979. “The Message” was Serrano’s selection for 1982. “’The Message’ was pitch-perfect… (Lead rapper) Melle Mel emoted out this beautifully colored picture of an austere and bleak New York that nobody had presented before. He talked about being frustrated by all the noise. He talked about homeless people eating garbage. He talked about receiving a subpar public education. He talked about always being surrounded by either rats or roaches or junkies…” (1)

Hip hop’s relation to the struggles of poor black Americans became essential to its developing relevance. The way these ideas were related often varied. The group Public Enemy of Long Island, New York kept their messages directly sociopolitical. “Fight the Power” is the obvious example; a rousing call to the black community to resist oppressive powers, a song which was created for and featured in Spike Lee’s influential race-themed film, Do The Right Thing. A group such as N.W.A. (Niggaz Wit Attitudes), on the other hand, was not exactly recognized for the conscious and pensive nature of their lyrics, but for the intense glorification of violence and money-getting coupled with depictions of ghetto life that hit close to home for many impoverished young black men in America.

The divide between what is considered more refined and intellectual hip hop and what is considered more ignorant hip hop is not a particularly strong or sizeable one. While both differentiate in their messaging and perspectives, they both share a common thread of originating in black poverty. And while white people have never really been excluded from the culture, there have always been particulars that separate what comes off as participating and contributing to the culture and what comes off as appropriating it.

II

I started really rapping when I was 12. By then, it was 2008. The first artist that actually brewed an interest within me towards hip hop was Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. He was Asian, so he looked like me. He found ways to infuse rap into the rock music that I was most familiar with. I found writing raps as a cool refuge, a way to express myself as one of the quietest kids around my way, a way to tap into this apparent ability to put words together in an interesting fashion, and a way to get accepted by the cooler kids who were into Eminem and Kanye. I have been immersed in the music and the culture since then. I felt more at home talking about the artists, listening to the songs, dissecting the lyrics than I did doing basically anything else. I felt an ability to be myself through it; and a powerful, cool version of myself, too.

It’s not uncommon for white (or white-ish, in my case) people to find themselves engrossed in rap culture. For this article, I managed to have an e-mail interview with the brilliant Frannie Kelley, co-host of NPR podcast Microphone check. She is a Caucasian woman. Naturally, her take on her first encounter with rap music is so much more poignant than mine:

“I remember the first time I heard Snoop’s “What’s My Name” on the radio in my dad’s Honda accord that didn’t have air conditioning. We were always listening to music really loud because the windows were down. I was in middle school in Lafayette, Calif., right on the other side of the Oakland hills, in range of KMEL, which had just become the first commercial radio station to go all urban. I had heard rap before but I hadn’t known it could sound that full, so many sounds and so free and tight at the same time. My mom asked me if I wanted to go in the drugstore with her and I was like no I’m cool please leave the keys.

“Liking the music was totally normal for me and my friends, who were a fairly diverse group of pre-teens at a tiny Catholic school who, for whatever reason, weren’t interested in using grunge to express our independence from our parents. Our middle school dances were all ‘90s hip-hop and R&B. There was an element of the boys using rap lyrics to flex, and the girls kind of understanding that rap could be a performance of masculinity in that way. …I didn’t really understand that white girls weren’t supposed to like rap until we moved to Washington, D.C. when I was in eighth grade. My first friend at school was the lone black girl in our class, and we started talking because I had the ODB album in my Walkman. The other kids knew who he was but they were a little appalled that I would actually buy the tape.”

The pale-skinned purveyors of hip hop culture have not only been on the sidelines reporting and discussing it, but have always been on the microphone creating and empowering it, as well. Frannie made sure this was pointed out to me: “I find it important to begin by saying that while hip-hop is of course an essentially black art form, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been people of other races in all of its rooms from the beginning.”

Typically when white rappers are being discussed, Eminem’s name gets tossed in the forefront. Eminem is widely recognized as one of the greatest rappers of all time, and most certainly the greatest white rapper; he was the first rap artist ever to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a winner of 15 Grammys, and one of the most successful artists in the history of record sales. His lyrics often tap into the older days of hip hop and its legends, like Rakim, in his relentless efforts at writing some of the most clever, intricate rhymes in rap history. But he’s far from the first white rap artist, and not even the first one to earn general respect from the black community. MC Serch of 80s rap group 3rd Bass was a Jewish guy from Far Rockaway. Another white 80s group, The Beastie Boys, drew widespread recognition both critically and commercially for albums like Paul’s Boutique and Licensed to Ill. But for as much work as those artists had done, there are still quite a few notable rap artists (who were probably strongly influenced and encouraged by the popularity of Eminem) who emerged in the past few years and opened up a very tense dialogue about race—and not for the right reasons.

Take rappers Kreayshawn and V-Nasty, two members of the group White Girl Mob which was put into the spotlight in 2012 after Kreayshawn’s single “Gucci Gucci” was released to viral Internet success. V-Nasty got some heated negative press after people discovered her casual use of the word “nigga”, which she defended by citing her being raised in Oakland with black friends who tolerated that from her. From XXL: “V-Nasty also says she’s gotten comfortable using the N-word because in her circle, which includes Black friends, too, it’s acceptable. ‘They’re used to it, they don’t give a fuck, you feel me?’ she says. ‘What, ’cause of my skin I can’t be ghetto?… In Oakland it doesn’t matter.’” (2)

Black people around the country debated whether or not the meaning of the word had changed and whether she was justified in feeling this way. The outrage that many felt regarding her choice of language foreshadowed the now-mainstream-and-still-tense debates over white people’s place in hip hop that would unfold over the next few years.

I talked with Shea Serrano via e-mail and he made sure to inform me of something that a lot of white rap fans might not quite get: this is not a new debate. “There've been white emcees for a long time. There was for sure an explosion of sorts in white people rapping after Eminem came out in 1999, so probably what you're seeing is just the result of there being more white rappers.” Frannie agreed: “I think there has been a rise in the mainstream visibility of conversations that were previously happening within smaller groups of people, often people with less access to platforms that broadcast their opinions to strangers.”

I asked Shea for leads on the history of white rapper pushback. He gave me the answer I expected. “I remember seeing pushback with Vanilla Ice. That's the first time I remember seeing it but I can't say for certain.” Without being prompted, Frannie dropped the same name: “I vividly remember news magazines and TV news mocking Vanilla Ice, talk show hosts defending him and my third grade classmates heatedly debating the merits of ‘Ice Ice Baby.’” Vanilla Ice is quite easy to laugh at. First and foremost, he was never really considered a good rapper. In Eminem’s movie 8 Mile, lines like “Your boys like, ‘How Vanilla Ice gon diss you?’” dropped by his rapping protagonist were well received. Essentially, this line was channeling the widespread connotation that it would be shameful for a black rapper to get schooled by a white rapper, that white rappers are near-universally wack and corny, and that Vanilla Ice was the perfect embodiment of this idea. Even the non-fictional Eminem had a pretty unexciting beef with Ice, which included the former’s quip about Ice’s hit song “Ice Ice Baby” making him feel like he “didn't want to rap anymore. I was so mad, because he was making it real hard for me."

His persona was also goofy, and pretty questionable. A 1990 People article centered on Vanilla Ice at the peak of his novelty powers begins with a then 22-year-old Ice questioning his identity: “I sit back in bed and think, 'Why am I Vanilla Ice? Why did I get into rap music? Why didn't I go to college and become a lawyer?' I guess it's the way I grew up." (5)

The way he grew up, as the story goes, was rough, and included an incident with a black gang where he ended up getting stabbed in the buttocks area. There were questions as to the veracity of these claims, and how bad he really had it. His mother gave an interesting quote for this same article: “The lies were a smoke screen to protect the privacy of the family… But a lot is true. Economically, we weren't able to live in an elite part of Miami. He was raised predominantly with blacks, and he definitely was in a lot of trouble. When he was stabbed, I nearly died. But things were better for a while in high school.” As for Vanilla Ice’s standing on how his skin color related to his street cred: “It's not about skin color… Rap is from the streets and I'm from the streets. That's why a lot of people accept me.”

III

Over those years, two female rappers have solidified themselves as not just fierce rivals, but completely unable to have a rational discussion with the other. Both of them are named after flowering shrubs—one being Iggy Azalea of Sydney, Australia, and the other being Azealia Banks of New York City. It’s kind of unfortunate that their beef is one of the seminal moments in hip hop’s discussion of race in the 2010s, being that neither of them bears a track record worthy of fronting a noble cause for anything. They both have a penchant for saying the tasteless and offensive; Iggy did so when spinning off a Kendrick Lamar line in her song “D.R.U.G.S.” in which she calls herself a “runaway slave master”, or in past tweets using the words “dyke” and “homo”. Banks launches herself into a different stratosphere when it comes to tasteless comments, like when she suggested gang rape of Sarah Palin: “Let's find the biggest burliest blackest niggas and let them run a train on [Palin]”. (2)

But perhaps it is fitting that their feud was, for a time, central to hip hop’s discussion of race. It is in a sense emblematic of the kind of dialogue that is often had in the public eye when it comes to these matters; centered on an important and interesting subject, but diluted with attention and praise-seeking as well as personal venom to the point where said subject is essentially objectified and unable to be taken with the proper seriousness. 

These two talented but controversial artists had been feuding for years, but it all came under one large public eye when Banks got on Hot 97 and vented what she felt was the deep, underlying problem in Iggy’s success. From the Huffington Post’s article: “’That Iggy Azalea shit isn’t better than any fucking black girl that’s rapping today, you know?’ Banks said. ‘When they give those awards out — because the Grammys are supposed to be accolades of artistic excellence, you know what I mean? Iggy Azalea is not excellent. [...] When they give these Grammys out, all it says to white kids is: ‘Oh yeah, you’re great, you’re amazing, you can do whatever you put your mind to.’ And it says to black kids: ‘You don’t have shit. You don’t own shit, not even the shit you created for yourself,’ and it makes me upset.’” (3)

What really seems off-putting about Iggy Azalea is not just the fact that she’s a white rapper from Australia making pop music; she does it in a voice that is not really her own. While most rappers add a bit of a distortion to their voice while performing, Iggy’s is pretty over-the-top; she adopts what seems to be the accent of an Atlanta rapper. When asked about it in 2013 by Complex Magazine, her response is this: “’If you’re mad about it and you’re a black person then start a rap career and give it a go, too. I’m not taking anyone’s spot, so make yourself a mixtape. Or maybe if you’re black, start singing like a country singer and be a white person. I don’t know. Why is it such a big deal?’” (6)

“It's offensive when she does it because it's clear she's trying to just imitate the voice and tonal inflection of a stereotypical southern rapper. It's essentially blackface but for ears,” says Shea. For he and for many other hip hop heads, there is a line to be drawn with non-black rappers. You have to present yourself in a way that’s authentic to the person you are. “A non-black rap artist just has to rap in a way that is natural and reflexive to them. That's why some people like the Beastie Boys or Eminem have always been seen as cool and acceptable while people like Iggy or Post Malone are seen as leaches or parasites.”

It is not just a matter of honest self-expression. It is a matter regarding a tradition of blackface and whitewashing of blackness in American art since its inception. It is a matter regarding a tradition of art forms like jazz and blues that initiated in black struggle and became appropriated by white performers into white homes to create white money as the black pioneers were forced to capitulate to an America which would almost certainly not give them the same levels of respect and payment. And rappers like Iggy Azalea seem oblivious to it, dishing out takes about white equality and disrespect towards her whiteness, expressing outrage at terms like Beyonce’s “Becky with the good hair” (7) while showing no outrage or concern towards the social issues and systemic oppression that lead to those ideas; ideas she feels so hindered by and, in reality, benefits greatly from.

“It’s really important to talk about the choices major labels make in marketing white rappers differently from black rappers,” Frannie adds. “It’s really important to talk about who programs commercial radio and why, the tone and volume of news coverage, the lowered critical bar, the fetishization of flipping a stereotype, ticket prices, the psychology of crowds and the demographics of album buyers. I would really appreciate it if a rise in the visibility of people saying ‘Oh hell no’ meant a rise in the level of the dialogue surrounding the impact of white people’s role as consumers and commodifiers of rap. I can’t tell if that’s happening or not.”

IV

#BlackLivesMatter came and, as of June 2016, never went. Jelani Cobb’s sizable article for The New Yorker detailing the rise of the movement attributes it to Alicia Garza, who, after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the highly publicized death of teenaged Trayvon Martin, wrote the following in a Facebook status: “I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter. And I will continue that. stop giving up on black life.” (4)

At the time, as a 16-year old white-ish kid, I was concerned with the divisiveness of the issue, about the idea of the mainstream media perpetrating a story to spark conflict between black and white people. But it doesn’t take too much digging and waiting to recognize a pattern. Soon followed Michael Brown in torn-up Ferguson, Eric Garner in Staten Island, Laquan McDonald in Chicago. The time and the research makes you weary, sad, and tired.

I decided to talk to my friend Trey about this. Trey is an aspiring writer who wants the world to know he should really write the next Static Shock movie. We both attended St. Joseph’s College together for a year, my first year, before Trey graduated with a Bachelor’s in English. Trey has been a mentor, a good friend, and someone to talk about Lupe Fiasco with to an extent which would probably confuse most third parties. Trey is also a tall black guy, with a pretty big frame and excellent dreadlocks. He’s not an example of someone who has undergone extreme violence or abuse due to his ethnicity, but he’s still perennially affected.

“I’ve seen Confederate flags on people’s cars and trucks around here, in the suburbs of New Jersey, as well as being called a nigger three times a day in my freshman year of high school.”

I asked Trey about whether he ever feels fear in his day-to-day life because of his ethnicity.

“Any time I’m around a cop… If I’m ever out at a bar and I’m speaking and I notice a large group of white people looking at me, I probably notice. That’s about it.”

“I don’t think you can easily separate white privilege in rap from white privilege in everything,” Frannie Kelley told me. I tried to gauge from Frannie what your average white person, who needs not get extra nervous around police officers, who has never been mocked by the language used to break the bodies of his or her ancestors, who has never felt the weight of discriminatory laws and traditional prejudices, should do to remove their guilt and find a proper place in hip hop. “White people participate in life with black people. White people should talk out loud about what they feel, and about what they see and hear other white people do, regardless of their field.”

And what do the non-black artists need to do?

“Don’t be a fucking idiot. Don’t do it for the gram. Don’t say the n word. Give credit. Pay homage. Know your history. Know yourself. If it doesn’t feel right, it’s not. If you get put on, put on as many other people as you can. Care for black people as much as you care about black culture, which at minimum means educating your peers and family about racism and sexism and homophobia every time some shit goes down, even when it’s uncomfortable and especially in white, or male, or straight rooms. And extra especially in those straight white male rooms.”

In rap’s relatively short history, it has always closely been related to social issues. Conscious rap, as mentioned in part I of this paper, has existed since the times of Melle Mel. Songs like “The Message” and “Fight The Power” and 1989���s “Self-Destruction”, a popular record about stopping violence in poor African-American neighborhoods featuring several prolific rap artists at the time like Public Enemy, Heavy D and KRS-One, were not only conscious of Black America’s issues, but they reached popularity within the rap community. This has always been a tough thing to balance. It is hard to make music that appeals to a wider audience while also touching on important social issues, especially social issues regarding an oft-neglected 13.2% of the American population. Artists tend to work on whatever end of the spectrum suits them best.

“I guess you have to find a balance with it all,” Trey tells me. “With the mainstream it always seems like there’s either party rap or people trying too hard to be conscious and there’s no balance anymore.”

But Kendrick Lamar finds ways to reach that balance. Bursting onto the scene with his 2011 LP Section.80, which was independently released through Top Dawg Entertainment, Kendrick has constantly received praise for the detail and subject matter of his music. A PopMatters review of this album gives an example of this: “Like a young Ice Cube, he's only telling us what he sees, and while he might not offer solutions as often as O'Shea did, he's certainly able to paint us vivid a picture.” His most recent full-length effort, To Pimp a Butterfly, was an incredibly well-received work which, at its release in March of 2015, became a magnum opus of the young Black Lives Matter Movement.

But in between those two records was Kendrick’s major-label debut, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City was released in 2012 to, as you might expect, heavy critical acclaim. It featured a radio hit in “Swimming Pools” which was about alcoholism and its correlation to peer pressure. It featured an album-long narrative surrounding Kendrick’s youth in a dangerous, gang-ridden neighborhood. And it should have won a Grammy, by many accounts. But it didn’t. It lost to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ The Heist, an album which wasn’t exactly whitewashed pop drivel. The Heist had some songs about the dangers of sneaker culture (“Wings”) and support of the LGBT community (“Same Love”). But it was also super white. Even the songs about important social issues came off to many as featuring this white guy with a holier-than-thou attitude trying to change the dominant ideas of hip hop culture. That’s a bit of a shame, considering that Macklemore has made music about white privilege in rap music (two songs literally being called “White Privilege” divided into part I and II, part II being in response to the criticism he received after this album). It’s worth noting that Macklemore’s work might not be all that diligent. “What I actually hate about “White Privilege II” is its distance from its subject,” Frannie Kelley tells me. “The song is about Macklemore’s intellectual and emotional separation from murder. I think he and his advisors believe that’s appropriate. I think nobody needs that shit. I think its biggest danger is that it provides a rationale for white people to stand aloof from what has happened and continues to happen to black people, who are our friends and family. I am waiting for a song, a statement of any kind, from a white person in any art form, that is devastated, ground down, years-off-your-life horrified. I think we need a white person with charisma and skill to take this shit personally. And I think half-stepping is clutter and noise that, in these urgent times, should actually be punished. No, Macklemore is preachy and corny because that’s how he got paid the first time.”

But even he, preachy and corny Macklemore, understood the significance of this moment. And he did something that rap music will never endorse nor forget; he apologized to Kendrick in a long text message for winning this award over him. And then he publicized that message, for some reason.

"You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It's weird and sucks that I robbed you.”

3.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3531043/Twitter-sides-Azealia-Banks-Sarah-Palin-feud-Rapper-gets-account-despite-violating-rules-tweeting-former-Alaska-governor-gang-raped.html#ixzz47AdYfTNS 2. http://www.xxlmag.com/xxl-magazine/2011/11/v-nasty-defends-her-use-of-the-n-word/?trackback=tsmclip 1. Serrano, Shea. The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed (Kindle Locations 638-639). Harry N. Abrams. Kindle Edition. 4. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/14/where-is-black-lives-matter-headed 5. (Vanilla Ice) http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20113806,00.html 6. http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/news/a41270/iggy-azalea-timeline/ 7. http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/iggy-azalea-chimes-in-on-beyonces-becky-lyric-stereotypical-names-w204451