DarkStar Spouts Off

Jay-Z and Beyonce Disgust Me

Let me say this quickly and directly to the point: "I'm Ike Turner, turn up/Baby know I don't play/Now eat the cake, Anna Mae"

If I heard ANYONE say that to my daughter, I'm catching a case for putting a beat down on him and maybe a second case for putting a beat down on my daughter for accepting the statement.

First, Jay-Z cuts "99 Problems" and Beyonce is okay with the song. Now Jay-Z raps that line on a "love song"? 

If I were her father, a perfect copy my left foot could be made from the cast stuck up Jay-Z's rear end and a perfect copy of my right foot could be made from the cast stuck up Beyonce's rear end.

The Drop Squad is wasted on the both of them.

*THIS* Is The Harlem Shake!

People!!!!! THIS is the Harlem Shake! Accept no gentrified, spastic, substitutes!

 

 

Chuck Brown, "Bustin' Loose"

Chuck Brown, RIP

Etta James, RIP

The Artists Formally Known As "The Time", Is Back!

Yeah, baby!

 

The artists formally known as "The Time", is back!

DMV Awards and Chris Rock

Chris Rock did that famous bit about "African-Americans vs. Niggers".
Some people at the time were mad about what Chris Rock
said while others defended him. I was a defender.

[ UPDATED ]

Well, the DMV Awards proved Chris Rock was right.

SMH.

Kem: Intimacy

It's definitely a singing jazz album. If you think about the movies that have scenes in the smokey jazz club where you have the sophisticated/hipsters/lovers/those getting their mack on, and you have the singer fronting a small ensemble as the hero or protagonist comes in and settles down and orders a shot of some mixed drink or maybe a drink over the rocks from the foine waitress in the slinky dress...

This is it.

You put this on for a dinner with candles or when you draw the bath with bubbles, candles, body oils and incense. This is when you want to do the long slow grind not the bumping uglies slammin mcnasty. This is on when you don't have to rush and you can lay on the bed, butt nekkid without having to worry about kids coming in and seeing the "after glow."

This is chill. This is mature. It sort of hurts that he sounds like Al Jarreau, but this is GOOD MUSIC. "Share My Life" is better than the first release, "Why Would You Stay" and I considered that one to be one of 2010's best songs. There's a "duet" with Jill Scott that's not really a duet but she does have a speaking/spoken word part that displays her spoken word ability, which is damn good.

Carl McIntosh

If you know, you know.

If you didn't know, now you know.

Booties Bass U

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/14/bootsy-collins-university_n_576061.html

This may be the thing that gets me to buy a hammer and learn how to funk a little bit.

Funkmaster Bootsy Collins can now add another bullet point to his resume: university founder. Collins has announced that his online University of Funk will go live July 1.

Bootsy Collins presents the world's first Funk University for bass players of planet Earth. Construction of this online campus will conclude in June, with the first semester beginning on July 1, 2010.

Leana Horne

She could SANG.

Showed class.

FOINE.

Showed class.

FOINE.

Decent actress.

Showed class.

FOINE.

Ear worm of the day: "Stormy Weather".

Bomb Beats

I was doing some grilling for a Mother's Day cookout and I had my iPod on. I recently loaded a lot more of my CD selection and I decided to play the "recently loaded" list.

I jammed. Period.

First of, the Hidden Beach Unwrapped hip hop jazz series is just great. Following that series, closely, is the Urban Knights series. Anyway...

The songs were jumping around from James Brown to Maceo to Parlament, to Cameo to Public Enemy. It then did a long play from their last CD and earlier CDs then I realized something, again.

The Bomb Squad produced the best funk beats for "hip hop", period.

Loose Ends, Under Rated

Straight up, Loose Ends was under rated.

Four of their jams that should make you shake that.....

Slow Down

Stay A Little While, Child

Nights Of Pleasure

Don't Be A Fool

I'm Feelin' This One

Michael Or Prince?

Back in the day when both were SMOKIN, the debate would be Prince or Michael Jackson? Who was better?

I'd say when it came to music, although Michael was around longer, Prince was on top because he wrote all of his songs and played all of the instruments.

HOWEVER....

Michael had to be way on top on the entertainment level. Prince could jam and rock and give one helluva concert, but M.J. was in a league all to himself. (Think of all the wannabes, even today cough*Usher*cough, cough*Chris Brown*cough*)

"Old heads" like me remember that it was Michael that caused MTV to play videos of Black artists!

People often say they are offering prayers for the family of someone who died, but in this case, the family needs it regardless.

Michael Jackson, R.I.P.

Quote

If you hear any noise
It's just me and the boys
Getting paid
Gotta get the bank

That's what I thought they were saying...

If you hear any noise
It's just me and the boys
Hit me
You gotta hit the band

Morris Day Jam

They disabled embedding on this one, so just go to the link and jam.

Ray Dee Oh, Part 2

The Radio Bizness

Radio stations currently pay royalties for the records they play to publishing companies. So, why shouldn't they pay royalties to the artists?

Fundamentally, that's the question that I keep coming around to answering, they should pay royalties to the artists, because that is part of a copyright scenario, correct?

This is especially true when I think about the radio stations/personalities caught engaging in payola and the companies NOT caught engaging in payola. Tom Joyner, a business partner with Radio One, and Larry Young, a morning talk show host on WOLB, a Radio One station, have done a great job in explaining how this will affect radio stations. While I understand that the royalty rates may put radio stations out of business, and I understand how radio stations may not be willing to "break new artists" because they will pay royalties for songs that may be a bomb, aren't radio stations getting a real good deal right now?

When things were going well, they played "hot songs" and put on radio personalities that did a good job and were able to charge decent advertising rates. Now things are not going as well, and the radio stations are put behind a rock and a hard place.

Does the estate of Mary Wells deserve to get some royalty money? Yes.
Isn't it the record company's responsibility to pay that royalty? Yes.

Why aren't they doing it now?

BTW, a few years ago I found out why there are not many raps with Motown songs used in the mix. The reason is, Barry Gordy charges one of the highest, if not the highest, licensing fees in the industry to use songs in the Motown catalog. Ain't Barry Gordy ripping people off, STILL?

Ray Dee Oh, Part 1

The Music Bizinis

"Everyone" knows that the record company is set up in a way that they make most of the money from record/CD sales and even if a record sells one million copies, the recording artist may get 10s of thousands of dollars, vs. hundreds of thousands or millions from the direct record sales.

Remembering what "Left Eye" said on the MTV show that discussed the behind the scenes actions of TLC, when they signed the deal, they signed to about 4 points a unit, meaning 4 cents on every CD sold. Money "given" to them by the record company was front money for production and studio time. It was loan. The record company ALWAYS get's "their" money first. When the artists finally get some money, they still have to pay agents, band members, and other people who work for them. AND they have to pay taxes.

When the artist goes on the road to tour, EVERYTHING the record company pays for, they get back, plus interest. The tour bus and driver, the hotel rooms, the clothes, ALL of it. And because the money goes to the record company FIRST, the artist see little of anything.

So in the current "save Black radio" campaign, why is the cheating of artists by the record companies not being mentioned much?

More to come.

Prince: LOTUSFLOW3R

LOTUSFLOW3R. (Audio controls are in the top right corner.)

This is why the man is on my "GP Music" line.

My "GP Music" is music I buy on General Principal. He is on the line because sometimes, like "Gold", he just kicks butt with the music. Then, other times, there's stuff like "Batman".

This sounds like the good Prince, especially the guitar work on the first track.

Can You Appreciate This?