All the John Legend fans who’ve worn out both Get Lifted and last year’s Once Again and are currently experiencing withdrawal, your fix is on its way.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, John divulged some juicy details about the recording sessions for his third album. He revealed that for this go-round, instead of his label CEO, Kanye West, he’s tapped Black Eyed Peas’ mastermind Will.I.Am - who most are unaware is the co-writer/producer behind John’s Grammy Award-winning hit “Ordinary People” - to helm the project. He also recruited a British songwriter simply named Think as well as several unknown-for-now songwriters to help freshen up his sound.
“When I write, I don’t really have a goal that day, I always just go in and say, ‘We’ll see what comes.’ I don’t have any rules about it other than that I have to love it. We’ll see what happens”, said the crooner when asked about his writing process. So far, 5 demos are in the can and John could barely contain his excitement about the new direction the material is taking. “It sounds different than anything else I’ve done before,” he said. “There’s some piano, there’s some guitar. It’s more guitar-driven than piano-driven so far, but that’s because I’m writing with a couple guitarists.”
For those desiring a point of reference from Legend’s material past to help connect with the new material, John himself suggests “Show Me”, track 4 on Once Again that was produced by Raphael Saadiq. “The only song that’s kind of similar to a past song on this new project so far is a song that’s kind of in the same vein as ‘Show Me,’ vocally, and I love that song, so I was definitely not avoiding going back to that spot again.”
Fans of “Show Me” as well as fans of Legend who are unacquainted with the track will get a chance to get acquainted and reacquainted very soon.. John just completed the shooting of the music video as a tie-in with his apropos-titled Show Me Campaign charity for Africa.
For more information about the Show Me Campaign, log on to www.showmecampaign.org and send a friend request to www.myspace.com/showmecampaign.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, hip-hop diva Eve was very vocal about the status of her once-impending, now-delayed, 4th album, Here I Am.
She made it crystal clear that the entire album has not and will not be scrapped. “No, I’m not completely starting over. I’m definitely gonna keep some of the records that I had because I love a lot of the stuff that I did. So I’m keeping a lot of it.” As for the reason for the delay, she chalked it up to a desire for new material. “I’m just going back in to kinda make it a well-rounded album. I think what kind of delayed us this time was that I went in and did two records that sound a lot like the Pharrell record — the singing record. I don’t think the movement was right and I’d rather put out an album and feel 100 percent connected to it than just to put out an album, especially the way music is right now.”
The two records Eve referenced are the singles that preceded Here I Am, which was last slated for a December 18th release. While lead single, “Tambourine”, created an initial buzz and climbed all the way to the top-20 of the R&B/Hip-Hop Chart, follow-up “Give It To You” featuring Sean Paul, arrived DOA at radio. It received spins for several weeks without making an impression on any official Billboard chart. The singles, both produced by Swizz Beatz, were the first for Eve in over 4 years; in stark contrast, her last 2 solo singles to chart, “Gangsta Lovin’” feat. Alicia Keys and “Satisfaction“, peaked at #2 and #27 on the Hot 100.
For all the Eve fans longing for a new album, the only release date Eve herself could provide is “sometime next year”. Comparing the postponement to the “the longest labor on earth”, Eve is confident that her end product will be worth the wait and continues to be unshaken by the currently shaky climate of the record industry. “Nowadays, a single could play for weeks and weeks and weeks on the radio. It could be the biggest single, and the album sales don’t match up. So, you know, it’s a different format, and I don’t even think that anybody has the formula to it.”
After pulling off a Breakthrough in 2005 — one that helped earn her three Grammy Awards and a heap of other honors — you’d think everything would finally be A-OK with Mary J. Blige nowadays.
Well, it is … sort of.
Sure, she’s been honored as an icon, she’s enjoying her marriage to music-industry-exec husband Kendu Isaacs, and she’s as beloved as ever by her peers. But Mary just wouldn’t be Mary if she didn’t have a battle on her hands. On her eighth studio album, Growing Pains, due November 27, Blige puts up a different kind of fight — to keep her breakthrough going.
“It’s not reliving where I been. [The album is] just based on where I am,” she told MTV News on the set of the video for her new single, “Just Fine.”“So many people are like, ‘I’m perfect.’ I’m so imperfect, that’s why I’m able to let everything out and let people see everything. ‘Cause I’m just a mess like every other person that’s a mess out there. And it’s going to take probably a lifetime to get to a point in my life where I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m perfect.’ I don’t think that will ever happen. So as long as I’m a human being and I’m not perfect, I’m able to say I’m having some growing pains. Because in order to sustain where you are once you made such a breakthrough that everyone is looking at you, now everyone is like, ‘Ooh, is she gonna make a mistake?’ Yes, I’m going to make a mistake. Yes, I’m still gonna do things. And that’s what Growing Pains is about, it’s about finally not whining about the pain, Mary J. Blige, and accepting the pain that comes with growing.”
The up-tempo “Just Fine,” displays Blige’s newfound spirit. The track was produced by Tricky Stewart and the Dream, the duo behind Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (a track that Blige herself actually passed on). On “Just Fine,” she zestfully sings: “Feels so good/ When you’re doing all the things that you want to do/ Get the best out of life, treat yourself to something new/ Keep your head.”
“[That song] was written based on me having a good day,” Blige explained. “You know, I can have 30 or 40 [bad days]. I can have as many bad days as anyone. But I choose to say, ‘I’m just fine.’ Right now. You know those days when your hair looks good, you’re not sitting in traffic, your man’s not acting like an idiot. You’re just fine. So it’s OK to have those days. So instead of coming with something ungrateful to the universe, how about I come with something first that’s says, ‘You know what? It’s OK. Enjoy this day if you’re having a great day.’ “
For Growing Pains, Blige also worked with Ne-Yo, Stargate, Dre & Vidal, and Timbaland. Ne-Yo penned “Work in Progress”, one of Blige’s favorites, but the second single has yet to be decided. Other tracks set to be included on the album include the Timbaland-assisted “I Don’t Like This Anymore”, “Grown Woman Complex”, “Roses,” “Talk to Me” and “Feel Like a Woman.” “Woman”, according to Blige, is based on the idea that it’s OK for women to receive gifts from men and that they shouldn’t be called gold diggers for it. “Sometimes you got to enjoy him splurging on you,” she said.
The dark days are long gone for Blige, but she’s still drawing from her trials and tribulations in hopes to never revisit the pitfalls. Even if it hurts, she wants to put pleasure over pain.
“I got all the stuff where, in my relationship, when I’m having a hard time with myself, or I’m even having a hard time with [my husband], because we’re not perfect. We love each other, but we’re people! We’re not robots or machines! We’re just striving to do the right thing, those are the people that have it the hardest. Because it’s easy to just always do the wrong thing and be comfortable. But to break the comfort zone of just falling back to, ‘Well, it’s comfortable here being pissed off all the time.’ It hurts when you have to smile and you don’t want to smile, but the best thing to do is to smile.”
1. Intro: Trey Day feat. Bun B
2. Long Gone Missin’
3. Wonder Woman
4. No Clothes On
5. Sex For Yo Stereo
6. Last Time
7. Can’t Help But Wait
8. Grub On
9. Fly Together feat. Jim Jones
10. Store Run
11. Missin’ You
12. Role Play
13. We Should Be
1. We All Want The Same Thing feat. Lupe Fiasco
2. It Don’t Make Any Difference To Me feat. Wyclef Jean
3. Can’t Get Enuff feat. Shorty Da Kid
4. Ha Ha Ha
5. Viki Secrets
6. Hood Buzzin’
7. Ain’t Got You
8. Stone Cold Killa
9. Weekend Jumpoff
10. Love Letter
11. Ghost
12. Liquid Lava Love
13. Too Blessed feat. Q-Tip
14. We All Want The Same Thing (Acoustic) feat. Akil Dasan
15. It Don’t Make Any Difference To Me (Acoustic) feat. Akil Dasan
**Get2Kno: Kevin Michael**
There are artists who’ve got something and there are artists who’ve got IT. Upon hearing his voice for the first time, it’s obvious that Kevin Michael is firmly in the latter category. With an irresistible blend of soul, funk, r&b and pop, he evokes greats from the past while bringing something totally new to the game - honoring the roots of r&b while imagining it all anew simultaneously.
Growing up, Kevin heard the music within and began recording as a teen. “At 16, I wrote my first song,” he recalls. “I woke up in the studio one night and something literally clicked in my head! I really heard it, so I said, ‘I better write this down.’” As far as Kevin was concerned, music was the only option of his worth considering. “I had the offer of a full scholarship to Hofstra, but I never seriously thought about it. I feel real strongly about doing what it is you want to do.”
YaDig?, an iTunes-only EP released over the summer, was just a brief introduction to Kevin’s unique sound and style and set a stage of anticipation for his self-titled debut album. The buzz single, “We All Want The Same Thing”, was included in two ways: the hip-hop inflected version featuring Lupe Fiasco and the stripped-down acoustic style featuring guitarist and beatboxer Akil Dasan, who also also appears on the acoustic versions of “Vicki Secrets” and “It Don’t Make Any Difference To Me”, both featured on the EP.
“We All Want The Same Thing”, both the EP and album’s opener, is both a statement of purpose and roots for Kevin, a biracial child grown into a biracial man who’s lived in world both black and white (“All my gangster friends/and all my skater friends/We all want the same thing/DJ’s in the clubs/Jesus freaks and thugs/We all want the same things”). “Vicki Secrets” showcases Kevin’s creamy falsetto and proves him as a singer with considerable sex appeal who knows how to communicate to the ladies. And then there’s Kevin’s ode to Michael Jackson, “Stone Cold Killa”, which weaves a Latin percussive feel with snappy pop phrasing and layered vocal harmonies to conjure up a world of good times, beautiful women and smiles on the dance floor.
Lead single, “It Don’t Make Any Difference To Me”, shows both the range of Kevin’s songwriting abilities and the depth of his pride in who he is. (“All you gotta do is look at me/Three generations of my family you see/People treat you different/When you’re in between/He was black and she was white/You know that most people thought that it wasn’t right/I can still remember what she used to say/It don’t make any difference to meâ€?). The song combines an irresistible pop feel with poignant lyrics, and what emerges is a trans-racial modern day anthem. The album version of the song was produced by and features Wyclef Jean, bringing a Caribbean flavor to the mix.
But those descriptions are just a brief sample of what can be expected on Kevin Michael. Featuring additional production by Jonathan Rotem, The Clutch, Brian Kidd, Shea Taylor, L-Rock, and Bloodshy, the album is a destined-to-be classic. “I don’t know where I begin and the music stops,� Kevin professes. With this stunning debut ready to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting music public, this young man brimming with soul and confidence is ready to take his vision on the road and to the next level.
1. Back of My ‘Lac
2. Ghetto
3. Thug Commandments
4. Bed
5. Betcha Never Had
6. Laa Laa
7. Come Here
8. Be With Me
9. Suffocate
10. Fatal
11. Without You
12. Pimp In Me
13. Thank You
14. Fallin
Eve fans today had to breathe a collective sigh of disappointment as it was announced that the femcee’s impending fourth album, aptly titled Here I Am and originally due in August only to be bumped to Oct. 16 and finally December 18th, has now had its 2007 release canceled and won’t appear on store shelves until 2008. A spokesperson for her label, Geffen Records, had no comment on the reason for the delay.
The first single from the project, the Swizz Beatz-produced “Tambourine,” had modest success on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, peaking at No. 17. However, the album’s second single, “Give It To You” featuring Sean Paul, didn’t fare nearly as well. Although it has been at radio since the end of July, the song has yet to crack any formal Billboard chart.
“I wrote this album after a breakup,” Eve told Billboard in June. “So it’s very ‘Look who’s single’ and flirty. I wanted to make a happy, good summer album, that you can play when you’re getting ready for the club … Though a lot of my rhymes were entertainment [before], I was definitely much rowdier at that time. I’ve learned how to curb my temper.”
Also, with the album, Eve got to showcase another hidden talent of hers aside from rapping, acting, and fashion designing — singing. “Pharrell made me sing a whole song. I finally got up the nerve [but] I feel like I was bullied into it,” she jokes when speaking about “All Night Long”, a track produced by Pharrell that finds Eve singing rather than spitting, something the rapper had previously been reluctant to undertake despite persuasion from her label.
“It’s one of my favorite songs on the album. I was really stressed about it but it was fun to do. I consider myself somebody who can maybe hold a note on a good day. I sang hooks before, which is super easy, but I had to get out of my comfort zones.” One reviewer stated that the record sounded “like an ’80s pop song” and that Eve “tries out her singing skills here and succeeds. There are no crazy, over the top vocals, but she sings much better than most so called songstress’ today.”
Here I Am is Eve’s first album since 2002’s Eve-olution, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and has sold over 630,000 copies, according to SoundScan. The album went on to spawn the hits “Gangsta Lovin’” and “Satisfaction.”, the latter earning Eve a 2002 Grammy nomination for Best Female Rap Solo Performance.
When a junkie needs a fix, they usually go on a bender. So for all the music junkies out on the web searching for their fix, now they need look no further than Music Bender! Music Bender is the hottest blog on the 'Net focused exclusively on MUSIC! From CD reviews to interviews to video clips to chart stats to release dates to new singles to tour dates to award nominations and back, with a few rumors tossed around to keep things interesting, J. Lewis is dedicated to ensuring that Music Bender isn't just a music junkie's quick fix but their BEST fix!
Streaming Jukebox: Over 50 Songs About Autumn
LISTEN TO A NON-STOP MIX OF OVER 50 OF THE BEST TUNES FOR THE FALL!
THIS IS A GREAT JUKEBOX TO LISTEN TO WHEN YOU ARE GETTING READY FOR THANKSGIVING, RELAXIN BY THE FIREPLACE, HANGING OUT [...]
Movie Review - "Let the Right One In"
*** 1/2 STARS
"Let the Right One In" is the new remarkably shocking horror film based on a 2004 vampire fiction novel by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist. The title refers to the [...]
Disney's "Race to Witch Mountain" Movie Trailer w/ The Rock!
"Race to Witch Mountain" is an upcoming remake of the original 1975 film "Escape to Witch Mountain", using elements from the originating book of the same name. The film is directed by Andy [...]
CH America! Tour: Salt Lake City – Omaha
Cinematically, the Salt Lake-to-Omaha stretch of our tour isn't exactly packed. With the exception of westerns (one could make a case that lots of non-location-specific westerns could take place [...]
Movie Review - "Madagascar 2"
*** STARS
I have said it numerous times before and I will say it again; I love animated films! The original "Madagascar" was a surprise treat when it was released over a couple of years [...]
The "Monsters vs. Aliens" Movie Trailer Rocks!
"Monsters vs. Aliens" is the new computer-animated 3-D feature film scheduled for a March 27, 2009 release from DreamWorks Animation. The release date was moved up to prevent competition with [...]
Hot Off The Press
Entire Video of Brad on Oprah - and Searching For Christina Those looking for the video of Brad Pitt on Oprah merely have to head over to Simply Brad and to head to the media section, where you can download the entire show for FREE - it comes in three parts. [...]
Seasonal Winter Snowman Lindt Truffles
The Seasonal Winter Lindt Truffles certainly are not a new flavor this year, as I know for that it was at least out last holiday season when I bought a package of them at Rite Aid. This year I [...]
Tulsa Million Miles
Tulsa Million Miles, a healthy and fit initiative of Mayor Kathy Taylor and Mayor's Fitness Challenge is off to a solid start! Since Oct. 21 – the launch date of the Web site – Tulsans have [...]
Paris-Benj love story now over
Nine months after confirming they are seeing each other in a romantic way; after all the gushing and the declaration of ‘true love’, reports have it that Paris Hilton and Benji Madden have [...]
Abandonment is Not the Answer It makes me so sad to see stories like this. People deciding that their situation is so bleak that their only choice is to abandon their pets. Animals who have come to rely on their humans for [...]
Sarah Paulson, coming soon to a screen near you
For a while there, during the election season, every Google Alert I got for "Sarah Paulson" turned out to be about Sarah Palin and Henry Paulson. But now the actress is getting at least a few [...]
ASU Art Museum presents 'Night Moves' As part of ASU Art Museum’s Night Series, "Night Moves," ASU department of dance students will be performing inside the museum in both the lower level South Gallery and the second floor [...]
Project: StickySorter StickySorter is an Office Labs sponsored spare-time project by two Microsoft employees, Julie and Sumit. The idea sprung from the need for project teams all over the world to gather and organize data [...]
