Crawled from under a rock guess where I ended up!!! The End? but the beginning of Pink Elephants?

WOW people it’s been a while since I even blogged, but I was out and about last night minding my business and I happened to be in the neighborhood of the Aloft Hotel in Downtown Dallas, (1033 Young Street) anyway, Frances Jaye of Neo Soul Café, (http://www.neosoulcafe.com/) was spinning, and it was the last Monday for spinning after 5 years and it will surely be missed by lovers of Soul Music in the Metroplex. It was also an Album release party of Dallas’ own N’Dambi, the album is entitled Pink Elephant, (Stax) I was trying to win a copy but was unsuccessful, so I did the next best thing and bought it. S/N Support your local artist do not bootleg!!!!!!! It was a beautiful scene last night @ Aloft filled with beautiful people. Seattle’s own Chokolate was in the place so was Keite Young. Overall it was a memorable time; sadly Monday nights with Frances Jaye & co. must come to an end. Either way it was a great night filled with great music, awesome guests in an unbelievable atmosphere.

FYI. Cop Pink Elephant from N’Dambi I give it an A. Review coming later

Until next time leeches!!!

Spring cleaning; Amel Larrieux; Lessons taught

Dang it's been a LONG minute, Ladies and Germs I have a lot of time on my hands now. Let's get to it. There isn't a lot of GOOD music out, maybe I'm wrong, but I've been out of Commission for a good minute, Happy New Year my peeps LOL damn and it's April. That means a lot of rain and a lot of cleaning. Speaking of, I had to get rid of a lot of wack music stored on my computer. I guess that is the state of music now, the radio, TV BET, MTV, etc. play a lot of BS so I'm gonna clean out the BS on my computer and fill it again with substance. 

Do check out Amel Larrieux's new single "Don't Let me Down" Blisslife out today as a matter of fact, go to iTunes or Amazon to download her single right now, I have it and you will not be disappointed trust me. Lead single "Orange Glow" is a great kinda uptempo track that will put you in a nice, "bob your head" mood, Honestly no one can do it better at hitting high notes and actually SINGING. Hear that Keri Hilson fans? Yeah I said it hahahahaha chumps! Her album is about a month or so away, I heard a few tracks and once I get my mitts on a CD I will review it and give a nice opinion about it.

One thing I learned is that whatever people like, they will buy and respond. I have noticed how scaled down music is now and how it is so bland and so watered down, it makes me have an ulcer. Anyway Our culture of music is not evolving we aren't pro-creating originality. Until more light is shed on REAL music I will continue to blast, make fun of, and ridicule what is out on the market now. I loathe it I will continue to do my best to showcase new and upcoming people, or people who have my respect as an artist. Before I go, check out these artists to make your collection unique.

Choklate- The Seattle bred Songstress has a CD dropping May 19th called "To whom it may Concern". Kajmere http://www.choklatemusic.com/

Chrisette Michele- "Epiphany" Drops on Def Jam May 5th

PPP- Platinum Pied Pipers returns with their 2nd CD "Abundance" out now on Ubiquity Records. http://www.myspace.com/platinumpiedpipers

Roigers- go to myspace and check this Brother out, I like what he's doing. http://www.myspace.com/rogiers

I had a great laugh today. This probably the worst video of '09 Thanks Illseed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yomQw30-To&feature=player_embedded

All I can say is WOW!!!

Until next time.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Kwanzaa, Oh I forgot about the music!!!!!

It seems I've been under a rock for the last 3 months, seems like it's been forever, matter of fact, one of my Friends got on to me because I haven't posted a blog. I guess the music now isn't appealing to me as it once was, could it be that Clark Kent lost his love for music? Hell no I haven't just some of the music today leaves me either turning on the old school channel on Sirius/XM, or just listening to whatever's in my head.  We all know about Musiq, Jamie Foxx, Mint Condition, Beyonce CD's came out in '08 Fine good for them, I'm going to change things up a bit and talk about artist you never heard of, or maybe you have, I dunno but either way some other starving artist have more appreciation for music than the platinum selling debutante or male diva that are, "blazing" the airwaves with non sense. But hey that's just me doesn't make my opinion wrong at all. Well that's all for now Next week, I'm going to talk about the Places to go in Dallas, Fort Worth for music scenery, places you need to go etc. I sound like a tour guide huh? It's all about good music though.

P.S. this is for the grown and sexy, if you can't respect that, go sag in your britches somewhere else.

Peace and Hair grease!

Robin Thicke and John Legend and White on White Crime

Greetings Peeps,
It’s been a minute but I’m back hopefully it will be more constant with the blogging, I know all 2 of the people who read my blog are patiently waiting on my words and musing about music. I’m going to talk about Robin Thicke’s and Jon Legend albums. Before I start, wasn’t the election historic? I can’t believe in these days and times we have an African American President, congrats President Obama. It’s a shame that people just hate the fact that we have a person of color in the white house, some of our so our called friends are really showing their true feelings which is a shame we hide behind our racism because you don’t like a person because of the color of their skin. Anyway before I get to preachy, I’ll stop and say that we have to coexist so we have to live with each other regardless.

Anyway on to Robin Thicke! I’m hearing from some of my peeps out in cyberspace that he has a beef with Jon B. Hey!!!!! What is this beef about you ask? Well word has it that Jon B. is feeling like Mr. Thicke is copying his style and I quote this from my peeps at http://www.allhiphop.com/

AllHipHop.com: Well I do see some similarities in both of your careers. You worked with Tupac and he’s worked with Lil’ Wayne.

Jon B.: Yeah and he’s worked with 50 Cent too. He did a video with 50 Cent. To me it was redundant for him to say, I just don’t want somebody to jump on my album at the last minute and look good next to me singing. That’s so corny to me, bro.

Then in the same breath wants to work with him on a song……

And I quote from Mika at http://theneptunes.org/jon-b-wants-to-collaborate-with-robin-thicke/

So you want to work with Thicke?

JB: Oh without a doubt I want to collaborate with Robin Thicke.

So you are a fan of the music?

JB: Oh no doubt! That’s MY lane! That’s how I grew up. That’s my area, it’s not about THE music, that’s MY music. That’s the same school that I study. Those Marvin riffs, those are the same riffs I do. That’s ok cause that’s Marvin. We are paying homage. Marvin just continues sometimes, it’s involuntary. I feel like a kindred spirit to people sometimes. I want the world to know this is soul music.

Uh-OK sounds like JB is either confused, or he is really a fan of Robin Thicke. Hey the way I see things if he hasn’t done anything to my family, or me I’m not worried about you! Personally I like both of them I’m a fan, maybe Jon B. is a fan as well. If he is good for him. Let’s stop the white on white hate! LOL I know it was a badass joke but hey I try with the funnies.

Robin Thicke – Something Else (Star Trak/Interscope)
This is Robin Thicke’s 4th studio album, yes-4th studio album! Google it! This album seems like a continuation from his last album Evolution of Robin Thicke (Star Trak/Interscope) the classic R&B Ballads reminds you of what soul music used to be back in the 70’s. Gems like “Magic”, which is strictly a R&B tune geared towards sales in pop world and the song talk about Magic, chemistry between 2 people between the sheets. The second single “The Sweetest Love” is a ballad again the song is talking about how sweet his love is to wife Paula Patton, if you don’t know who she is she was the love interest for Andre 3000 in Idlewild. To some of my peeps that are vocalists might disagree about the vocal skills, maybe he doesn’t have vocal range as some of the other R&B counterparts, but he does have skills. The most compelling song on the album is “Dreamworld” where he talks about his dreamworld,
”I would tell Van Gogh that he was loved, there's no need to cry I would say Marvin Gay your father didn't want you to die (dream) There would be no black and white, the world just treat my wife right We could down in Mississipi and no one would look at us trice
This is my Dreamworld.”

Overall this album is good, he has some disco songs, put on the disco gear and get down! Overall this is a Classic R&B album, which will take you back to the 70 and reminisce about the good old days of soul.


GRADE – B+
SONGS TO CHECK OUT
Magic
Dreamworld
Sweetest Love
Tie My Hands feat. Lil Wayne



John Legend – Evolver (G.O.O.D. Music/ Sony Urban)

John Legend’s 3rd studio Album, Evolver takes a different turn as far as his album history goes, the lead single, “Greenlight” feat. Andre 3000 John tells MTV the theme behind the song,

“The song is simple. It's just me trying to pick up a girl at a club and convince her to come have some fun with me. [The video] definitely has that story line in it, but we just take it kind of different places to do some unexpected visual things. We have this surreal kind of dance sequence, and it features synchronized swimmers and showgirls. We just throw a little extra twist on it. We wanted to mix a current, modern feel with an old-school, classic Hollywood feel because the song has kind of a big-band quality to it as well as a more modern dance-song quality. We wanted to mix the two different parts."

There you have it, if you haven’theard the song already, check it out, because it is a very catchy tune and the best song off of the album. The second single, “If You’re Out There” features the Agape International Choir and was inspired by President Obama presidential campaign. Matter of fact, it was performed live at the Demorcratic National Convention in Denver August 25th 2008, worth listening to.

One song that left my head scratching was, “No Other Love” feat. Estelle. It’s a reggae influenced tune which isn’t something he normally does, some of you might like it some of you won’t, me personally I’ve heard better from John and Estelle. He also has a collaboration with Brandy worth checking out called, “Quickly” maybe she’s on the album because she has a album coming out I dunno, but it’s a good look for her.

Overall Evolver was it’s ups and downs, but worth checking out in the longrun check it out and let me know what you think about it.

GRADE – B
SONGS WORTH CHECKING OUT-
Green Light
If You’re Out There
Good Morning
It’s Over feat. Kanye West
Quickly feat. Brandy

Shout out to Caliente Rodriguez! She harassed me until I told her I would give her a shout out so there you go!

Let me know what you think hit me up at markiethsmith@gmail.com

Diddy next to copt T-Pain and calls in Electro-Hip-Hop-Soul........ ok Puffy..........

Greetings all, it’s been a while, I kinda hit a roadblock when it came to writing something but I’m back. I few Blogs ago I said that I would talk about Electro-Soul, Hip-Hop whatever you want to call it. I hear people call it Alternative Soul, whatever floats your boat, but there were a few artists making moves in the ‘Sub-Genre’ of Soul and Hip-Hop like J*DaVeY, Flying Lotus to name a few. Obviously most who read my blog probably hasn’t heard of them, much less acknowledge them. The last few years I think Black Music is taking a turn for the better, as far as most musicians are expressing themselves more by taking risks in their music. You are seeing more Urban rock artists, more Black artist doing Techno, which was originally done by 4 Black kids in Detroit, do your history youngsters, you are starting to see Urban Music branch out more into other genre’s of music and I think it’s a beautiful thing to hear. If other artists can do it, how come we in Urban Music can’t do that? Why you ask? Because people are afraid of change and most artists are afraid OUR people won’t accept them because they like Rock or Techno or Country for that matter. They get dismissed as irrelevant until Lil Wayne or Jay-Z Regardless weather they are a multi-platinum artist or a humble starving artist making good music, they are making history and making waves weather you listen to it or not, as long as someone here’s it then they have a marketplace.

If it’s Urban Music, support it, learn from it, pass it along to your fellow man or woman. We are afraid of what’s out there hence the play of the same thing with the same people, doing the same thing on the radio right now. But it seems like ‘Electro-Soul’ is about to hit mainstream, not by the artist aforementioned, but the Music itself, that would be courtesy of…….. Diddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, Puff Daddy, Sean Combs, Whatever he goes by now. Here is what he told InTouch Weekly, Courtesy of www.allhiphop.com “It’s electro Hip-Hop soul,” Diddy told InTouch Weekly about the unnamed project. “T-Pain gave me permission to use the vocoder, the Auto-Tune, and he showed me various tricks that nobody knows but him and myself.”
My Question to you is this music only relevant when you favorite artist get on the bandwagon of what fresh or what’s new? It’s kinda a gray area because most Artists, who are well off and famous, have the ability to be trendsetters and make people change to whatever’s hot in their opinion. It’s cool for people to get exposed, but there are a lot of dope people out there, again we have to be accepting of some of the music.

Well that’s my rant, on the wake of Jennifer Hudson losing her Mom, Brother, and Nephew, and all of the racist hate being displayed at this year elections, I’m at a loss for words right now. My heart goes out to her and her family, and lately hearing about death and how foolish people are is a downer. Some folks are showing there true colors while our respected candidates are on the campaign trail. With some of the economic heartache we are all getting hit with, this tragedy is a unbelievably sad one and I hope whoever did that to her and her family should be brought to justice. Just remember to live, love and coexist with your people.
Tell me what’s in your CD, iPod, tape or 8 Track at markiethsmith@gmail.com

Peace and Blessings

Oh Yeah Jazmine Sullivan? Bust Out Your Windows?????? Seriously???????

GTFOH!!!! Eminem the greatest rapper alive???? I don't think so......

OK, I was on yahoo today and I was compelled to write about this, they spoke about an article in Vibe on who the best rapper alive was. One Blogger, Billy Johnson Jr. gave his opinion and I agree with him 100%. He is NOT the best rapper alive, I know he is one of the best selling Rappers of all time, but think about this, where would be he today if he Didn't have Dr. Dre? Would he be the best rapper alive? I do not take anything away from Em because he is a talented rapper, there are some rappers that can really bring it. I can't even stomach Rap right now and I'm 30 years old. Maybe it's just me getting my grown man on, but Him as the Best Rapper? Wrong...... mostly what i hear from him is how much he hates his Ex-Wife and how many people he can kill. the fan base he has really loves that, not my cup of tea but eh. I would put Jay-Z, Nas, Andre 3000 and a host of others ahead of him, heck give me Big Daddy Kane any day. I think Vibe dropped the bomb big time on this because they set this "Bracket" up of rapper like March Madness. They put underdogs against big heavyweights, Here are some of the, "Contestans" in the, "Best Rapper Alive" contest

Lil' Kim vs. Lauryn Hill
Lupe Fiasco vs. Q-Tip
Mos Def vs. Talib Qweli
Ghostface Killah vs. Raekwon
Method Man vs. Redman
Common vs. Black Thought

OK.... Pretty good arguments on these rappers, I would hate to see any of them lose except for Lil Kim, (News Flash Plastic Girl You are wack and forever will be in my opinion.)
Then we get stuff like this and I was left scratching my head.

Andre 3000 vs. Dizzee Rascal
Eminem vs. Soulja Boy
Lil' Wayne vs. Trina
T.I. vs. Shawty Lo
Ludacris vs. Young Dro

GTFOH!!!!!! Every one knows Lil Wayne will run circles around Trina, why is she even in here? Put some real MC's on here, this is ridiculous to even include Soulja Boy, Shawty Lo, Young Dro, and Dizzee Rascal, even though I think Dizzee is Dope but 3 Stacks is a monster on the mic. I could go on and on because I know a few underground rappers who is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than Em, especially is ol' buddy Royce Da 5'9" you want to talk about one of the best rappers alive, check Em's Slim Shady CD and listen to Bad Vs. Evil and tell me who is better. Sorry ya'll I'm just venting because arguments like this shouldn't be happening, in actuality, it's a big popularity contest, doesn't matter who has skills, it's about how many records are sold and how many ways you can make a quick buck making a BS song.

My question to you is who is your top 5 rappers of all time.
F.Y.I. No Soulja Boy or Dem Franchise Boys, and tell me why.

Email it to me @ markiethsmith@gmail.com

Sorry So Late

Bienvenidos Amigos!!!!!

I’m back again with something a little different…. I was having a conversation with someone and he enlightened me on some other sites that have excellent music, so I want to share those with you also. Thanks to Reggie for the info.

AND I QUOTE!!!!!!!

WE Funk Radio - These guys are out of Montréal, Canada but they do a great show, also you can do a search by artist, or song and find mixes that contain your searchhttp://www.wefunkradio.com/

Deep House Page - This guy takes old house music mix tapes and uploads them to the internethttp://www.deephousepage.com/

CKUT - This is the station in Montreal that host We Funk... some of their other shows are good toohttp://secure.ckut.ca/cgi-bin/ckut-grid.pl

Gospel House musichttp://www.gospelhousemusic.com/

DJ POPE & DJ OJI - these guys are out of Baltimore and they put together some tight mixes (Google them) they used to have a show on Morgan State University Radio but I think they are doing their own thing now.

DJ Jamad - he is out of Atlanta, I have a few of his mixes. Exodus Barbershop Afromentals (Google him)

(I’m going to add another site, check out Neo Soul Café by Frances Jaye, good thing is she is a local DFW personality who has events during the week.)

http://www.neosoulcafe.com/

Have Fun with those, also if you have any suggestions, or you hate my blog, whatever left me know @ markiethsmith@gmail.com

Well I’m going to review Ne-Yo’s CD, I know it’s late but hey I’m a busy man. Here we go!

Ne-Yo “Year of the Gentleman” (Def Jam/Universal)

28-year-old singer Ne-Yo’s latest album, “Year of the Gentleman” is out, and he gets better and better every time he puts an album out. I honestly don’t like him featured on anyone else’s music because he can most certainly hold his own, Year of the Gentleman should be on your CD list as of right now, I will be handing out late passes to those who haven’t bought his CD yet J. The first single, “Closer” is a ball of energy and it’s unlike anything Ne-Yo has put out in the past. Picture Urban House Music fused with R&B. Tune, “Miss Independent” is for all of the Ladies out there who are actually independent, it’s most certainly to get you blushing hearing the lyrics, “She got her own thing that's why I love her Miss Independent won't you come and spend a little time she got her own thing that's why I love her…”

Some of you all have this CD already, If you haven’t shame on you, this has Grammy and Platinum written all over it.

Grade: A-

I’ll be back with a preview of Robin Thicke’s Album, “Something Else”