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”