ALBUM REVIEW: TOKYO BLUES (HORACE SILVER QUINTET)

I saw a crazy friend, he wanted a cigar at Little Taste of Cuba, sez to me, “I gotta find out about Guantanamo Bay over at Cuba.” We go, he picks up a U.S. 1 before he gets inside and sez, “Just like Rocafella Records, all ads.” I’m stunned, mouth agape with “Agape” for this boy, he is like Nas, but not because he doesn’t accept beats from Chris Webber, and you, good reader, should not accept such nonsense either. WHY must he continue to crush himself in competitive fields? Well, maybe he was made for TV. Listen to the Tokyo Blues!

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What To Watch Tonight? Alicia Keys Live On YouTube!

These live broadcasts on YouTube are the next big thing in bringing in viewers and money back into the music industry. We don’t watch TV anymore guys!!! Nothing like a charity concert by Ms. Keys on World AIDS Day to showcase the viral value of a YouTube concert. Viral value was [...]

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Romanians never heard of Sa-Fire

So this is it? Pop fans will forever be relegated to posthumous Michael Jackson, no new shit, no more unknown. Producers will be forced to hit the empty Jackson studio and thumb through previously recorded tracks, so-called ‘previously unreleased’ songs. The posthumous effect has propelled the CD sales of mega artists in the past, Tupac, [...]

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Bittersweet

Wale’s output is frequent. Sometimes–I might even say–too frequent. However, after three Heinekens I decided to go-ahead and grab “Bittersweet.” I think this is one of Wale’s better bangers that he has dropped in the past year. DJ Toomp produced it and while I believe he originally gave this one to B.O.B., Wale and Colin [...]

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out of the shadow

A lot of bullshit, a whole lot, is being passed off as deserving of merit in the world of music; LCD Soundsystem, some dudes whose names I can’t remember off the top of my head, gets serious love from Pitchfork.com in this list of the top songs of the last 10 years with 2 of [...]

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Maxwell is Back

BLACKsummers’night is Maxwell’s amazing return LP after his 8 year hiatus. This smooth brotha’ is the epitome of soul r&b, and his classic sound has everyone from teens to older adults swooning over his rich music.  His cropped mane & neo soul melodic tunes have helped many listeners like me stay calm while driving as [...]

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Mariah Gets “Dragged” Into a Bad Idea

Being in the artist management business ourselves we understand that it is sometimes necessary to permit artists to take risks. But WTF was Mariah’s team thinking with her shoot for her upcoming video for “Obsessed”? Mariah will be dressed in “man-drag” in the video with full costume and makeup (facial hair and everything). The only [...]

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Shaolin Soul

It’d be easy to look at Ghostface’s claim that his newest album will be all R&B and say that he’s buying a ticket on the bandwagon. After all, Lil Wayne and T.I. both sang prolific ballad-esque tunes for their albums and Kanye even made an entire album where rapping took a backseat to soulful crooning. [...]

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When Kanye starts dreaming you get magic!

The Dream is making panties drop all over the world right now. Kanye has been inspiring panty perspiration globally for half a decade. Put these two instigators together and I recommend clearing the shorelines folks, liquid levels may rise globally. In the meantime carry some tampons once you put this in your IPOD. 
MPFREE: The Dream [...]

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UCLA Jazz & Reggae: Baduism, Native Tongues and The God of Gully

It’s almost ridiculous how appropriate the lineup for this year’s UCLA Jazz & Reggae Festival is, considering the time of year. And, to prove this point, let me backtrack a few months; in late January, UCLA always throws a Hip-Hop Appreciation Week concert. For its celebration, they’ve hosted artists like The Game and Ghostface– in [...]

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UGK 4 Life

UGK’s tenure at hip-hop’s pinnacle has closely resembled Wiley Coyote’s tenure at an equally high altitude; each time they seem to have ubiquity in their clutches, it has essentially become inevitable that lurking nearby is a stick of dynamite or perhaps a four mile drop off of a cliff. Many mainstream audiences first heard the [...]

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Have Chester French Dropped The Oddest Mixtape Ever?

It’s easy to despise musicians with Ivy League steelos. And, even with Pharrell’s tabbing these dudes as “geniuses”, I was skeptical. However, Chester French’s mixtape Jaques Jams is kind of a sleeper, mixing rap with blues with indie rock, more or less without a hitch. Sporting a very un-Ivy League-ish list of guest appearances Bun [...]

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Wale & Gaga: Do You Go Gaga or Say It’s Caca?

Constantly accused of receiving far more affection from the hipsters rather than the hood, Wale has recorded a song with dance-icon Lady Gaga, which is essentially is going to piss kerosene onto the haters’ flame. Cest La Vie; I suppose in this day and age, there’s a fine line between blog love and blog hate, [...]

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Throw a plate of marinara at Chris Brown! (video game)

I promised myself that I would refrain from commenting any futher on the Chris Brown-Rihanna fiasco. But this flash video game that is featured on a series of Youtube links (starts below) is too a la mode to resist. A rising fad on the ‘Tube, it is a worthy piece of content for the Zebra. [...]

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Euro Trash right here in the US of A: New Ne-Yo Nonsense

 
The last thing I want you guys doing is actually purchasing music made by this gentleman. So if you’re a guilty consumer of Ne-Yo’s ish, I”m hooking you up with three of his new joints. Mind you the one track “Bossy” sounds like some straight German pop gone right or something. This trend towards Euro-Dance [...]

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