Monday, 2 November 2009

HEADS OF STATE SHOW



This past weekend, I went to see Heads of State, aka Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill, at the o2 indig0 in North Greenwich London.
I have been looking forward to the show for weeks as I am a huge New Edition fan – as a group and all their solo projects. But despite loving them since they first hit the came out with Candy Girl in 1983, I have never seen any of them live. So this was a big deal for me.
But first I had to get past the first hurdle of the original date (Wednesday 28th) getting cancelled. I had sound check passes for that date as well (doh!), and just found out the show was cancelled when I turned up for that. Lol!
Thankfully it was rescheduled for Saturday, and it was more than worth the wait. The crowd who turned up to see the show was extremely mixed – ages, races, sex and dress senses, but the thing we all had in common was an obvious love for the guys, which very evident when they eventually came out. All dressed smartly in white suits, with Bobby in a white baseball cap and Ralph in a trilby, they all looked pretty good. Bobby has piled on the pounds in recent years but was looking more on point than he has been portrayed in the media.
Complete with live band, they sang a mixture of New Edition tracks and solo material, including Every Little Step, Don’t Be Cruel, My Prerogative, Sensitivity, My My My, Mr Telephone Man, Lost In Love and Cool It Now, with each star getting their chance to shine while the other two played back up. Highlights for me included Bobby taking it back damn near 27 years to sing Jealous Girl, a track that appeared on the debut New Edition album. Also, Ralph singing Do What I Gotta Do, and Johnny and Ralph singing the New Edition hit Can You Stand the Rain. Each guy sounded great vocally and their dance moves, admittedly not as intricate as in their younger days, were cute and fun to watch. Bobby slipped into old school mode by attempting some grinding moves and by throwing sex faces at the audiences, which was more amusing than sexy.
This show was one of my most favourite ever for the sentimental factor. These guys were seriously the soundtrack to a lot of my childhood, so their music is so very dear to me. I’m glad I got a chance to see them (well three out of six ain’t bad) in my lifetime, as who would have thought they’d tour the UK again???
This year has been a mixture of highs and lows where music concerts are concerned. I got to see NKOTB five times (yeah, I’m a bit of a fan) and missed out on seeing my ultimate hero Michael Jackson – due to his unfortunate passing. So glad I got to see the Heads of State, and even more so that it was a good show.
I have some great video footage but annoyingly wasn't able to load it up. I'll try and add it later down the line.

Monday, 26 October 2009

Jay-Z confirms bringing Fela stage show to Broadway!

There was a story a while back that Jay-Z was backing Will Smith and his wife Jada in reviving a Fela musical on Broadway. All investors are looking to raise a collective $11 million. Inthis interview Jigga confirms the story in this interview.

c

Friday, 23 October 2009

JAHEIM - AIN'T LEAVING WITHOUT YOU

The velevet-toned singer is back with a new single (complete with De La Soul sample) and I likes it a lot!

Thursday, 22 October 2009

THIS WHY TLC ARE STILL MY GROUP TILL THIS DAY...

I really looked up to this group when I was growing up. Oooooooooh On The TLC Tip is still some of my favourite albums! I wanted to be Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes (R.I.P) when I was a teenager, but all of them were fly and had their won unique style, fuck it I wanted to be all of them rolled into one! lol!
In this interview on the Mo'nique Show (BET) T-Boz reveals that the group held their record label Arista hostage to get some money they felt they were owed! And of course Lisa was the ring leader! Classic!

DONAE'O - WATCHING HER MOVE

This video has just hit the airwaves, for the single (a double AA side with Party Hard) out this week in HMV and on iTunes!
Donae'o, the undisputed King of UK Funky, is currently working on the follow up to this year's acclaimed debut album Party Hard, which should hit stores early next year! There are also rumours of an EP collaboration with Sway!

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

ONE WORD: DEEP!

Gyant Unplugged TV - Episode 01 from Gyant UnpluggedTV on Vimeo.



And I am talking about the Diddy 'revelations' when I say that. Guess rumours been swirling for time but Mark Curry is now trying to confirm some of those rumours! Over to you Diddy!

Friday, 2 October 2009

MATURE OR BITCH MOVE? T-Pain Apologises To Jay-Z



So if you follow hip hop beef, you will be aware that a few weeks ago T-Pain responded to Jay-Z's D.O.A (Death Of Autotune), dissing him on stage, saying 'He's 59 Years Old, He Don't Have The Right To Say D.O.A'. Ouch!

But instead of doing what most rappers would have done and retaliate, Jay being grown... didn't. So because he didn't I guess T-Pain was feeling a little sheepish about the whole thing and recorded this little ditty to let his feelings out about that and a whole lot of other shit most people will not care about.

Personally I feel like he's protesting too much on this song, especially with all the shit he's saying about his wife, damn near admitting that she ain't all that!
Furthermore, he should never have gone there in the first place with Jay-Z, as he was never directly dissing him on D.O.A, and because of that, his diss and this apology just sounds dumb.