Music. Thoughts. Inspiration.
Cause I’ve been to different atmospheres
Never did I breathe so clear
Know there’s billions in the world
But I’ll always come back to you
Jojo’s performance of “Billions” in Tempe, Arizona on her six-city tour with Leah Labelle. “Billions” was a stand-out track on her mixtape Agape. Praying for east coast dates! #FreeJojo
Found 2 new courses that may be of interest for all my singers/musicians writing and producing their own music.
Learn about the music production process—including recording, editing, and mixing—and the tools available to you to create contemporary music on your computer.
Workload: 6-8 hours/week
Find more information here.
Songwriting with Pat Pattison
Learn an efficient, effective process for writing songs that express your ideas and emotions, including a range of tools that revolve around the concept of prosody—the matching of lyrics and music to support your underlying message.
Workload: 6-8 hours/week
Find more information here.
So it’s safe to say this photo album is wayy overdue, but I still wanted to share my favorite moments from Made In America 2013. This was my first year attending the festival in my former hometown, but it definitely lived up to the hype.
Few tips for people thinking about going next year:
Even though I didn’t head to the festival until 4 p.m. on Saturday, I was exhausted by the end of Beyonce’s set that night (side note: she shut it down, obviously). Depending on the acts, I would suggest planning to head over a little late one day and leaving a little early the next day.
The weather was great for the festival, but that also meant dehydration was definitely a factor. For every Budweiser beer you drink, you should have a bottle of water.
My hair went through it during the festival – between the heat, humidity and second-hand smoke, you will leave with brittle, dry hair. Nothing you can’t solve with a little deep conditioner.
I went thinking I was going to run from stage to stage the whole weekend, but that is not realistic. On Sunday I picked 3-4 artists I wanted to see (Solange, Miguel, Kendrick Lamar, and Calvin Harris – all 5-star) and then left time to hang out on the grass, take picture in the Skype photobooth, and by chance, meet Miguel!
Check out Ellis de Bie performing a cover of Drake’s Girls Love Beyonce — I know this girl over here (she, me, her) loves some Bey! The arrangement and piano accompaniment are a bit cheesy, but I really like her voice, strong pop vocals!
The lyrics and arrangement of her original track, “Wondering Why” definitely suits her voice better. She didn’t even need the harmonies. #work
During our family trip to Hershey Park, my cousins and I (3/4 of the group formerly known as J5) couldn’t walk past the studio without jumping into the booth! Check out our rendition of “Weak” – it’s not that bad for one take, only having 5 minutes to arrange and rehearse – lol. Excuse the failed harmonies; we were a bit too ambitious.
Funny enough, Coko of SWV is our (distant) cousin, so we kept it all in the family!
Here’s my solo version of “Weak” from the beginning of my YouTube days in 2008:
Queen Bey working it out on the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour.
This man had me in tears. Like real tears.
But I promise you, everything he said and how he said it (even his facial expressions) were almost identical to the things I said and felt during my recap of the Atlantic City show – if you’ve been to the show you know exactly what I’m talking about.
*Please excuse the cursing. 😉