In light of the news about Danity Kane this weekend (I’m too hurt to speak on it now), it will be interesting to see if the boys’ reunion tour holds a different fate. I am anticipating some type of foolery, but I’m hoping for the best. I will report back.
**UPDATE: I had a feeling things wouldn’t go according to plan… the Day 26 concert has been postponed to September 3 due to “personal circumstances.”
Other concerts that may be of interest…
I was slightly embarrassed to post this concert, but now I have a legitimate reason: it turns out one of the opening acts “The Heydaze,” features three Penn undergrads! I may have to go just to support musicians from my alma mater. Tickets are $35.
Drake and Lil’ Wayne will be performing in Hartford on Wednesday at the XFINITY Theatre. I went back and forth for months, but after seeing Drake on Saturday Night Live and the ESPYS, I can say with certainty I regret not attending the Would You Like a Tour? tri-state concerts; though I have never been a Lil’ Wayne fan, I don’t want to pass up the chance again. Single tickets for lawn seat are $45, a 4-pack brings it down to $33.
I shared on Twitter, but I also had to share on my blog. I love Sam Smith’s tone on “Stay with Me,” but the Pentatonix’s Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi give him a run for his money. Love, love, love them.
Every day, I drive an hour and a half to work. And when the work day ends, I drive an hour and a half home.
And every day, I hear the same 10-15 songs on the radio. Over. And over. And over, again.
It’s unclear how radio expects to maintain an audience with such rigid playlist parameters, but I’ll save my top 5 questions I’ve always wanted to ask a program director for another day.
The three songs I never want to hear again, and the ones I would replace them with:
The Worst – Jhené Aiko
Initially I was happy to hear an R&B song in heavy rotation, even if it’s one of my least favorite by Jhené Aiko. After replay 2,567 though, I’ve had enough. #theworst
Na Na – Trey Songz
It was tolerable at first. Catchy. Yet and still, so basic. And intolerable after 7 months. Next.
Loyal – Chris Brown Ft. Lil’ Wayne
Who didn’t love “Loyal” when it was first released? Questionable lyrics aside, it’s uptempo, has an infectious beat and (what feels like) fun wordplay. Even with Chris behind bars during the promotion period (-___-), the song took on a life of its own. But now that I’ve had AMPLE opportunity to learn and relearn all the words, I mostly cringe when I hear it. *raises hand* Not loyal.
New Flame – Chris Brown Ft. Usher, Rick Ross
While we wait on the new Chris Brown x Drake, “New Flame” can certainly hold us over. Yes, Chris can rap and “sing-talk,” but I love the songs where he is full-out crooning, he has such a wholesome sound, sighs. (Don’t ask me what he’s really saying though.)
The track gets a huge boost from the original heartbreak, Usher. I could do without Rick Ross, but you can’t win ’em all.
Dumb – Jazmine Sullivan Ft. Meek Mill
Jazmine Sullivan fans have been waiting 3 years for new music, so when I woke up to the world premiere of “Dumb” on the Breakfast Club last month, I was too hype. It has a nice groove, the obligatory rap feature — play my girl Jazzy!!
Love Never Felt So Good – Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake
I don’t care what genre the song falls into by industry standards, it makes you feel good, plain and simple. Everyone should be playing it. (Not that I agree with the decision to release posthumous projects, but that’s neither here nor there…)
Attending a concert for me is the ultimate high and low. It’s a testament to the kind of influence that’s possible, and yet also the reminder that there’s work to be done if I want to get from the nosebleeds to the main stage.
A great show is more than just the artist and a pre-recorded track — it’s a live band, background vocalists, trained dancers* and most importantly: the special connection a great artist has with their fans.
The combination of these things keeps me coming back; my sixth time seeing Queen Bey did not disappoint.
We have come to expect excellence from music’s power couple, and that’s exactly what you get with the On The Run Tour.
Last Saturday, over 40,000 people came out to see Bey and Jay at MetLife Stadium. For almost two and a half hours, they had the crowd entranced as they traded off sets, occasionally coming together for brilliant mash-ups of their greatest hits from the last two decades.
Of course it was amazing; but my post-show thoughts are layered. As the self-titled “objective Beyonce stan,” here’s the real:
While it feels special to gain entry, the show itself seems removed, like it’s happening somewhere else on a separate stage, produced by Hollywood men in front of Hollywood cameras. It’s almost as if the whole thing had been filmed and edited ahead of time.
Although I think Jeff’s article was part troll, part truth, he at least grazed the surface of some of my small qualms with the show; in short, it’s damn near perfect.
To be clear, a large part of the concert’s storyline is told through visual elements that were filmed prior to the show, but even the live shots were perfectly-angled and peppered with special effects.
At times, I preferred the view from my binoculars to give me a dose of reality.
If you’ve attended any of Bey’s last 2 tours, you were probably doing most of the choreo and concert-ad libs in your seat, as I was, and are familiar with the “blips of sincere yet programmed PDA ” that Jay and Bey scatter throughout their performances.
Before the show I realized I had never seen a husband and wife headline a concert together — what would be different? The answer was, almost nothing. It felt like an extended performance of any collab they’ve done in the past –it was all business.
I had expected her performance of “Resentment” to be the highlight of my night as it had been one of the most emotionally-charged and talked about moments of the show; but it wasn’t. Although she again changed the lyrics to the song, it didn’t have that “rough around the edges, but straight from the heart” quality that tugs at your heart strings, it just felt like another strategic move by her camp to feign intimacy for the crowd — something extra they threw in post-Miami. Don’t get me wrong, she bodied the song, but it didn’t move me to tears like her 2009 Wynn Last Vegas rendition did, twice.
To my surprise, my favorite, heartfelt performances of the night were her cover of Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor” — The Mamas always amplify anything and everything — and “Pretty Hurts,” which felt like her most vulnerable, and least-methodical performance.
The most moving visual element came at the end of the show, when they share their “real life,” during the “Young Forever/Halo” finale. To see what’s possible in one lifetime — love, marriage, children, sold-out stadiums, significant influence — I couldn’t help but leave brimming over with possibilities.
The number of artists and celebs in attendance, on both nights, just goes to show how
much respect and admiration the power couple have from their peers.
I have been looking for a new webseries to watch….
I was hesitant to give Bridget Kelly, “Alicia Keys’s stand-in,” a chance, but it was her live performance and EP Every Girl that won me over. Still, I had a hard time trying to figure out what Bridget is all about.
In recent years, she has been known more for her appearances at parties than her music, and the buzz she was able to build around singles “Street Dreamin’” and “Special Delivery” quickly dissipated. As much as I would love to party with Bey and Jay on a regular basis, as a musician I’m sure there is nothing worse than sitting on the shelf for the better half of your 20s.
After 6 years with no release date, Bridget has decided to part ways with Roc Nation management and release her debut album as an independent artist in September. In the new docu-series Bridget takes us along for the ride on “The Road to Independence.”
I wouldn’t call myself a fan just yet, but I’m hoping the intimate look at her life and career will change that.
The first episode will be available soon can be found here.
I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Ebro Darden since starting my struggle hour and a half commute to work in 2012. This was right around the time Ebro began making guest appearances on Hot 97’s morning show, then just the program director trying to save the show’s ratings.
I have always appreciated his fluid on-air personality and the respect he has in the industry, which makes for better interviews; it’s his lack of tact surrounding some highly-sensitive issues that’s left me feeling some type of way more than once (the U.O.E.N.O. Rick Ross controversy comes to mind).
In the video you see the good and the bad, as Hot 97 gives you a behind-the-scenes look at last year’s Summer Jam through the eyes of “the old man.”
I was hoping to learn something new about the concert production process, which didn’t really happen, but having watched the show via live stream, it was interesting to see what was really going on backstage with the artists. (You have to peep Mariah showing up in the middle of the song she is supposed to perform with a champagne glass in hand (7:42). -__-) Check it out!
