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LOVE’S IN NEED OF LOVE TODAY: Stevie at Philips Arena, Nov. 1.
(photos by Perry Julien)
Near the end of his concert at Philips Arena last night, Stevie Wonder shared a poignant message with all the haters of the world: If you really want to hate, he said, why don’t you just die and go straight to hell so the lovers can live in peace.
I’m paraphrasing, but it pretty much went like that. Followed by thunderous applause. (more…)
About a month before T.I. walked into a federal courtroom in Atlanta, he took the stand in a televised but slightly less publicized trial of a different sort. “Hip-Hop vs. America,” the taped town-hall panel that aired on BET, also featured rappers Nelly (of credit-card ass-swiping, “Tip Drill” fame) and Mike Jones. They defended commercial rap’s exploitative excess against critics such as Stanley Crouch, Nelson George, Farai Chideya and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
The YouTube video above is from part one of the second round of congressional hearings held in September on hip-hop. You can read more about that hearing — which featured rappers David Banner, Master P and intellectual Michael Eric Dyson — and some of the controversy surrounding the genre in this week’s music story: “It’s bigger than T.I.: Hip-hop is on trial and everybody’s snitching.”
The rest of the congressional hearing footage, below the jump, is must-see stuff, even though nothing much is likely to result from it. Curiously, footage of record company executives speaking before Congress in part one of the hearing is harder to find.
Click here to view BET’s three-part town-hall panel “Hip-Hop vs. America,” which aired in September.
Click here to view Oprah Winfrey’s “After Imus: The Hip-Hop Community Responds,” which aired in April.
Otis Redding had more soul in his pinky toe than most of today’s artists could ever hope to summon in any genre. It’s not their fault. He was just one of a kind.
Click this link and check out a classic 1967 video of Redding lip-synching “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song).” Impossible not to feel good after that.
The Georgia Music Hall of Fame exhibit, I’ve Got Dreams to Remember, runs through next September in Macon, where more than 175 artifacts including photographs, hand-written lyrics, posters, letters and other memorabilia are on display in recognition of the 40th anniversary of Redding’s death.
Here he is in what is reputed to be his last televised performance before his death, performing “Try a Little Tenderness” backed by the Bar-Kays — four of its six members also perished in the December 1967 plane crash that claimed Redding’s life at age 26.
RUNNER-UP FOR BEST GEORGIA-BASED BAND MYSPACE PAGE, CRITICS’ PICK: Manchester Orchestra at the Fox Theatre, Oct. 8.
(photo by Perry Julien)
Manchester Orchestra came oh so close to winning the Critics’ Pick award for Best Georgia-based Band MySpace Page in our recent Best Of Atlanta issue. But how could we deny Soulja Boy? (That’s a rhetorical question.)
You gotta love a serious band that’s willing to show its silly side on tape, though. Video podcasts such as the two Manchester Orchestra posted on its MySpace page two days ago remind fans (and critics) that sometimes it’s cool to do lame stuff, like videotaping a squirrel stuck between your backyard fence:
And check out this footage from the band playing the Leeds Festival, where member Chris Freeman won the Air-Guitar Challenge:
Now how can Soulja Boy compete with that?
Sold out show … the stage lighting was bad so the photos are just OK, but I heard more Russian being spoken in the venue than at any concert I’ve ever been to in the country.
(All photos by Perry Julien)
Despite his rap name, Soulja Boy is too young to fight for his country in Iraq. But he’s just the right age to start a YouTube dance craze. And that’s exactly what the Mississippi-bred, Atlanta-based teen did over the summer with his song “Crank That” and dance, alternately known as the “Soulja Boy” or the “Superman.” You can read more about the MC/dance instructor and others in Mosi Reeves’ A-Town summer wrap-up this week. The Soulja Boy dance, however, must be seen to be appreciated — or hated. Whether you like it or not, it proves how powerful visual elements are in selling popular music today. If you can create a dance craze, your song is an instant hit, no matter how bad it is.
Here are a few video clips just to give you a sense of how far and wide a kid can travel over the summer break with a video camera, an Internet hookup and ants in his pants.
Here’s the video, currently in heavy rotation on BET:
You, too, can “crank that Soulja Boy” by watching his instructional video. What kid has the foresight to create an instructional video for his dance, I ask you? And yes, that’s an empty indoor swimming pool they’re dancing in:
Pretty soon, he even had white boys doing it:
(more videos below the drop) (more…)
(photo from TMZ.com)
Last week Usher Raymond and Tameka Foster announced their marriage, and Bobby and Whitney were spotted together in Atlanta restaurant Joe’s Crab Shack.
Mere coincidence? Hell to the naw…
Obviously, the newlyweds have physically morphed into what was once considered black Hollywood’s most vexed couple. With all the prenuptial talk of Tameka Foster, 37, robbing the cradle by marrying 28-year-old Usher — and rocking the cradle by allegedly damaging the relationship between he and his longtime momager, J. Pat — the couple could be vying for the title Bobby and Whitney left vacant since their troubled divorce was finalized.
Bloggers have characterized Tameka as a gold digger. But it’s not like she’s been living in the poor house. Besides being a celebrity stylist, the mother of three was married to clothier Ryan Glover before they divorced earlier this year. Plus, it makes sense that a guy so close to his mom would dig older chicks. Tameka probably taught him something he didn’t know. No shame in that. I’m just sayin’.
So while fans worry about whether it’s the end of Usher Raymond as they know it, I figured I’d post this video directed by Gabriel Hart, starring “Ugly Raymond” (SouthernTrees TV). It’s a funny-as-hell parody of a couple of Usher’s best videos from several years ago, when he was still cool (pre-Confessions) and semi-single (pre-TLC’s Chilli). Check out the “P. Shitty” cameo.
Contrary to popular belief, Bone Crusher has always gone against the grain — from his formative years spent at Atlanta’s Yin Yang Café to his latest release, Free. But can the overweight rapper (who set a weight loss record on VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Clubâ€) really rock? Well, if a good sense of humor and a retro-‘80s new wave approach isn’t out of the question, then the answer is, surprisingly, hell yes. Bone Crusher definitely proves, once again, that he “ain’t neva scared.†But will his fans embrace the switch from rap to rock? Well, that’s another question. Check out what Bone has to say.
Bonecrusher in the CL offices - Download.
Photo by Edward Adams / Podcast produced by Edward Adams
So I got the new Black Lips album Good Bad, Not Evil last week, and I listened to it yesterday. It’s pretty good. Keen observers will recognize a few of the songs from their live shows (particularly “Katrina,” where the band personifies the 2005 hurricane that devastated New Orleans). Also, the album is only 40 minutes long, and that’s counting the minutes-long silence that separates “Transcendental Light” and a hidden track.
But otherwise, I like it. I’m not a Black Lips aficionado, and I didn’t hear the band’s pre-Vice albums … though I guess I should revisit their catalog at some point because that’s, like, my job. Whatever. I’m digging Good Bad, Not Evil’s garagey sound and the ’60s-ish primitivism thing. Plus, they even mention “the titties at Magic City,” which makes me want to go to Magic City and check out the strippers’ titties for myself.
OK, enough jokes. Here’s the track listing.
Good Bad, Not Evil comes out Sept. 11 on Vice Records. Here’s the video for the album’s first single, “Cold Hands.”
