Good Eats is Creative Loafing's definitive guide to Atlanta Restaurants and Hot Spots
Get event updates and foodie news delivered to your inbox
Beer'lympics! See pictures from this year's event
Find the lowest gas prices in the Atlanta area
A mixed martial arts podcast
Your spot for nightlife, event and concert photos
Damnit Big Boi. Your big ballet is to blame for this:
Tonight Harlem rapper Jim Jones of the Dipset crew begins the two-night run of his off-Broadway musical, Hip-Hop Monologues: Inside the Life & Mind of Jim Jones, based on music from his upcoming album. NahRight.com posted a video trailer of sorts for the two-night production.
With Big Boi’s Sir Lucious Leftfoot … Son of Chico Dusty solo album set to drop in a few weeks, Andre Benjamin announced his plans to release an album of his own in early ‘09. Apparently, he’s looking forward to doing things on the solo tip despite the rash of high-profile collabos he’s been featured on in the past two years.
As he told Rolling Stone:
I’ve pretty much been working with myself,” he explains. “I’ve never really been that big on collaboration.” Benjamin wouldn’t reveal any other details, but he said he already had a goal and a direction for the album. “I have a concept, and all the soundscapes are already in my head, so I just have to figure out how to get there.”
When asked what he thought about the 1999 World Trade Organization protests, which is the subject of the new film, Battle in Seattle, that he stars in, Dre admitted he hadn’t heard anything about it until he read the script.
“I don’t know if I was out of the country or in the studio, but I missed it,” he explains. “The first time I heard about it was when I read the script and saw footage of what happened.”
The nation’s economic funk has inspired a bit of uplifting funk from Big Boi.
He discussed his mission to balance bangin’ beats and lyrics with social responsibility in the lead single, “Sumthin’s Gotta Give” (featuring Mary J. Blige), from his solo album Sir Lucious Leftfoot … Son of Chico Dusty, due in October.
Apparently, it echoes OutKast’s legacy of inspiring grooves so much that Big had a hard time dropping the plural pronouns (”us,” “we”) when discussing his solo project:
“I keep saying ‘we,’ even though it’s a solo album. Me and Dre are like brothers, man. I’m putting this solo disc out, and then we’re going to come back with the next OutKast record.”
Full story here.
BAD BOY’S BEHIND THIS: Natural-born hype-man P. Diddy compares Janelle Monae to James Brown and Elvis during their interview with Sway on MTV. Click here to see the full footage. (Photo courtesy MTV News)
If you’ve been following local phenom Janelle Monae’s career as close as we have, you know she’s been hella busy. Besides starring in the Atlanta Ballet collaboration with Big Boi titled big — which you can read about in this week’s CL cover story — she just got back from a trip to New York last week where she performed for an industry crowd.
MTV was on-hand and Sway even sat down to interview her and P. Diddy, who has been courting Monae and her Wondaland Arts Society partners since late last year. After keeping their working relationship under wraps for months, natural born hype-man Diddy compared his new artist Monae to James Brown, Elvis, Judy Garland and Anita Baker in the same breath.
The announcement of her signing confirms the story we broke last November. In the joint venture between Wondaland and Bad Boy/Atlantic, Big Boi of OutKast will “continue to serve as a collaborator and co-executive producer,” Monae announced in a blog posted on her MySpace page yesterday.
For fans who fear what might become of Monae at a pop label like Bad Boy, she added:
I feel this movement is beyond independent or mainstream. Soul or rock. Black or white. Pompadour or perm. Saddle shoes or high heels. It’s about altering history through a great new era of music and art.
According to Mitchell Martin II of Wondaland, Diddy is so excited to be involved with an artist of Monae’s caliber — and a team with WAS’s marketing expertise — that he plans to stay out of their way as they do their thing.
So that means no “Bad Boy this, Bad Boy that” chants all over Monae’s vocals, right Diddy?
The next suite from Metropolis is scheduled to drop in June, with a full-length album containing both new and previously released material to drop in September, according to Martin.
Martin also gave some insight into a lot of conversation Wondaland has been fostering within the local music scene. Stay tuned for more on that in the upcoming CL Music Issue, which drops April 23.
Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s David Lee Simmons and WMLB-AM’s Max Arbes discussing this week’s cover story (out today) about big, the collaboration between Outkast’s Big Boi and the Atlanta Ballet.
To listen head over to PopSmart.
Here’s a gallery of stars at the 2007 BET Hip-Hop Awards. The photos were taken by Kimberly Neal and Justin Lee from J. Lee Photography.
(photo by Charlie McCullers)
The preview for big, Big Boi’s much-anticipated collaboration with choreographer Lauri Stallings and Atlanta Ballet, took place in the guise of a launch party for Atlanta Ballet’s 2007-2008 season. Held at the King Plow Arts Center, it mostly drew the kind of audience — lovers of the traditional arts — that probably knew nothing of hip-hop beyond what they might hear on the radio or TV. There were large tables of sushi and peppered chicken, and ballet patrons mingled around the studio with wine glasses in hand.
The host for the evening was John McFall, the company’s artistic director. He promised that Atlanta Ballet will create dozens of new costumes for big. “I think we’re going to set a bunch of new fashions with big,” he said, promising that the finished production will be a fantastic and provocative experience.
I’ve seen scores of release dates for new music this fall, and I’ve noticed that there are few local superstars on the list. Last year seemed full of chart-topping acts, from Ludacris and Young Jeezy to Ciara. But this year may be relatively quiet. Sure, the Black Lips and Shawty Lo are cool, but they aren’t exactly top 10 material (except on critics’ lists, maybe). Keyshia Cole, who recently moved here, gets love but doesn’t really count.
No, I’m talking about the A-list superstars that run A-Town. Namely, what’s up with Usher?
Despite a few teasing comments to MTV, Usher has yet to announce a release date for his first album since 2004’s Confessions. The New York Times just leaked the news that he’ll appear on the season premiere of “Ellen” (alongside Hillary Clinton, no less), which indicates that he’s about to kick the promotional campaign into high gear. The episode broadcasts Monday, Sept. 3. But will it be for a Christmastime bonanza, or an early 2008 comeback?
Here are a few other local stars that may or may not drop albums before the year is out:
1. Big Boi: For much of the year, Big Boi talked about issuing his solo debut in 2007. But Rolling Stone just announced that it won’t come out until February 2008 at the earliest. But he gets a pass for popping up on UGK’s “International Players Anthem,” one of the best singles of the year.
2. Ludacris: Luda is still telling people to wait for his next album, Theater of the Mind. But, in my opinion, that will probably depend on whether he can come up with a few hit singles to launch the album properly, and whether he can finish those songs in the next month or so. If not, he’ll probably wait until next year.
3. Lil Jon: Crunk Rock has been in the works for nearly three years now. Last month, Lil Jon told Billboard that he has finished tracks with Kid Rock, Lil Wayne, Remy Ma, the Game, Gucci Mane, Fabo from D4L, P.O.D., Ciara, Ice Cube and R. Kelly. Lots of stars, sure, but when will the damn thing finally come out? He says it will arrive before the end of the year but, again, no release date.
4. Bow Wow: The artist formerly known as Lil Bow Wow hasn’t moved major units in a minute. But with his devoted teen base and history of radio hits, he’s still a threat to do so. He’s teaming up with another teen idol, Omarion, for the collaborative album Face Off. It drops via Jive Records Dec. 4.
When Janelle Monae first revealed that Purple Ribbon would collaborate with the Atlanta Ballet, it seemed to make sense. After all, her upcoming Metropolis (and hey, I know y’all are sick of CL gabbing about it) is a highly operatic piece.
But now it looks like the whole camp, namely Big Boi, will take part in the production. In fact, it’s called Big with Antwan “Big Boi” Patterson and choreography by Laurie Stallings. You can read the press release here.
I’m nervous as to what it will look like. Will it be Big Boi, Monae, Scar, C-Bone and others standing around on stage as ballet performers flutter around them? Or will it be a relatively straightforward piece set to music from Purple Ribbon? I hope it’s the latter. I think Big Boi is dope, but the sight of him rapping alongside ballet dancers could be kinda goofy-looking.
At any rate, Big will only last six performances from April 12-18, 2008, so you should probably purchase tickets now.
