I genuinely geek out whenever Damian Marley does anything. So imagine how happy I was to find out hes releasing more music. I’ve searched the nets to see if theres anything on a new album, but nothing as of yet. Nevertheless, he continues to release awesome music to keep my brain occupied and intrigued, and my mini crush alive. Check out Affairs of The Heart below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also, why didn’t I know that Nas and Damian did a video for my most favoritest song ever, Dispear? Maybe I did and I forgot. Regardless, I am posting it on general principle, I don’t care how late I am.

Click here to view the embedded video.

p.s.: I meant to get to this yesterday, but @MusicNerdery is seriously in the middle of that low bandwidth struggle.

Mar. 15 – Austin, TX (Central Presbyterian Church – SXSW)
Mar. 19 – Chicago, IL (Lincoln Hall)
Mar. 21 – Washington, DC (Sixth And I)
Mar. 23 – Brooklyn, NY (Music Hall of Williamsburg)
Mar. 24 – Atlantic City, NJ (Music Box)
Mar. 26 – New York, NY (Bowery Ballroom)
Mar. 27 – Boston, MA (Royale)

I wont complain since she just got done with that sequence of shows at Largo, but I will be slightly jealous.
Head to her facebook for more.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy.

She didn’t have the prettiest voice. But without question Nina Simone had the prettiest words, scripting both overwhelmingly beautiful and powerfully haunting stories describing the essence of love between man and woman, the glory of life, the unnecessary strife between so called “races.” Her struggle with Juilliard School of Music made me so sad, while her success within the music industry gave me joy. Her story is unparalleled There has never been anything else like her since. Kinda sucks.

I miss this type of music and wonder why its creation has essentially ceased in someways (except for the whole gospel influence thing). Her music moves everything I do to this present day. My middle name comes directly from her middle name, as my father had a slight obsession with everything she was. I can understand why.

Happy Birthday Eunice K. Waymon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

]]> http://musicnerdery.com/2012/02/21/happy-birthday-nina-simone/feed/ 0 http://musicnerdery.com/2012/02/20/according-to-mtvstaff-the-10-ten-hottest-mcs-in-the-game-are/ http://musicnerdery.com/2012/02/20/according-to-mtvstaff-the-10-ten-hottest-mcs-in-the-game-are/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:41:04 +0000 E http://musicnerdery.com/?p=8277

So after much arguing, debating, and moving MCs all around, MTV was able to come of with their list of who they think is currently the hottest in the Music Industry right now. I never agree with their list… ever… but this years wasn’t too bad. Check the countdown list below and video for more. Each rapper has a link to their video regarding the discussion of them being the hottest, or you can just head over to RapFix for more. Real fun to watch. Give it a try.

10. Wale
9. Wiz Khalifa
8. Big Sean
7. Meek Mill
6. Jay-Z
5. Lil’ Wayne
4. Nicki Minaj
3. Kanye West
2. Drake
1. Rick Ross

Here is your link on Whitney Live at Madison Square Garden in 1991. Supposedly one of her best shows ever caught on audio. Been in the collection for a while now, and I’ve been listening to it a lot, realizing that Whitney kinda dominated 80s Pop. Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Whitney. Wow. Feeling old.

Also;  To summarize and add to the Whitney rant:

*Cissy’s letter to Whitney. Wow.

*Man, I was a fanboy for her and I didn’t really realize it. I was cheering her on even when I didn’t think I was. That voice will do that to you.

*This shit has me emotionally exhausted. For several reason. Some of you know exactly why. Not only do I miss Whitney, its got me thinking about my future in this industry… and things I have to prep for.

*We really need to treat our musicians/entertainers better. Notice I didn’t say celebrity, I said MUSICIAN/ENTERTAINER. They are two completely different things that get entangled often, due to fame and the media getting in the way, using a persons image and fame to gain ratings and sales. If you want to run Kim Kardashian’s name into the ground, okay. Not cool, but thats what the talentless slore is around for (forgive me). I can tell you right now from personal experience: most REAL musicians dont want the fame and celebrity. Maybe the fortune (LoL), but not the fame. Most motherfuckers just wanna play whatever instrument it is they play for you. Above all, they are human. Probably with more feelings and intelligence than you. Lay the fuck off.

*To add to that, if you booed Whitney at the 1989 Soul Train Awards, may your soul burn in hell.

*Also, I don’t give a fuck if this woman was a bi-sexual transvestite she-man with 27 eating disorders and cocaine shooting from her vagina as she rode over a rainbow on a magical unicorn. She will always be Whitney Houston, and she is DOCUMENTED as having one of the greatest chest voice, melismas, vibrato, range and overall voice in modern history. Fuck what you think.

*If you are assuming that Whitney died of a drug overdose, then I get to assume you have Anal Herpes and Zombie AIDS until you can prove different.

*Respect the dead. I understand your mad at Whitney because you feel like she threw away her talent, you didn’t like her, or you just dont like Black people. Thats fine, you psycho. Just respect the dead. If you dont think your words will get back to you in some fashion, I’ll just let you continue being miserable and let you figure that one out.

*There are morons who are mad because New Jersey’s governer lowered flags to half staff in order to honor her. Most mean, racist people claim crackhead while she gave about $75 million dollars to education, housing programs and other social programs in New Jersey. New Jersey’s largest hospital holds their largest Children’s ICU ward. It is called the Whitney Houston Childrens ICU. She gave $25 Million to them alone. She also donated every penny in sales she ever made *off her singing the Star Spangled Banner to Combat Vets from the first Gulf War, then again for families of 9-11. So lets not act like she didn’t do good things while she was here.

*I hate you all.

Anyway, share with your friends, and enjoy.

Here’s the fun part. So who YOU and I think hottest lyricists *cough*kiddaytonadee1fuzekendricktheyjustconvincedmeonearl*cough* and how we rate our MCs is different than the MTV angle/rating system. When they think hottest MCs, they are talking about whos hottest in the music industry today, whos made the most progress, most connections, most money, hottest tracks in their Database (pay attention to that one kids) and the like.

10. Wale
9. Wiz Khalifa
8. Big Sean (This is a completely different Big Sean than I remembered)
7. Meek Mill (CarolinaWare was right 3 years ago)
6. Jay-Z (Oh Boy)

I mean, I kinda hate the list already, but I’m a nerdsnob who also understands why and how it works from a commercial standpoint, so I’m willing to let it slide until I see the last 5. Which I’m sure will be all Young Monied up. We’ll see.

Until 2.19.2012 | 10:30PM eastern time rolls around, you can check out the video and website for all the details and discussions. I’d post the vids here, but Music Nerdery is on that “I just updated 13 plugins and my bandwidth is low” struggle.

While poking around Paul Cantor’s site to find out what hes musically into and to read some of his awesome writings… I was surprised to also find out that Paul is also into music production as well. Who knew? Turns out that Mr. Cantor has already worked with one of my favorites just recently… Ms Joy Denalane. Even though she’s from Germany and most of her music is sung in her native language… her voice is exceptional, regardless of not being able to understand most of what shes saying. Retro soul sound that we all know I love, classic yet contemporary… all around good shit.

Since its way to cool for my feeble little words to describe, I’ll allow Paul to do that below while you listen to the goodness.

Been meaning to upload this for some time. This is a song (“Du Allein”) I produced on Joy Denalane’s 2011 German-language LP Maureen, which dropped in the Spring. Honestly the song and album release fell of my radar for a bit, because the whole process of working on it goes back quite a while.

I actually made this beat some time in 2006. I had previously produced “For The Love” on Joy’s 2006 LP Born & Raised, and was still making a lot of tracks in that same vein. Except at this point I was looking to scale back the hip-hop vibe— particularly the drums— and make tracks that were more palatable for a vocalist to sing on.

….In all though, I’m happy the song and album was finally released. I haven’t made that many tracks like this in a while— the demand is low, and every time someone wants to buy one I get slaughtered on publishing with respect to sample clearances— but it brings back a lot of memories for me. Like, I actually remember finding the sample, how I made the beat, how there were two or three different versions with different drums, what it sounded like before all the instrument parts were replayed, etc. It was definitely one of those beats I listened to a whole lot. I really remember what I was trying to do musically at that point. It was a moment in time.

Well isnt that kickass. Good for you, Paul.
If you were feeling that in any capacity, you should definitely check out her english-based tracks, which are equally as kickass as the german. In particular, the track called For The Love. In it, Joy expresses her disappointment with how music is treated as a means to a financial/celebrity gaining end, rather than musicians and artists out there making music just for the sake of making good music.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well done song, really.

Welp, if you want more from Paul, you can head to his website. Click here if you want to find out more about Ms. Denalane… and have fun while you do it. 

Starts about at about the 3:30 minute mark.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You don’t have to go buy her albums, but at least get familiar with this God given voice. We need all we can get right now.

*Whitney’s version of I Love The Lord:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sure enough, Fiona remains the queen of the tease and hush by cleverly posting up the somewhat random date of 2.21.12 on her Facebook page. No clarification on if it is an album, a tour, when she goes and picks up the cleaning, whatever. But its a date. And she posted it. So well see where this goes. Thanks Anne, for pointing it out.

Head over to her Facebook page for more.

Click here to view the embedded video.