okay so the skinny jeans didn't work out for me so well …

Let’s be totally honest here, for those wondering if Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z are ever going to be married, or those few still wondering about Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri, or any other couple. If you’re in the entertainment business, marriage is a last resort. Not that people aren’t in love, but marriage tends to happen to those whose publicity isn’t where it needs to be or a play to resuscitate interest in a career that is fading.

Knowles is at the top of her game, is still serving us the idea of her the old fashioned way, by appearing accessible, fair, and above all, a classy woman who knows how to get down. Fact is you don’t even have to tell her because she already knows what it is. At the end of the day, we still haven’t heard anything, specifically, what that is. And we don’t have to because our fantasies fuel the idea of her molding to whatever it is that we have in mind for her. And we just assume that she is someone that would be ok with that. Before you know it’s even more money in her safe. But this doesn’t just describe her, but anyone who has made it, earned it, and knows how to hold onto it and maintain it in this industry.

So why would anyone in their right mind throw all of that away and cut the money off early in the game for something that typically lasts but a moment in high-society to begin with? There are but a few ways to get it out there and keep it interesting. You can be conscientious, spiritual, romantic, whatever, but it is all a fine line between giving people enough to keep it interesting, yet not too much to give it all away. Then there is the inevitability of reinvention, which is a necessary evil and one that will test the limits of your artistic ability, show how good you really are. Many artists have done it successfully, Michael Jackson, Madonna, even R Kelly, who continues to bounce back and forth between existentialism and hedonism.

Knowles is reminiscent of yet another individual whose presence was larger than life. Over thirty years ago, Diana Ross split from a famous singing group, found enormous success as a solo artist and was even able to move in and out of Disco music comfortably without loosing any respect from her fans or the critics. Those few who hated the fact of what she did had to respect her talent at the end of the day, just as those who found Knowles at the center of a singing group, albeit unfairly, now realize why that talent simply could not be contained. This went on for decades. We really, really, really want Knowles to marry Jay, or to be in that serious relationship with someone that is going to lead towards marriage or some other conclusion. But to do so would be disastrous if it didn’t work out, and our interest would move away from what she is capable of as an artist to her antics, or lack of. This is what keeps Brittany Spears in the tabloids, finds us gossiping about Jessica Simpson and talking about people like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. We don’t care about the Simple Life 3, if and when that ever happens, but her weight and their ongoing feud.

I found myself disappointed and a bit offended actually when Jennifer Lopez and Ben Afleck didn’t get married. I knew it was a bunch of crap when they were never together and you continued to get the runaround in the interviews. That never being together part was also an indicator about a couple who actually did get married, Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt. While it can work when you’re at the top, when everyone is watching, when everyone is just so obsessed over every little thing, it rarely does. Better to have a normal life in which one can just be married without everyone in the known universe caring about it so much than to do so otherwise.

Forget about Neverland if you want to see Michael Jackson. Where is he now? Overseas of course, which has shown him far more love than he has seen here in the states for a while. And I can’t blame him either, selling the ranch would be the first step to show the world he’s serious about putting his past behind him, including the behavior that got him in trouble in the first place.

Bahrain, an Islamic nation of around 690,000 with a completely different feel from Southern California, is a dramatic change of pace, yet his lead attorney states that he has friends there that are very supportive. I posted earlier on his attempts at creating a song for Katrina victims, of which the record company is owned by Prince Abdulla Hamad Alkhalifa of Bahrain.

Being the true fan that I am, no seriously, I’ll keep you posted of any updates.

Nightline will still be on ABC after Ted Koppel leaves next month, but with a few changes. For one there will be three anchors instead of one on the program, Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran, and they will cover multiple subjects. You’ll remember Bashir from those interviews with Michael Jackson, and I can’t wait to see what expertise he’ll bring to network television. Although they maintain that the coverage of topics will be the same, it’s unsure whether it’s fair to expect the same focus given that more than one topic will be covered within that same time frame. Koppel was there in the beginning 25 years ago and had appeared on the show up to three times a week recently.

Other changes include shooting from Times Square, an approach common with news shows that have debuted since Nightline, such as Primetime life, although the Washington presence will remain a staple of the show.

Michael Jackson is working on a new single, “From The Bottom Of My Heart”, for the victims of Katrina. The label is 2 Seas Records, which is owned by Prince Abdulla Hamad Alkhalifa of Bahrain, who, according to Michael, is “the very best, amazing, so kind”. I checked out the web site, of which the line “No challenge is too great. We can make a difference.”, read in big print in which images of the victims of a flood were imposed against a black background. Also, next to the logo was the motto “Putting people first”. Since you can’t actually get into the site, which may still be under construction, it’s a bit too early to tell if this represents what is to come from the label or not.

Michael has had issues with Sony in the past and I’m also wondering if he won’t reinvent himself again around this label, detaching his listeners from the aesthetic you came to expect from his records at Sony.

I may be one of a handful of people who would actually like to see Michael make a successful comeback in the states. If the success of this song is anything like that of “We are the World”, he may have his work cut out for him. There is the possibility that other artists will contribute their vocals to the song, as was the case then. The lineup includes many of the top selling acts as well as other newer artists like Ciara.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

I’ve nothing to talk about so I’ll digress to an old familiar topic. So called “beef”, or disagreements between artists. It’s almost as old as music itself, and has been a staple in rap from the beginning. The rap “game” has always been a shady and questionable affair to begin with. Twenty-five years ago, artists were fighting to be the King of New York, or whatever neighborhood they were from, because rap wasn’t profitable and didn’t have kids in the cornfields riding around on John Deer with 46s on them, or whatever. The scene was simple, rhymes centered on arousing the audience and engaging in a call and response shtick that typically found the mc telling the audience what to say, and the audience would yell it back at him. At times it would get a bit more interesting, and he would ask a rhetorical question like “ladies, if you’re looking for a guy to buy you a drink tonight” or “fellas, if you’re looking for someone to f* tonight”, or whatever. Dumb s*, true, but the interactivity with the crowd was the catalyst through which many hip-hop devotees were acculturated.

Times changed, of course, when there’s money at stake everything changes. Disc jockeys and dance crews were cut back or eliminated altogether, and the whole thing became more business like. By the time, Tupac and Christopher Wallace were shot, being shot, and living through it, was a rare phenomenon. I truly thought that Tupac Shakur would have died in that shooting in New York, yet he lived through it and used the buzz to turn himself into an even bigger artist. Yet these days artists are signed with a sad sob story about being shot, and fans are star struck.

As time moves on these disagreements, or falling out, becomes even more interesting. When Pac and Biggie feuded, for example, it was rather easy for the media to publicize this “east coast west coast” thing, where rappers would take sides dependent on where they were from. Whether or not it was completely true, rappers used the feud to their advantage. You saw the “Dogg Pound”, Snoop’s protégés, kicking over New York skyscrapers in a video. Ironically, in spite of the fact that he was born in New York, Shakur made an interesting case against a few of the hardcore artists on the coast. Supposedly, he still had issues about being shot in New York, although the only real evidence pointing to Biggie and other New York rappers having arranged the hit were the words coming out of his mouth. If you already liked him, you gave him the benefit of the doubt and took sides against the New York scene as well.

But after both Tupac and Biggie died, having been shot in California, it didn’t matter so much how or why they died. The newer artists found it difficult to move on, the blueprint had already been established, and you had to sound like either to be popular. Or so people thought, as few of those that did emulate rappers techniques found success in doing so. There were a few exceptions, Shine, who later took the heat from Puffy on a drug charge and is still doing time. Guerilla Black, who you could easily mistake for Biggie Smalls until you see him on video.

Once 50 cent found himself in a similar situation, he decided that he could either use it to his advantage, or crumble under the weight of a reputation ruined by who was a major artist at the time. He did the former, laying out a convincing argument, not only for what Ja Rule said had happened years earlier, but that Ja was a weak individual that could only write pop-songs about explicit s*, though wasn’t a true thug. It worked, and it didn’t hurt matters that 50 wasn’t that bad of an artist to begin with. Years in working the grind in mix-tape purgatory prepared him to be a star.

Yet the fact that he had been shot numerous times didn’t hurt matters either. If you weren’t interested in his beef with Ja Rule, you likened him to Tupac Shakur because he was shot some nine times and walked away from it. Yet it was difficult for 50 to fail, he had an unusually large advance, and was under intense pressure to succeed. He also had some of the best producers around at the time. Finally, he was linked to one of the few Caucasians to find true success in rap, other than the Beastie Boys, so Eminem wouldn’t put someone off on us that wasn’t any good, or would he?

All of those elements turned out an artist that was unconventional, sounded like an artist who had intensely studied the masters and learned how to bring it all together into a very different, although familiar, style. Of course, in this genre at least, every artist is an entrepreneur, and every artist has a few other people that he would like to put on as well. Sometimes these people are dead weight, sometimes they’re better than you are and sometimes the two of you just don’t get along. 50’s problem was the latter, as we’ll soon see.

It was simple enough; bring together artists from each region of the country that represented the best that region had to offer and form a new clique. While 50’s G Unit was already established, their main hype person was in jail, and they needed to do something quick if they wanted to take over the rap scene. The new crew included an artist from the South, a disenfranchised rapper who was trying to remain loyal to a group that wouldn’t give him any airtime, a rapper from the West who had already released an album, but didn’t have enough buzz to get anyone’s attention, another guy from the East whose style was more academic and not as entertaining as 50’s, and a r & b chick to give the other rap singers a run for their money.

Enter “Game”, a rapper from Compton who had studied the masters and more or less learned to how to hold his own on the microphone almost overnight. He had shopped his demo around the coast and found few takers, then ended up working with Dre. Yet as we soon found out, Game had a different strategy than 50 or G-Unit. Once he established his presence in G-Unit, he wanted to continue to broaden his reach beyond rap’s territorial borders and record with legendary artists, many of which 50 had issues with because they had contributed verses with Ja in his defense against 50.

50’s strategy somewhat mirrors that of Jay-Z when he was battling Nas, calling an individual out by firing the first shot and seeing if the guy was up to the test. Opinions differ, but those who can appreciate Nas’ intellectualism figure that he won the war, while those who can appreciate Jay’s lyrical expertise have different opinions. But such is the case when artists of different styles compete with one another. It’s like comparing Coldplay to U-2 or Chevelle to Breaking Benjamin. It’s all either pop or alternative; it’s simply a matter of the aesthetic. Similar comparisons are always made of a pop singer who is more of a songwriter to one that is more of an entertainer, like Prince and Michael Jackson, or Brittany versus Christina.

While 50 may have won the war against Ja Rule, he has problems in his own camp. For one “Game” is an individual with something to prove, building off of the same synergy that the crime world seems to have with entertainment he wants to prove that a member of his gang can make it in rap to. Also, “Game” seems to be more about strategy that he is with rapping, true to his name he comes across as an individual who is hungry and will appear on anyone’s record regardless of whether or not those he was affiliated with support his decisions. His style seems to include a best of in hip-hop, which leaves him as an interesting artist to listen to, yet not the most entertaining individual out there.

Yet as of late, “Game” has taken to collaborating with other artists to create records that are against his mentors. It wasn’t always this way, however. Back in March him and 50 reconciled on what was the anniversary of the day that Biggie was gunned down. 50 used the event to promote his new foundation for helping people better their lives. They were supposed to donate money to the Boys Choir of Harlem and the Compton Unified School District Music Program. Game alluded to the idea of them showing the “power of their community”, while plugging his own organization, “Black Wall Street”.

So what happened? Game continued to pursue his own interests and took issue with 50 again. In the article “The Game Can’t Stop Publicly Hating On 50 Cent And G-Unit“, the writer mentions that he told MTV that the feud is out of his “having to secure the future of my family financially”. Supposedly, the entire clique has ganged up against him. This is interesting because on record Game suggests being the “Bobby Fischer” of hip-hop. This leaves a few questions, if Game is Josh Waitzkin then who is Vinnie? Dr. Dre, 50, Eminem? Such questions is part of what makes the Game an interesting rapper.

These days Bobby Fischer is a solo artist out to rule the world. Similar to so many artists before him, Game has digressed to a free agent who doesn’t get along with anyone, crosses everyone, and tries to go it alone. Crews do not last long in this industry anyway, but solidarity is particularly short lived in hip-hop. Game actually has sympathy over the notion that G-Unit more or less destroyed Murder Inc. Yet Murder Inc. already had the feds on them for money laundering, and while the crew was large all of the emphasis was put on one or two artists. Perhaps Game did not want to be one of those artists left out in the cold, but he left, or was booted out from, or whatever, G-Unit before that could ever happen.

So now, he’s taken it to the gutter, questioning Olivia’s sexual orientation, comparing Banks to Oscar the Grouch, and suggesting that 50 forced him to say lyrics all the while recording his prose over classic hip-hop beats. From the masters of course, of which The Game can more or less taste the respect. The old pink elephant is the ugly side of the entertainment industry. It looms in it’s corner of the room and stares down at the rap hustle belligerently, even though you might miss it if you’re caught up in the beats and rhymes. It reminds you that no matter how empowering the lyrics are, no matter how moved you are or astonished by someone’s skills, at the end of the day whoever is the best executive wins. It reminds you that the altruism of art only goes so far before you digress to seeing who can come out on top, and that mere humans will go to any lengths to do so. There truly is nothing new about this game, yet again.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

“Hecklers” (a limited liability corporation) is proud to commend our contractors for the fine job they’ve done the other day at raining on the parade of yet another republican.

Given the tremendous response from the viewing public concerning our hecklers during Arnold Schwarzenegger’s speech yesterday, at a university in California we thought we’d release this list of other notable individuals private interest groups have hired our contractors to humiliate in the future.

* Jennifer Wilbanks
* Michael Jackson
* Roger Moore (yet again, the checks keep on rolling in)
* Ann Coulter (the pie thrower wanted in on this but we thought we’d keep things to a minimum)
* Sylvester Stallone
* Flavor Flav and Bridgette Neilson (collectively)
* President George Bush (depending on who you ask, although we thought that you already had this one covered, go figure)

If you or someone else you know, whose opinion you trust, can think of someone who needs to be heckled while speaking in a public forum, we’re up to the task. If we do not feel that we can handle the job we’re sure to know of a great op-ed columnist that can do it in print for a small fee. Due to security concerns we cannot accept checks or money order of any kind, although COD would be nice.

Congratulations for taking the heat off of the president, at least for the interim.

When Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo Put Together a Beat, They Are Truly Coming from a Different Place

Ok so I bought N.E.R.D. their first attempt at actually putting together an entire album, I loved every song on the Clipse record, and I even enjoyed listening to Tasty. But what is it that makes their beats get under your skin? Every song has these synthesized sounds that are like, well arranged unlike anything you’ve ever heard any other producer do. Then you get it, these self-proclaimed nerds are actually bringing eccentricity to music, something few other producers have done since Michael Jackson capitalized off of it back in the 1980s.

The Neptunes have a way of taking those unusual, meaningless, forgotten sequences, and punctuating them through heavily synthesized sounds and compiling them together into a new song. Their sound is typically overly mellow, almost jazz-like syths disrupted through heavy, aggressive electronic percussion. The only real problem with this pair is that their dedication to music often overshadows their business sense. Take Kelis’ album, for a change, Tasty was an album full of the musical idiosyncrasy that you have come to both love and hate from the Neptunes yet Kelis was only left with one true single on the record. More people were interested in the fact that she was marrying Nas, than they were about listening to her record.

The Neptunes appear to be more interested in writing incredible songs for other solo artists, like Gwen Stefani, than they are at attending to their own artists. The other problem is that their music tastes are so peculiar they can become rather divisive; take “Holla Back”, from Stefani, the sophomoric party atmosphere is so thick it often detracts from their signature sound. While it is good to see that they have finally worked with an artist that can hold her own against their overpowering production, it is difficult indeed to figure out what people love, or hate about the song. Or take Omarion’s new song, “Touch”, this is a song in which Omarion can more or less say whatever he wants to because the music appears to be the only redeeming quality here.

Only the future will tell, if the Neptunes continue to evolve or remain stagnant, refusing to change with the times. Perhaps I should have kept writing music and stayed true to the nerd that I am.