1994 – I remember when Patra was on the up & up. Patra was one of the few reggae artists getting love back then. A year before, Patra broke into the scene with Shabba Ranks on “Family Affair”. A young Patra (shorten name of Cleopatra. Speaking of which, she is VERY short.) released under Epic’s 550 Music “Queen of the Pack”. She was, during that year, a voice in hip-hop and reggae. While she did release a follow up album (Scent of Attraction) the following year, her 15 minutes of fame was up shortly afterwards. While she did managed to bounce back from time to time in the early 2000s, only her first attempts were the most notable.
So, from the crates, I pulled out “Romantic Call”, one of the joints that I loved with Yo-Yo. The video was shot in the West Coast, so other than Yo-Yo (who survived the 90s, btw), you’ll see this video dripping with west coast staples: Motorcycles, bouncing cars… and Tupac Shakur.
This blog post is dedicated to Wayne Suttonbecause this type of topic is so much like him. LOL
Say what you want about Diddy, but even I have to give credit where credit is due. Twitter is the new way for musicians to keep in touch with their fan base. Shaq done it. Nore is doing. Joe Budden is on the case. And Diddy ante up the twitter game. How you, asked? Well, if you find yourself asking “which chicken tastes better: popeyes or kfc” yesterday, then even YOU got caught in his matrix.
Diddy on March 4th launched “P. Twitty TV” to promote his newest album that he’s currently working on called "Last Train to Paris", a “concept album” that’s going to be more like a story (his words, not mine). So, in addition to tweeting updates, he’s also giving “close to real time” updates on YouTube. As of this post, there’s currently 6 episodes.
All Six (and future) P. Twitty Episodes are here for your viewing pleasure.
While Diddy’s idea isn’t exactly new (vblogging), what makes this different is that he’s promoting his twitter… and that alone! Of course, one may wonder why he’s promoting Twitter harder than all his other social profiles or even *gasp* his own website? But, his main website is on his twitter page, promoting possible way you can reach out to him.
Does Diddy engage in conversations? If you’re lucky. Does he follows back non-celebrities? Again… if you’re lucky. I would follow him, but he’s not my up of tea…
… but he IS entertaining. By doing this, he’s schooling hip-hop artists on branding in this new age. Record labels, take notes. Diddy’s schooling y’all!
P.S. – If you are from the U.K., his name is P. Diddy over there. Over here, we don’t know what to call him anymore. Don’t believe me?
I’m personally proud to announce that I will be having a series of exclusive interviews. My first (of hopefully many) will be with Shawn Mims (known as MIMS), founder and leading artist of American King Music who’s hit “This Is Why I’m Hot” gave birth to his first album “Music Is My Savior”. Of course, this song was both his gift as well as his curse. Trying to prove that he’s not a “one-hit wonder”, he’s bouncing back with his second album, which was supposed to be called “I Am Hip-Hop’s Savior” and to be release in December is now named “Guilt” and will be release in April. Why the name change? Will he be able to drop the “one-hit wonder” and “ringtone rapper” off his resume? Can he be taken serious as an emcee?
Well, I will be asking the hard-hitting questions about his music, his life after his first album and how his second album will define the American King Music movement (yes, I know. I’m trying to sound dramatic here). This should be an interesting interview, nevertheless. The interview will be recorded and edited for time.
However, I know that you probably got some questions for him as well. So, this is your chance to put into the pool some if your questions. Because of the limited interview time, I can only pick about so many. However, if you ask a good question that I haven’t thought of, I’ll ask it in the interview AND credit you as well. (meaning links to your site when interview is posted up) To partake in this discussion, just leave your questions in the comment section below.
Also, spread the word around if you can. Tell a Friend to Tell a Friend (as My DJ partner would say).
Closing Time for Questions: Tuesday @ 10 AM. Interview will be hours after that.
Update (3/4/09 8:27 PM): Tuesday, the day of the interview had a lot of problems. Most phone problems where Mims’ people basically gave up. I received another e-mail apologizing for the difficulties and will try again Thursday. So, I will be interview Mims… eventually.
Update (3/14/09): The Interview took placed on Thursday, 3/5/09. I’m currently waiting for my friend to “normalize the volume” of the interview.
So, Kanye West maybe lying about his twitter account, but it does bring up a legitimate question: Who’s real and who’s fake?
Well, I got a list that separates the real from the fake. This is not by any means a complete list nor a “up-to-the-minute” list. But it is a starting point. So, if you ever want to network with celebrities, music labels, radio stations and so on, here’s a starting point:
On Jan. 1st, 2009, Oscar Grant was murdered by the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police (aka BART Police) in Oakland, CA. Oscar Grant was killed while fully cooperating with police. Unknowingly to BART officers, someone documented the entire incident using a camera phone, which hit YouTube and the local news station. Days later, conversations on the Internet finally gave it some national attention. As of today, the officer that murdered, Johannes Mehserle, resigned and is currently under investigation. He’s currently a free man, even thought there were a lot of eye witnesses & video evidence is clearly strong.
Jasiri X, a hip-hop artist, recently made a tribute to Oscar Grant in form of a music video. While I knew about this, I decided to write a blog from a different angle, which will be posted sometime this week. In the meantime, if you don’t were not informed about this, watch the events unfold in this video, then pass it around.
Warning: The video contains clips from the shooting and maybe graphic for some viewers.
OG3 Oscar Grant Tribute – Jasiri X
On Jan. 1st, 2009, Oscar Grant was murdered by the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police (aka BART Police) in Oakland, CA. Oscar Grant was killed while fully cooperating with police. Unknowingly to BART officers, someone documented the entire incident using a camera phone, which hit YouTube and the local news station. Days later, conversations on the Internet finally gave it some national attention. As of today, the officer that murdered, Johannes Mehserle, resigned and is currently under investigation. He’s currently a free man, even thought there were a lot of eye witnesses & video evidence is clearly strong.
Jasiri X, a hip-hop artist, recently made a tribute to Oscar Grant in form of a music video. While I knew about this, I decided to write a blog from a different angle, which will be posted sometime this week. In the meantime, if you don’t were not informed about this, watch the events unfold in this video, then pass it around.
Warning: The video contains clips from the shooting and maybe graphic for some viewers.