L'attirail

The latest release in what is becoming an increasingly disturbing trend of really young, not-so-talented, auto-tuned-to-the-max celebrities might be the music industry’s worst.  Is Rebecca Black, the 13 year old star in the terrible Youtube sensation Friday finally going to be the straw that breaks the cash cow’s back? Will the world finally see the light and turn on an increasingly distant music industry that cares little about talent and good products and all about money? Probably not. But hopefully it will cause many to see how unbelievably bad the quality of pop music has become as of late. Long gone are the days of Pretty Young Thing and Maggie May, here to stay are the likes of Never Say Never and Friday.

Comedy Central’s Tosh.O was the first notable blogger to post a link to Black’s song with the title of the post being “Song Writing’s Not For Everyone.” No. It certainly is not.  A track that would be better placed on Sesame Street than in a music studio, an excerpt of the lyrics are as follows:

Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday
Today i-is Friday, Friday (Partyin’)
We-we-we so excited
We so excited
We gonna have a ball today

Tomorrow is Saturday
And Sunday comes after…wards  Read more...

Black Tribe is a duo musical group of Abdumalik Usman and Daniel Nwankwo, is an up and coming Rap, R&B and Hip-Hop and songwriters best known for ability to render fine tunes using combination of English, Yoruba and Pidgin. The group is popular among the Lagos and Nigerian music fans, and beyond.

Early Life

Both Abdumalik and Daniel were born in Lagos and have spent better part of their lives in Festac town, Lagos where the duo have been based even before setting their career in music on motion and are Nigerian nationals with splendid knowledge of the Nigerian music environment.  Abdul began to show musical talents quite early in life, performing in schools and in front of audience. Daniel too developed the ability to rap at a tender age with which enabled him to entertain his peers, a phenomenon that made him the darling of music lovers in the Nigeria.

History

Abdumalik called “Abdul” and Daniel met at the annually-held Mega Jam talent Haunting Rap show often held then at 23 Road, Festac town (Opposite the present MTN office) where they singly debuted. This show was held every December 24 and meant to discover talents in music. After a very remarkable and brilliant performance at a particular edition of the show, the group the duo went to begin a brilliant career. Thus Black tribe was born.

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The extremely talented group Weather Report have released their most recent CD on the Legacy Recordings recording label, entitled Black Market.

It’s a rare day indeed that I get a CD from an artist that I can truthfully say does not have a bad track in the bunch. I’m more than happy to announce that’s exactly what I must say about this one. There simply isn’t a bad one in the bunch. No fillers here at all.

Black Market is a pleasantly varied, mix of 7 tracks that are very well written and brilliantly performed songs by these clearly talented musicians. Most of the songs display a lot of the kind emotion that makes for a really great listen. Clearly drawing from what I can only imagine are their own real life experiences. At different points touching on the most real emotions of love, and the pain of failed relationships can certainly be heard.

Listen to Black Market and I believe you’ll find there’s not much to dis-like about it. The songs are inspired, the production is simply outstanding, and this is clearly the work of a group of musicians in top form. So much so that if you’re even mildly into Jazz music you’ll enjoy this album.

While the entire album is outstanding some of my favorites are track 2 – Cannon Ball, track 4 – Elegant People, and track 7 – Herandnu

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The exceptionally talented Rap artist Jay-Z has released him CD entitled Black Album. I am very confident and happy to announce that I believe Jay-Z fans, and Rap fans alike will be pleased with this one. With the release of Black Album Jay-Z’s artistic excellence is on full display as Jay-Z has once again delivered a brilliant collection of tracks that could very well be him best work to date.

I wish it weren’t the case but, it’s not everyday that I get a CD from an artist that I can just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. There is usually a song or two that I just can’t force myself to get through. Not at all the case with Black Album. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.

One of the refreshingly nice things about this CD is the way all of the participating artists seem to be really enjoying themselves. Combine that with the overall presentation and you’ve got one of Jay-Z’s most impressive releases ever.

I’m of the opinion that Black Album is certainly Jay-Z’s best work in a few years. A totally enjoyable CD and an outstanding release. What I call must have music. I give it two thumbs up because it’s a collection that even the casual Rap fan can appreciate and enjoy.

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