Music Dude tidbits

-- go kop the Pharrell tomorrow. I was thinking about warning my niggas about koppin, because Rell is such a chick caterer. I mean, this dude is the most hopeless romantic on the planet. And i stay faaaaaaaaarrrrrrr away from those dudes. It's why you'll never see me koppin Usher, Jaheim, Marques Houston or any other R&B nigga. I mean, first of all, their music is wack half the time, but even in cases like Usher, who can make OK music at times, the music is so overwhelmingly targeting woman that I there's no reason for a man to kop.

The thing about Pharrell is that his music is dope. And he has 7 hop trax that actually past the test. He's become a serviceable emcee...and i stress serviceable.

Either way, the production is magnificent. And he actually touches on a few topics of substance. As I've said before, dude is a favorite of mine, so he gets passes on certain things, such as his average singin skills. Ultimately, I can;t imagine a fan of black music pickin up this album and not being entertained, stunned at times even. Go kop.

-- (warning: the following might be pseudo-confessions) just thought it was interesting how some members of boy and girl-bands have grown up before our eyes. Timberlake has a track with Timberland that I bang in my whip, without fear of embarrassment, because its dope. He already shed a lot of those N-Sync garments after his first album. I'm not gonna come out an endorse dude, because 1.) he's a culture-vulture, and 2.) he's Justin Timberlake. But put it like this, if you ever catch my ipod on random, you're liable to hear some Timberlake.

I novel blogged about Omarion sometime ago. It happened after I heard "Touch" which might have been my favorite R&B song of 2005 (the list is not long, obviously). But he has a new joint. Another 80s sounding joint. A grown-up sound. Something I can see being played at 25-up lounge where me and some sweet-thang dance face-to-face. I'd put money on one of two things. Either 1.) Musiq wrote the song, or 2.) the song was originally written for Musiq. It sounds exactly like a typical Musiq track, which says a lot, becuase Soulchild is my nigga. (Speakin of which, can we get a Musiq album?).

Beyonce's new track w/Jay is hot, in my opinion. But she's established a track record of hot first singles, from "Work It Out" off the Austin Powers soundtrack to "Crazy In Love" off her first solo joint. Yall hear the bassline at the begginning of the track? Sounds a lot like "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" right?

And the most intriguing 0f all these is Lil Bow Wow. I've never seen a little kid rapper stay relevant -- and when I say relevant I mean in today's hop, whose relevance is a different animal than what I deem relevant. But the fact is, Bow Wow now turns up on grown men's songs as a guest rapper. That's kinda crazy to me. When I saw this dude droppin a cameo verse on a 36Mafia track, I was kinda thrown for a loop. And his verse -- once again, by today's standards -- wasn't bad. I think he's reached a level where you can play Bow Wow tracks at a club. That's kinda sayin a lot right there. When has that happened in hiphop before? When a lil kid rapper stayed in the game long enough to be considered a real artist (artist used in relative terms). Kriss Kross couldnt do it. Shyheim couldnt do it (though he's stayed in-n-out of jail). Da Youngsters couldnt do it (though one of the dudes is a hot producer these days). I mean, remember, lil Bow Wow was like 8 or 9 when he stepped on the scene and spit "Around here we pop them collas, around here we get them dollas." Question, though: You think he writes his own ryhmes now?

-- response to the Jazz Survivor Series innaugural email blast was overwhelming. I found out that my boy JB, an old DC co-worker from Canada, now wakes up to Wayne Shorter, after I put him on a few years ago. My lil cousin Maxine said she was inspired to go write poetry. I had several people ask how they can kop Walt's album. The energy is crazy. Feel free to forward me some email addresses of others you think would appreciate being added to the list. Like I said, I'm trying to start a movement. Let's do this.