Aguilerra?!

-- I went to a J Dilla tribute concert in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Good crowd. The spot where it was held, the Galapago Art Space, wasnt a bad venue. Pharoah Monch got on stage and performed a bunch of Dilla classics. Solid time.

The fact, tho, that Monch was the dude on stage paying homage to Dilla's legacy is an important thing to me. If you're gonna get an artist to lionize a dead-legend through inter[retations of their music, then the living artist should make sense. Monch made sense. He was on Dilla's posthumous The Shining, he's an underground legend and from (basically) the same school ya know?

But yesterday, we had Christina effin Aguilera singing "It's A Man's World" at the Grammy's. You all know how dearly I hold the Godfather of Soul. Along with Miles, he was THE artist of my childhood. And you also know how much i tend to despise Aguilera. I don't discredit her as a talent. She's a monster. glorious voice. a lil sass. and she's even pretty. i get all that. but she's a culture pirate and i hate that. When I think about it, this is exactly the type of stunt she and the Grammy's would pull...selecting that broad to showcase and perform a rendition of a James-great on the biggest televised music event of the year.

That would have been like Eminem being the host of the Dilla Tribute....nah, better yet, like Fergie doin the Dilla tribute.

I was literally INCENSE seeing Aguilerra trying to do James. I had a chemical reaction. That was, in effect, James' Grammy euology and they got some bimbo to do the honors. Here's a list of notable artist that would have not only been a better ideological choice, but more capable of capturing that soul..

Bilal, R Kelly, Bobby Brown (dont sleep, Bobby woulda killed it), Usher, Jill Scott, Mary J, Cee-lo, Beyonce, Cruchy Black fron Three 6 Maf...anyone.

I cant stand R Kelly, but he would have murdered that number.

Getting Christina to do that joint was like the NFL Hall of Fame selecting Billy Jean King to do the induction speech for a deceased great. King was a great athlete, but not the right person the gig.

Later in the show, during the montage dedicated to the recently deceased, they sorta made up for it with the "Night Train" intro, followed by Chris Brown doin hus thing and then Danny Ray coming out to put the cape over the mic stand as the lights dimmed. That ish got me emotional.