Fans of Mos Def and Erykah Badu got a fantastic treat at the Hollywood Palladium recently with performances by headliner Mos Def and by the almost legendary Erykah Badu.
Of course, they had to wait for it, as the sold-out show ran almost 2 hours late at one point. This was probably caused in part by one unknown rapper who took the stage at the time that artist Jay Electronica was supposed to begin. He showed up, rapped, and walked off - no name, no lights no nothing.
Opener Jay Electronica was quite simply a waste of time, with a disjointed show, decent raps but generally a boring presentation end-to-end, rife with cliches and a dash of too much jack, which you could smell from the first two rows.
Erykah Badu presented another fantastic performance, although less eclectic in the costuming than past performances. Her backing "band" called the Cannabinoids were funny in presentation, giving each man a character personality which was quite humorous. Technofiles would love this performance, as Badu was backed by no less than eight laptops and five keyboards (no real instruments were used in the making of this concert) - all Macs with one HP.
Our favorite performance was definitely the Badu version of NWA's Gangsta Gangsta.
Mos Def did a decent performance. Wasn't great, wasn't good. But was just too, too late, as his show was scheduled to end at midnight, yet didn't even start at midnight. We didn't stay for his two hour performance, but you find this kind of lazy showrunning at many hip-hop shows, which, we believe, is a complete condesending act against the fans and audience.
Who cares, right? He already got your money.
On the web:
Mos Def
Erykah Badu
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Why Ellen DeGeneres Was The Right Choice
It's very simple really - American Idol is not about music. Hasn't been for years. So logically, their judges would not be about music. So Ellen, will not only garner increased ratings, it will also make AI gay-friendly, gay-safe.
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if AI's winner this year was openly gay, either.
Not like there's any evidence anywhere that AI is fixed or anything...
But look at the facts of the matter: AI is a heavy, heavy branding machine, heavy marketing machine. The musical guests all are people looking to sell something. Notice that with each musical guest or judge who had come on, they all, all had an album, CD, track, tv show or something to sell that was either new or out for a while and not doing well. With lifestyle brands like Coke, AT&T and Ford, the show is one clinic in integrated branding and commercials within commercials, rather than a singing competition.
By way of comparison, do you really think that Nick Cannon got the hosting gig on America's Got Talent because of his mastery of pronunciation of the English language and his devastating charm? ...or is it because for what he's really know as - Nick Carey...
AI needs to stem the season-after-season ratings fall of the show, so a change is in order. AI is also seen as very conservative, anti-gay. So this is the perfect solution to both problems. AI will get a ratings boost, seem gay friendly, and all will be right with the world.
Look at the other new judge - DioGuardi walked in and essentially pushed Abdul out. Yet DioGuardi is a failed performer. She has no idea what it's like to helm a headlining show. She's also NOT the songwriter she claims to be, evidenced by the fact that her AI song was so bad they pulled it from the concert lineup and it is the lowest selling single to date. Her songwriting "success" was completely by the other songwriters who actually wrote the song, and gave her a percentage credit. She's milked it as much as one could do to her credit.
Any music industry professional can tell you stories as to how shady songwriting credits are and who actually writes songs versus who gets credit for writing songs.
So essentially you have one legit label guy, one legit producer guy, and you had one legit talent. Now you have a fake talent with a tremendous ego, and one comedian, who has no experience at all in the music business. And the show will go on because Ellen is homogenous enough to keep the folks in the midwest happy, minus the drug allegations. She's the right choice because you don't really care about music anyway and they know that.
Yeah, AI will be fine. You'll watch. You won't complain. They'll all get paid. You will still struggle. And that's the way it works - because you won't stop watching, and they know it.
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if AI's winner this year was openly gay, either.
Not like there's any evidence anywhere that AI is fixed or anything...
But look at the facts of the matter: AI is a heavy, heavy branding machine, heavy marketing machine. The musical guests all are people looking to sell something. Notice that with each musical guest or judge who had come on, they all, all had an album, CD, track, tv show or something to sell that was either new or out for a while and not doing well. With lifestyle brands like Coke, AT&T and Ford, the show is one clinic in integrated branding and commercials within commercials, rather than a singing competition.
By way of comparison, do you really think that Nick Cannon got the hosting gig on America's Got Talent because of his mastery of pronunciation of the English language and his devastating charm? ...or is it because for what he's really know as - Nick Carey...
AI needs to stem the season-after-season ratings fall of the show, so a change is in order. AI is also seen as very conservative, anti-gay. So this is the perfect solution to both problems. AI will get a ratings boost, seem gay friendly, and all will be right with the world.
Look at the other new judge - DioGuardi walked in and essentially pushed Abdul out. Yet DioGuardi is a failed performer. She has no idea what it's like to helm a headlining show. She's also NOT the songwriter she claims to be, evidenced by the fact that her AI song was so bad they pulled it from the concert lineup and it is the lowest selling single to date. Her songwriting "success" was completely by the other songwriters who actually wrote the song, and gave her a percentage credit. She's milked it as much as one could do to her credit.
Any music industry professional can tell you stories as to how shady songwriting credits are and who actually writes songs versus who gets credit for writing songs.
So essentially you have one legit label guy, one legit producer guy, and you had one legit talent. Now you have a fake talent with a tremendous ego, and one comedian, who has no experience at all in the music business. And the show will go on because Ellen is homogenous enough to keep the folks in the midwest happy, minus the drug allegations. She's the right choice because you don't really care about music anyway and they know that.
Yeah, AI will be fine. You'll watch. You won't complain. They'll all get paid. You will still struggle. And that's the way it works - because you won't stop watching, and they know it.
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