1 Epic Song, 3 Epic Man and 2 Pianos

For the 25th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Anniversary show Stevie Wonder and John Legend performed Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel. It's one of my favorite Michael Jackson songs and then you throw in the epic Stevie Wonder with my number one favorite male singer...wooah. The things that bugged me were that it seemed like Stevie forgot the words and John didn't really sing. But check it out.

So Much Fun in the Music World

Yesterday was a fun day in the world of music. It was the perfect day at Syracuse for a music lover like me. The day started off with Juice Jam and ended with the VMAs....oh and one more announcement.
This year Juice Jam brought in The Cool Kids, Jack's Mannequin and Girl Talk...a pretty solid line up. I would like to applaud the organizers except the order of performance. Who starts off with The Cool Kids??? My line up would have been Jack, Kids, Girl Talk. The Cool Kids were awesome and then you get Jack's Mannequin up there singing about emo stuff and I wanted to slit my wrists....not an action before I want to jump up and down for Girl Talk. C'mon Organizers!!!!
I understand that Jack's Mannequin may have a bigger following than the Cool Kids but the order of energy just doesn't mash well. I was so depressed that I left even before Girl Talk got on stage. Probably a poor decision on my part, but I just wasn't feeling it. It's a good thing I've seen him before, but it would've been nice to see him again....oh well.
The thing that did make it all worthwhile was meeting the Cool Kids. They're mad chill. So here's the story:
So after the performance my friend Edwin and I walked over to the fence and I was like I should just yell and see if he'll [Chuck] will come over, so I yelped out this puney scream of "Chuck" and Edwin said C'mon I know you can do better and I refused so he yelled and Chuck actually looked over and motioned to us....ah-mazing!
So Chuck comes over and I tell him I'm the girl who tweeted him the night before about going to Chucks and he was like "so you're that girl." Saying it in a weird tone and I responded "Yeah, I guess I'm that girl." So were just chatting, we take a photo and then a crowd starts to form. We could tell Chuck was a little peeved, but he was chill about it. After a good 10 minutes of craziness, Mikey came out to the crowd. So Edwin and I are just chillin there and letting the crazy people take their photos and this cracked-out-girl says "What's his [Mikey] him?" and I bluntly say, " Are you serious?!? He just did a whole song about who he is and what his name is!" she says, "oh i must have missed that!" After another 10 minutes we finally talked to Mikey..told him about chandelier. Too bad they we're leaving by 5 or I think we could've gotten them to chill with us.


Needless to say the crowd was crazy and it wore me out. At least I got to rest before the madness of the VMAs.
OHh the Kanye incident, Lady Gaga trying to prove she's not a guy with her outfit, Lil Mama ruining the ending, Hov and Alicia Key's awesome performance, and we must not forget the awesome MJ tribute that almost made me cry...I'm trying to stay strong here. If you didn't watch the VMAs catch some clips at mtv.com. It's one of the only music things MTV shows now so I feel like it's necessary to give it a watch.

OH and the announcement!!! John Legend is coming to Cuse on the 23rd to speak about his Show Me campaign. He responded to me on twitter last night and I went crazy...I'm that big of a fan. So look out for more info on that.

Song of the Day: "It's Over"

I'm a big lover of John Legend and then he threw in Kanye and it was a match made in heaven for my little ears. Not the most cheery song, but there are many things that are over for me right now so I thought I'd pick for today. I love Kanye's verse...sooo good with a little bit of humor. "We lost the four leaf clover."

new song and battle numero 2

So a week ago I saw that John Legend has a new song out. It's called "Lay Your Head Down." At first I didn't know if I liked it, but I've listened to it over and over again and I've decided I do like it. I know one of my friends doesn't like it but I don't give a shit. I think it's the romantic in me. The lyrics are dreamy and combined with his voice...it just makes me swoon. I also like the strings and drums in the background. It's like a throw back to the old love songs...and in my view, you can't go wrong with that. I think you can listen/ download it here (let me know if it doesn't work).

Battle 2: Charles Hamilton and Wale. (I'm not going to go into the analyticalness--yeah i just made that word up. Deal with it)

Charles Hamilton (21, according to wiki) is from the good city of Cleveland. He loves Sonic the hedgehog and is a fan of the color pink. He was known as a producer before his current status of being a rapper. He makes beats of course, can play the piano (really well from what I can tell), and in my opinion has a different style of rapping. His first mainstream big popular song is "Brooklyn Girls," but he has sooooo many mixtapes out there so I wouldn't be surprised if there are other known songs out there. Just so you know, I'm basing this post from listening to the mixtapes: "Every Charles Hamilton's Ex-girlfriend's Worst Nightmare" and "Well Isn't This Awkward."  He's different from what's out there right now because he raps more with a speaking style like the old days. The things that bother me the most are that his voice can get pretty monotone and he samples a lot. And when I say a lot, I really mean a lot. (lots of Kanye and Rihanna for some reasons---even though he admits to having a celeb crush on Rihanna)

In his ex-girlfriend mixtape, he definitely makes it a nightmare for the girls. He doesn't leave out details. If I were any of those girls I would be pissed....especially Toya and Esperanza. Listen and you'll understand.

My favorite tracks (on Awkward mixtape) are Scorpion and Neverland.I also like Pleasant Overthinking, but I don't know what mixtape that's on.

So I'm done with him. Check out his blog too. He gives a good insight into what it's like to be in the studio a lot, balancing relationships, and little notes about what else is going on in his music world.

Wale(24, according to wiki) is from DC and likes people to know it. In 2006, Fader wrote about him, and that usually means he's up and coming. I get a feeling that 2007 was the big year for him. He was signed to Mark Ronson's Allido Records, was featured in other big magazines, and was on MTV. The two mixtapes that I listened to were "100 miles and Running" and "Mixtape About Nothing." All around I think he's a really smart rapper. He doesn't just rap about cars, sex, money, and hoes. For the first mixtape, I got an all around feel that he definitely focuses on the lyrics. I also appreciate that he's kinda chill and he uses actual instruments for his beats. If he just uses synthesizers then wooow did he trick me. There's keyboard, guitars, and drums. I would like to steal a word from him and just say, the music gives eargasms...haha The songs that stuck out to me were "Good Girls" because it's just funny, "Smile Remix" because I am a fan of the Lily Allen version and his remix is a hilarious add on to it, and lastly "The People" because it's just smart. The one thing I don't like is all the shout outs...save that for a cd pamphlet or something.

The second mixtape definitely shows that he has a wide range of talent. It's totally different from the other one. The sound bits from Seinfeld are a lil weird but somehow they actually tie in. The song I most liked was "manipulation." It's great and then somewhere around 3:50 he apoogizes for what he just rapped about but in a hilarious way... "bitch pick the right mothafucka." 

Listen to these mixtapes here and here. He also has a lot of other mixtapes. So go check em out.

Ok so i'm done since I'm actually sitting in class right now and I'm probably wasting thousands of dollars because i'm not focusing..haha.

Come back and read tomorrow's blog. I'm pretty excited about it.

Great Conversation

Right now I have this urge to write even though I have a lot of reading to do for a class, but seeing as I'm freezing, tired, and a little lazy, I'm definitely going to write about something other than what I intended to write about today. Last night I had some great words with a friend and I thought I'd enlighten everyone. ha

First, I would just like to reflect on the coldness of Syracuse right now. It is brick outside. I whipped out my real winter jacket and if you know me that is just unheard of. I would just like to reflect on songs that are about coldness for a bit.

1. It's Cold Outside- good ole bing. If you pay attention to the lyrics it definitely is about rape or it alludes to it.

2.Refuge (When It's Cold Outside)- my lover john. :) Now I'd be happy if he sang this to me especially since it's always cold here.

3. Coldest Winter- Kanye. I know he's not literally saying it's cold out, but I'm a Kanye fan so I had to reference it.

4. Cold Beverage- G. Love. Sometimes cold things are ok...like a nice drink.

5. In the Cold, Cold Night- White Stripes. 

6.Cold as Ice- Foreigner. Oh what a great old rock song.

OK done with that randomness. Onto my great convo.

First topic: Grey Album

So my friend was downloading jaydiohead, thanks to this blog, and was like hey you remember the grey album? And i was like oh my goodness I totally forgot about it, but yes. (Now that just sounds ridiculous because of the "likes" but it was a brief moment of epiphany) I think I may like jaydiohead a little more, but one can never go wrong with the beatles and jay-z so the grey album is definitely still good. You should listen to it if you haven't because DJ Danger Mouse and the jaydiohead guy used some same songs to make their beautiful or eargasmic , as some would say, combinations.

Second topic: The Roots Rising Down album

Definitely a good cd. Wale (who I intended to post about today but was too lazy to go into detail about) is featured on one of the songs and I definitely didn't realize it. Also check out "Birthday Girl." It's kinda creepy, but catchy at the same time.

Third topic: Kanye

So I was asked about my opinion of Kanye. And the convo went like this (hopefully you don't mind me posting this, if not let me know and I'll just paraphrase):

kt: i personally kinda love him. I think the whole thing about auto-tune is a lil crazy because he can't sing but it really didn't help him. i think his lyrics are genius and he's definitely a great producer

the more i read about him too i feel like he's changed a lot

and i feel like i understand more about his rashness of ego

j:really?

kt:i'm not saying he's the best out there

but he's good

j:i miss him

i want collge dropout and late registration kanye back

graduation was...ok

but not up to par with the previous two

kt:this is true

he's definitely trying to evolve more with culture though

like right now i feel like people want r&b

j:yea i get that, but damn, start rapping again

why do you think people want more r&b these days?

kt:i dunno man. i just have that inner feeling. People are more and more about sex and r&b is like damn i can play that will gettin it in. it's like goin back to the days of boyz II men

but then you do have more rappers coming out that do both so there is hope

j:that makes sense

total sense

but i really hope rap comes back like it was

r&b is cool, but everybody is gonna try to do it

a lot of people tried to rap

and the bad rappers, just got shunned, cuz people know its bad

but for some reason

when someone who cant sing, tries to sing

kt: people love it

everyone loves it.

kt:and i want to slap them

meee tooooo

So there's some of my great convo. Then I had abruptly had to go take pictures..ughh. Totally ruined the moment. Hope everyone is having a great day and if you're somewhere where it's cold, I feel for you. Get some hot cocoa, lay in bed, and listen to some good ole music.

Set the Mood

In the words of Justin Timberlake, "Let me set the mood right, oooh ooh. Cause I'm gonna make you feel alright.Oooh ooooh" You may think I'm going to write about setting the mood for some baby making, but this is not that case. 

I'm talking about how which music is being played can drastically change my mood. Have you ever been to a party and your having a great time and then some horrible song comes on and you just can't function because of it? Definitely happens all the time when you're at frat parties. Last night I was at a bowling alley and they were playing some throwbacks like cyndi lauper, michael jackson, and those unknown bands but their songs rock. It made me soooo happy. 

What I'm trying to say is that music usually is able to set me in the right kind of mood. If it's rainy, like it is right now in good ole Cuse,  I listen to some John Legend, Joss Stone, or stuff that I can just sing along with or relax to. If I'm about to go out, I listen to lively stuff like mondotek or rap. When I'm pissed I listen to everything to try to get me happy again. When I'm heart broken, I listen to Kanye. 

Then there's those times when music can't even make me happy. That's just seems blasphemous since I love music so much, but sometimes things just suck balls.

So my request from you is to help me find that music to bring me out of those dark times..haha That sounds so dramatic but I want some enlightenment into what music helps people out of their lowly times.