Competing for Love?

Reality TV is anything but reality these days. They need to change the name. We all know that most of the fights, eliminations and events are all staged and the only thing real about these shows often is the name of the cast members (well sometimes).

Flavor of Love, I Love New York, Tela Tequila, Rock of Love, Real Chance of Love, For the Love of Ray-J and every other "dating" show have a few things in common. Scantily-dressed women, egotistical men, stereotypical types of men and women? Sure, but not just that. The exploitation of the word "Love".

These shows seems to imply love is something you need to compete for, especially as women. None of them are looking for genuine true ever-lasting love on the show. If they wanted to keep it true to what it is they'd replace the word "love" with "lust".

Sometimes, as in the case of Miss New York and Tela Tequila, the female is the object of desire by several male contestants who want to be her man, but more common is females fighting over men. Does life imitate art or does art imitate life? Of course, calling these shows art is an insult, but in reality we do see women fighting amongst each other all the time and girls are starting to do it at an even earlier age. They're fighting each other, beating each other up and doing other vicisous things all over a boy. All in the name of love.

Should you really have to chase love? Should you have to prove you're the "best" woman for a man. Shouldn't he know that, or decide on his own? It kind of reminds me of the Mary J. Blige song, "I Can Love U", where she sings how she can love you better than "she can" while pining for a man who just doesn't want her the way she'd like. (Love the song though).

It just seems shows like these dating reality programs enforce the idea that men need a bevy of women to chose from, test them out, and then after some test drives he'll pick the one for him. Only, in these shows, there rarely are any genuine love connections made as after the show is over they aren't really a couple.

The cliche part is how these attractive women with these perfect bodies come on the show and the male then gets upset or surprised when he learns she's an aspiring model, singer or an ex-stripper or porn star. As Beyonce sings, "you got a big ego...."

However, for those who can't get enough of reality TV have some more coming their way when 2/3 of the Stallionaires return to your TV screens on August 3rd on Vh1 with Real Chance of Love 2. Let's hope at least Chance actually picks a woman this time.

Disclaimer: Not for nothing, I do watch reality TV from time to time. As a entertainment junkie it's my unspoken responsibility to know what's going on and who's who. Just don't agree with some of the stereotypes and behavior perpetuated.

Reflections of a Music Icon

On Sunday DnA Talk Radio broadcasted a show focusing on the aftermath of the death of Michael Jackson and some of the difficulties he faced throughout his long hit-filled career.
Like many people I was a fan. An unwavering fan who periodically got the urge every once in awhile to listen to some classic Michael Jackson. A fan who although the hit-machine days had declined as the King of Pop aged still valued his artistry. Despite all of the controversy that surrounded some of his days, Michael Jackson leaves an undeniable void in the living music icons category. With music these days in desperate need of someone with the talent to unite people as Michael did his death has now bumped him from King of Pop, to music legend.
With that said, here's the show.



Also mentioned on the show:

After 16 years of serving the masses as the leading publication focusing on hip-hop/r&b and contemporary urban culture and lifestyle, Vibe magazine announced Tuesday, June 30th that it would no longer produce the magazine or manage its web site vibe.com. The condition of the economy, print advertising decline, and the unstable music industry are some of the reasons by cited by former CEO, Steve Aaron of the folding of the publication. Click to read my blog reflecting on my experience as an intern at Vibe.

Pleasure P Aims to Please

Pleasure P's album came out a few weeks ago, and here's my take on it.

Those expecting former Pretty Ricky member Pleasure P's debut album to be drenched in riveting sexual explicitness and gyrating beats will discover something of a different flavor. In 2007, he announced his departure from the group and unlike artists who release music that is the reincarnation of the very sound that garnered their former group's success, Pleasure P is more calculated. Poised to distinguish himself post-teen R&B group fame he's here to introduce the real Marcus Cooper with a blueprint that has few traces of his Pretty Ricky days.

Introduction of Marcus Cooper is a solidly mature album as was foreshadowed when lead single, “Did You Wrong”, showed a young man sincerely singing to the woman he's had a rocky relationship with and wasn't of the borderline raunchy one-night stand caliber of some songs of today. Following the positive reception of his first single was the unapologetic, “Boyfriend #2, where he appears to have no qualms with serving as a “boyfriend on the side”; the single climbed up music charts and as of now, is his highest ranking single. Pleasure P showcases his mastery of the slow jam with songs like, “Let Me” and “Under”, but doesn't skimp on the sexual-themed or up-tempo songs like “Birthday Suit” and “Fire Lovin” – which is much expected by someone with a moniker like Pleasure P and who proclaims to be the “new bad boy of R&B”.

In an industry where featuring an overwhelming roster of artists on albums seems almost like a prerequisite for new artists (and sometimes, veterans) Introduction of Marcus Cooper's only collaborations are “I'm a Beast” featuring Yung Joc and a bonus track remix of “Boyfriend #2” with Flo Rida - after that, it's all ears on Pleasure P. A few of the men behind the scenes are the late Static Major who he attributes for giving him musical inspiration, Adonis, Cool and Dre, Rico Love and R&B singers Tank and Keith Sweat. The harmonious union between Pleasure P's voice and the production leaves little room for mismatched melodies and vocals on the album.

Introduction to Marcus Cooper makes a good first impression and officially catapults him into the ring with some favorite newer R&B heavyweights. With an album that possesses charisma and lures you in until the next strong delivery, Pleasure P pleases his first time around.

Never Can Say Goodbye

The Wall of Magazine Covers (this was only some of the many)

Taken at The old Vibe office location 215 Lexington Ave

A mixture of thoughts filled through me when I heard VIBE was closing its doors. First, I was in disbelief, thinking it was a rumor. The magazine industry along with newspapers has been suffering for awhile and while they may have been hit as well, I couldn't fathom a world without the magazine I'd been reading for nearly ten years. I recently had visited the new office in May while conducting an interview for an upcoming issue, learned about their new magazine, The Most Mag! and saw many familiar faces - happy many of them remembered me.

While the lives of those on staff are the most dramatically impacted by this sad news, it also hit me hard as a former intern of the publication (and several other former interns who have twittered about it or expressed sadness). I can recall being ecstatic that a magazine I'd been reading avidly since 13 would even pick me to be a fly on their wall as an intern but I was picked for Fall 2007. With very few classes that semester and on the brink of graduating it was the perfect ending to my time at Kean University. We were Shirea Carroll's first team of interns and were nervous but still eager to fulfill part of our dream of becoming music journalists. The semester was filled with hard work, lots of lessons, new opportunities and of course some mistakes, but it made us all stronger in the end and sad to leave the guidance of our intern coordinator Shirea and positive career model that Danyel Smith gave off with her mounts of success and always wise words of encouragement and well wishes. We also were surrounded by many other creative great minds on staff that influenced many of us and helped us cultivate our raw talent.

Besides the memories I'm sure many people have whether they worked there, used to worked there, freelanced, or just remember scooping a copy every week is the big question involving media. In my mind if the biggest, most popular urban magazine can fall, who is next?

It's like if you have a favorite table in your house that is so sturdy and one day a leg breaks off. If that can break, then there may not be much hope for anything else in the house. Amidst all the ominous news with the still dysfunctional economy, celebrity deaths, this was just the straw that has broken the camel's back for me.

As Danyel Smith once said on her podcast, Take it Personal that she does weekly with her husband, Elliot Wilson of Rap Radar and former Editor-in-Chief of XXL about the crumbling of print media she addressed journalistic integrity and who can you trust in media. Yes, we have news, gossip and blog sites, but many of those people are not journalists. Not to water down any passion they may have for media or entertainment, but there is a difference between someone with an interest and someone with a keen understanding of how to reach an audience, be biased at times and how to disagree with something without being disrespectful. Yes, journalists do blog, and some bloggers are journalists, but as great as the Internet is, anyone can hop on and pretend to be an expert.

The saddening part is that I've seen people comment on gossip and blog sites talking trash about certain magazines and hyping up gossip sites for their fast and easy news on celebrities. They often complain about magazines' content, the artists they cover and that the magazines are much thinner than before. Some of which may be true. However, do these people think that they may be part of the problem? The lower the sales the less money to fill it with content and the magazine has to make their money somehow so yes, it may be more ads. As far as the artists covered? Blame it on the audience, not the alcohol.

At the end of the day who is accountable? Do most of these sites have the artist or craft in mind or just a juicy story; sadly the later is most often the case. Do they actually choose their words wisely or just want to insult whatever or whoever they are talking about? Is there structure? Are they unbiased? Not to say none of these popular sites check their sources or that I don't go on these sites daily, but unlike the work that goes into fact checking magazines and reputable web sites anyone can feign it. I guess as someone who went to college to study journalism and at one point interned for Vibe and AllHipHop.com the idea of journalism is personal to me although I never had the opportunity to be a full-fledged journalist on a staff. All of this is constant reminder how our society is too obsessed with instant gratification only to be left empty handed at the end.

It's sad to see a staple in entertainment industry leave, but I wish everyone luck and show love top my FA '07 intern crew, Miryam, Claire, Guerdley, Emmanuel, Desiree, Natalie and Sabrina.
Here's a few covers: the first issue I helped work on as an intern, an issue I contributed to, and a few random others

Do You Remember the Time? Michael Jackson Best Music Videos

Any Michael Jackson song made between the early 80s' to early 90s' can most likely be labeled a pop classic. While some of those songs are bona fide stamps of his talent, he's also had amazingly creative music video concepts which always told us a short story. Here are my favorite Michael Jackson videos.

Note: Due to embedding disabled on all Michael Jackson videos on Youtube the link to each video is in the title of each song.



Thriller(1983) - "Thriller" still has never been topped as far as popularity, humor, and overall entertainment. I mean who can beat a vintage Michael Jackson in his prime sporting a red jacket, piping an addictive chorus with a jolt of fear as ghouls strut along with him? This is the number one video.


Remember The Time(1992) - Featuring an all-star cast of Iman, Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson I've always loved the imagery of this video. The ancient Egyptian inspired royalty concept combined with special effects is what makes this one of his best music videos of all time. Michael serenades Iman as he mysteriously disappears from the guards who want to get him away from the beautiful Queen. He turns into dust and shows off some of his best dance moves since "Thriller".


Scream(1995) - No one expected the pleasant surprise in 1995 of Michael teaming up with his baby sister Janet for the energy infused musical explosion that was "Scream". Expressing their outrage of being constantly in the news and hunted by the press and paparazzi they came together for this instant smash single. The best part of the video is when they breakdown and start dancing in unison. Both happened to be in the midst of their pop icon peak when "Scream" broke through to the top 5 on r&b, pop and dance charts.


Earth Song(1995) - The video depicting the human destruction of the environment, poverty and war is one of Michael's most underrated music videos. Obviously more serious than his usual dance hits it featured good visuals and made more of an action statement than some of his other videos.

You Rock My World(2001) This song had a short time span on radio play and while wasn't one of his solid classics it was a good comeback nonetheless. In 2001 he wanted to remind us he could still rock our world with his a catchy hook and a song bursting with flirtation as this admonition of being attracted to a special lady is reminiscent of "The Way You Make Me Feel", and "Do You Remember the Time".
The video adds a little humor with him checking out a woman with funnyman, Chris Tucker before he belts out into song and dance. In classic Michael Jackson protocol he made sure this music video showed more like a mini movie than just your typical run of the mil video.

Leave Me Alone (1987) Michael Jackson was bashing the paparazzi way before Scream where in 1987 in an eccentric video featuring a roller coaster ride (one can link to the ups and downs that would soon be Michael Jackson's career) he features Bubbles the chimp, himself dancing alongside a skeleton and riding on a small plane as he told the public to "just stop dogging me around"

Billie Jean (1982) - Simple video, but still caught your attention. Jackson proclaims innocence in a song where he repeats "but the kid not being my son" The mysterious former love interest "Billie Jean" makes no appearance in the video as Michael avoids a reporter hot on his trail. He shows off signature moves as he steps from place to place with each spot lighting up.

This video also exposed the world to the "moonwalk", a dance that wasn't entirely his but one that he altered to immortalize into his own. Despite proven fame in the music business the CBS president at the time, still had to threaten MTV with prohibiting some of their popular rock(white acts) from being played on MTV unless they showed "Billie Jean". He became the first black artist played on MTV.

After the radio show, it's the after party....

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
Today we had our second guest, Nafiys "IModel" Blakewood, former cast member of BET's College Hill, season 2 on the show . If you take a trip down memory lane, you'll remember his season the most as the one with "Jon", the wild guy liked to run around naked and with Peaches who caught heat for throwing Jon in the fire (pun intended). Nafiys breaks down why he believes his season was blackballed after its run on BET with no reunions and no invites to any events, what went on behind the scenes, the importance of twitter, modeling, and why he'd be a good match for Miss New York.
(SCROLL DOWN FOR AUDIO OF THE SHOW)



To see more of IModel visit:

www.mrblakewood.com
www.twitter.com/imodel


On the big screen, Alicia recommends seeing - Star Trek and Dance Flick

IN WEIRD AND STRANGE NEWS
Don't Be Surprised if They Ask Where The Cash At! - The European teen who auctioned her virginity for 14,000 apparently owes the German government a cut

You Bee Serious? - Thousands of bees surrounded a NYC Game Stop for hours trapping workers


WHO'S ON TOP OF THE R&B/HIP HOP WORLD
Top 10 R&B/Hip Hop Albums


Also, for commentary on celebrity news check Toni's youtube vlog at:

www.youtube.com/shortisparkle
and be sure to follow http://twitter.com/albyoungmogul one of the most motivated industry go-getters around

And thanks to all who listened! Your feedback is always much appreciated!


WWW.DNATALKRADIO.COM

Reebok Re-up

The more things change the more they stay the same. Some styles and brands stay relevant generation after generation. Everyone has owned a pair of Reebok classics at one point or another (Adidas, too. But that's another blog post for another day). Sure, yours may have been the original white or black ones and now they're showcased in shoe store displays in neon green, pink, yellow, purple and a bunch of other loud colors, but when they called them Reebok Classics I think they were on to something. Atlanta's B.O.B's is just one of the artists featured in Reebok's Classic Remix Collection, which has paired up some of the newwer innovative music artists with a classic song from the 80s with the release of a new shoe. Kidz in the Hall and Kid Sister have also been featured on the campaign with their versions of, "I'll House You" and "I Got it Made". B.O.B's remake won't officially be released until May19th, but here's a sneak peak behind the scenes.

B.O.B. Reebok Classic Remix 30 Sec. Video Spot from reebokclassicremix on Vimeo.