The 53rd Grammy Awards

The Grammys are upon us again and the internet is buzzing not only about who was nominated, but also with who was snubbed and why, along with who shouldn’t have made the list but did. But in exactly 16 days, the whole world would know who amongst the hoard of nominees got one of the coveted gramophone looking thingys .

Whilst reviewing the list of nominees, I noticed a number of unexpected nominees, some snubbed potentials and some really old songs made the list and I  am even more suspicious now than ever as to how this whole Grammy thing works.

  First off, why didn’t Nicki Minaj and Bruno Mars get nominated for best new artist? Well apparently their albums dropped after the cutoff date which is Sept 30th.which if you ask me is a silly rule but I’m guessing that would change pretty soon

  Another raised eyebrow for me was the best female RnB vocal performance; The whole list stinks Faith Evans? Fantasia? Kelly price? smh would be interesting to see who wins that one but what do i know! Remember in the land of the blind the one eyed man is the king.

  The fact that Fantasia has 3 nominations i would never understand. All I can remember her for last year was attempted suicide over some other woman’s man. So i am guessing you get a Grammy nod if experience some tragic shit; remember Jennifer Hudson?

 In other news,  what jayz's blue print 3 is doing on the list. With 6 nominations for that matter. Bear in mind that his album dropped before the dead line last year (Sept 8 2009). Not to say i didn’t like Empire state of mind but im sure its not on your playlist at the moment.

  Our dear egotistical Kanye’s near perfect album wasn’t nominated at all. Don’t get mad though, he didn’t make the cutoff. So when you see My beautiful dark twisted fantasy all over the Grammys next year (despite being played out) don’t be surprised

 Not one Nigerian was nominated for the Best contemporary world music album category, which was really sad, maybe Asa would make the cut next year but till then I would be rooting for Angelique Kidjo’s “OYO”

  Who else you say? How about Kid cudi? (pursuit of happiness) I’m guessing doing so much drugs doesn’t make you a favorite. How about ke$ha? Maybe she needs to shower and do some grooming to get on the list. Christina Aguilera (Bionic) was shunned – Not surprisingly though. Even her movie burlesque was shunned at the Oscars

 As for performances, Cee-lo greens F*** you would be interesting to watch and I am sure swarm of pre-teens out there would be looking forward to Willow Smith, Usher and Justin Bieber performing together

S.N: It’s funny how despite all the drama, no one has pulled a "Dream" on us yet (remember his rant on twitter last year when he was snubbed)

 Check out the list of 2011 Grammy nominees below and let us know which of these surprised you the most.

SONG OF THE YEAR

“Beg Steal Or Borrow” – Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs

“Forget You” (aka “F**k You”) – Cee Lo Green

“The House That Built Me”- Miranda Lambert

“Love The Way You Lie” – Eminem feat. Rihanna

“Need You Now” – Lady Antebellum

BEST NEW ARTIST

Justin Bieber

Drake

Florence + The Machine

Mumford & Sons

Esperanza Spalding

RECORD OF THE YEAR

“Nothin’ On You” – B.o.B feat. Bruno Mars

“Love The Way You Lie” – Eminem feat. Rihanna

“Forget You” (aka “Fuck You”) – Cee Lo Green

“Empire State Of Mind” – Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys

“Need You Now” – Lady Antebellum

BEST RAP SONG

“Empire State Of Mind” – Shawn Carter, Angela Hunte, Burt Keyes, Alicia Keys, Jane’t “Jnay” Sewell-Ulepic & Alexander Shuckburgh, songwriters (Sylvia Robinson, songwriter) (Jay-Z & Alicia Keys)

“Love The Way You Lie” – Alexander Grant, Skylar Grey & Marshall Mathers, songwriters (Eminem & Rihanna)

“Not Afraid” – M. Burnett, J. Evans, Marshall Mathers, L. Resto & M. Samuels, songwriters (Eminem)

“Nothin’ On You” – Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine, Bruno Mars & Bobby Simmons Jr., songwriters (B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars)

“On To The Next One” – Shawn Carter, J. Chaton & K. Dean, songwriters (G. Auge & X. De Rosnay, songwriters) (Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz)

BEST RAP ALBUM

The Adventures Of Bobby Ray, B.o.B

Thank Me Later, Drake

Recovery, Eminem

The Blueprint 3, Jay-Z

How I Got Over, The Roots

BEST MALE R&B VOCAL PERFORMANCE

“Second Chance” – El DeBarge

“Finding My Way Back” – Jaheim

“Why Would You Stay” – Kem

“We’re Still Friends” – (Kirk Whalum &) Musiq Soulchild

“There Goes My Baby” – Usher

BEST R&B PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP

“Take My Time” – Chris Brown & Tank

“Love” — Chuck Brown, Jill Scott & Marcus Miller

“You’ve Got A Friend” – Ronald Isley & Aretha Franklin

“Shine” – John Legend & The Roots

“Soldier Of Love” – Sade

BEST RAP SOLO PERFORMANCE

“Over” – Drake

“Not Afraid” – Eminem

“How Low” – Ludacris

“I’m Back” – T.I.

“Power” – Kanye West

BEST RAP/SUNG COLLABORATION

“Nothin’ On You” – B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars

“Deuces” – Chris Brown, Tyga & Kevin McCall

“Love The Way You Lie” – Eminem & Rihanna

“Empire State Of Mind” – Jay-Z & Alicia Keys

“Wake Up! Everybody” – John Legend, The Roots, Melanie Fiona & Common

BEST FEMALE R&B VOCAL PERFORMANCE

“Gone Already” – Faith Evans

“Bittersweet” – Fantasia

“Everything To Me” – Monica

“Tired” – Kelly Price

“Holding You Down (Going In Circles)” – Jazmine Sullivan

BEST POP COLLABORATION WITH VOCALS

“Airplanes II” – B.o.B, Eminem & Hayley Williams

“Imagine” – Herbie Hancock, Pink, India.Arie, Seal, Konono No. 1, Jeff Beck & Oumou Sangare

“If It Wasn’t For Bad” – Elton John & Leon Russell

“Telephone” – Lady Gaga & Beyoncé

“California Gurls” – Katy Perry & Snoop Dog

BEST MALE POP VOCAL PERFORMANCE

“Haven’t Met You Yet” – Michael Bublé

“This Is It” – Michael Jackson

“Whataya Want From Me” – Adam Lambert

“Just The Way You Are” – Bruno Mars

“Half Of My Heart” – John Mayer

For the full list of nominees, click here

Angry Uncle Monye Vol. 1

A couple of things you should know about me: I am a frustrated angry man, I feel like the whole world is crazy and i am the only sane person and lastly, everything pisses me off...and I mean everything

Last weekend, I took a day off work to try and get registered on the whole INEC registration bit(for some reason I can't explain I seriously want to vote, even though I know it won't count) so here I'm on the queue then this woman comes by she is told there is a queue and she starts making a whole lot of noise about her being old and that the youths have no respect, and that she is too old to join a queue and a lot of other gibberish, eventually she jumps the queue. What’s even more mind boggling is that this supposedly old lady would not be more than 50 years old.

I stood on the queue in shock when the "old" lady actually registered before me and after 2 more people the INEC Officials/youth corpers say "the machine is down". I would like to point out though that this machine is a laptop all be it cheap a zinox one. For whatever sentimental or should i say "eye service" reason the low budget computer by Leo stan ekeh was picked to do such an important job. Let’s be honest, how many of us have ever seen a Zinox computer talk less of owning one? One word comes to mind.... SENTIMENTS. In my country Nigeria, we have come to put sentiments into everything we do and that's reason why we are still stagnant and will not move forward. Religious sentiments, political sentiments, business sentiments, family sentiments and the list goes on!

  I once borrowed my brother some money for business, and by principle i had him sign a letter stating when and how the money would be repaid, when i had him arrested for failure to pay back the money he owned me, the rest of the family said i was a bad person.

How am i supposed to survive if every one of my family members knows that if they borrow money from me they don’t have to pay back? What’s worse is, if i say i don’t want to lend anyone money, i would be labeled selfish. So here i am without my money and compelled to lend some more out, all thanks to SENTIMENTS

  I remember a little while ago, I went for a conference at ijebu ode, it was one of those long, boring and tiring ones, I was glad when it was all over and so I began the journey back home. After such a long day, i can't wait to get home, have a cold shower, sip on my favorite beer and finally get some sleep. But that is not to be as there is heavy traffic on "LAGOS - IBADAN EXPRESS WAY" that is a major road, as in a major road in my dear country Nigeria. After 4 hours in this slow moving traffic and my beat up Mitsubishi lancer on the verge of overheating I finally get to see what's causing the traffic and I find out that's its Churches along the road that's causing the traffic, as a couple of them have got programs/crusade/healing seminars that weekend.

I find it appalling that the government has refused to do something about this situation, for crying out loud this is a major road and a lot of commuters use this road, business men, trucks carrying goods and others. The only reason I see the government throwing a blind eyes to this is due to SETIMENTS.

Way back when Fela (one of the greatest musicians to have lived)  was alive, several  times the Government would go and lock up the premises where he performed popularly known as " African Shrine" and their excuse was that it was causing a nuisance and was a menace to the society.

Truth be told, these so called churches are a menace to the COUNTRY when they have their activities and decide to block the whole highway and the government turning a blind eyes to this just shows how much SENTIMENTS is being traded in for the right thing to do. Looking at it from another perspective, even if the government won't do anything about this, is it not common sense that the people in charge of these churches should do something about the problems they are causing other people. I mean, I love God like the next man does, but I don’t think Jesus had his meetings or the feeding of the 5 thousand on Pontius Pilate Highway

Right by my house is this Mosque, and every morning at 5am unfailingly, they wake me up and i all but want to blow my brains out. What’s a mosque doing right beside my house for Pete’s sake? I decide to bring this up at the Residents association meeting and i have been ostracized ever since. Not to mention there’s a church on the left side of my building now so i am smack in the middle of 2 religions. How am i even supposed to know which to follow?

 One can’t even say what’s on his mind for fear of being labeled a bad person. So here i am being forced to suffer in silence and being judged for my opinions - Uncle Monye

M.I.2 - The Movie (Late review)

So, M.I's MI 2 - The movie dropped last year and I know I should have done a review of this already, but I just started my blog naaa!

 Anyways, MI 2 was high on my list of anticipated albums and I can boldly say I was amongst one of the first people to buy the album online.

  As soon as the download was done I transferred the album to my iPod and I was ready to be blown away by the short black boi and honestly I was not disappointed

 The album was a perfect blend of hardcore and commercial rap with an aim to convert ordinary folks who don’t normally listen to rap

  M.I.2 was packed with so many good tracks and some really surprising but superb features. Who would have thought M.I would do a song with timaya and that it would be that good or a Hi-life themed hip-hop song would be one of the albums high points

From the energetic “Action” with the ever impressive Brymo killing the hook, followed by the mellow ragga-themed “slow down” to the palm-winey “Number one” all the way to the “Beef” track then the romantic “one naira” with Waje and a host of others, it’s obvious that a lot of planning went into the album, which is particularly evident in the momentum of the album in itself. Heck! it took 2 years in the making

Stand out tracks include "Epic" feat praise, "Action film", "Number one" feat flavor, "Represent" feat choc Boys, "One Naira" feat waje, "Nobody" feat Tuface and "Beef".

  One thing that frustrated me a little on the album was the skits/end of song outro things. There were about 8 of them. Some of you might not understand how annoying that is; till you try playing the whole album while you drive or you just want to hear music and not all the talk talk. Don’t get me wrong it’s cool when you first listen to the album but over time it’s a little annoying. With all the fake accents and the "lets kill M.I" drama

I am guessing that was what Kelly hansome meant when he said the album sounded like a mixtape

  All in all I think it was an awesome album, despite the fact that it doesn't come close to his debut. MI2 was targeted to a larger population of music listeners rather than just hip hop heads. The album succeeded in raising the bar high for all other rap albums and I can imagine a lot of rappers going back to the drawing board

Thumbs up M.I!

 SN: Did you notice MI called out Iceberg slim twice on the album? Should we be expecting another reply-a-la hansome?

BEAUTIFUL IMPERFECTION

Artiste: Aṣa (pronounced "Asha")

Album: Beautiful Imperfection

Original Release Date: October 25, 2010

Genres: Soul, jazz

Label: Naive

Production: Benjamin Constant

 It’s a quiet morning and I am sitting in my favorite coffee shop in all the land and I just got some loose change in my PayPal account so I decide to purchase an album and I decide on Asa.

 I know some people would say "since morring??" well I am slow like that sometimes.

    First thing that stands out on this album is the album artwork, the simplistic nature of it all just a close up of her face and the natural hair is classic and i love the album already..

 Although i am suspicious of one eye cracked glasses *hmmmm* you know the whole illuminati thing..but what do i care!

  As i go on to listen to the album you get   a different sound and feel of Asa as an artiste and you can’t help but notice how distinct this album is from her previous one.

My beautiful imperfection, is a slow, calming float through the waters of Asa's relationships and experiences with people and believe me when I say slow and calming!

  It would seem like being signed to a foreign label for a long time is finally starting to change the kind of music she puts out. There’s a sort of retro/rock/soulish  feel to this album that is blatantly European regardless of the Yoruba songs on the album and you can’t help but wonder if its  targeted at a different market altogether.

 In a world where number of units moved is more important to the average artiste than anything else it is great to hear an album with absolutely no features at all and i respect that about this album.

  The album has 4 Yoruba themed songs and the others are in English but you still get that Yoruba accented soul type voice and I am loving it.

I would have loved to see a few tracks on here produced by Cobhams (the chemistry between those two is amazing) , but you cannot deny that Benjamin Constant did a fantastic job and I would be on the lookout for more songs produced by him

   I would be the first to admit that this album does not compare to her debut album but realistically, how many artistes can eclipse their debut albums anyway? Our very own 9ice is still struggling at it. M.I couldn’t do it and the list goes on. Regardless it’s still a superb album and one that I will have on repeat for a while.

Thumbs up Asa.

Dear Aunty Sasha

Dear  Aunty Sasha,

         How are you doing? Its been a very busy few months for me, I am  so sorry I haven’t written you.

Anyways, I just listened to your new singles on some website and I was excited, I even told all my friends to go and listen to it but when I listened to it I was disappointed again

 I am sure that by the time you finish reading this letter you will not buy me that Blaise CD again,  but it’s all love Aunty mi, ma binu!

  I know that you are the first lady of rap/hip-hop but that title is pretty old and if care is not taken you might loose that title.

 Remember that girl in Theater arts department UNILAG, Modupe AKA Mo'Cheddah she is really doing big things and i worry that she would take your “cheddah” too.

  Aunty, please try to improve on your rap, i am disappointed when i hear them sometimes, cant you tell that fat uncle at storm to get someone to ghost write for you? No one will know and i will not tell anybody.

  Yesterday at school one boy made fun of me. He said you have not had any remarkable album ever and i was sad but its true. i know you had hit singles like “Adara”, “making money” and “e wa ba mi jo”, but where is the album? I thought you told me you were the First lady of rap!

  I really liked that General Pype song; Champion and when i heard there was a remix i was very happy until i heard your verse on it and i did not like it again.

  I know you have won awards but of the 4 awards you have ever won 2 were university awards and the last constructive one was in 2004!

 If you see what one Nigerian website said about your songs eh! but they have cancelled it sha, but you can still see it if you go there.

  Anyway, aunty try to improve all this small girls rapping they cannot come and take your title from you o! me i will not gree.

I have to go now, I want to go and delete those your new songs from my iPod, I don’t have space anymore. Please don’t be annoyed with me.

Bye for now

                                                                                                                                Risikatu

                                                                                                              

THE MIRROR BOY

A few days ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to the trailer for a movie titled "The mirror boy”, it starred Genevieve Nnaji and Osita Iheme of the “aki” and “paw paw” fame, As soon as I saw that I was not too thrilled to watch the clip at all.

  As usual, I couldn’t sleep and decided out of boredom to just click and see what he was on about and I was pleasantly surprised.

 It turns out the movie is not your regular run of the mill Nigerian movie.

The movie centers’ around 12 year old TIJANI (Edward Kagutuzi) who gets into a racial themed fight that sets in motion a chain of events which eventually convinces his mother, TEEMA (Genevieve Nnaji) that she has to take him to live with his aunt in the Gambia

  On their arrival in Banjul, TIJANI encounters what he considers to be a simple apparition- a boy smiling at him in a mirror and vanishing afterwards.

However, seeing the same boy in a crowded street market the next day sets in motion a chain of events that culminates in him getting lost.

While the panic-stricken TEEMA struggles with the Police Force to find her son in an intriguing game of survival brinkmanship, TIJANI is left alone in the company of the enigmatic MIRROR BOY (Osita Iheme) who is only visible to him.

As a bruising spiritual rite of passage, the MIRROR BOY takes TIJANI on a magical journey through the dark belly of the forest.

After a series of edge-of-the-seat adventures in the forest, TIJANI emerges the next day, a bewildered boy; for whom the lines between reality and fantasy; between the physical and the spiritual have been forever blurred.

His arrival at a time of mourning for a small kingdom upsets the evil machinations of a desperate Queen who; threatened by his innocent presence; is not afraid wield her mysterious powers.

A cathartic climax helps TIJANI to unravel the mystery of the MIRROR BOY. It also provides him with a rather mystical explanation for the way his life has cascaded from the 13th of June towards this inter-twined fate with a father he has never met

  A couple of things make me want to see this movie; the fact that its actually shot in a country we barely see on TV is a big plus, also it features Osita Iheme in a different role than the odd comedic roles has known for and I am excited to see how he pulls that off.

 Another huge factor is the movie was done by OH films. The studios produced movies like Malachi; a movie about a 7 year old boy who despite suffering from sickle cell anemia tries to re unite his separated parents by filming a documentary, and the preacher's son; a musical documentary about Grammy award winning producer PJ Morton.

    "The mirror boy" is set to premiere in the Uk at the 1,330 capacity Empire Cinema, Leicester square on February 24,2011.

  The movie is a great opportunity to showcase the African culture, however I have no idea if or when this movie would come to America but I am sure I would get it "somehow" *wink*

Jinxed!

     It’s been a busy couple of days for me but its the weekend and i finally had sometime to surf the net and visit my favorite websites.

 Im on notjustok, and i see a new styl plus song, apparently its a single off their yet to be released album. Trust notjustok to hype things up as usual. According to notjustok, the track is a comeback song to launch them back to the top of the Naija music food chain or whatever. If only i had a kobo for every time notjustok says “blah blah blah is the next best thing since cheap condoms”.

 Anyways, Being the lover of music that i am, here’s what i did. I tried not to think about their old songs or what i know about them personally all i did was clear my mind and hit play.

  I Immediately thought i had hit Naeto C's "ten over ten" by accident, till i heard the raspy voice of one of dem boiz (don’t know which one sef) and then i realized i had hit play on the right song. It’s interesting to know that the beat is a clever copy of Naeto c's song and for someone like T Y mix i expected something more original.

 That been said, i continued listening, even though it was getting more and more difficult to resist getting off the site altogether. At the 3 min mark i had heard enough. My first sentiment was "what the heck"??? "Are you kidding me"???

  I can’t believe they would come out with this sort of junk again!!. Okay lets be honest most artistes never make a song that beats that break out single/album but it would be nice to see some effort here. It just feels like they are not even trying. What’s the management team doing? or don’t they have one anymore?

 I am pretty sure nobody can forget the runaway success of “runaway” and “olufunmi”, back then I was like "where did these guys come from?" and now they come out with this junk!?

  Little did i know that i was to get even more ticked off than i already was, Right below the track was a tag to another one of their new singles with Jesse Jagz, so Miss click, click that i am, i clicked, but there’s only so much optimism a person can show. So I was obviously listening half- heartedly

  I stopped this one after listening to Jesse Jags deliver a below par verse. I have hereby come to the conclusion that these guys are jinxed!

Borehole???

  Seriously there’s a number of reasons why Styl-plus are languishing in Tetuila country; One of which is their bad attitude and arrogance. I have met quite a number of producers who wouldn’t work with them for this reason and with an attitude like that, how far can you really go. They are always late to shows, and even studio sessions. Anyone who has watched them perform lately would see that they no longer even dance! Tell me what’s a boy band without the moves??Remember the music biz is way smaller than you think.

 Secondly what on earth are they doing in Abuja? I know some people would say Darey is there and making waves too but after the follow up album was a dud or rather almost a dud i would have expected that they move to Lagos shap shap, but what do i know?

  Another wrong move on their part was trying to go with the music trend (that iya-basira song and Co). For a band like styl plus that depends on harmonizing and good old singing talents; less is always more. The techno beats and afro- infused percussion beats should be traded in for simpler beats that they would shine on.

  I don’t think the problem is that Nigeria has moved on from the boy band era but i think they tinkered with the formula too much and they are now paying the price. They can still get it right though, because unlike some other people making waves out there, these guys actually have the talent, all they need is a good producer who is ready to work with them and a change in attitude.

Like an arsenal fan says "Gonners for life" regardless, Ill remain a fan regardless

Red Beard or Groupie?

  "What are you doing with your Dad's old tapes again? my Mom asked

"Nothing mom" i lied

mtcheww! "i know you are going to sit by the radio again “continue oooo! She replies

  I shut my room door and pull the side stool closer to the radio cassette player, slot the tape in, secure it with the cellotape and thus began an eager wait with one finger on the record button for my favorite song to come on.

 Back then all that mattered was Puff Daddy, Mase, Tupac, Will Smith, Wyclef, TLC, Missy Elliot, Snoop Dogg and any other hip hop-er that was in vogue at the time.

 I spent an average of 9 to 10 hours of my summer holidays in front of that old radio cassette player recording song after song and playing them over and over again and writing the lyrics out.

  When school got back I was ready to dazzle my friends with all the songs i knew by heart but they equally had not been breaking melons all summer they had been doing the exact same thing.

  Fast forward to 2001, I got my first CD player and that Jah rule CD, and i felt like i was on top of the world. I got every single CD I could lay my hands on, i had mountains of CDs i swapped CDs with my friends, I sold some and bought some more. Just so we are clear none of these CDs were genuine, Hey lets face it i grew up in Nigeria even the pirated copies cost me my weeks allowance and a lot of moms left over change. Anyways back to the topic, at the time i never knew there was a difference between the genuine CD or pirated, all I knew was i had a CD shikena!

  By the time I figured out what the whole piracy thing was all about I was on my second IPod and i had been running limewire on my PC for almost a year and a half!

  Ok, so what’s all this piracy thing about anyways it’s not like i am hurting anyone, or I would have gone out to buy the CD if i couldn’t get it for free off the internet right? Well it turns out i was actually doing something illegal for years and its gotten so much worse now. Where the argument gets murky is what’s the difference between a pirate, (Red Beard) and an avid broke fan (groupie)?

 Well my tongue in cheek answer would be that the pirate is the guy who downloads a song and burns it on countless number of CDs, sticks a label on it and sells it for half the regular retail price...FAIL!! ,the avid broke fan on the other hand is one who loves an artiste but can afford to shell out the 10 to 15 bucks or so for a CD (just so you know some CDs are cheaper *coughs* Ray J *coughs*) and decides to download from the numerous torrent/P2P sites/software out there sticks it on his iPod or makes a CD for his car and appreciates his/her favorite artist.

  I ask myself though; do anyone of the people above i.e. Red beard or the groupie actually buy tickets to see these artistes perform live? Well you know as well as I know that Red beard wouldn’t, he’s probably at the barber shop bugging you to take a look at his catalogue, and the groupie would not cough up 25 bucks and above to go see someone perform when he/she can see it on YouTube in a couple of days or weeks. So how then do you support your "favorite artiste”? Twitter?? All the good that would do..smh

 Information from the institute of policy innovation (however credible that is) reports that Music theft accounts for over $12.5 billion in losses every year and over 71,060 jobs lost! Staggering you would say, considering that $12.5 billion is probably more than some countries yearly budget.

 You might argue that revenue from album sales goes to the studio execs and not the artistes but if the album doesn’t bring money in, no studio exec would sink money into a tour, so when you dont see or hear from your favorite artiste that you avidly followed on twitter, know its all your fault.Whatever happened to Wayne wonder? *thinking*

  Granted quite a number of musicians have gotten their career breaks from "illegal" redistribution of their works, but truth be told i think its high time we start to do the right thing not because its better(the best things in life are free innit?) but because its the only way to help the industry grow. I know ITunes can be a female dog with all the file sharing restrictions and all but honestly it doesn’t cost that much to support your favorite artistes with less than 15 bucks you would get their albums or better yet pick and choose what tracks you like from the track listing and pay 99 cents and get it over with and rather than make a CD for that hottie you have been admiring from afar just get her an ITunes gift card (corny? I know right). Trust me you don’t want to receive that red and white enveloped letter from your ISP saying you have been involved in downloading illegal blah blah blah;not admitting that i have gotten such a letter of cause! *wink*

  In conclusion, all in favor of deleting all file sharing software say AH! ............... Are those crickets i hear!?

  

Reality or Fantasy?

   Its 4am and i flick my TV on to find The Real housewives of Beverly Hills on (marathon) and to be honest those shows totally suck and it just made me realize how right my Dad was when he said "Go to your room! too much TV would rot your brain" because that’s exactly how i feel right now

The Sun newspaper, defined a "nonebrity" as "a pointless media figure who would love to rise up high enough to scrape on to the bottom end of the D-list.

 These nonebrities consist mainly of reality TV stars (Snooki and Co)  and lucky shot TV people (Antoine Dodson and Co)

 Okay, Okay i know some people would think this is just a beef post but it really isn’t (ok maybe a little).It just never fails to amaze me how much the human mind is so interested in voyeurism and schadenfreude: a German word that means taking pleasure in watching another person’s misfortune

  Reality TV didn’t become a Global sensation till the early 2000's when shows like big brother and survivor open the eyes of TV execs to the potential in that sort of programming. Suddenly we had shows like The Amazing Race, Project Runway, America's Next Top Model, The Simple Life, and the real housewives of every single state in the US asides Compton lol.

 What makes matters worse, is the idea that all celebrities, talented or not have realized that as long as they have one hit "thing" in their resume they can always live off a reality TV show and our very dear Ryan Seacrest is always eager to produce some flimsy excuse of a show for them. Take for instance Hogan knows best, why would I want to know what hulk Hogan knows? even when I watched the Blondie on WWF while growing up, he didn’t look very smart, always falling for the same folding chair to the back of the head trick. smh. Another one was the Whitney and Bobby one or the Britney and Kevin: chaotic/OMG Britney sucks, I can’t even believe these ideas ever saw the light of day.

  Another sub-genre of this whole reality jargon is the dating type. I am yet to see one that actually makes any sense. It’s just an opportunity to show how far off the reservation the human race has come. This is not to say it’s not entertainment but 10 girls fighting for one guy and the next show you see on after that is Oprah saying some random bull about self esteem and all that.

  From The bachelor to the bachelorette(We were taught that the opposite of bachelor is spinster, come to find out spinster now means an older lady that’s beyond the conventional marrying age)to Farmer need a wife they all have been totally embarrassing and a whisker away from commercial sex on TV more than anything else, but then again in an age where being retarded is celebrated or found funny, take the Ashton Kutchers, Johnny Knoxvilles and Adam Sandlers of this world I guess it’s all the same as good ol'entertainment

  What you would never guess about reality TV is that it’s strictly for profit nothing else, most of these shows are filled with false promises just ask Timmy of west African idol..LMAO! And it’s all scripted! So how real can it be when the most normal people are the first to get kicked out and the crazies usually win. The result is everyone shopping for a reality show regardless of how mundane or embarrassing their lives are hence Whitney and bobby's debacle. Even regular people are not left out in this Reality "hustle" Case in point the Balloon boy Hoax; apparently the father staged the whole thing to get the family a reality show! Pathetic much!?

  Anyways it’s your choice. As for me I think I have had a big bite of reality thank you.

 See ya.. xx

Last Train to Paris: Review

After numerous delays Diddy's most recent studio effort 'last train to Paris' finally dropped on the 13th of December, and was an introduction to the duo of Dawn Richards (formerly of Danity kane, whatever happened to those.smh) and Kalenna Harper.

  The 3 time Grammy winner (including best rap album in 1998! geez!) has been quoted saying the "album is gonna be about love, feelings and emotion. Adding that, Last Train to Paris is a love story and the most vulnerable album I've ever been involved in. It's raw emotion — you get a feeling, a vibe." and interestingly he did just that.

 Its interesting to note that this 16 track "effort" had 16 guest vocals(a-la- DJ khaled), notably  lil wayne, Drake, trey songs, Nicki minaj, T.I, Rick Ross amongst others, and trust Diddy to do something new as usual by featuring vocals from Vogue (yes the magazine) editor in chief, Anna Wintour and Tommy Hilfiger himself,i am guessing that was just a means to beef up the couture/fashion concept of the album, but hey, its Diddy!  what do i know

  With production exclusively by diddy himself and Rodney jerkins (who produced that creepy telephone track by lady GaGa and Beyonce)

  The concept had so much potential: the story of Diddy's alter-ego travelling from London to Paris to lay claim to a lost love, thus I was expecting a world class album and to be honest I was surprised at the final offering’s hypnotic monotonous cruise

 I'm guessing a lot of people would say the album was awful, but let me remind you that in all honesty Diddy-dirty money is not a rap(per) group so if you want a rap album it would be better to go get a jay-Z CD.

 The album essentially is a glitzy, high fashion, Euro dance, hip-hop techno compilation and the presence of a variety of artistes on the album adds to its uniqueness, But even all of that couldn’t save the de-railed train (pun intended)

  Four singles preceded the album release they included "Angels", the controversial "Coming Home”, “Loving you no more" and "hello good morning" and they were all top notch tracks and in this day of ever lowering album sales I would say that’s a good start

  Stand out tracks include all 4 singles above along with "a$$ on the floor", "strobe lights" with Lil Wayne and "I know" which featured Chris brown

  Last Train To Paris or LTTP as its fondly called did 100,000 copies in its first week and honestly it was due to Diddy's complete and rather annoying takeover of twitter.It was ridiculous! it was LTTP this and LTTP that (i had to Unfollow him to save my phone battery hehehe)but by the second week twitter could only do so much as the album moved a mere 30,000 copies, by the 3rd week it was down to a little over 22,800 copies and its been pummeling ever since. Seems like it's gonna be a slow climb for LTTP to platinum ,with the likes of Kanye’s and Nicki's and even the king of Pop's posthumous effort eclipsing it in sales. At the time of writing this, the album isn’t moving 10,000 copies

My personal opinion was Diddy should have taken the back seat on this album and allowed Dawn and Kalenna take the spot. The album would have done better, we would have had something fresh and Diddy would have still been on it, but I’m guessing Diddy had other plans, you barely hear Dawn and Kalenna on 4 tracks.

  In conclusion, I think Diddy could have done better but his usual me! me! me! thinking ruined this one. Not everyone can be Kanye West, but definitely not a bad album, so i can only give it 2 stars

                                                                 

Welcome to my mind!

Hello world

Im certainly not new to the world of blogging but i think its time i get some of my opinions out of the pop culture scene.

  Things you should know about me include

-i would listen to pretty much song or album,watch pretty much any movie or show and read any book,article or blog

- i am a strong believer of second chances

- i hate one hit wonders

and lastly

-i am Gidi-born and bred!

That been said,if u dont like music,movies,gossip,fashion and all things pop-culture related please do not read this blog abeg!

 Plus if you dont want my opinion on a certain topic or if you have a weak stomach stick to yahoo news!(cos even TMZ would be alot for you lol)

  So now that you know what makes me tick its down to business

  Its 11am in my part of the world and i am listening to my pandora playlist.I remember back in Nigeria i was so pissed i couldnt get pandora to work,whats funny is as "established" as nigerian artists claim to be (no offence) i havent heard any nigerian track on here. Thats no to say Nigerian artists suck but i think its just a fan outreach means that hasnt been explored yet.

  I would like to be alble to have an M.I playlist or a tuface playlist some day.

  Anyways,i am looking on the ever so popular notjustok.com,and i am wondering how some songs even make it on here,But i am not even touching on that topic right now because i wouldnt stop if i do.I know you might think i dont care much for the site but on the contrary i actually do  and i love the fact that they now market nigerian artistes on there,that in itself is a giant step for Nigerian music,so thumbs up for that!

  Ok peeps,i have to jet now,would be reviewing puff daddy/p.diddy/diddy/diddy dirty money's last train to paris in my next post so look out for that

 Till then stay safe and keep doing you!