Hope you’ve all had a great Christmas day! I’m pretty sure I’m still stuffed from the epic food consumption throughout the day, from roast to Indian. That’s how my family do. 5 tracks for you fat mofos after the cut, selected by me and DJB.

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THE WEEKND

‘D.D‘

Who would have thought Abel could cover an MJ classic and actually do it justice? It’s quite scary how similar he sounds to the late great, his vocal range is impressive. Love how he’s given the song The Weeknd twist with the production. Have a listen above, download the ‘Echoes of Silence‘ mixtape here.

Selected by Yin

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COMMON x MAYA ANGELOU

‘The Dreamer‘

Easily one of my favourite tracks from Common’s latest album ‘The Dreamer/The Believer’. It features one of my favourite poets of all time, Maya Angelou who adds an inspiring spoken word piece towards the end of the No-ID produced track. Be sure to check out the album, it’s one of the best releases this year.

‘Dare to let your dreams reach beyond you
Know that history holds more than it seems
We are here alive today because our ancestors dared to dream‘

Selected by Yin

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BEI MAEJOR

‘The Truth‘

I showed y’all a vid last week that showed off Bei Maejor’s production talents and now I’m selecting this song to showcase his songwriting and vocal abilities. I really like the fact that the beat is quite minimal, I feel like it adds to the atmosphere of the song and its message. When the truth is being told people need to hear and the beat doesn’t overpower and drown out his voice allowing the audience to listen to the words being spoken. It in fact compliments the lyrics very well. Both are of a sinister nature with the beat also delivering haunting tones. Love the production on this!

Selected by DJB

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Project Alfie

‘Still D.R.E. – Dr. Dre vs Project Alfie‘

I find it easy to express my distaste for things, however the same can’t be said for when I actually really do like something. My words never seem to say what I want to say but I’m going to give it a try. This song is DOPE! lol There that’s all I want and need to say about this track apart from the fact that Project Alfie has a mixtape which is due for release tomorrow so make sure you check back here to get your hands on that mixtape.

P.S Dre would be proud.

Selected by DJB

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RIHANNA x JAY-Z x RICK ROSS

‘Talk That Talk (Remix)‘

I’m not sure if I’ve given Rihanna’s new album enough airplay yet but from what I’ve listened to so far I can safely say she needs to take a seat somewhere. The title track Talk That Talk featuring Jay-Z was one of the few tracks I liked upon first listen and now it has been remixed by Rick Ross for his upcoming mixtape. This song should be released as the albums 3rd or 4th single cause it’s pretty good.

Selected by DJB

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Rihanna today released the music video for the first single ‘We Found Love’ from her upcoming album Talk That Talk. I have to say that this video is actually one of my favourites from her and I say this having only seen the video once. The video features male model Dudley O’Shaughnessy who had the very lucky job of playing Ri Ri’s boyfriend in the clip. although I do say that is is probably my favourite video in a long while from Miss Fenty, I would like to express my slight concern for her disregard to see herself as a role model for the young. While the video in my opinion as a 20 something year old adult is visually stimulating, it does raise an eyebrow when remembering that kids will be watching it during the day, for it reminds me of a Skins episode crammed into a 4 and a half minute clip. What with all the smoking, sex and possible drug taking it seems to capture, one does question whether there is a need for a more tame version to  be shown before the watershed. That being said, I return to my earlier sentiment and say that this is a good video for a song that I had previously been neglecting. Having seen this video I now like the song so much more. P.S it was nice to see Calvin Harris make a short cameo. Peep the clip after the break.

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The time has come once again to SHOWCASE new emerging talent. For those who missed the previous showcasing post, which highlighted the talents of Ethan Breakaway check it out here. For todays post I’d like to bring to you the vocal talents of Project Alfie. I was lucky enough to see Alfie perform at last months ShowcaseLive event and it was there that I knew I had to write about him.  He is in the process of recording a mixtape, which I hope will be out in the very near future but until then we’ll have to be content with the music he shares with us via his YouTube page. Check out his song ‘Beggin’ along with his cover of Rihanna’s current number 1 single ‘We Found Love’.

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Twitter | YouTube | Soundcloud | Facebook

Project Alfie – Beggin

Project Alfie – We Found Love (Rihanna Cover)

To say that I’m a little concerned is an understatement. I love Beyonce as much as the next person and only wish good things for her but unfortunately I am beginning to wonder if her reign at the top has come to an end. Though nothing can be truly said until her new album 4 is released later this month but we can speculate and form opinions.

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After the release of her third studio album I Am Sasha Fierce and all the promotion and tour that came with it Bouncy decided to take a 6 month break. This was a break to just live life and source some new inspiration before heading back into the studio to fully start on the new LP.

It has now been 3 years since the release of I Am….. and with B having taken a well deserved break fans have been eagerly anticipating her next musical move. That next move was to come in the form of Run The World (Girls) the lead single taken from the new album.  The song debuted at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and then slide way down to number 70 something not long after. Admittedly the song isn’t by any stretch of the imagination great but one would think that a brand new BEYONCE track would fair far better in the charts.

Many put the lackluster chart performance down to an early leak of the song, claiming that the song was never meant to be released into the public domain at the time it came out hence why B wasn’t promoting the song. Now this many be all well and good, a very reasonable justification but my question is when she eventually started her promo train why didn’t the song shoot straight up the charts.

She had four major promotional showings in the space of about a week. First the music video for Run The World was debuted on American Idol, millions and millions of people watch that show, next she had her EPIC performance of the song on the Billboard Music Awards. Then she was seen performing the song a few days later on Oprah’s penultimate show, again watched by millions and finally she returned to American Idol during the finale to sing a new song called 1+1, please bare in mind the final was watched by over 30 million people in the US. Not to mention the viral sensation that was the video of her warming up her voice backstage at Idol. So again I ask the question why didn’t her song shoot straight to the top of the charts.

1+1

So far we have heard 4 tracks from this album, the lead single, a leaked single entitled End Of Time – which in my personal opinion should have been release way before Run The World, 1+1 which was debuted on American Idol and the albums official second single Best Thing I Never Had.

End Of Time

Honestly I’m scared for her this time around, I fear sales of the album will be slow until the public hear that one defining track that will make the album worthwhile. When ever I have spoken to someone about their opinions on the new album all I get back is negative feedback. Mainly due to the apparent dislike for Run The World.

With Lady Gaga selling 1.1 million copies in the first week and Rihanna seemly the queen of the singles chart as of late, it concerns me that B hasn’t come back to reclaim her rightful place at the top like many of us thought she would.

Every artist goes through a bad patch or has a dud album, could this be Beyonce’s one to forget. Think Usher Here I Stand or Rihanna Rated R (although her album didn’t sell masses she still was able to shift singles unlike B at this moment in time)

With the release of her 4 album drawing ever closer I just hope that all her fans come together and start supporting her like they should be supporting her. Talk is cheap, its all good saying how much you love a certain artist but if you don’t buy the records then you are just adding to their demise.

By no means am I a Beyonce stan, I’m just a guy who happens to of liked majority of her music and wishes her well. If she doesn’t sell great numbers it doesn’t effect me really but I would prefer that I don’t have to witness it, She is far to great of a talent to not be supported.

So go out and support our girl BEYONCE! – I’ll leave you with her newest single to be release Best Thing I Never Had

With the release of the Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass video the other day it got me thinking about how her singles and album release have been released here in the UK. It’s often the case that artists release different songs at different times to different audiences in order to gain maximum success. Some songs will work better in different territories compared to others and that’s fine but with Minaj I feel she has been let down by single choices (more so, single choice order) and promotion of her work to the UK audience.

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So far we have seen the release of Your Love, Right Thru Me, Check It Out, Moment For Life and Girls Fall Like Dominos yet if I asked a member of the UK public I doubt they would have heard of Minaj let alone one of her songs. Granted she has a great following her in the UK but that is mainly due to blogs and her features on other artists tracks. And to add to that the majority of these fans are of the urban community. Unfortunately she has yet to gain that mainstream appeal that I and many others expected her to gain.

Even the seasoned Minaj fan would be surprised to know that she has already had five singles released here, non of which have cracked the top ten may I add.

I do think that the songs she has released thus far have all been songs that I would have chose to release but the way and order in which they were released would have been different. As much as Nicki Minaj is a female rapper she is also arguably a pop star, and I say this in terms of her clothes, wigs and other quirky characteristics that are now a days are seen as a necessity in order to compete with other female artists, take Lady Gaga for a prime example. So the release of her most pop sounding records would seem to be a logical step in order to raise her ‘POP’ularity

Girls Fall Like Dominos was the fifth single to be released from the album which in my opinion was the wrong thing to do. Personally I think that it should have been either the first or second single. I say this because of the sample it uses, Dominos from British band The Bug Pink. UK audience would have remembered the original song which would have made the Minaj version instantly recognisable and accepted. One huge problem with the release of Girls was the fact that it has no accompanying music video. Conceded there is a video pending but by the time it is filmed and released the buzz of the song would have died down and the question raised is why would you release a video for a song after the songs release date?

Thinking about it properly Fly featuring Rihanna probably should have been the first single from the album because Rihanna has huge presence here in the UK and so it would be good for Nicki’s popularity to be linked with one of the UK’s most favoured artists.

Her label tried to capitalise on Cheryl Cole’s huge UK presence by adding her to the UK release of Check It Out. However what was confusing was the fact that it was billed as a Will.I.Am track featuring Nicki Minaj rather than a Minaj track that features the other two artists. Ultimately Will.I.Am’s name was more related to that track than anybody else which just didn’t make any sense,

Now moving on to promotion. She has made one visit to the UK and that was a whistle stop of London that consisted of only two – three days with no televised performance. This clearly is not sufficient compared to the amount of high profile performances she has given in the US. Take last week for example, she performed on Dancing With The Stars one of the premier shows in the US compared with a few Radio interviews and limited TV coverage when she was here.

Anywho I have rambled on long enough about this subject, which simply stemmed from the released of the Super Bass music video. As this is the basis for which this post was written its only right that I end with the clip below, so please enjoy.

P.S I really hope this song is promoted in the correct way when they release it here as I feel it could potentially do well. I as a Nicki Minaj lover only want her to do well, but I’m not a blind sheep and have to state fact when it’s due.

This weeks’ SWC comes from the instigator of the ‘Red hair don’t care’ movement, Rihanna. I say that the song is sung by Rihanna but in this version I have my doubts that it is actually her singing although the song was undoubtedly written for her (I feel like this is a demo for what Rihanna would eventually sing). For what ever reason she and her team not only decided against releasing the song but opted to leave it off her album completely. I believe this song was given to her around the time she was recording her Rated R album which probably is the reason why it didn’t make the grade. That album was a lot more dark and edgy than than this upbeat track. Mario also has a version of the song floating around but its not as good at all.

Rihanna featuring Akon – Emergency Room

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It’s hard to identify what and who the ultimate popstar is but we all can have an opinion. Rihanna, Beyonce and Justin Bieber all have major superstar status but do we ever stop to consider the huge team behind the scenes that enable them to be rewarded with all the applause and accolades that we, as the buying public and even their musical peers, employ on them. Lets take one of the most important things in a singers’ existence, the song for example, more on the flipside

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Many singers are often credited with writing contributions to a song when in fact their contribution is as non-existent as …….. I know that singers have a hard enough schedule as it is what with all the recording, performing and promo that they have to do its difficult to see where they find tie to write songs.

I’m not saying that in order to be considered the ultimate popstar the artist has to write their own material but I what I am suggesting is that I find it hard to respect artists that take credit for the talent that is songwriting when in fact another talented person was the one to put pen to paper.

Great talent such as Claude Kelly, Rico Love and Heather Bright, just to name a few, have all written some of the most loved songs in recent year but yet are relatively unknown to music consumers. Heather Bright wrote the song ‘Somebody To Love’ for Justin Bieber’s breakthrough album My World 2.0 but it was Justin who received writing and publishing credits even though he did nothing but sing the song.

In a candid interview with Free-Wired Miss Bright discussed her feelings on the matter.

Free-Wired: But, like, with publishing deals and everything, don’t the composers – the songwriters and producers – make more than the actual singers?

HB: It depends on who you are. Rihanna takes publishing, Justin Bieber takes publishing, Kanye West takes publishing. On all the stuff that they don’t write, they take publishing.

Free-Wired: So how did Justin Bieber get a writing credit on “Somebody to Love”?

HB: Umm… How did he get a writing credit on it? That’s an interesting question. I don’t know. (laughs)

HB: You can’t be Rihanna and be producing and writing records. You just can’t be doing that. You just won’t have time. All the appearences, the performances, and the ‘this,’ and the ‘that,’ you gotta show up to record, you gotta promote the album, go on tour. I mean, people like Lady Gaga – It’s amazing that they can find time to write! They have to write on tour, all of those artists who actually write!

Not too long ago Beyoncé was the center of controversy regarding her songwriting attributes with a number of producers and songwriters exposing her. However two big name producers although exposing the fact that she doesn’t always write and produce her songs but still takes credit for such skills on every track they don’t seem to be bitter about it. In fact they accept it and understand that its just the nature of the game.

Speaking with Bossip, Bangladesh the producer and writer of ‘Video Phone’ and ‘Diva’ from Beyoncé’s platinum selling album I Am…..Sasha Fierce spoke openly about the situation.

Bossip: You have worked with Beyonce. There is some controversy when it comes to the songs that she has written…. So, have you ever been in the lab with her where you’ve made the beat with her right there, and then you saw her actually write the song or -

Bangladesh: “[Bursts out laughing hysterically]. I’ll put it like this: It doesn’t matter who’s writing the songs, or who’s producing the songs. It’s who’s delivering the mother fucker. It really doesn’t matter if Beyonce is actually sitting there physically writing the song. Even if she’s not, it don’t mean she can’t. She might not have the time. It doesn’t matter, because you can work with artists who write, or work with artists that’s Beyonce’s level… For me… It doesn’t matter.

“The people outside looking in, they wanna know if she writes her own songs or if she ain’t. At the end of the day, she’s on a level where things are handed to her; people wanna be a part of what she’s doing. She either wrote it, or she can put her name on it – it doesn’t matter because that’s the boss you are.” {Source}

In an interview with That Grape Juice, Soundz, who produced Ciara’s ‘Gimmie Dat’ and N-Dubz’s ‘Living For The Moment’, spoke about the accusations leveled at Bey when discussing Usher and Beyonce’s duet ‘Love In this Club Part II’, which he also produced.

“No no no {laughs}! Beyonce didn’t do it [write "Love In This Club"]. She’s an artist who believes that she’s a superstar and she needs superstar writers to write for her…”

“I rather a person be a superstar than be a superhuman,” he continues. “I think that singers are supposed to be like superheroes; they’re supposed to do things that we can’t do. When I do a song, Beyonce knows she does things that no one can do so she realises that she doesn’t have to write it; she’ll just cut the hell out of it.”

He then went on to discuss her 20% stake in all of her songs publishing.

“Well, she promotes the record to the highest level. She’s the best in the game at promoting a record and when she does one of your records you’ll get a single, radio, commercials and movies. There are so many different types of money that comes with Beyonce when you do a record for her so it’s kind of like the price of admission – the price to get all the other aspects is that you have to pay a little bit.

“She’ll want a little publishing and that’s guaranteed; she’s going to ask for it and you’re going to give it to her; no ifs, ands or buts. She’s going to make that record the biggest hit in the world so give her that publishing. She’ll take about 20%.”

‘If I Were A Boy’ possibly the biggest hit to come from her most recent album cause a stir when it was revealed that it was in fact a woman called BC Jean. Knowles was accused of stealing ‘If I Were A Boy’ from the upcoming singer. Roger Friedman, commenting for Fox News Channel, published an account of BC Jean’s side of the story stating she didn’t even know that her song was recorded by Knowles until it hit the news and Mathew Knowles aggressively pursued the publishing rights to her song so that he could put Knowles’ name on the writing credits. Jean took her Myspace account to express her frustration.

“I have been reading some of these comments and to set the record straight from the horse’s mouth – IF I WERE A BOY is my song; YES, I wrote this song; It is my story; a painful one, and the song is very dear to me. You can hear the original version on my myspace site.”

This post isn’t meant to alter your perception of your favourite artists but instead to highlight the fact that there are a lot of people behind the scenes that are involved in making an artist the superstar that they become and some of these behind the scenes members do not get the recognition the deserve and on occasion get treated unfairly.

Some are happy with the way things run in the industry and some just accept that these things happen. Heather Bright is probably one of those people who accept that it happens but isn’t afraid to express her true feelings on the matter. I’ll end the post with a few more words from Bright taken from her person blog, in this exchange of words she commends Britney Spears for not taking writing credit when its not due.

The media is talking trash about how Britney didn’t write any of the songs on her album… HELLO! Wake up everybody! NONE OF THESE ARTISTS WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS!!!!!! (there are a few exceptions… lady gaga, will.i.am/BEP, chris brown is starting to write a lot of his own stuff…ummmm… and now I’m running out of artists). Anyway… here’s my thing… and I feel VERY passionate about this issue. Britney could have come to me, like all these other A-list artists, and said…

“Hey, you wanna be on my album? I’m gonna need writing credit for that song AND part of your publishing even though I didn’t write anything! And then I’m gonna go on tour and gross $150 million in ticket sales and not give you any of that, even though I’m performing your song!”

I could rattle off a laundry list of artists who I’ve had that conversation with! And I’m on the other end like… “Oh okay… so you wanna rape me, but just with the tip?!” *Prince side eye* Britney’s one of the few artists I’ve worked with who didn’t try to take something that wasn’t hers. In my experience, from a business standpoint, her entire team is nothing less than a bonafide class act! If I ever have another song that she wants and another artist happens to want the same song… Britney will get it EVERYTIME! Why? Because she’s honest! And she treats her writers and producers with respect and dignity. An artist is nothing without a hit song… and a hit song is nothing without the right artist. It looks like the question I posed earlier just found its answer… maybe this is why 12 years later she’s STILL at the top!

Credit to That Grape Juice, The Prophet Blog, Bossip, Free-Wired and other sources.

The Grammy’s took place last night, but a certain Chris Brown was nowhere to be seen. Rihanna has just lifted the ban that was given to Brown due to the events, which conspired 2 years ago around this time. The young singer was up for 3 awards at last night’s show, but failed to win any. However like many stars last night, Breezy wasn’t the only one to be disappointed. I’m not going to say anything else about the Grammy’s now as I feel I wasted 3 hours of my life in the early hours of the morning.

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Chris will now be able to be in contact with Rihanna as they will no longer have to be 100 yards apart. This now means they can sit near each other at award shows, they can even go to dinner, and it basically means they can do whatever they want in the company of each without any legal barriers. Whatever the two decide to do is up to them as both are young adults. Two years on I’m sure they’ve both grown and matured. It would be normal if the two missed each other. After all they are only human as we all are.

So what has 2011 got in store for 21-year-old Christopher Maurice Brown? The album cover for F.A.M.E, which drops on March the 22^nd, was released today. I’m hoping for more songs similar to ‘No BS’ rather than ‘Yeah 3X’ as my favourite Chris Brown album to date is still his self-titled debut that was released in 05 and is similar in sound to ‘No BS’, all be it a lot more grown up to ‘Young Love’ for instance.

If the first 2 months are anything to go by, Chris can look forward to a very rewarding 2011. ‘Yeah 3X’ and ‘Look at Me Now’ which features Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes are at numbers 17 and 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 respectively. He’s also not doing too bad in the UK as ‘Yeah 3X’ is at number 6 in it’s third week and his feature on Chipmunk’s song ‘Champion’ debuted at number 2.

Brown just performed on Saturday Night Live’s (SNL) February the 12^th episode where he performed two tracks. The first was ‘Yeah 3X’. I’m not a fan of the song as I heard the same beat on about 20 different songs last year. However the dance performance was very impressive, as an energetic Brown showed how versatile and talented he is. The singing was aided by a vocoder, but we did get to hear Breezy without auto tune in his second performance. When he sang ‘No BS’ we got to hear Chris’s vocals. It was a good performance as I’ve always though he had a good voice and there is a lot of potential and he has a lot of time in which he can only get better.

The singer has to be congratulated for the hard work he’s put in since that unfortunate incident back in February of 09, as last year alone he released three mixtapes. ‘In My Zone’, ‘Fan of a Fan’, with Tyga and ‘In My Zone 2’. ‘Deuces’ was arguably one of the biggest songs of last year and propelled Brown back to number 1 on the US R&B chart where he hadn’t been since 2006 with ‘Say Goodbye’. Not only did the song go to #1, but it was also up for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at you know which awards show that happened last night. You know the one, the one where a woman apparently hatched from a womb/egg whatever it was and another looked like she had a fight with a leopard and won, then went on to wear the remains.

I hope Brown will be around for a while and hope he succeeds in his attempts, as ever since listening to his first album I was a fan. My appreciation for him musically has fallen off the last few years, but then came along songs such as ‘No BS’ and ‘Deuces’, my appreciation and interest has been attained. I’m looking for a good R&B album similar to his first, but more grown up and less of the auto tune. Brown is in a much better place now, and it’s as if his name is off the black list thanks to all the hard work he has continued to put in. The Rihanna decision on lifting the ban that was imposed too will be seen as one of the final steps in his rehabilitation. The final test will be decided by critics and fans a like in the coming months.

Who remembers the Va Va Voom advert from the early 00′s? Ever since watching that advert I have been using and abusing my favourite French phrase from it ‘je ne sais quoi’. Actually it’s probably the only Français phrase I know as I studied German in school. Yes Ich kann ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen. I don’t honestly remember any of the other Renault Clio adverts apart from the ones that featured living Arsenal legend & God-like footballer, Thierry Henry. Can you tell he’s my favourite footballer of all time from that sentence? If not I can go crazy with the superlatives. They’ve brought him back for this new campaign featuring Va Va Voom queens, Dita Von Teese and Rihanna. More on the reverse.

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World renowned burlesqure dancer Dita sure knows how to use her sexiness, definitely adds the ‘va va voom’ to this advert. Sex sells. Rihanna knows all too much about this, just go watch her S&M video for proof. This new commercial showcases a little too much skin, you have to snap back to reality to remember that it’s about a car. The advert features montages from Audrey Hepburn, Marlon Brando & David Bowie. You do see King Thierry drooling over Dita and playing poker. It’s meant to be a contemporary Art exhibition, I see it but does it really make me want go buy the car? The classic va va voom had the ‘cool’ factor because of Thierry. I am afraid he’s kinda passed it now to be honest. Let’s see if Dita can sell the cars. Peep the advert below and extended version featuring interviews with the stars.

Hmm, I can definitely appreciate the artistic side of the advert. Love the typography and I love the music. It’s perfect, I will replay the advert just to hear the song by Claire Maguire again. Major props to CK Golding for the heads up on this advert!

I watched the Nicki Minaj documentary on MTV last week. If you haven’t already I would suggest you do regardless of whether you are or aren’t a Barb or Ken Barb. The documentary is called ‘My Time Is Now’ and was first mentioned on the site here by DJB. You can watch the documentary on MTV as repeats are still being aired. The reason I say watch it whether you are or aren’t a fan is because of the way Nicki comes across.

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One line that had me really confused was when Nicki was asked if she is just playing the role of a rapper, which she replied yes too, saying that she could go into other ventures such as acting once she feels she has had enough of music. For me the main thing an artist should always have is love for music and being real by expressing their true self, but after watching the documentary I lost respect for the rapper.

I say this because if I’m being honest, Nicki came across as fake to put it bluntly. I feel as though her people looked at other artists like Lady Gaga and saw how she is marketed, then used the singer as a template. If this is the case then you can’t argue it’s worked a treat as Roman/Nicki/Barbie/Onika has gone on to sell a million copies in the US of her debut album ‘Pink Friday’.

Nicki is clearly a talented rapper, but she is not a great rapper. She has a good team behind her as well as a very good gimmick. Lady Gaga has a great team and gimmick as well. Her new album is titled ‘Born This Way’, but is she not completely different to how she was just a few years ago? Gaga herself is a very good singer and I don’t doubt her love for music at all, but I just feel she is not being herself. In order to gain her newfound status as Queen of pop, attention was needed (although I feel Britney may be ready to reclaim her title back from the young pretender) through her clothes, video’s, public appearances etc.

It’s rare these days to see an artist just walk on to a stage in jeans and a t-shirt and solely be judged on her voice. Instead what seems to really matter at times is what the artist is wearing for example. Marketing and publicity is a stronger tool now to a singer, rather than their voice.

Rihanna is gaining all sorts of “bad publicity” for her raunchy video for S&M, however all the noise has seen the single and album climb charts across the world. I don’t know what kind of video people were expecting to such a song? No video could have detracted the attention away from the explicit lyrics so the video was bound to match lyrics such as “Oh, I love the feeling you bring to me, oh, you turn me on it’s exactly what I’ve been yearning for, give it to me strong, And meet me in my boudoir, make my body say ah ah ah I like it-like it”. The video has been banned in some countries and is not played on a few radio shows during certain times. I argue that there have been worse videos on TV that were still shown, but that will be saved for a future post.

Great marketing and publicity can get you a long way in the music world. I don’t mind an artist to have a gimmick, but only if it’s real and not made up. I can believe that Sasha Fierce is Beyoncé’s alter ego because she is a different person to the one we see on stage in comparison to the humble B we see in interviews. Being different in a performance is completely different to being someone your not every time you step out in the public eye. Surely you would lose your real identity, as you wouldn’t know which is which after a certain time.

One artist to keep an eye on in the future who could be marketed a certain way is Cher Lloyd, so keep an eye out for Cheryl’s mini me as she’s known. Marketing is very important in music as it helps the success of an artist, but when an artist becomes a product more than a person I lose interest very fast. I understand most of us would all like to be successful commercially, but is it really worth losing your own identity just to be liked by people who you wont ever really interact with on a personal level. Yes they are your fans/followers/supporters but something about not being liked for being who I am doesn’t really sit that comfortably with me. Losing your real identity could leave you losing your real friends, but oh well you have your mansion in L.A right? And like Nicki said, “If I’m fake I ain’t notice cause my money ain’t”. Just depends on what really makes you happy in life, but I know what I would choose. Not forgetting that in the entertainment business there is always a new and younger act coming through each day. Anyway I’m off to read an article titled ‘Cher Lloyd’s de-chavinization continues’