Slightly contradicting myself from a conversation I had yesterday with a friend about all the people who leapt onto Twitter yesterday morning to judge women’s dresses one by one. Blimey, that was a long sentence. I don’t get it, why bother negatively commenting on each and every dress? I know we all judge but there were a few folks that went about dissecting every outfit on Twitter. Straight unfollow situation. I digress, hardly anyone spoke about the plethora of dope men’s looks from the likes of Justin Timberlake and actor Gary Oldman. More on the reverse.

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I remember reading in Tom Ford’s list of essentials that every man needs a nicely tailored black tuxedo/suit. These guys probably have an abundance of them, it’s one of the easiest looks to pull off in my opinion. All you have to do is get the length and fit right! How hard can that be if you get it tailored to fit your body? I think my favourites has to be Justin Timberlake and Matt Bomer – classic design and pulled off effortlessly.

Jonas Brothers suits warrant props but they can’t pull it off. The stances are just plain awkward yo. Have you got a black suit in your wardrobe? Oh shout out to Gary Oldman – who’s been killing it since his catwalk appearance for Prada.

And going to leave you with a handful of ladies….

Can we all have a moment of silence for Kate Upton’s Cat Daddy video?

Remember how much I used to worship this woman? Every music video was instantly posted as soon as it hit the web but now, nada. I just don’t agree with the image she’s promoting, the lyrics! Allow. This beautifully shot short film for Elle Magazine featuring the Bajan beauty. Directed by Tom Munro, the short film is set in her past life where life was simple in a rural town in Mexico (?) with RiRi parading around in her scantily clad but classy outfit. The story doesn’t have much to it but doesn’t it need to? It’s a fashion film and a beautiful one – nicely shot, graded and even scored. Perfect fusion of fashion, music and art. Have a gander on the reverse.

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Following a sold-out US tour, last week Drake kicked off the European leg of his Club Paradise tour in London and Y&Y were in the audience for the second of his London nights (March 27th) at the o2 Arena.

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Super-talented producer and musician Labrinth opened the show, setting the bar high with the delivery of an energetic and eclectic set of cuts from his debut album, Electronic Earth (released today).

Drake hit the stage to Take Care album cut Lord Knows, dressed in a black button-down shirt and slacks. Initially the stage felt a little too big for the rapping Lothario; as he reveals later in the set, his two day stint at the 18,000 capacity o2 Arena marks a seminal point in his career – the biggest venue he’s ever headlined. After witnessing his awkward Hammersmith Apollo performance in 2011, I wondered if this show would follow in a similar fashion. But Drake dispelled my concern quickly, finding comfort in the space as he tore through a medley of some of his hyper hip-hop songs and features, Underground Kings, (DJ Khaled’s) I’m On One and Over.

Though clearly rehearsed, his interaction with the crowd didn’t feel too contrived and he succeeded in making us giggle a good few times. In fact, one of the highlights of the set was his hilarious and accurate impression of Lil Wayne, relaying their conversation when Drake told Wayne he’d sold out the now-iconic London venue twice in a row.

Drake shed his dress shirt for the hip-hop emo anthem of the moment, Marvin’s Room. “Everybody put your middle fingers in the air and dedicate it to the girl I was singing to,” he implored, as the track came to the end, inciting fingers to shoot up around the arena. Equally emotive album interlude Good Ones Go (which features backing vocals from The Weeknd) followed before the pace changed dramatically with album title-track, Take Care. Transitioning suddenly into a rave, strobe lights shot through the arena while the synthy Jamie xx beat pulsated through the floor and 18,000 fans belted Rihanna’s chorus. “Shout out to Rihanna and her sexy ass!” called out Drake to the popstar, who attracted media attention by taking the Tube to his show that night.

Since made famous by Jay-Z, many rappers now close their show by turning up the house-lights and peering into the audience, shouting out individuals in the crowd. Rather than carbon-copying Hov’s signature move, Drake spent 10 minutes in the middle of the 90-minute set to engage with the crowd. “Shout out all y’all with the sunglasses on who can’t see a muthafuckin’ thing, I hope you enjoyin’ the music and shit!” he laughed.

The crowd participation was consistently raucous throughout the show – a fact he wryly pointed out at some point. However, his closing songs, The Motto (which spawned the loathsome expression YOLO) and Headlines – which featured a VT with typography that would’ve made Yin happy – succeeded in tearing the roof off of the o2.

The stellar set arrangement showcased just how many hits Drake has had in his short time on the scene, from breakout mixtape cut Best I Ever Had (which was a crowd favourite), to Thank Me Later songs like Miss Me, and Take Care’s HYFR, Make Me Proud and Practice. However, it was Drake’s enjoyment and ease on stage which made the show. Watching his older performances, it’s clearly taken a while for the rapper to become comfortable onstage. This energetic performance made Club Paradise in London feel like an arrival of Drake as a stage performer. Other than a few moments of conceited ramblings (I affectionately moniker his ‘gems’ of knowledge ‘Drakeisms’) and his dancing – Drake really, really, really can’t dance – there was little much to fault in the Canadian’s show.

Amidst rapturous applause, he ended the night with the suggestion, “I’d like to do this again if you’re interested. Maybe I can bring my homie Lil Wayne and this beautiful girl we got called Nicki Minaj…?”

Drake headlines London’s Wireless Festival Saturday 7th July.

Photo by Burak Cingi © – view full photoset here.

What is KONY 2012 you may ask. Well let me start off by saying that no single video has had an impact on me the way that the video I am bringing to your attention today has had. KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice. Jason Russell is by far one of the most inspiring individuals I have ever come across, and I’ve never met him, because he has taken major strides to help with the capture of the sadistic human being known as Joseph Kony. Joseph Kony is  a Ugandan guerilla group leader, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and what they basically do is capture children force and train them into becoming child soldiers. They are forced to kill their own parents and inflict suffering on others, should they not comply with what Kony demands then they themselves are killed. More on this when you read on, please read on as this is a very important post.

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KONY 2012 | Invisible Children | Twitter

Jason Russell, since meeting a Joseph Kony escapee, has made it his mission over the last 9 years to raise awareness and help stop these heinous crimes that have been committed after the last 20 years. So far he and the people of Invisible Children Inc have managed to bring this story to the US Government which in turn lead to Barack Obama deploying a small number of US troops in Uganda to aid with the capture of Kony. However this has been a long and argeuos road for Russell and Invisible Children and without the continued support and highlighting of this cause the fear is that the government will no longer see this as a priority.

This is where KONY 2012 steps in. KONY 2012 is a campaign with the sole purpose of raising awareness of this issue and making Joseph Kony a name that is recognised. The idea is to make Kony famous but not famous in way that we celebrate celebrities but famous in the sense that his name is known throughout the world just as much as a celebrity such as Rihanna or Oprah.

It is hard to put into short paragraphs what this video is all about and what it aims to do so I urge all of our Yin&Yang readers to take the time and watch and share this video. Never have I before wanted to get involved with anything like this before but having seen the video I have truly been inspired by Jason Russell and the Invisible Children movement, hopefully you will feel the same way!

*Update* Having had a little sleep and some time to reflect on this whole situation I feel that it is also important for me to point out that there are many people out there just like Joseph Kony. So while it’s great that people are taking the initiative to shine the spotlight on him we must remember that others will and do commit similar unjust crimes. Should Kony be stopped I hope that the world doesn’t feel as if their job is done, and while I fully understand that it is near impossible to stop all these evil entities we should remember that there were many people on the list of people that should be arrested and should try to capture those people as well.

Some cynics will say people are just jumping on the Kony bandwagon and I totally agree, however we all jump on a bandwagon at some during the course of our life so why not jump on one that has good intentions and could make a small but necessary change in the world.

I’m a day late with this post! Apologies. Arriving home at 11pm on Sunday night after the Northern London derby means only one thing – BED. Not exactly. Bed at 1am but just didn’t have enough time to get this post out. Without further a do, I present to you Eargasms. Apologies in advance for the songs without links!

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KID CUDI

‘Dose of Dopeness‘

If you’re a real Kid Cudi fan then you’ve probably had the 1-minute long live version in your iTunes library since July 2008. I have. Hoped it would drop with his first album but no, it didn’t. Two albums went by and still no sign of this Dot Da Genius produced wonder. Then it surfaces last week and it definitely lives up to the hype. Such a great song, Cudi at his best. WZRD out now.

Selected by Yin

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J. COLE

‘Grew Up Fast‘

I love beats like this, sampling David Ruffin’s ‘Double Cross’ adds that souiful vibe to the song. He’s brutally honest in this track, summarises the state of the whole industry with this one line:

“It’s only right I brought back the soul/ Ya’ll got way too electro” 

Not sure if I agree with the metro/half way homo line but still a dope track. It made me go download the original sample in an instant!

Selected by Yin

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CHRIS BROWN x RIHANNA

‘Birthday Cake (Remix)‘

If I’m talking purely about the music, it was one of the better tracks from Rihanna‘s ‘Talk The Talk‘ and lasting just over a minute (interlude) there needed to be a full track. The ‘Birthday Cake’ remix boasts senseless lyrics over a very danceable beat and I thought Chris Brown‘s inclusion on it was reasonable but hardly necessary. Never the less I love the song. In terms of the controversy surrounding the collab, it’s not the wisest of moves given that Chris beat Fenty to an inch of her life and also because once upon a time she was speaking against domestic violence. She’s supposed to be a role model for her younger audience, but the truth is if your a parent and you think pop stars are the perfect role models for your kids then more fool you!

Selected by Yang

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TEYANA TAYLOR x JADAKISS x FABOLOUS

‘D.U.I‘

Teyana Taylor is back with the second single taken from her hugely anticipated The Misunderstanding of Teyana Taylor EP. On this smooth groove, which features Jadakiss and Fabolous, it is clear to the ear that Taylor was inspired by Miss Janet Jackson. The little ode to Jackson is cute as is the song. Here’s hoping she has many more gems like this in store for us on the EP.

Selected by DJB

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ALEXANDRA BURKE

‘Elephant’ (No D/L)

Alexandra Burke performed an acoustic version of her upcoming single ‘Elephant‘ on That Grape Juice’s ‘The Splash‘. The original is a dance/electro track but she’s stripped it back and given a flawless vocal reminding me he great her voice is. Here is hoping that she’ll deliver more tracks like this and release some material in America where she’ll be appreciated!

Selected by Yang

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WARREN XCLNCE x ETTA BOND

‘Examine Me’ (No D/L)

I don’t know know a lot about Warren Xclne but I peaked, this track via a friends feed on my homepage (FB). Etta Bond‘s feature drew me in, I hit play and my ears and nostalgia for 90′s RnB were equal satisfied. Etta Bond’s slender tone reminiscences the bass line, new signee to Odd Child part of the SYCO imprint . And all I say is watch out for this chica she is on the up and up. Enjoy!

Selected by Grace

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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.