Lady Gaga. She opened the show and was a hot mess! I loved Lady Gaga’s music until I saw her perform months ago. She is just too much. She does all of this with her outfits only to be talked about the next day. That’s a good marketing plat. But, she can not perform! If you look at the replay of her performanc, she is super stuff! Then, she pulls Elton John into her performance and he has all kinds of dust, paint and mess on his face with sparkle sunglasses on. #FAIL!

Green Day. A Whoooooole lot of people on stage, but a good performance and great harmonies. The drummer was so into it!

Beyonce.. She made me confused. She didn’t accept her award, which she received right before her performance, but could perform. #FAIL. Her weave looked a mess. Homegirl can sang tho because she tore the stage up! She sang If I were a Boy, but I’m sure I was not the only one expecting something else…like Put A Ring on It. Then, she sang a cover of Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know. It was bomb too because I love that song. What was with her rolling around on her knees though? That was a mess! P.S. Jay-Z I think you better take note of Bey’s song selection. She aint singing these hate songs for nothing.

Pink. I remember Pink from way back – when she had Pink hair. I don’t know what it is with her know. Barely no clothes on. When will people realize that sex is not the only way to sell!?! Besides not knowing a single word she said, her performance was awesome. I don’t know if she was actually singing, but even if she was lip synching – having to do all that while twirling from the ceiling and looking graceful is enough! She must be taking some kinda intro into Cirque de Soleil class because that’s the second time she’s done a circus act performance. Get it girl.

Black Eyed Peas. I was so excited to see the Black Eyed Peas perform, but looks like they needed another week of practice. They sang my jam Imma Be, but when they mixed tracks to sing I Got a Feeling, the beat got allllll messed up. It took the band 5 seconds too long to catch the beat! They did get me crunk tho. Can’t hate on the BEP because I love them :/

Lady Antebellum. I never heard of the group, but their song, I Need You Now, was nice. I’ll be downloading their album tomorrow…

Zac Brown Band. Don’t remember too much about their performance. However, they did win Best New Artist, which I don’t understand how. The Ting Tings or MGMT should have taken that award. I guess I can give them props because they are from Georgia. On to the next…

Taylor Swift + Stevie Nicks = Super Fail! Taylor was super flat and sounded a ham! I can’t believe they sang one song together, and then Stevie picks up a tambourine. You give a legend like that a tambourine and you need to get kicked off stage! Stevie should have run that show and had Taylor on as backup.

MJ Tribute. What about Us? Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, Smokie Robinson: The first real performance of the night! 5 great singers. Well rehearsed. In tune. Flawless.

Bon Jovi. NO performance can compare to the MJ tribute. It was hard to focus after the tribute. Jennifer Nettles performed. Bon Jovi performed Living on A Prayer – which was chosen by the fans watching at home during the show.

Mary J. Blige. She sang Bridge Over Troubled Waters with Andrea Bocelli. Mary is always classy and the performance was a great duet. This was grown folks music. Not that immature, childish mess that dominates mainstream media.

Dave Matthews Band. He’s. Still. Hot. He had a stage full of artists, musicians, and singers all up there to perform with him. I don’t know the last time the Dave Matthews Band was nominated for a Grammy, but they will always be welcome to sing at the Grammys in my book. They are a staple of American music culture. I don’t have their latest album, but the performance of You and Me was great. Will be getting tomorrow…

Maxwell. Performing live sounds just like the album version. Whew Lawd! He performed Pretty Wings and I just watched in amazement. Definitely not the best he could have been because his voice was a little hoarse, but he did exceptionally well. The performance ended with a collaboration with Roberta Flack singing Where is the Love? Roberta’s voice is unchanged, sounding exactly the same as she did years ago. I pray for her because her health does not appear to be the same as she was somewhat stiff on stage and did not move. She was amazing to be performing at 72 years old. Please appreciate and recognize this musical legend while she is still with us on Earth.

I think Jeff Beck performed but I missed it. Oopps. Had to warm up a snack.

Lil Wayne, Drake, Eminem, and Travis Barker on the drums. This was one of the hottest performances of the night! I was super crunk when listening. I just needed the sound to be there 100% and it wasn’t. I don’t know if the performance was censored or if there was connection issues, but we didn’t wait all night to have the sound go out. JUST WHACK!

Its 11:45 now…I’m out!

by Mariah Carey ft. Nicki Minaj: I don’t even know what to say about this video besides it is a hot mess! I miss the old Mariah – you know…the one before Honey! Mariah has become a disappointment. And don’t even get me started on her assistant, Nick! Oh my bad. I meant her husband. I think back to Vision of Love, Emotions, Can’t Let Go, Anytime You Need a Friend, and I Give My All (just to name a few) and those are some PRICELESS jams. Today, I don’t even take the time to download her albums. Even when I can get them for free! I’m really speechless when it comes to Mariah today. Only thing I can say is watch and I hope you can make it thru the whole video. It honestly took me 3 times to make it thru. Be on the lookout for Nick, who was the director and included a special segment from Drum Line. Just whack!

It’s been a while since I’ve downloaded music. Yesterday, I did not download anything new, but rather downloaded albums that included songs that I’ve liked for months. Most of these artists have an indie rock, new wave, electronic, electropop feel. You would never find any of these artists on the radio unless they were featured on a track with Jay, Kanye, Lil Wayne or Drake. Yet, they are super talented! So, make sure you support these artists by downloading their music and/or attending their concerts or shows that may be in your local city.

Cop these:

Youth Novels by Lykke Li

So Jealous by Tegan and Sara

Raggatronic by Enur

Demon Days by Gorillaz

Week of 1.25.10: Every now and then I force myself to listen to the radio. I started sometime last week and I can’t believe I’ve made it this long. Every – not one – but EVERY time I turn the radio on, I hear the same song.  If I didn’t like the song I’d probably be mad, but since I like the track I guess it’s ok. I only noticed they had the song in heavy rotation because I was constantly jamming to the track, and as days passed I was able to rap the lyrics. I began to question myself like “Woah! How you do know the words to this?”

If what they say is true about the amount of radio play an artist gets directly correlates to the number of singles/albums an artist sales, I know this artist is headed straight to the bank on a weekly basis! Just as I imagined, I just heard on the radio that the single alone has gone gold – that means 500,000 sold! Most people can’t even get their full album to go gold. That is super impressive being that the album isn’t set to release for at least two more months.

So….I’ve played the game long enough. Press play below to see who I’ve titled as the Radio King for this week. I will post the official video when there is one. I’m interested to see what a censored version could look like!

I take it for granted that people follow me on Twitter and read my tweets. I should come back down to reality and conclude that the number of people who actually follow me is a very small number. I have to remind myself that there is a whole group of people that don’t follow me, and there is an even larger group that of people that are not present on Twitter. I want to use my blog as another outlet to share my #MusicMonday updates with everyone. On Twitter, Monday is the designated day for everyone to share music and use the hashtag #MusicMonday to the mark the update. You will likely find #nowplaying as an accompanying hashtag to the #MusicMonday hashtag, both of which typically dominate the number one and two top trending topics on Monday. Some people share new music. Some people share their old, favorite tunes. I choose to share whatever music is on my mind at the time.

This Monday, I posted:
Come Around by M.I.A. and Timbo
Calabria 2008 by Enur
Electric Feel by MGMT

I choose to blip my choices for #MusicMonday so they can all be viewed in one location at any time. You can go to my dj page on Blip.fm to listen to these and all other posts in a playlist. Visit this page throughout the week to get a glimpse into what I’m listening to or check back in on Mondays for my #MusicMonday selections.

by The Emotions: I had this song in my head for *days* and it was driving me insane. Not because the song was stuck in my head, but because I didn’t know what the song was at the time. The only part I could remember was “hmmmmmmmm hmmm hmmm hmmmm to the world”. I also knew that wasn’t the melody of the whole song. I requested help from my friends, my mom, and my step dad. Try explaining your musical thoughts to people when you know you can’t hum! I received the same response from all of them: laughter! I knew I would figure it out one way or the other. I used all kinds of technology to help me find the song – one I will blog about next – none of which helped.

I knew I was either going to listen to oldies until I heard the song again or I was going to magically figure it out.  And I did just that…I researched every old school female artist I could think of. Eventually, something told me to analyze the harmonies and the sound of the song and think about what other songs sounded like this one. I somehow got to The Emotions and watched other Related Videos on YouTube until I found a match. I became an expert at scanning songs and starting them a minute into the track. When I first heard this one, I thought “Could THIS be the song? This may be the song!” You have no idea how happy I was when I took it back to the beginning and heard that “hmmmmmmmm hmmm hmmm hmmmm to the world”. I have listened to this track at least 30 times since then – enough to where I know all the lyrics and I will never again have to question what the song is.

Tonight you need to be at home! Or, I’ll let you slide if you are attending a Haiti fundraiser. Beginning at 8pm EST (7pm CST) MTV’s “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief” will broadcast across a number of networks, including MTV. There will be over 100 celebrities and influencers broadcasting live all over the globe, from LA to NY to London to Haiti, to help raise money for the reconstruction of Haiti.

Performers include Wyclef Jean, Madonna, Alicia Keys, Kid Rock, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, Justin Timberlake and tons more. I’m super excited because this concert will be one of a kind. Some artists will perform songs that have never been heard before, while we we also see collaborations from artists we never thought we would see on the same stage. The telethon will also feature actors, television hosts, athletes, and singers who will be answering the phones. That will be an epic sight to see.

Make sure you tune in. I’m sure out of ALL these channels the telethon will air on, there is one that you can watch – whether you have cable or not: BC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television and MuchMusic.

View this video of George Clooney, the telethon’s organizer, as he discusses ways the youth can get involved as well his hopes for the fundraiser:

by Jay-Z: First, I must make it known that this video was uploaded on New Year’s Eve and has more than 2.2 million views! That is roughly 730k+ views a week. That’s bananas!

I liked this track off the Blueprint 3 album, but I think Jay has been hanging around Rihanna too long because this video is straight crazy! There have been numerous rumors and videos over the last few months that explain that Jay-Z worships the devil. I’m not one to assume something so immoral but this video sure does make you think twice…

by Jeremih: This is a video from my girl Luam. The video is a little different than her normal videos in that the dancers are all guys. I barely noticed because Luam makes it hard to focus on anything besides her in the center. She constantly kills it! The choreography when “salute” is said around :24 and when the beat drops around :32 made me want to get up out of my chair and dance. You’ll be happy to know I saved myself from embarrassment and refrained from doing so.

I have been away for the last week! I produced an event on Tuesday, attended a conference and produced a series of events from Wednesday thru Friday, went straight to the mountains with my best friends on Friday, and finally made it home on Sunday. With working non-stop and limited access to internet, I have not had the opportunity to write a post to celebrate the life of Teddy Pendergrass. When I found out he passed away – on Twitter of course – my heart skipped a few beats. It’s so sad that so many people, such as Teddy Pendergrass, are not brought into everyday conversation until they pass away. Equally as sad for me is that I knew very little about Teddy beyond his music. I didn’t know that he was a part of the group Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. I did not know he had a car accident in 1982. Before you go saying I should have known because it was 28 years ago, I wasn’t even born then! Neither did I know that he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Confirming that there are so many unknown stories about the artists we all love justifies the purpose of my blog and ignites a drive within me to share so much more about legendary artists.

I grew up listening to Teddy Pendergrass as my parents would play his albums all the time. Very few male artists have made such an impact on music as Teddy P and definitely none from my generation. I’m sure I could break it down to a percentage of African Americans who were born between 1977-1982 and conclude that the majority were conceived to a track sang by Teddy. Yes – his songs are that serious. Teddy had great success with countless hits and memorable tracks such as Joy, Close the Door, Turn off the Lights, You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration, Love T.K.O., The Whole Town’s Laughing at Me and so many others. Only thing I have to hear is the title of the song and I can sing it from beginning to end. Even now, as I’m listening to his music I get chills thinking that this wonderful being has left us to go to a greater place. My prayers go out to his family and survivors.

I had trouble finding a Teddy Pendergrass-only playlist, so I made my own. Click the arrows on either side of the video player to listen to the next or previous track. Enjoy