First thought: No.
Danielle Belton | 3 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged Accidental Racist, Brad Paisely, country music, hip hop, ll cool j, music, racism, rap 
No. Stop. Don't.
Beyonce just released an elbow-throwing, grimy ode to all her haters. Did it also confuse you? Here. Let me explain, but first listen to this.
Now read ...
Danielle Belton | 8 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged R&B, beyonce, bow down, hip hop, music 
Alice Smith
Before I start talking about rock/R&B/soul "chanteuse" Alice Smith of Washington, D.C. and of "Woodstock" and "For Lovers And Dreamers And Me" fame, full-disclosure, I am hopelessly biased. It's easy for anyone to be biased for Alice if they know her journey, have enjoyed her in concert and donated to her Kickstarter campaign that got this album off the ground. (Fuller disclosure, I donated.) But probably the only person more biased than maybe me is her own family, who I had the pleasure of living with the entire time I lived in Washington, D.C.
Danielle Belton | 1 Comment | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged Alice Smith, R&B, SHE, album review, danielle belton, music, music review, neo soul, rock, soul, the snob, washington dc 
If you don't get the reference in the title, Brian McKnight (pictured) is the younger brother Claude McKnight, one of the founders of the gospel group "Take 6."Wednesday on theGrio, The Snob published an opinion piece on how some celebrities aren't handling the "softer side of fame" all that well, namely Brian McKnight, who is railing against the dying light by penning tunes for YouPorn.
It's hard out there for an R&B singer, guys. He had no other choice but to start writing hot tracks for Internet porn.
Snippet after the jump.
Danielle Belton | 3 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged Take 6, YouPorn, brian mcknight, celebrities, claude mcknight, music, pornography, the snob, theGrio 
"I always compare her performance of that song with a great athlete hitting his peak — with Michael Jordan in the playoffs. It was the absolute pinnacle of what she could do, of what anyone could do — and then she had to keep on doing it. Everybody wanted to hear her sing that song, and so she sang it. It didn't matter whether she had a cold, or wasn't in good voice; she had to deliver it, and she had it arranged so she could deliver every last note. And even if the note wasn't there, the feeling was. A lot of her songs were like that. They were a lot to deliver, but she delivered them every note, every time."
-- Robyn Crawford, long-time friend of Whitney Houston, telling Esquire Magazine about what happened after the singer recorded "I Will Always Love You" for the soundtrack to "The Bodyguard"
***
In the wake of Whitney Houston's death much is being written about drug addiction and alcohol abuse and abusing subscription pills and much more because it is known that Houston struggled with addiction issues and may hypothesize that these issues may have lead to her early death. The prevailing thought that I see over and over again regarding that addiction is often related to why other people have become addicts (self-medicating for a mental illness, addiction runs in the family, taking drugs to "cope" with emotional pain, etc.) -- but the theories people focus on are the ones routinely romanticized by the public and addicts alike.
Even though there's hardly anything romantic about the ravages of addiction.
Danielle Belton | 7 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged addiction, drug abuse, entertainment, music, whitney houston One of the greatest vocalists in history, once with a clarity unparalleled (and it still is if you're honest, she didn't even need to do runs or melisma. She just sang the song and it sounded other-worldly), Whitney Houston, died over the weekend. After the death of Don Cornelious and Etta James dying earlier in January, Houston dying officially made this (for me) the most depressing Black History Month ever. Feel free to celebrate you favorite memories and moments featuring Houston in the comments. Mine was that as a kid, I loved her so much, I actually performed "The Greatest Love of All" at a school pageant. (Video: Houston singing "Home" from "The Wiz" in her national TV debut in 1985. Hat tip: Jezebel)
Danielle Belton | 4 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged RIP, music, music monday, whitney houston 
Why are you doing this to me, man?* Why are you doing this to yourself?
Mitt Romney won't stop singing/ruining "America, the Beautiful," one of the best and most beloved songs from the Great American Songbook. I think he thinks singing it constantly looks patriotic rather than pandering and pathetic. But if you're going to turn every campaign stop into Country Bear Jamboree you need to actually be competent in carrying a tune.
I'm just going to leave this right here ... so you can have your mind blown. Merry Christmas, everybody!(Alabama Shakes)
Danielle Belton | 1 Comment | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged Alabama Shakes, You Ain't Alone, music, video "The Overweight Lover," aka Heavy D, also known as the rapper both you and your mother could love, died Tuesday at the age of 44.
Danielle Belton | 3 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged Heavy D, New Jack Swing, RIP, hip hop, music 
