Jay-Z & Kanye West "Watch The Throne"

Jay-Z and Kanye West have been collaborating on several projects together, with Kanye producing several songs on Jay-Z Blue Print Album,which gave him the opportunity to sign with Roc A Fell Records.  Jay-Z teamed up with him on his album “My Beautiful Dark Secret Fantasy, at that time they decided to work on there own album together, which produced their most recent project “Watch The Throne”, the name of the duo “The Throne”.

"Watch The Throne" the world anticipated album with the collaboration of two geniuses, Jay-Z and Kanye West.  The album has already been deemed by most as an instant classic.   As JP DelaCuesta of ALL HIP HOP states “The dynamic duo do not disappoint”.  The first single to be released was Otis, a soulful sound, which featured Otis Redding 1966 classic “Try a Little Tenderness”, which is “the hottest rap song of the summer”, as Trent Fitzgerald of PopCrush website says.    Jay-Z got his swagger back!  And then comes in the tickling piano, a flourishing bass line and a thunderous beat produced by Kanye West.  As the world await, with anticipation the album dropped on August 5 in stores everywhere.  According to the Billboard top 200 charts “Watch the Throne” came in at #6 this week, last week came in at #4 it was at #4 for 5 weeks.  Other songs on the album start off with “No Church in the Wild”, Lift off, featuring Beyonce, In Paris, Gotta Have it, Who Gon Stop Me, and Welcome to the Jungle, just to name a few.  The CD has collaborations, with other artist as well such as Frank Ocean, Curtis Mayfield, and Mr. Hudson.

The Throne cannot make money from CD sells alone, so they are on tour with a schedule of 28 dates so far.  The Throne Tour will be in Philadelphia on November 2, 2011 at the Wells Fargo Center, with only limited seating left.  Coming to a city near you, be on the look out.  I give Watch The Throne two thumbs up!

http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/billboard-200

http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/611672/jay-z-and-kanye-wests-musical-history.jhtml

http://www.ticketmaster.com/JAYZ-and-Kanye-West-tickets/artist/1620810#artist_table_focus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoEKWtgJQAU&ob=av3e

Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter IV” Nears Platinum in its First Week

Lil Wayne’s has earned a platinum plaque thanks to the first-week sales of his latest album “Tha Carter IV which sold 1,000,690 copies according to Steven Horowitz, of Hip Hop DX website. According to Billboard.biz, Carter IV earned the biggest sales week for a hip-hop album, and it also shifted 362,000 digital copies in its first week, it marks the second largest digital sales week of all time for an album, behind “Born This Way” Lady Gaga’s new album with 662,000 digital downloads. “Tha Carter IV” according to Nielsen SoundScan enabling its No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 chart.
It also broke the US ITunes stores single week album sales record with around 345,000 sold via ITunes. 

“Tha Carter IV” album was illegally leaked on the Internet 5 days before the album official release date. Lil Wayne was not concerned about his album leaking because he new it would still do good.  According to MTV, Lil Wayne stated,

"We did real good this time, real good," Wayne told MTV News correspondent Jim Cantiello after his show-closing performance at the VMAs in L.A. on Sunday. "It just means people want to hear it," he said. "I mean, 'cause there're people's albums that come out that can be leaked and don't leak, so I'm glad mines leaked."

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/retail/lil-wayne-s-carter-iv-debuts-at-no-1-with-1005340572.story

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.16764/lil-waynes-tha-carter-iv-nears-platinum-in-its-first-week/

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1670206/lil-wayne-tha-carter-iv-album-leak.jhtml

Thandie Newton: Embracing otherness, embracing myself

A TED Presentation by Thandie Newton, an actress who discussed her story of growing up in two distinct cultures; her mom is black from Zimbabwe and her dad white from Cornwall, she grew up in England in the 70’s. By the age of five she knew she didn’t fit “she said she was a black atheists kid in and all white catholic school run by nuns” and her self began looking for definition, and she said, “self likes to fit", in other words she just wanted to fit in with others.

Thandie was in a place where she felt she didn’t exist that she was in otherness, and she struggled to find self, another world opened up for her, performing and dancing, she used dancing to lose herself, she stated “I wasn’t able to be in real life, in myself”. She began acting at the age of 16, she felt peace in acting because she was able to lose herself in her roles and become in another self and not her own. This gave her a sense of belonging, which she thought she was fully functioning in self; the one she controlled, and she gave life to it. By the age of 19 she was a full-fledged actress, but still searching for definition.

Thandie didn’t know where she belong in society, what race embraced her. She said, “Race is an illegitimate concept which our selves have created based on fear and ignorance”. Even though she understood this fact, it didn’t help cure her low self-esteem and her feeling of otherness. Thandie suffered from bulimia and ended up seeing a psychiatrist. The world is made to believe you have to be a certain way to fit into society; you need to have a certain self-image, so we create in our minds a self-image. Thandie created self when she danced, or she got a role in a movie, she lost herself in her role, until it was over and back to feeling of nothingness.

We need to live in reality and appreciate who we are as one and not try to fit in to what other believe is the right way and except what and who we are in this world. Society makes us believe we are not the right color, size, or culture. Be one with yourself and don’t try to be in otherness, be yourself, who God created you to be.

http://www.ted.com/talks/thandie_newton_embracing_otherness_embracing_myself.html

Lady B 30th Anniversary

A tribute to the legendary Lady B Philly’s one and only aka, Wendy Clark, she has been DJing and representing hip-hop for the past 30 years, according to an AV Club article. In her honor tonight an OLD School Hip Hop show at the DELL East Music center in Philadelphia, PA.

The article states that, Lady B brought Hip-Hop to Philly, she was probably the most influential woman in hip-hop radio history; she began her climb to her title in 1979. She started at an interning job at WHAT and releasing “To The Beat Y’all,” a Sugar Hill Gang track, which was considered the first hip-hop recording by a female artist. She started working at Power 99fm in 1984, her legendary show “Street Beat” brought artist such as Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Run DMC, and Queen Latifah. She also brought locals such as the legendary Will Smith, Schooly D and the roots to the show as well.

To honor her a anniversary party, with a group of old-school artist attending, many of which she help rise to the top; gathered together to give tribute, artist such as Salt N Pepa, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Doug E Fresh and more with special surprise guest appearance from Will Smith, a real old-school party. People came from all over dressed in old-school attire, big bamboo earrings, addidas sweat suites, shell top addidas, kangos all representing old-school hip-hop culture.

“Wit out a Doubt”!!!!!

http://rnbphilly.com/category/ladyb30th-photos/

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez became apart of American Idol in 2011; it sparked her career up again bringing her to the forefront. She is an actress, entertainer, producer, fashion designer, entrepreneur and philanthropist, according to the article. Jennifer Lopez is successful. She is in the process of launching a deal with Khols with an exclusive collection. J-Lo sets the standard for celebrity branding in fragrance, apparel and accessories, her fragrances also took in over 1 billion dollars; she is a successful entrepreneur.

Jennifer “J-Lo” Lopez new album “LOVE” that released on April 29, 2011, Bradley Stern of mumuse.com, said she came back roaring in the charts with her new album. According to musicloversgroup.com, Jennifer Lopez new album theme is examining, questioning and exploring the many different sides and avenues of love and relationships. They also stated that the album had a nice range of styles, beats, vocals, and compositions on this album to satisfy her fans. Jennifer left Epic Record in 2010, moving to Island Def Jam, putting out her new album “LOVE”, according to the article in mumuse.com this is her best work since 2001. J-Lo is back………

http://www.muumuse.com/2011/05/jennifer-lopez-love-album-review
html/http://www.musicloversgroup.com/jennifer-lopez-love-album-review/

Beyonce "Run This World" (Girls) Video

Beyonce is back after over a year off from the music scene.  Her new video “Run This World (Girls)” from her new album “4” according to Huffpost Entertainment “she hasn’t missed a beat”.  Her video was an African eccentric video, the video released on June 28^th, with 56,006,120 hits already. 

African dancers inspired Beyonce, from Mozambican Kwaito dance group called Tofo Tofo who choreographed her video “Run This World”.  MTV ‘s Jocelyn Vena wrote in an article that Beyonce longtime Choreographer Frank Gaston Jr. said, "We prepared a lot for it. We had seen something on YouTube; we had seen these three guys from Africa, this Mozambique African dance troupe ... we were like, 'Wow, this is an amazing movement,'’ [...] and that movement has always been in the back of our head for the last year. From there, we talked about a lot of concepts.” The group brought it all together.

 The video had 245 women in it, and it was set in a desert where the men were trying to takeover their headquarters, the women showed the men who "Run This World".  The choreography was amazing, and having the African dance group, gave her video something new and different than her usual.  Like Jacelyn Vena articles says’, Beyonce Nailed it!  Two thumbs up “B”.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/19/beyonce-run-the-world-girls-video-4_n_863990.html

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1664223/beyonce-run-the-world-girls.jhtml

Artist Branding and marketing

 As an artist manager, how an artist is marketed or branded could make or break an artist career, so working diligently getting fans and spreading the artist brand will determine if an artist will make it in the industry.  Working closely with a PR agent would be an asset for an artist and their manager because the agent would get the artist out in the media, through radio and interviews.  In most cases, artist just starting out in their career PR agents are not in the plans, self branding and marketing could be beneficial to an artist.

Lady Gaga is an example of how branding herself, helped her career skyrocket.   According to artist marketing strategy, “Lady Gaga designed a package that stood out from the crowd” in order to get people attention she had to be a performer and not just a singer.  Lady Gaga learned how to market herself, through various means and the media.  She keeps her fans engaged on the daily basis through her fan base on Facebook, which she has over 9,200,000 fans on Facebook according to the article.  She keeps everyone engaged daily through where she is going and where she is performing.  She constantly thanks her fans and supporters through her daily post, while promoting her brand she is keeping her fans engaged, as well as Facebook, Lady Gaga tweets and post on blogs.  Lady Gaga was not created by a record label or producer; she designed her own brand, as an artist and marketed herself through her shows, social media, and one of her brands is not lip singing at any of her shows as some artist do.  She delivers her brand with her elaborate performances, staging and costumes.  According to the article Lady Gaga is the first performer to have one billion hits on her videos on YouTube and 9 million plus of her music has been downloaded, that is a very strong brand.  As a artist you leverage your brand through social media, the Internet, in forums and through postings.  Artist must make contact and expand there base everyday.  Lady Gaga is constantly out there in the media, artist can learn from her on how to market and develop a brand.

http://www.artmarketingstrategy.com/artists-should-follow-lady-gaga-on-how-to-brand-their-art.html