JANELLE MONÁE SET TO PERFORM TWO SPECIAL SHOWS WITH THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY AND CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA;
VIDEO FOR "Q.U.E.E.N." FEATURING ERYKAH BADU SURPASSES 4 MILLION VIEWS ON YOUTUBE;
NEW PRESS IMAGE FROM UPCOMING ALBUM, THE ELECTRIC LADY, REVEALED
Grammy-nominated artist, Janelle Monáe, is set to perform two special shows with the San Francisco Symphony and The Chicago Symphony Orchestra this month. Monáe will perform new arrangements of her critically acclaimed music, while being accompanied by each symphonies vibrant orchestrations. Monáe's first appearance with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will take place tonight, May 16th and will benefit SFS music and education programs. She will then join The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) on May 20th, graciously filling in for Aretha Franklin, who regretfully had to cancel her appearance under doctor's orders. Proceeds from her performance at The League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association's annual Corporate Night, will benefit the CSO's general operations and nationally recognized community engagement and music education programs.
Last month, Monáe released "Q.U.E.E.N" featuring Erykah Badu, a new track from her upcoming album, The Electric Lady, to extensive critical acclaim. VIBE declared the song a "sure-fire hit," and Rolling Stone referred to it as "An anthem of self-determination with a funkadelicious base line," while Stereogum hailed Monáe as "a hero...'Q.U.E.E.N' is an irresistibly funky vamp-strut with Afrobeat horns and Princely synth-squelches...and a rap verse that's better than it has any right to be." The companion video to the song received equal adulation, immediately trending worldwide on Twitter, and surpassing 4 million views on YouTube in just a few days. Today, Ms. Monáe - who has become a modern day style icon, revealed the first press image from her upcoming album, The Electric Lady (see attached.)
A groundbreaking, genre-blurring singer, songwriter, producer, and performer, Janelle Monáe's inventive style melds a refined pop sensibility with an extraordinary postmodern mash-up of soul, funk, and rock n roll. In the last two years, Monáe's career has blossomed following the release of her Grammy-nominated, first full-length LP, The ArchAndroid. Monáe has toured the world and been invited to perform at numerous festivals, including the Made in America Festival in Philadelphia, the Afro-Punk Festival in Brooklyn, and the NorthSea and Montreux Jazz Festivals. Her success has garnered her several global appearances, including a performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Additionally, Monáe has been honored with invitations to perform for the Democratic National Convention and for the President of the United States at The White House. Last year, she collaborated with Grammy Award-winning band fun. on their breakout hit single "We Are Young." Monáe was also recently signed as the newest CoverGirl spokesmodel. Her highly anticipated sophomore album, The Electric Lady, is due out later this year.
Janelle Monáe "Q.U.E.E.N" featuring Erykah Badu Official Video:
Be a Part of the Music! Pack your picnic basket, gather your friends and immerse yourself in the Delta Classic Chastain experience. The distinguished setting is more tradition than venue, and the eclectic line-up of top performers guarantees musical memories!
To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of So So Def Recordings and the concert coming this weekend, Creative Loafing put out a story laying out the history of the label and the people it signed.
Jermaine Dupri and So So Def always had a weird relationship with the city of Atlanta in my eyes. Obviously outside of LaFace, JD's company was probably the most successful and productive Atlanta-based label, and looking back he and SoSo Def might have had a better run and bigger impact considering that he started out before them and he went on to produce for large acts outside of his own company.
The biggest thing people in Atlanta (the Hip Hop community specifically) used to pick on JD about was that he never signed a "real" Atlanta rapper.more Kris Kross is obviously from here but they started off as pop stars from the rip. Xscape is as Southwest Atlanta as the come, but they are a female quartet. Spend any second around Jagged Edge off the stage and you'll see they are all the way Atlanta from West End to Wesley Chapel. The only rappers JD signed were Bow Wow (from Ohio), Da Brat (from Chicago), Mr. Black (from South Carolina and what happened to him? He was dope) and that dude R.O.C. that sounded like Jay-Z.
People knew exactly what he did and the hits he put out. But cats here really never gave him his props here because he didn't sign an Outkast, T.I. or even Ludacris type rapper that made you go "oh, that's Atlanta right there" when you saw them. Yes, he wound up picking up Bone Crusher and Dem Franchize Boys in the 2000s who very much did their parts in keeping eyes on Atlanta's Hip Hop scene but for some odd reason they "don't count like that" when you have conversations about Atlanta' rap history. Due to the fact that they were parts of a bigger movement (Crunk and Snap) that pretty much swallowed them up and washed them away when that ship sailed.
At times, some would even say that JD didn't rep the A at all. Only a few remember, but T.I.'s 2002 underground classic "In the A" was pretty much a response to JD's "Welcome To Atlanta."
I don't want to go as far as call it a "diss" because T.I. clearly states "I ain't hatin' holmes" but he lets it be known that his track is a real "Atlanta song" as compared to JD's.
In off the record conversations I've had with some of the founding fathers of Atlanta's Hip Hop scene, a rolling joke was that JD named his label "So So Def" because he wanted to be Def like Jam...but his shit was just "so so."
Rap wise, it seems like everybody outside of Atlanta loved (or loathed) JD more than anyone in Atlanta did. Both Mase and Nelly took trips to Atlanta hoping to meet JD and slip him a CD, hoping they could get signed. Nothing came about from those exchanges but we saw both of them go their routes and make history. Hell, even Kanye was down here before he got on trying to get in the man's presence.
Nobody in the A really came out throwing salt on JD's name, but folks like Treach from Naughty By Nature didn't hold his tongue when talking about how he felt that Kris Kross' "Jump" was a rip off of "OPP" and his whole style period. Or later when he accused Kris Kross of trying to be hard like Da Youngstas. Hell, a lot of folks believe that Suge Knight was actually talking about JD at the infamous 1995 Source Awards when he made the "all in the video dancing" remark that Puff Daddy wound up taking offense to. This was supposedly due to the thought that JD pretty much lifted Snoop Doggy Dogg's l
Check out this live video footage I came across at DJWayneSki.com of Bumpy Knuckles performing at the Naughty By Nature show last night. While a lot of you were watching the Oscars Wayne Ski was shooting footage on his Iphone.
Great show last night! I took this with my IPhone. Enjoy!
Last night Hov was in the building to help Jermaine Dupri celebrate So So Def 20th Anniversary Reunion and what better than for the duo to perform "Money Ain't A Thang".
Lupe Fiasco is known for speaking his mind regardless of who might catch feelings. Even when he is at an event full of Obama supports on the day of his inauguration. Lupe performed "Words I Never...
Queensbridge rapper Nas kept everyone in a New York State of Mind during his New Year celebration at Radio City Music Hall. The lyrical poet performed several of his classic hits and we got video to...
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