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R.I.P. Grammy Award-Winning Legend David Bowie, Global Icon and Innovator in Music, Art and Fashion

R.I.P. Grammy Award-Winning Legend David Bowie, Global Icon and Innovator in Music, Art and Fashion

By goodblacknews on January 11, 2016

David Bowie with Supermodel wife Iman (photo via popsugar.com)
David Bowie with Supermodel wife Iman (photo via popsugar.com)

As Stevie Wonder so aptly put it in his 1976 tribute to the 20th-century pioneers of sound, “Sir Duke”: “Music is a world within itself / With a language we all understand / With an equal opportunity / For all to sing, dance and clap their hands.”
Sir David Robert Jones, aka “Ziggy Stardust”, aka “The Thin White Duke”, but most commonly known around the world as David Bowie, fully understood and embodied the language of this universality, and connected with audiences around the world, no matter what genre he chose to explore. Some of his greatest commercial success came from his exploration of R&B music (“Young Americans”, “Fame”, “Golden Years”,  “Under Pressure,” “Let’s Dance”), but his musical life was one of constant change and innovation, which made this unique singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter and actor a prominent, global figure in popular music for over four decades.
According to the New York Times, Bowie’s last album, “Blackstar,” a collaboration with a jazz quartet that was typically enigmatic and exploratory, was released on Friday — his birthday.  He had also collaborated on an Off Broadway musical, “Lazarus,” which was a surreal sequel to the 1976 film that featured his definitive screen role, “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”

Bowie wrote songs, above all, about being an outsider: an alien, a misfit, a sexual adventurer, a faraway astronaut. His music was always a mutable blend — rock, cabaret, jazz and what he called “plastic soul” — but it was suffused with genuine soul.  Bowie, in turn, influenced many of today’s prominent R&B, soul, pop/rock and hip-hop artists, (remember Queen Latifah’s collab on the “Fame ’90” redux?) many of whom are already honoring him:

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/686449257767776256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Pharrell/status/686460230318698496

Bowie is to be honored with a concert at Carnegie Hall on March 31 featuring the Roots, Cyndi Lauper and the Mountain Goats.

Bowie lost his 18-month battle with cancer on Sunday night, and is survived by his son, director Duncan Jones, wife Iman and their daughter Alexandria.

To read more about Bowie, his life and career, click here.  To see him perform live in 1974 on “The Dick Cavett Show” with Luther Vandross on background vocals, check out the video below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydLcs4VrjZQ&w=420&h=315]

article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)

 

Boyz II Men to Collectively Play Teen Angel in Fox’s ‘Grease: Live’

By goodblacknews on January 10, 2016

Boyz II Men
The three current members of Boyz II Men have been tapped to play a character popularized by just one actor in the original 1978 version of “Grease.”
The group has been cast in Fox’s production of “Grease: Live” which will air on January 31 at 7pm EST. They’ll collectively deliver a three-part harmony version of the guardian angel character made famous by Frankie Avalon.
They’ll sing the classic song “Beauty School Dropout,” a number normally addressed toward the character of Frenchy (played by Carly Rae Jepsen in this version).
The group announced the news via social media.

article via eurweb.com

ART: Now You Can Take a Virtual Tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Nas & Rakim

ART: Now You Can Take a Virtual Tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Nas & Rakim

By goodblacknews on January 10, 2016

Nas and Rakim are part of the NY Met's Hip Hop Project (photo via ambrosiaforheads.com)
Nas and Rakim are part of the NY Met’s Hip Hop Project (photo via ambrosiaforheads.com)

Hip-Hop and art have once again merged in an exciting way, thanks to the inventive mind of a graduate student. Regina Flores Mir is the brains behind the Hip-Hop Project, a program being implemented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that allows visitors to navigate the various collections with guiding narration from MCs. Lyrics from songs by artist including Missy Elliott, Notorious B.I.G., Eric B. & Rakim, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Queen Latifah, and more are used as keywords and then cross-referenced with the Met’s massive archive of art, providing listeners with a Hip-Hop-centric blueprint by which to examine and understand the museum’s collections.
hip hop project
According to the Hip-Hop Project’s website, “although the rap lyric may not be directly correlated to the art work in meaning, it allows visitors to see work that they may not have otherwise known existed,” allowing for the kind of accidental discovery that could inspire Heads to establish bridges between music and art in uniquely individualized ways.
As Kari Paul wrote for Vice’s Motherboard channel, the relationship between the lyrics and pieces of art in question aren’t necessarily straightforward, but are nevertheless engaging. “For example, in ‘Juicy’ when the Notorious B.I.G. says ‘fuck all y’all hoes,’ the Hip-Hop Project pulls up an ancient hoe artifact. Users can click on it and explore this work and others,” she explains. The Hip-Hop Project’s site allows users to experience the museum tour without a trip to the Met, simply by picking a rapper and delving into the lyrical matches to items available for viewing. Heads will also appreciate the website’s domain (www.rappersdelight.nyc).
article by Bonita via ambrosiaforheads.com

2 Chainz’s ‘Dabbin’ Santa’ Sweaters Make $2 Million, Help Him Give Back to Those in Need Via T.R.U. Foundation

By goodblacknews on January 1, 2016

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2 Chainz (photo via clutchmagonline.com)

According to Forbes, 2 Chainz conquered Christmas with his timely and super cute “Dabbin’ Santa” sweaters. While the rapper has been toying with merchandising ideas for years, he finally found a hit when “the dab” (a dance) found its way into primetime courtesy of NFL star Cam Newton.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySilAPr6fW4&w=560&h=315]
“I don’t want people to think this was an overnight success. We’ve been trying with a bunch of designs for a couple years now. This is just timing meets opportunity,” he explained. “There’s the whole dab thing, and Atlanta’s always been somewhere that actually moves the culture a little bit. We have been the backbone of hip-hop for the past couple years. So with dabbing coming out of Atlanta, it just began to grow legs and start moving on its own.”
The sweaters became wildly popular and grossed around $2 million in revenues for 2 Chainz and his team. Instead of spending the profits on frivolous things, the Atlanta native decided to help others.
“I had a numerous amount of celebrities helping with the shirt. It was on the NFL, it was on TNT, it was on Good Morning America, it’s on ESPN. So I could not continue receiving those blessings without giving back at the end of the day,” he said.
2C380-SantaDab-Black_t3q74u
A large slice of the profits went into 2 Chainz’s T.R.U. Foundation, which is “dedicated to promoting balanced, respectful and enriched relationships and aim to create life changing moments and help build a positive outcome for our young generation.”
Because of the “Dabbin’ Santa” craze 2 Chainz’s organization was able to pay the rent for one family for an entire year, and donate a minivan to another. The move not only benefitted the families in need, but also helped 2 Chainz as well.
“For us, it’s about putting it together independently, with nobody really being the boss. We’re creating our own way to give back, to do something for people,” he told Forbes. “We’ll trickle down to the kids and lead by example. Like I say, actions speak louder than words. We could have spent this money on possessions, but giving a family that needs it will actually go further for them and for me.”
article via clutchmagonline.com

R.I.P. Grammy Award-Winning Singer and Chart-Topping Artist Natalie Cole

By goodblacknews on January 1, 2016
Natalie Cole performing in 2007. (Credit: Radek Pietruszka/European Pressphoto Agency)

Natalie Cole, the Grammy Award-winning singer whose hits included “Inseparable,” “This Will Be,” “Our Love,” “Pink Cadillac” and “Unforgettable,” a virtual duet with her father, Nat King Cole, that topped the Billboard charts in 1991, died in Los Angeles on Thursday. She was 65.

Maureen O’Connor, a spokeswoman for Ms. Cole, confirmed her death without giving a cause, according to The Associated Press. Ms. Cole had undergone a kidney transplant in 2009 and had suffered from other ailments recently, forcing the cancellation of a series of tour dates in November and December.

Ms. Cole — who was raised around jazz royalty in the company of her father and her mother, Maria Hawkins Cole, a singer who worked with Duke Ellington and Count Basie — came into her own as a singer in the 1970s by staking out her own territory in R&B. Her first album, “Inseparable,” in 1975, won two Grammys, and “Sophisticated Lady,” on a follow-up album the next year, won another.

Ms. Cole’s reputation declined for several years, partly because of struggles with drug addiction. But she came back, creating the biggest hit of her career by uniting, at least in the studio, with the legacy and voice of her father, singing along with him on a recording of his standard “Unforgettable” and winning several Grammys in 1991.

The song reached a level of success that Ms. Cole said stunned her, even with the combined wattage of her name and her father’s.

“The shock of it all is that this record is getting airplay,” Ms. Cole said in an interview at the time. “It’s absolutely shocking to see it between Van Halen and Skid Row on the charts, totally out of its element. It should be encouraging to record companies and my contemporaries.”

Watch Ms. Cole perform one of her biggest hits, her debut single from 1975, the #1 R&B hit and #6 Pop hit “This Will Be”, live on “Midnight Special” below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-LBiZcN5RI&w=420&h=315]

article by Randy Kennedy via nytimes.com; additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Chance The Rapper Aids Effort to Bring 1,000 Coats to Homeless In Chicago

By goodblacknews on December 24, 2015

chance-the rapper
Chance The Rapper (photo via eurweb.com)

Need a source of holiday inspiration? Try Chance the Rapper.
According to Mic.com, the Chicago rhymesayer is making it his business to bring at least 1,000 coats to his city’s homeless population via a recent partnership with the Empowerment Plan, a Detroit-based nonprofit organization that employs homeless people from local Detroit shelters to create long, self-insulating coats that transform into sleeping bags and totes.
The project, known as Warmest Winter, launched Wednesday (Dec. 21) with the goal of bringing the coats to Chicago by asking folks to sponsor a coat with a $100 donation for the manufacturing of the coat. Broken down, the money will help cover the labor, materials and overhead expenses involved in creating the coat.
To date, the Warmest Weather project has raised more than $43,000, which has funded the manufacturing of 430 EMPWR coats. The coats are noted for being water resistant and self-heating, in light of them being constructed with upcycled automotive insulation and durable work fabric from Carhartt. When they are not being worn, the coats can be carried as an over-the-shoulder bag.
Founded by Veronika Scott, a social entrepreneur, the Empowerment Plan started distributing the EMPWR coats in Detroit in 2011 with 10 formerly homeless women the organization initially employed, according to The Huffington Post. Since its creation, the Empowerment Plan now employs 20 formerly homeless individuals, who have created more than 9,000 coats.
The organization’s partnership with Chance the Rapper allows for its coats to come to Chicago with an ultimate goal of opening an Empowerment Plan factory in the city and offering homeless Chicago residents a chance to earn a living wage.
For his part, Chance the Rapper is using the power of social media to actively promote the Warmest Winter initiative. Since last week, the rhymesayer has been busy encouraging his more than 1.2 million Twitter followers and 900,000 Instagram fans to donate to the cause with offering donors such things as
tickets to one of his concerts, a Chicago White Sox game and a Chicago Bulls game.
Within hours of Chance the Rapper’s first tweet about Warmest Winter, $7,500 — or 75 coats — had been raised, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The support comes at a troubling time in Chicago, which is experiencing a harsh winter. Mic.com references findings from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which reveal that an estimated 125,838 Chicagoans were homeless during the 2014-2015 school year. The National Coalition for the Homeless found that out of the homeless population in America, about 700 people die of hypothermia every year.
Estimates by Warmest Winter state that for each 1,000 coats funded, it can save 14 lives. The initiative is set to run until Jan. 13.
For more information and to donate to  Warmest Winter, click here. To see one of Chance the Rapper’s tweets about Warmest Winter, scroll below:


article via eurweb.com

Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" Becomes the 1st 30-Times Multiplatinum Album in U.S. History

By goodblacknews on December 19, 2015
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Michael Jackson holding the several Grammy awards he won at the 1984 Grammy ceremonies Feb. 28, 1984, in Los Angeles. His top award was Album of the Year for Thriller. (SUSAN RAGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Michael Jackson is still setting records years after his death. The King of Pop’s Thriller album has become the first album to go platinum 30 times in the U.S., with sales of more than 30 million albums here and 100 million albums worldwide.
“RIAA has awarded gold and platinum records on behalf of the music business for nearly 60 years, but this is the first time an artist has crossed the 30-times, multiplatinum plateau,” said Recording Industry Association of America chief Cary Sherman in a statement. “We are honored to celebrate the unique status of Thriller in gold and platinum history.”
Thriller was released Nov. 30, 1982, and spent nearly two-and-a-half years on the Billboard album charts, with 37 weeks at No. 1. The album was produced by Quincy Jones and won eight Grammys. Included on the album were such hits as “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and its title song, “Thriller.”
“It is crystal clear that Michael Jackson is simply the greatest and biggest artist of all time,” Epic Records Chairman and CEO L.A. Reid said in a statement. “Not only are his charts hits, and sales stats staggering, but his pure musicality was otherworldly. Thriller was groundbreaking and electrifying … it was perfection. I am extremely proud that Michael is the heart and soul of Epic Records, and he will forever remain the one-and-only King of Pop.”
article by Yesha Callahan via theroot.com

Ruben Studdard Receives Master of Arts from Alabama A&M University

By goodblacknews on December 15, 2015
Ruben Studdard Graduation

American Idol alumni Ruben Studdard announced on Instagram over the weekend that he had graduated with his Master of Arts degree at Alabama A&M University, reports The Root.
“I’m super happy and proud to be a Bulldog,” the singer wrote.
Studdard is no stranger to the southern university, the singer also attended the college for undergrad, where he received his degree in—what else?—voice studies.
“I took a trip down memory lane tonight,” Studdard wrote in a separate Instagram selfie, taken in an auditorium and reflecting on his journey from undergraduate to grad student. “I learned so much in this room. Words can’t even describe how much The Hill #AAMU means to me!!”
Congrats, Ruben!
article by Taylor Lewis via essence.com

Chance The Rapper Makes SNL History as Its 1st Independent Musical Guest

By goodblacknews on December 13, 2015

Chance The Rapper (photo via allhiphop.com)
Chance The Rapper (photo via allhiphop.com)

The year 2015 is ending on a high for Hip-Hop. Earlier in the week, Kendrick Lamar was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, the most ever for a Hip-Hop performer in a single year. And, tonight (12/12), Chance The Rapper became the first independent artist, in any genre, to perform on the 40-year old sketch comedy franchise, “Saturday Night Live.”
Chance performed 2 songs on the SNL stage. The first was “Somewhere In Paradise” with Jeremih. As is often the case, the song was part rap, part singing and all Chance catching the spirit, as he showed his jubilation for being on stage, both vocally and physically. His lyrics were joyous, even stating that there were people in his life who said he’d never reach this point, and yet, here he was. He also covered every inch of the stage with spirited dance moves. Jeremih joined halfway through and was the recipient of a bear hug at the end from the MC who seemed overwhelmed by the moment. Chance also was supported by a full band, which included his longtime collaborator, Donnie Trumpet, with whom he released the Surfalbum earlier this year, under the collective name of The Social Experiment.
Chance’s second song was “Sunday Candy,” his sweet love song from Surf. Unlike the first performance, this one was much more staid, with Chance seated while backed by his band and choir. Even still, his joyousness shone through the rain about which he sang. To take a look at both performances, click here.
article by Parfit via ambrosiaforheads.com
 

Queen Latifah Lands Lead Role in Lee Daniels’ Fox Music Pilot

By goodblacknews on December 8, 2015
Queen Latifah Lee Daniels
Queen Latifah (ROBERT MAXWELL FOR VARIETY)

Queen Latifah has landed a lead role in Lee Daniels’ untitled music project at Fox, which was formerly titled “Star,” Variety has learned. Three more regulars — all relative newcomers — have also been cast.
The Untitled Lee Daniels Music Pilot goes into production this month in Atlanta, and while the potential series has only been ordered to pilot at this point, Queen Latifah’s star power, combined with Daniels’ “Empire” track record at Fox, makes the project a strong contender for the 2016-17 television season.
The pilot revolves around three young women, who form a girl group with hopes of making it big in the music industry. The project has been described in the vein of “Dreamgirls,” while incorporating the manufacturing of modern-day girl groups, showcasing the allure and heartache of the cut-throat music scene, and exploring cultural themes from a new perspective.
Queen Latifah will anchor the young cast, playing Carlotta, the owner of an Atlanta beauty salon who has an amazing voice and becomes a surrogate mother to the three girls in the group, even though she doesn’t approve of their musical dreams.
Following a nationwide casting call, actress and singers Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny and Brittany O’Grady have been cast as the leading girl group members.
Demorest (“Dallas,” “The Middle”), from Detroit, has landed the role of Star, the tough 18-year-old who spent her childhood in and out of foster homes after the death of her mother, and who will do anything to become the star she was named to be; Destiny (“Low Winter Sun”), also from Detroit, has been cast as Alexandra, the wealthy 20-year-old who grew up on New York’s Upper East Side, but who, for years, has tried to put her privileged world behind her, so she can make real, authentic music; and O’Grady (“The Messengers”), from Washington, DC, will play Simone, Star’s younger sister who dreams of the day Star will return to rescue her from the abusive foster home in which she was placed five years before.