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Michael Brown Supporters Interrupt St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Performance with Song and Banners (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on October 5, 2014

Protestors at a performance of the St. Louis Orchestra display a banner of officer shooting victim, Mike Brown. TheGrio.com
Protestors at a performance of the St. Louis Orchestra display a banner of officer shooting victim, Mike Brown. (YouTube)

Supporters of slain Missouri teen Michael Brown launched a peaceful protest during a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performance at Powell Symphony Hall.
The October 4 performance was interrupted suddenly when protestors located in the upper balcony unveiled banners—three in total—with written messages and artwork drawn in remembrance of the Ferguson youth fatally shot by a St. Louis police officer. The protest, launched during a performance of “Requiem” by Brahms, caused a minor delay in the orchestra’s performance. Some members of the protest also stood up in the lower seating sections, singing a tribute—set to the original Brahms’ piece—called “A Requiem for Mike Brown,” according to the title of one YouTube video of the event.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDc4Z-ex8sQ&w=560&h=315]
“Justice for Mike Brown,” the protestors can be heard singing in the video taken by one of the audience members, as the video pans towards the balcony, revealing two of the banners. The first is shown saying “Racism Lives Here,” with an arrow pointing to what appears to be a sketch of a city skyline; the second is a sketch of Michael Brown’s face, with “Requiem for Mike Brown” written, along with the dates 1996 – 2014, the years of the 18-year old Brown’s birth and death. The refrain of the protestors’ song was “which side are you on?”
(AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Steve Giegerich)
The video later pans to the third banner, which also features a drawing of the young man’s face, as well as the dates.
A significant portion of the audience can be heard clapping, with some even cheering as the protestors sing the song for approximately a minute and a half. Some audience members however, can be seen with looks of shock and confusion at the sudden and surprising interruption.
After finishing their song, the protestors can be heard chanting “Black lives matter,” before many of them head towards the exits. No arrests were made in the protest, as the demonstrators left of their own accord in peaceful fashion.
The protest follows the continued national controversy surrounding the death of Michael Brown on August 9 in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri.
article via thegrio.com

THEATER REVIEW: Craig Grant, aka "muMs", Sets His Life Story to Hip-Hop in "A Sucker Emcee"

By goodblacknews on September 28, 2014
“A Sucker Emcee”: Craig Grant, also known as muMs, in his show at the Bank Street Theater. (Credit: Ruby Washington/The New York Times)

Like Jean-Jacques Rousseau set to a hip-hop beat, Craig Grant offers his confessions in “A Sucker Emcee,” produced by the Labyrinth Theater Company. While a D.J. (Rich Medina) moves between two turntables, scratching and spinning, Mr. Grant tells the story of his life in rhymed couplets.

Mr. Grant, also known as muMs, speaks in a gentle growl with just a trace of a native Bronx drawl, though he can send his voice swooping up and down the social register. Dressed in Nikes and a T-shirt proclaiming “The Truth,” he spends most of the show near the front of the bare stage, lips pressed close to a microphone.

Though he’ll occasionally speak as his mother, his father, a friend or a teacher, he spends most of the piece as simply himself, narrating youthful screw-ups with fondness and exasperation.

In some ways his story is standard bullet-point autobiography. He begins with his volatile Bronx childhood, darts through some dissolute college years, chronicles his subsequent ups and down as a rapper and actor (best known for his role in the HBO prison drama “Oz”) and finally returns, with hard-won maturity and grace, to the borough of his birth. So far, so familiar. But what adds urgency and fierce pleasure to the monologue, directed by Jenny Koons, is his debt to music. D.J.’s, it seems, saved Mr. Grant’s life. “Before hip-hop, I couldn’t speak,” Mr. Grant recalls. The music gave him a voice, a place, a future, helping him to “turn all that hate into a dance and a chant.”

Mr. Medina provides backing beats to Mr. Grant’s chants and sometimes helps him pay more direct homage to the heroes of his youth — KRS-One, Rakim, the Sugarhill Gang. Even when the show threatens to turn into some sort of lecture demonstration, it’s still pretty good fun, with Mr. Medina illustrating each style and technique while Mr. Grant narrates and occasionally threatens some B-boy moves.

Even when the story ends with Mr. Grant’s returning to the Bronx and caring compassionately for his aging mother, the beat and the applause don’t stop.

“A Sucker Emcee” continues through Oct. 5 at the Bank Street Theater, 155 Bank Street, West Village; 212-513-1080, labtheater.org.
article by Alexis Soloski via nytimes.com

Dr. Dre is Forbes’ Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Act at $620 Million for 2014

By goodblacknews on September 28, 2014

Dr. DreDr. Dre tops Forbes list of highest-paid hip-hop acts with a total of $620 million earned this year. This is the most money ANY entertainer that has been evaluated by the magazine has earned in one calendar year.
What makes this even more incredible is that Dr. Dre alone made more than all 24 of the people combined on the 2014 list.  Two second-place entries, both tied at $60 million, made 10% of what Andre “Dr. Dre” Young did. But, with that total, Shawn ‘Jay Z’ Carter and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs won’t be cashing any unemployment checks any time soon.
Cash Money claims a large stake in the money game as well, with Drake in fourth place at $33 million, Birdman (Co-CEO of Cash Money) at No. 7 with $24 million, Lil Wayne a hair behind him with $23 million and Nicki Minaj, the only female artist on the list, at No. 11, with $14 million.
The complete “World’s Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Acts” list follows:
1. Dr. Dre: $620 million
2. Sean Combs: $60 million
2. Jay Z: $60 million
4. Drake: $33 million
5. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: $32 million
6. Kanye West: $30 million
7. Birdman: $24 million
8. Lil Wayne: $23 million
9. Pharrell Williams: $22 million
10. Eminem: $18 million
11. Nicki Minaj: $14 million
12. Wiz Khalifa: $13 million
13. Pitbull: $12 million
14. Snoop Dogg: $10 million
15. Kendrick Lamar: $9 million
16. Ludacris: $8 million
16. Tech N9ne: $8 million
16. Swizz Beatz: $8 million
16. 50 Cent: $8 million
20. Rick Ross: $7 million
20. J. Cole: $7 million
20. DJ Khaled: $7 million
20. Lil Jon: $7 million
20. Mac Miller: $7 million
article by Cedric “Big Ced” Thornton via blackenterprise.com

R.I.P. Composer, Pianist and Jazz Crusader Joe Sample

By goodblacknews on September 16, 2014
Joe Sample at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2011. His last solo album, “Children of the Sun,” is to be released this fall. (Credit: Jean-Christophe Bott/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

Joe Sample, who became a jazz star in the 1960s as the pianist with the Jazz Crusaders and an even bigger star a decade later when he began playing electric keyboards and the group simplified its name to the Crusaders, died on Friday in Houston. He was 75.

The cause was mesothelioma, said his manager, Patrick Rains.

The Jazz Crusaders, who played the muscular, bluesy variation on bebop known as hard bop, had their roots in Houston, where Mr. Sample, the tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder and the drummer Nesbert Hooper (better known by the self-explanatory first name Stix) began performing together as the Swingsters while in high school.

Mr. Sample met the trombonist Wayne Henderson at Texas Southern University and added him, the bassist Henry Wilson and the flutist Hubert Laws — who would soon achieve considerable fame on his own — to the group, which changed its name to the Modern Jazz Sextet.

The band worked in the Houston area for several years but did not have much success until Mr. Sample, Mr. Felder, Mr. Hooper and Mr. Henderson moved to Los Angeles and changed their name to the Jazz Crusaders, a reference to the drummer Art Blakey’s seminal hard-bop ensemble, the Jazz Messengers. Their first album, “Freedom Sound,” released on the Pacific Jazz label in 1961, sold well, and they recorded prolifically for the rest of the decade, with all four members contributing compositions, while performing to enthusiastic audiences and critical praise.

In the early 1970s, as the audience for jazz declined, the band underwent yet another name change, this one signifying a change in musical direction. Augmenting their sound with electric guitar and electric bass, with Mr. Sample playing mostly electric keyboards, the Jazz Crusaders became the Crusaders. Their first album under that name, “Crusaders 1,” featuring four compositions by Mr. Sample, was released on the Blue Thumb label in 1972.

Pharrell’s Making the Ocean Happy with Fashion Line Using Environmentally Conscious Recycled Plastics

By goodblacknews on September 10, 2014

G-Star RAW Presents RAW For The Oceans SS15 CollectionMother Earth is certainly “Happy” with Pharrell Williams. The music genius, fashion icon (remember that Arby’s hat), NBC’s “The Voice’s” new judge and king of all things cool has teamed up with “G-Star RAW,” “Bionic Yarn” and “Parley for the Oceans” to make a splash at New York’s Fashion Week.
This past weekend, Pharrell led New York underwater for the ocean night event to unveil the second season in his co-designed collection. Ready for the 2015 Spring/Summer season, this collection is dedicated to helping Mother Earth’s oceans as well as revolutionizing the denim industry.
Pharrell took to the stage to present the environmentally conscious collection. The clothing line seeks not only to make a statement on style, but also to fight plastic pollution in our oceans by using technical innovation. Pharrell said, “Denim is one of the most cherished fabrics on Earth–and one of the most traditional. With ‘RAW for the Oceans,’ we have created its next generation.”
The collection is a creative collaboration among “G-Star,” “RAW for the Oceans” and “Bionic Yarn.” “Bionic Yarn” develops and manufactures premium yarns and fabrics made with fibers derived from recycled plastic bottles. They have joined forces to innovate denim while making a serious impact on plastic bottles. Plastic bottles, you see, often end up in our oceans. The collaboration hopes to address the fast-growing threat of plastic pollution by retrieving plastic debris from the beaches and oceans and recycling it into yarn and fabric. The collaboration also urges awareness for the pollution problem and encourages people to support the cause by becoming a part of the solution.
article by Melissa Unger via act.mtv.com

Born on This Day in 1958: Michael Jackson, the Incomparable King of Pop

By goodblacknews on August 29, 2014

It’s been 5 years since Michael Jackson died.  Five.  There have been constant tributes, celebrations and memorials since that shocking June 25th in 2009, when we collectively learned that one of the most undeniable musical forces ever to walk the Earth was no longer with us.  So it’s not like there hasn’t been time to process the reality and finality of his passing – but for me (and I know I’m not alone), as every year passes, Michael’s death hits harder and harder.

I love that his music and legacy live on not only in his family and children, but also in every (and I do mean every) modern entertainer alive today.  Usher, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Jason Derulo, NeYo, Bruno Mars, Chris Brown, Beyoncé… who among them doesn’t echo Michael in their movements, their singing, their showmanship?  But when I hear the posthumous Jackson album “Xscape” from earlier this year – which, even though critically referred to as “B” level Michael, is better than most pop music currently out there – or a current song that sounds like it could have been a Michael song (see Timberlake’s “Take Back The Night”), the totality of his loss is all the more evident.

There is comfort in the fact that he existed at all and gave us a lifetime filled with thrilling, soul-stirring and oft-emulated art via dance and song.  And according to the Orlando Sentinel, today, on what would have been Jackson’s 56th birthday, he is being remembered in different ways around the world.

Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas has launched the #MJWeAreOne campaign in conjunction with MichaelJackson.com.
Fans worldwide are urged to use Instagram by sharing videos — using the hashtag #MJWeAreOne — honoring MJ and sharing ideas of how to make the world a better place.
The MJ Global Party has fans celebrating Jackson’s birthday in live-time around the world using the hashtag #MJGBP2014. Check out the website here.
The fifth annual Michael Jackson Tribute Festival of the Arts is underway in Jackson’s birth home of Gary, Indiana. The three-day festival celebrates Jackson’s life and career while helping revitalize part of Gary.
So on this day, remember the King of Pop in your own way. Listen to your favorite MJ song. Watch your favorite Michael video for the thousandth time.
Below I’m posting one of my all-time favorite Jackson songs and videos, the John Singleton-directed “Remember The Time” and I know I’m going to shake my head (for the thousandth time) when Magic Johnson says “Behold, great Pharoah Ramses!”, laugh (for the thousandth time) when Eddie Murphy’s eyes bug out at Iman crushing on Michael, stare in awe (for the thousandth time) at the dance moves, and lose it (for the thousandth time) when Michael sings the “Rah dah /dah dah dah / What about us, girl?!” part because it is just so uniquely Michael, uniquely musical and uniquely inspiring.

article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)

Pop Debut Shows Off Atlanta Teenager Raury’s Epic Scope

By goodblacknews on August 25, 2014
Raury, performing in June in Atlanta on his 18th birthday, his first proper headlining performance. He called it Raurfest. Raury’s debut album, “Indigo Child,” will be released on Monday. (Troy Stains for The New York Times)
Raury, performing in June in Atlanta on his 18th birthday, his first proper headlining performance. He called it Raurfest. Raury’s debut album, “Indigo Child,” was released on Monday. (Troy Stains for The New York Times)

ATLANTA — In June, on the day Raury turned 18, he woke up earlyish and went to the aquarium here with an old friend for a low-key afternoon. He’d just graduated from high school, but this night was the real cause for celebration — a concert he’d been planning for months. He called it Raurfest.

It was an ambitious name for his first proper headlining performance, but Raury’s taste for the epic is among his most appealing characteristics. So that night, in a gallery space/abandoned industrial building near downtown, a dinner was organized in his honor, followed by a show under the stars.

Yesterday, Raury released his first album, “Indigo Child” — free online at indigochildproject.com, though he is signed to Columbia. It is, for the most part, an astonishingly assured debut, full of multipart songs teeming with deeply felt ideas. He has an easy way with melody but also a consistently grand-scaled sense of theater, which makes for music that’s intimate and imposing all at once.

It’s an album, he said, “made from frustrations, made from being looked down upon, made from being an outcast and not like everyone else.” His response to those obstacles is elegant pop that takes in tender soul, muscled rock and flickers of hip-hop attitude.

“I want it to sound like a World War III benefit concert,” he joked.

“God’s Whisper,” his breakthrough song, is like anarchic gospel, with a hollow stomp that could almost be borrowed from Mumford & Sons. “Cigarette Song” owes at least some of its silken attitude to Terence Trent D’Arby. Elsewhere, there are shades of Kid Cudi, Outkast and MGMT.

Sugar Hill Record’s Co-Founder Sylvia Robinson Biopic In The Works

By goodblacknews on August 24, 2014

Sylvia Robinson
The film rights for the “Mother of Hip Hop,” the late Sylvia Robinson (pictured), who helped put the musical genre on the map, was acquired by producer Paula Wagner, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Robinson co-founded Sugar Hill Records, the label that produced the Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 classic “Rapper’s Delight,” credited as the first monster hit to get folks to sit up and pay attention to Hip-Hop.  Robinson was also the machine behind such early Hip-Hop artists as Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, who recorded the classic song, “The Message.”
Wagner secured the rights to Robinson’s life story from her son, Joey, who will reportedly act as the biopic’s consultant and executive producer. Grandmaster Melle Mel, another Hip-Hop pioneer, will also wear the hat of consultant on the film.
According to Wagner, the film will span Robinson’s four decade career and encompass all of the important aspects of her busy life, including the music business, her mercurial love life and the indelible mark she left on a genre of music that has grown to immense proportions.
“Sylvia Robinson’s life story has all the elements of a great film,” said Wagner in a statement according to The Hollywood Reporter. “It is not only the story of female empowerment at a time when the world of music was male-dominated, but it’s also a story of the origin of Hip-Hop and how this woman’s determination, immense talent and savvy business sense fostered an entire musical movement.”
“This movie is going to show how my parents were able to remain independent, keep control of their publishing and master recordings and how they later dealt with the major record labels and mob associates,” added Joey. “Sugarhill paved the way for a new genre of music that the industry had no knowledge of back in 1979. You will see the struggles of what Sugarhill went through to keep Hip-Hop music alive when the industry wanted to bury it.”
Besides navigating the musical careers of performers, Robinson, herself, was a recording artist with such hits under her belt as “Love Is Strange” in 1957, as part of the duo Mickey and Sylvia and the 1973 R&B hit, “Pillow Talk,” which was a solo project.
article by Ruth Manuel-Logan via newsone.com

Intel, 50 Cent Pair Up on Headphones That Can Measure Your Heart Rate

By goodblacknews on August 17, 2014
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson attends an autograph signing event at SMS Audio.
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson attends an autograph signing event at SMS Audio. (Marcel Thomas | FilmMagic | Getty Images)
Chipmaker Intel and SMS Audio, the consumer electronics company founded by 50 Cent, are partnering to launch a pair of heart-rate-measuring headphones.
The SMS Audio BioSport In-Ear headphones have an optical light sensor in the earbuds that, combined with other sensors, infer the wearer’s heart rate during both intense exercise sessions and regular, continuous wear.
Unlike LG’s heart-rate monitoring earphones, the Intel-SMS earphones pull power from your smartphone’s audio jack, which means there’s no additional charging required. And rather than requiring the user to go through a proprietary app, these earphones integrate directly with popular app RunKeeper. The companies say there are likely more app integrations coming.
The BioSport In-Ear headphones will launch sometime in the last quarter of the year. Pricing has not been announced.
For SMS Audio, the partnership with tech giant Intel and the new product are part of an effort to gain traction in a crowded headphone market. NPD analyst Ben Arnold has said that, while the premium headphone market has grown 16 percent over the past year, SMS Audio’s dollar share has shrunk to less than one percent. The company’s headphones, which range in price from $70 to more than $200, have gotten mixed reviews.
For Intel, it’s another step in the wearables market. At the International CES earlier this year, Intel revealed a variety of small-device prototypes, seemingly intent not to miss the early wearable wave the way it did with mobile.  In May, Intel showed off a “smart” shirt, embedded with sensors and conductive fibers, that it expects could ship sometime next year.
And just yesterday, the company announced it had teamed up with the Michael J. Fox Foundation to launch wearable devices that would monitor and gather data around Parkinson’s disease. That data will be shared with researchers, who will study the effects of Parkinson’s medications on motor skills.
—By Lauren Goode, Re/code.net.

Seattle Breaks Ground on Jimi Hendrix Memorial Park

By goodblacknews on August 14, 2014
The City of Seattle officially broke ground on a long-awaited park in honor of former resident, Jimi Hendrix.  Jimi Hendrix Park will be a memorial garden encompassing two-and-a-half acres in the city’s Central District.
The park’s organizers, the Jimi Hendrix Park Foundation, have raised over $1million for the project and say they envision the land as being “a place where people of different backgrounds will find the motivation to explore music and art, while celebrating Seattle’s cultural heritage,” according to Rolling Stone.
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The guitar legend’s sister, Janie Hendrix, who is also the president and CEO of Experience Hendrix – the company that manages the singer’s estate, said: “Every project endorsed by our family which bears Jimi’s name is meaningful to us, but this park holds special significance.
“Seattle will always be Jimi’s home. This very area is where Jimi grew up, where his dreams cultivated and his creative energy awakened, in many ways. So to see this amazing place of beauty, dedicated to Jimi and his artistry, blossom into reality is indescribably fulfilling.
“Having been involved in every facet of the park’s creation, I can honestly say that this musical garden is a fitting representation of Jimi’s imagination. It is truly inspired.”
The concept for the park was first announced by the organization in 2011 and was intended for completion in time for what would’ve been the singer’s 70th birthday the following year. It is believed the bulk of construction work is set to take place next year.
article via blackamericaweb.com