Reviews
2010-05-03
I’m late for an interview with one of my favorite Chicago artists: Yaw Agyeman. The Ghanaian seed that was nourished by the soil of his traditional parents and in the sunshine of the Low End of Chicago is a soul/hiphop/jazz/whatever-you-like kind of artist. A singer, MC, poet, writer—Yaw is a Renaissance Man in music—let’s just say, the guy is deep. I rush up embarrassed about my tardiness and Yaw casually stands and informs me that “it’s cool.” His navy blue blazer is covering his t-shirt and there’s a scarf around his neck, jeans and a t-shirt are at the core of this ensemble. He’s so mellow it’s difficult now to imagine him as I first saw him: on stage, jumping up and down and wailing into a microphone with the energy to move the crowd, the power to shake the room and the reach to touch souls.
The thirty-two year old singer who first started his journey with music as a child singing into his father’s recorder is now regularly performing across the city of Chicago and potentially overseas as well. Fufu and Spinach: A Mixtape makes it clear that there is no way to box in Yaw’s creations as one particular genre—he dabbles in, and mixes and matches many different kinds of music. The closest he comes to a particular genre would probably be some kind of neo-soul, but there is too much jazz, hip-hop and live instrumentation (to name a few characteristics) for it to be characterized as only that. So we sat down to talk about his travels in and through music and I attempted to get a handle on the relationship—the affair—that he and his music maintained. How the two influence and direct one another and how he’s been changing on his continued path to a better Yaw.
2010-04-14
MOVIES!!!
3 Real Detroit Weekly's Movie Reviews and a little somethin' somethin' from me
The Gods Must Be Lazy
Rating: ♣♣♣
Clash of the Titans
Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Mads Mikkelsen. Written by Travis Beacham, Phil May and Matt Manfredi. Directed by Louis Leterrier. Rated PG-13.
by Kirk Vanderbeek
If it does nothing else, Clash of the Titans will have at least provided the current generation of drunken frat boys with their go-to line when they’ve managed to convince a fall-down dizzy freshman into their room — because we all know that as his fly goes down, this dude is yelling out: “Release the Kraken!” Let’s just hope, for the poor girl’s sake, that her inebriated titan can turn in something better than a three-star performance …
Read more: Issue08 Movies: Date Night, How to Train Your Dragon, Clash of the Titans & More...
2010-03-23
There is so much to be said about The Fantastic Mr. Fox. First, what should be said I think, is that the movie is amazing. It is a true satire with sarcasm and juxtaposition; a social commentary on the lives of us civilized humans.
Read more: Issue06 Movies: The Fantastic Mr. Fox is Actually Fantastic
2010-04-08
Everyone enjoyed their taste of a true college athletics “playoff” system as the tournament concluded with the Duke Blue Devils winning (another) NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball championship. That civil unrest you hear in the distance is the sounds of Duke-haters not being able to shallow the reality of Duke being the last team standing and crowned champions. Although I am a certified Duke-hater (with other certification in the Lakers, Yankees, and Bears categories), I believe Duke did everything it needed to do to win fairly. This separates me from another category of Duke-haters, the popular “CBS is in love with Duke for television ratings and gave them a notoriously easy route to the Final Four and championship game” group. With a record of 29-5, Duke earned the third number one seed behind Kansas and Kentucky (both 32-2) and above Syracuse (28-4). The rest of the brackets are set using an S-Curve system slotting the remaining teams within a specific bracket based on wins, RPI, quality of schedule, etc. Luke Winn wrote a fantastic article explaining the process in 2005 and the process essentially has not changed. What does this mean for you and me? It means that Kansas would get the harder bracket because it was a better team and Syracuse the weakest bracket for it was the weakest number one. CBS’s sponsorship with the NCAA gives them the power to control game times with the purpose of maximizing ratings; this is why you saw Syracuse early in the day along with the overall number one team Kansas and Kentucky/Duke in primetime. Unless you want to suggest Duke playing later (and in primetime) gave them a significant advantage on the others, then the CBS ratings conspiracy is a tad bit flawed.
Read more: Issue08 Sports: Why People Cannot Be Happy with Duke
2010-03-22
Artist: Brandon "*Real T@lk*" Williams
Age: 23
Hometown: Peoria, IL and a native and a recent alum of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (currently
residing in Maywood,IL)
Special Powers: Hip-Hop Artist/Emcee, DJ, Poet
Influences: Andre 3000, Busta Rymes, Eminem, Little Brother, Joe Budden
Check out the track Mo' Better Music and download the full Mo' Betta Mixtape below!
Read more: Issue06 Music: Spotlight on Real T@lk and the Mo' Betta Mixtape
2010-03-09
The Hurt Locker cleaned up at the Oscars this year taking home the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Screenplay. When set against the likes of Quinten Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, James Cameron's Avatar, Jason Reitman's Up in the Air and a host of other extremely well done films this accomplishment for The Hurt Locker is a great one.
I couldn't help but notice that many people had not heard of this movie before it started packing up a bookbag full of golden statues, so here's a little about the film.
2010-03-09
These artists have been around for at least a few years and now are trying new things and doing new releases.
Travis McCoy aka Travie
The next Gym Class Heroe's album will take a little while longer to come out (which makes me sad), however Travie will be dropping a new solo album Lazarus (date of release TBA) which features the single Billionaire. The single is officially downloadable (and listen-to-able) off of Travie's blog as of today (March 9th). Pretty much anything Travis McCoy does makes me happy but I always get nervous when artists from awesome bands go solo, the single does not disappoint though. On The Quilt Gym Class experimented with some new sounds and Travis continues that in his new single. It has an island feel too it, it's relaxing drive music and motivational music. Bruno Mars wails about wanting to be a billionaire "so freakin bad," and the things he'd do then Travie raps his fantasies about how he would live his life with that kind of money (in interviews he's openly admitted to just recently becoming a "thousandaire"). The past year has been a year of dreaming for younger people, for trying to get through this recession and do all the things we were told we could do when we were little (which is anything we want). Music has followed this trend and Travie is definitely on that band wagon with this track.
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE INTERESTING A list of the most notable artists and albums of 2009
Best Newcomer: Lady Gaga
Now, I admit that I wasn’t the biggest Lady Gaga fan when “Just Dance” hit the airwaves, and I admit that I quickly labeled her as “gimmicky” and “over the top” when I saw her live performances and videos. But, Lady Gaga has done enough in the last couple of months to turn all of that around for me, and she has done so in a really profound way. It took a couple of watches of her “Bad Romance” video for me to finally ‘get it’, but when I did, it hit me like a bag of oranges. Lady Gaga is a total artist. She has a concept, an image, and a style unlike any one else in mainstream music today. But in the sea of artists who are constantly trying to be different (*cough* Rihanna* cough*), she sets herself apart by actually being *good* at being different. Her tunes are catchy and she’s got a voice that can bring the house down. Yes, she is weird. There’s no doubt about that. But, sometimes you have to push the limits in order to usher in a musical revolution, and she’s got the talent, the vision, and the attitude to do just that. It’s time to get with it, or get lost, people.
Read more: Brian Edwards's: Most Notable Artists and Albums of 2009
More Articles...
- Issue01 Music: Corinne Bailey Rae, The Sea
- Joss Stone's Colour Me Free Released but I'm Still Waiting...
- Issue04 Music: Introducing JMB, Welcome to Freehop
- Paramore: Brand New Eyes
- Jay-Z’s The Blueprint III: It’s complicated…
- Issue04 Music: I'm New Here
- Eminem Has A “Relapse”: Blood! Guts! Guns! Cuts!
- 8 and a Half Years Later: Great Things Come in 3's
- Issue02 Music: Introducing Blu
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