It's rare to hear a R&B/rap duet wherein the singing part serves as the hard side of the hard/soft dynamic. Usually it's the other way around. But this is Drake and Mary J. Blige we're talking about, so here we are. Now, I strongly dislike Drake. (That could be a Morrissey song, "Drake, I Dislike You.") Even though I think he is an interesting writer and he raps well. And that makes me like this song even more.
If you told me last year that I would be purchasing a new album by the veritably ancient Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D in 2010, I would have said something about eating my Kangol. But today, after being so very pleasantly surprised by the single "I Just Can't Help Myself" a couple months ago, and then being reminded by Gucci Mane's new Swizz-Beatz-produced track, "It's Gucci Time!" (which is not a cover of Schoolly's 1985 jam) and then being again surprised by another great new Schoolly song, above, (which is not a cover of Sly and the Family Stone, nor Mary J. Blige), well, I [...]
Because today is 4.11 on your digital calendar, our friends at ego trip are thoughtful enough to remind us of this incredibly great performance of "What's the 411?" from a 1992 episode of Yo! MTV Raps. I was listening to Grand Puba's 1995 album, 2000, recently, and I think it might well be the most under-rated rap album that I know. It's totally excellent! And, Mary J. Blige, well, you probably don't really need any more info about her. She's the undisputed queen of hip-hop soul and all. But did you know she could rap like that?
Here is the undisputed Queen of Hip-hop Soul singing the all-time number one definitive classic-rock song on Oprah Winfrey's daytime TV talk show. I love Led Zeppelin. I love Mary J. Blige. But this never should have happened.
I’m thinking today about Hedwig and "The Origin of Love" and the time when the earth was still flat and clouds were made of fire and mountains stretched up to the sky, sometimes higher. When folks roamed the earth, like big rolling kegs, with two sets of arms and two sets of legs and two faces peering out of one giant head, who sang the songs?
Last night on "Idol," Mary J. Blige came and visited Jacob Lusk in the studio and when they embraced, I had a vision of the two-headed, four-legged singing genius, who, by the cruelty of Zeus, was split into two separate pieces, each [...]
