Remember when the Black Eyed Peas were actually good? Granted, the group’s first two (pre-Fergie) albums didn’t set the Billboard charts on fire, but they were both pleasant in that 2nd-era Native Tongues kinda way. They were hanging in that Dilated Peoples/Jurassic 5 lane, I guess. “Joints & Jam” was the first BEP single that made any noise, and it manages to host a catchy hook and supplement the hook with some head-nodding appeal. Hell, even “Elephunk” got started with […]
Posts tagged "will.i.am"
The 5ive at 5: Five Reasons Not to Hate will.i.am (#5)
I hate will.i.am. Don’t get it twisted. The founder and leader of the Black Eyed Peas is the textbook definition of a sellout. He found his sweet spot creating dumbed-down pop-oriented tunes, creating dark spots on the careers of artists like Kelis and Usher (seriously? How did “OMG” end up being a #1 single?). Wait a second, though. The most frustrating thing about will’s musical exploits is that there are times when he proves that he’s quite talented. There have […]
Ushering in a New Era of Mediocrity with “Versus”
I stand corrected. When Usher’s “Raymond V. Raymond” came out earlier this year, I predicted that after a solid first week, it was going to flop hard. Well, I guess I have egg on my face. Thanks to the inexplicable success of the will.i.am-assisted hit “OMG”, “Raymond” has already outsold Usher’s (much better qualitatively but not as pop-friendly) previous record “Here I Stand”. In order to keep the momentum going (and maybe to hoodwink Usher’s fans into buying material that […]
This Week in MJ News: A New Album??
Still wondering if those unreleased Michael Jackson songs featuring the likes of will.i.am, Akon, and Ne-Yo will see the light of day? Well, wonder no more. It was just announced that the first posthumous album of never-before-heard MJ material will be hitting stores in November. Apparently, Michael left over 100 unreleased songs in his vault. I actually think that number’s kinda low. Based on the stuff that’s been floating around the internet (even before his death) and the amount of […]
Chartstalker 5/13/10: Billboard Gets Godsmacked!
That was fairly innocuous as far as groan-inducing puns go, right? Anyway, Boston-based hard rock band Godsmack lead off the Billboard 200 Album chart this week, selling 117,000 copies of their latest album, “Oracle”. I don’t really have much to say about this development. They’re a pretty popular band so a #1 debut isn’t unexpected. My only real experience with the band was seeing them last summer at Crue Fest (from, like, the second row), and being really impressed by […]
From "Yeah!" To "Oh HELL No!": Usher's "Raymond v. Raymond"
For a second, Usher was the King of Pop. He’d been successful by anyone’s definition of the word, but 2004’s “Confessions” sent him into the stratosphere. It spawned 4 #1 singles, won 3 Grammy Awards, and is the last album to be certified Diamond for shipments of 10 million copies. Not only had Usher officially made the leap from teen idol to adult superstar, but his follow up album, 2008’s “Here I Stand”, was widely expected to cement his megastar […]
Embracing Your Club Diva: Estelle & Kelis
I’m not sure how I feel about today’s R&B singers doing dance/disco/house-influenced music these days. I mean, it’s great that we’ve decided to reclaim a style of music that we originated, since there was a period around ’93/’94 when we cast house music aside as being too Euro or too gay for us. Two of our favorite single-monikered female singers have released their latest singles, both of which have a heavy club influence. First off,we have Estelle, of “American Boy” […]
A Tale of Two Shows: Citizen Cope & The Black Eyed Peas
After getting home last night from seeing the Black Eyed Peas perform, I had a thought (I know, strange right?). 8 years ago, it wouldn’t have been farfetched to see the Peas and Citizen Cope on the same bill. Back then, BEP was a crunchy, borderline-conscious “alternative” rap group and Cope was an upstart singer/songwriter. Flash forward 8 years, and the BEP are dance/pop behemoths with very little trace of the hip-hop flavor of their work pre-Fergie, while Cope is…the […]
MisenPOPic Radio Episode 3.1: The Do-Over
Me and my buddy Mikey are still trying to work out some kinks related to this podcast we wanna do, but it seemed like each week, we were getting closer and closer to what we had envisioned the MisenPOPic Podcast to be. Then last week happened. Neither one of us was on our “A” game, so we decided to scrap MisenPOPic Radio Episode 3 and go back to the drawing board. Episode 3.1 , thankfully, came out a lot better. We didn’t have […]