Concert Review: Two Thumbs Up for Mimi

Last week I attend Mariah Carey’s “Adventures of Mimi Tour” and had a fabulous time. As I entered the Houston Toyota Center, I quickly realized what I diverse fan base Mariah has. There were people of all ages and races in attendance. And then I thought about it… When she first started her career, Carey’s sound was definitely in the adult R&B category and her image was cute but conservative. So, there were a lot of older couples there. And then there were people who are closer to my age who heard her earlier work, but really jumped on the bandwagon when the Daydream album came out. And then she was exposed to a whole new audience when her 1st post divorce album, Butterfly, included not only beautiful ballads but also great collabs with hip hop heavy hitters. We’ll quickly pass over her “slump” which brings us to the comeback of the decade, The Emancipation of Mimi. Mariah’s back on the scene in a big way and now has the attention of a whole new teeny-bopper & pre-teen crowd.

Now, I can’t write the entry without talking about the “hot mess moments” of the night… First stop was at the concession stand. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, I asked for a bottle of water and the lady said, “Okay, but I just want to let you know that I’ll have to pour your water into a glass.” Excuse me? Are you serious? Apparently she was and this was something per Mimi’s request. I guess in the past she’s had bottles thrown at her. But really, what are the chances of that happening now? I mean, really! Who would pay $150 for a floor seat ticket so they could throw a bottle at her? And if someone really wanted to throw something, they wouldn’t have to buy a bottle of water to do it. On another note, many people know that I think there’s virtually no worse fashion crime than wearing sunglasses inside at night time (unless you’re a celebrity being attacked by paparazzi). Well, I stand correct. I saw a couple at the concert who were both wearing their shades inside.

So, we get to our seats and Busta Rymes comes out. I knew he was going to put on a great show because I’ve seen him before, but I didn’t expect one of my hot mess moments to come from him. He didn’t censor himself one bit. Which is fine for a rap concert, but as I mentioned before, there were ALL kinds of people there to see MC. I can’t count how many parents had brought their little kids. And maybe it wouldn’t have been that bad with a word here and a word there, but 1 word was spelled out on the big screen and he performed the uncensored version of “The Whisper Song”. I think Busta could have censored himself a little bit, but on the other hand it’s the parents’ bad too. They should have found out about the opening act if they didn’t know. Because if they had, they might have just shown up late for the concert.

But Busta got the crowd hyped and was a great opener. Then it was time for Ms. Carey’s performance. She appeared on her beautiful set singing “It’s Like That” and I’m sitting there wondering where the rest of her clothes are. Her costume was basically a sequined 2 piece swimsuit. Which I guess wouldn't have been too bad, but the floor-length see-through black “nighty” robe that she wore with it definitely gave it a lingerie feel. A little much if you ask me. But her 4 other costume changes were much more what I expected.

Besides her wardrobe, I must say that Mariah’s vocals were on point that night. My understanding is that she isn’t necessarily able to hit all of those high notes every day that she wakes up. Lucky for us, she was able to hit them several times during the performance. She sang all of her great hits, including the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” that was performed as a duet on MTV Unplugged. Trey Lorenz who originally performed it with her is still one of her back up singers. So it was a real treat to see them perform together. (He even did a few songs during 1 of her wardrobe changes and informed us that his solo album is dropping on September 19th.)

Being an avid concert-goer, I’ve learned that part of a good show is having smooth transitions. There’s nothing more awkward feeling at a concert than everyone staring at the empty stage for 10 minutes while the singer is changing their costume. Well, they had it so crunk while Mariah was off stage, you forget for a couple of minutes that you were at the concert to see her. Why you ask? Those “breaks” not only included a performance by Trey, but the world famous DJ Clue was there spinning all of the hottest club jams. And to everyone’s surprise, including Mariah’s, Mike Jones took the stage for an impromptu performance!

At the end of the show, Mariah sang her very moving “take it to church” song from her latest album, “Fly Like A Bird” and bid everyone good night. And then I said to myself “Wait a minute. Did she sing We Belong Together? No, she didn’t.” People are already starting to make their way to the exits, but being the true fan that I am, I knew she wasn’t done. I turned to Kristle and said “As much as I paid for this ticket, she’s gonna be singing that song tonight if it’s in front of the entire audience or just a private performance for me.” LoL. And as if on queue, she came back out and everyone was scrambling to get back to their seats. It was great show and I’d definitely see her again!

Music News 9-8-06

I Want to Sex U Up: Tamyra Gray, 27, of American Idol fame, recently wed 36 year old Sam Watters in Italy. Now you might be asking why her hubby looks so familiar… Sam was a member of the 90s R&B group Color Me Badd. I was curious myself to hear what he’s been up to since then. He has been working as a writer and music producer. Actually, he co-wrote Jessica Simpson’s new pop single “Public Affair”.

More AI News:

• Mario Vasquez, who is known for “mysteriously” dropping out of the American Idol competition after making the finals, will be releasing his debut album on Arista on September 26. Sources say that producer Scott Storch and Daddy Yankee worked on his project. His first single, “Gallery” (written by Ne-Yo), is already a favorite on the charts.
• The most recent AI winner, Taylor Hicks, is already working on his album despite the fact he is currently touring with the other finalists. Hicks says that his sound will be soulful with a mix of old school R&B and new wave edge. (whatever that means) His target release is around Christmas ’06. He’s being pretty tight-lipped on a few things, but he has mentioned that he’s received music from Michael McDonald and John Mayer.
  
  Diddy is going to be a daddy again, and again: Yes, he and his long time girlfriend Kim Porter recently announced that they are expecting twins! The couple already has a son Christian, age 8, and Diddy has a 12 year old son named Justin from a previous relationship.
  
  Mike who?: Mike Jones has just started working on his new project, a concurrent album and film both titled “American Dream”. The film is supposed to tell his life story of rising from the streets and finding his way through music. (Haven’t Eminem, 50 Cent and Fantasia already done that?) Producers include Gregory Anderson from ‘Trois’ and Keith Paschall of Rap City.
  
  Old School: Lionel Richie is preparing to begin his “Coming Home Tour” in early October. Pre-sale tickets will benefit United Way. His new song “I Call It Love” has already hit #1 on the Adult R&B Charts. His album will be released on September 12 with Island Def Jam. On this project,he has collaborated with Jermaine Dupri, Dallas Austin, and Rapael Saadiq in hopes of “building a bridge between generations” with his new music. From hearing the first single and seeing the video…. I’d have to say mission accomplished.

Album News 9-2-06

• LL Cool J is currently working on his next album which will be produced by 50 Cent. This will be Mr. Smith’s 13th album and his last with his long time record label Def Jam.
• Danity Kane currently has the #1 album in the country. Their singles “Show Stopper”, “Sleep On It”, and “Ride for You” are currently numbers 8, 64 and 78 respectively on the Hot 100 List.
• Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” is the #1 single and has already had an amazing 250,000 digital downloads and it is still 2 weeks until the album release date.
• Jay-Z is rumored to be working on his comeback album with Pharrell and Kanye and has slated Hype Williams to direct the debut video.
• Common’s new album, Finding Forever, will be released on Kanye’s Good Music label this year
• Eve has teamed up with Pharrell to release her first album in 4 years saying that we should expect a different sound this go round. A hint: She says she’s been listening to more reggae and Brazilian music

2006 VMA Recap

On Thursday, MTV had its much anticipated 2006 Video Music Awards. And I must say that I came away with a feeling of mixed emotions… Everyone knows that the VMAs aren’t your typical awards show. Some of the most shocking music moments have happened on this show… Michael Jackson & Lisa Marie Presley’s revolting and obviously fake kiss seen round the world… Prince in his assless pants… Diana Ross cupping Lil’ Kim’s pasty covered boob… Madonna, Christina & Britney’s makeout session… Those are the kinds of shocking moments that we’ve come to expect. But without anything happening this year, the VMAs left a lot to be desired and little to talk about at the water cooler at work.

Let’s start off with the host, Jack Black… Now, he’s funny in his own quirky way. But he just did not shine as the host of this show. I can honestly say I didn’t laugh out loud once. Not even close. And didn’t he just host the Nickelodeon awards?

This year they tried to find a way to get presenters to the stage faster with out pulling an Oscar (having people do their acceptance speeches from their seats). So, they had mini bleachers connected to the stage. In theory this was a good idea, but I can’t count how many times we accidentally saw the staging crew shuffling the nominees for each category in and out of those seats.

Now, this is the Video Music Awards, but I’ve always felt that the viewers and sometimes the decision committee lose sight of this. Many times artists win awards because it was the song that made the video. You can have an okay video for a great song and still win an award. (which totally defeats the purpose of having a separate award show for just videos)

But the awards did bring some interesting moments during the night. I was already yelling “That’s a hot mess!” at the TV at the beginning of the show. The category: Best Dance Video. Nominees that I thought should have won over the winner: Shakira for “Hips Don’t Lie” and Sean Paul for “Temperature”. And who, you ask, was the winner? The Pussycat Dolls for “Buttons”! Right, like I said, a hot mess. Even Snoop Dogg didn’t look too excited when they won. They’re not even a real music group for goodness sake! (And don’t they change members like Menudo or something?) As if that wasn’t enough, one of the dolls was reading the acceptance speech from an absent member from her two-way.

I was cracking up when the award for best pop video was given out. My girl Pink won for “Stupid Girl” which is a hilarious video that directly pokes fun at Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton. Ironically, the presenters of this award were none other than Nick Lachey and Nicole Richie.

H-town was definitely represented at the awards. Beyonce, featuring Slim Thug and Bun B, won best R&B video for “Check Up On It”. And to my surprise, Chamillionaire’s “Ridin” beat out Kanye West’s Gold Digger for best male rap video. One of the other two big upsets of the night also involved Kanye. Gold Digger was beat out for best hip hop video by the Black Eyed Peas for “My Humps”! More power to The Peas!

But everyone knows that any MTV award show isn’t about the awards. It’s about the performances. And those were definitely not lacking that night. There was just one great performance after another… Justin Timberlake and Timbaland kicked it off by bringing “Sexy Back”. (And I must say that his live performance sounded better than the version he did in the studio.)

Going along with the toned down theme of the show, Christina Aguilera performed a beautiful ballad instead of her current body poppin’ hit “Ain’t No Other Man”, which kind of surprised me. But, I’m always happy to see a pure vocal performance from X-tina because that girl can sang! The night also included great performances from Beyonce, T.I., and even some vintage Busta Rymes (Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See) and Missy Elliot (The Rain - Supa Dupa Fly) during the tribute to video director Hype Williams. Everyone’s vocals were definitely on point! But I must say that the coolest performance was by OK Go (click here to view the performance).

So, the performances were hot and the show production was not. And that’s how the 2006 VMAs went down.

Craig David - The Story Goes...

For those of you who don’t already know, I am a HUGE Craig David fan. And no, this is not solely because I have a little crush on him. He is very, very talented and I’ve always had great admiration for REAL musicians.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, there is a big difference between a musician and an entertainer. Let me give you an example…. Brian McKnight writes and produces music for himself and many others. He also plays 9 instruments and is known for not peddling merchandise at his shows. He’s all about the musical performance. Britney Spears is an okay singer but knows how to dance and put on a show with flashy costumes, back up dancers, extravagant sets and pyrotechnics. See the difference?

Craig’s interest in music started when he was little as he used to watch his bassist father rehearse with his reggae band. He’s been on the grind trying to do his own music thing since he was 13. This includes everything from begging his parents to help get his first equipment to hustling mix tapes to writing and even DJing. Things immediately took off with the release of his first single “Fill Me In” in March 2000. That single made him the youngest British male artist ever to score a #1 hit. And there’s been no looking back since then. He is now a multi-platinum Grammy nominated artist who can name industry heavy hitters like Alicia Keys, Missy Elliot, Diddy, Elton John & Sting among his friends and biggest fans.

Anyway… The point of all of this is that I wanted to let you know that he released his 3rd album, The Story Goes…, in September of last year. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been released in the states yet, but you can purchase it at Amazon.com or download it from iTunes. (And trust me, it’s worth it!) It’s already sold over 3 million copies worldwide. (And there’s no doubt that this has contributed to making him the best selling R&B singer in Europe.) Once again he has brought us a great mix of club beats and smooth ballads. That’s what an R&B album is supposed to be like! Two big thumbs up to my brotha across the pond!