Goapele Gives Auto-Tune a Little CPR

Bay Area native (holla!) Goapele returns after a long hiatus (at least as far as recording goes; she's been touring constantly since her last album Change It All dropped in 2005) with "Milk & Honey".

I'm gonna just get it out of the way: Goapele used auto-tune on this, albeit only ever so slightly. While I will always have a soft spot in my heart for voice alteration (Zapp much?) I do agree with Camel on its overuse. I could have done without it on this track but it doesn't detract all that much.

That aside, the highlights: Goapele using her signature, unaltered dewy vocals over a mellow, psychedelic funk beat that sounds like something off an old Isleys album. "Milk & Honey" could easily double as a description of her style of music. I'm eagerly awaiting for the new album which almost certainly serve as studying, blunt-smoking and love-making music all at once.

Goapele "Milk & Honey" - zShare | Mediafire

BONUS: Goapele "Don't Be Shy" - zShare | Mediafire Read more!

New Gucci, Fi'ty & Busta MP3s This Week.

So, it's been three days since the epic holiday weekend of barbecues and sun burns and I've procured a couple brand spankin' new mp3s for you guys to check out and have so graciously uploaded for your downloading pleasure.

First, we've got this new Gucci Mane track from yesterday.

Then here's a 50 Cent Bruce Wayne Remix.

& to top it all off,
is this Busta Rhymes track off the new Dillanthology.

Personally, my favorite is this amazing Major Lazer & Andy Milonakis collab.

Major Lazer - "Zumbie" ft. Andy Milonakis from Downtown Music on Vimeo.

And if you'd like to grab that future BET blockbuster,
You can grab it here at The Lemur Blog.
Read more!

Brown's Bumptious Bling.

I really think Chris Brown is a joke these days.
I don't see how any one in their right mind can respect a dude that not only beats women (he did plead guilty) but also spends $300K on a piece of jewelry that looks inspired by Disney's Goofy.


(via Young, Black & Fabulous)

Celebrity jeweler Jason Arasheben, CEO of Jason of Beverly Hills, crafted the piece, claiming it took over two hundred man-hours to complete the ornamentation as well as
42.6 carats white diamonds
10 carats yellow diamonds
17.35 carats blue sapphires
13.3 carats rubies
768.45 grams gold ( for the OOPS!)
212 grams gold (for the Cuban link chain).

Hey Chris,
Do us all a favor and take the train to toon town with that asinine accessory.
Read more!

Eminem's "Beautiful" Video Leaked.

And to piggy back on John's last post featuring Mariah publicly humiliating herself by actually participating in some bs "beef", yesterday Eminem's video for his latest single, "Beautiful" was leaked.

The video, which features Eminem in some of Detroit's prolific yet less than permanent spots including Tiger Stadium, Michigan Central Train Station and the Packard Motor Car Company, stated the following about the single and the video:

"Tiger Stadium is being torn down, and the train station is supposed to be demolished too. This video is one of the last times anybody outside of Detroit is going to see them... I wrote 'Beautiful' when I was really down, during a difficult time struggling with my addiction. It's a reminder to keep your head up, and to see who you really are despite what you may be going through. Now that I've gotten through the toughest part, I see how the song relates to Detroit, and it feels even more powerful to me." (RapRadar.com)



Personally, I don't believe anything is "leaked" anymore.
It's called PR.

Eminem's latest album, Relapse, was released back in May and Eminem is quoted as saying he is already back in the studio working on... wait for it... wait for it....
Relapse 2.
Read more!

Who is This "Obsessed" Young Man?

This guy is accused of being obsessed with Mariah Carey. He even appears in her latest video of the same name.

...something's off just looking at him, right? That's because it's Mariah dressed up as a dude! Our guess is she's trying to clown Eminem for his recent renewed attacks on her and Nick Cannon, seven years deep into their "beef".

Obviously, no one is expecting Mariah to come with an "Ether", but come on. Let's stop while we're behind, why don't we? Eminem has a habit of going after people who wouldn't normally engage in battles (pop stars, specifically), so the best treatment may be to ignore him like a little brother. Because the rest of us sure don't care. Read more!

R&B Dudes Trash Talkin': Where's the Beef?

In the early days of hip-hop, beef was a way of challenging your friends and rivals (who were sometimes one and the same) on wax to showcase one another's skills. Sure, bragging rights were involved, but it was all for entertainment of the audience. Somewhere along the way the meaning got lost. Beef became all too real when both Tupac and Biggie were slain as a result of their diss records leaving the musical matrix and becoming a real-life blood bath. Later, the entourages of Foxy Brown and Lil' Kim traded gunfire that inadvertently led to Kim's incarceration on perjury charges.

Around the turn of the decade, though, beef started to become culturally acceptable again as violence was for the most part kept out of the tear. Nas and Jay-Z's war of words led to one of the most intriguing "which side are you on" arguments in hip-hop history. The bravado makes for entertainment value as well as potential for records sold (who wants to buy the loser's album?).

This strategy has been employed in recent years by R&B crooners like Trey Songz, R. Kelly, Mario, The-Dream, and countless others. Does the R&B thug beef tactic hold weight, though, or is it a bunch of hot air?

Trey Songz in particular lately has sent warning shots out toward R. Kelly for using auto-tune and reportedly becoming irrelevant, as well as trying to best Mario on his own track.

Mario for his part asserts that "Trey does that all the time. He gets on records that are hot, that he may wish were his, but they aren't. ... I've been doing this for a minute and I don’t put myself in the same lane as Trey or anybody else." Them's fightin' words!

Elsewhere, Dream recently threw shade on J. Holiday, for whom he wrote and produced his biggest hit "Bed", saying: "Him getting that record had nothing to do with J. Holiday. You would know if me and J. Holiday really had a good relationship—you'd see us [together] more often. He'd probably be on my album. I would probably be on his [new] album, which I didn't do a song for."

So, where's the beef? And I mean that in the sense of, "where's the meat (pause) of this conflict"? Why do I care if Trey Songz throws shade at R. Kelly or Mario, Mario throws it back, or if The-Dream writes off J. Holiday?

The truth is, I don't. I just can't take dudes who sing love songs for a living trading barbs seriously. No shade -- I'm an R&B head 'til death and I will knock a good love joint just like the next person. But I'm not thinking I can hear your heart crying out for me when I'm plotting on getting brolic with the dude giving me the stank eye from across the bar.

There's a way to uphold your masculinity while still singing ballads. Creating empty beef is not a viable option. Hell, rappers these days can barely get right, and most of them survive based on street cred. R&B fellas, take heed and be lovers, not fighters. Read more!

Where was NASA on this one?

Okay, so apparently 79 year old space-age star Buzz Aldrin is collaborating with the likes of Snoop, Talib, Soulja and Jones.

Buzz Aldrin's Rocket Experience from Buzz Aldrin

Alright, alright, we all know Funny Or Die is the product of Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy getting stoned on social media and getting down with the get down of viral vids so you guys can take a breather. No one is going to be stormin' up on Power 106 about space travel anytime soon but Buzz Aldrin, only the second man to ever walk on the moon, is intent on spreading science love to kids everywhere. Obviously, he's hip to technology (he walked on the freakin' moon, I'm sure he knows about Twitter and shit) and knows the best way to win the hearts of millions of kids on summer break and billions of twenty somethings sitting at their desk job wasting away their glory days in artificial lighting is to make them laugh via the internets.

"I want kids interested in space. It's their future," says Aldrin.
Snoop jumped on the project "because (Aldrin) pushes kids to achieve their dreams."

But it's not all LOLZ people, you can purchase the single on ITunes to help benefit three of Aldrin's charities, including his ShareSpace Foundation which premotes education and exploration of space.

Although, I have to be honest.
This did not make me go run and read about space.
Instead, I watched a three year old explain Star Wars.
Read more!