::::::: iN My oWn w0RLd :::::::

Mariah's 2 new single from her forth coming remix album titled Angel's Advocate

Beyond words..

This movie is single-handedly the best piece of art ever created. It is better than any chapel, any building, any painting, any monolith, any album or piece of music, or any other film before it.

It surpasses any actor or any contribution of the arts to humanity.

It is the best story.

It has the most passion.

It has the most heart.

It captures spirit, on film.....

and there just is no way to do this masterpiece justice with mere words.

I'll stop trying... and close with this:

If you miss this film on the big screen you will always regret it.

It captures something I have never seen, and I am not talking about their cgi or their effects. (which reach an entirely new level...)

FANTASTIC. GENIUS. INSPIRING.

The wait is ova - for one of the most hotly anticipated new albums in recent
history, as multi-platinum, award-winning Def Jam recording artist Rihanna
announces the completion of her fourth original studio album, Rated R, scheduled to arrive in the physical and digital marketplace on Monday, November 23rd. The "Russian Roulette" video, directed by Anthony Mandler, will premiere in prime-time on ABC. "Russian Roulette" was written and produced by fellow Def Jam artist Ne-Yo, whose long track record with Rihanna includes the #1 hit "Unfaithful" (2006, from A Girl Like Me), their Top 10 duet "Hate That I Love You" (2007, from Good Girl Gone Bad), and #1 pop/ #1 R&B "Take A Bow" (2008, from Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded). In addition to Ne-Yo, other producers and writers on Rihanna's new album include the team of The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, Chase & Status,
Stargate, Justin Timberlake and more.

Rated R is the long-awaited follow-up to Good Girl Gone Bad (May 2007), which
contained the non-stop string of hit singles that began with the MTV VMA and
Grammy Award-winning global #1 hit "Umbrella" (featuring Jay-Z), then "Shut Up
and Drive," "Hate That I Love You" (featur¡ing Ne-Yo), and "Don't Stop the
Music." Good Girl Gone Bad spent 98 total weeks on the Soundscan chart, earned cumulative sales of more than 36-times platinum in at least 20 territories
around the world, and spun off the CD+DVD package Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded (January 2009) - which continued the string of hits with the #1 "Take A Bow," and the #1 "Disturbia."

Enjoy!

Echo is the follow up to her six million plus seller, four times Britûnominated
and three times Grammy-nominated debut album Spirit. LeonaÆs debut album Spirit entered the UK album chart at number one and became BritainÆs fastest-selling debut of all time selling over 1 million copies in the UK in its first 5 weeks. Echo sees Leona working with Ne-Yo, John Shanks, Max Martin and Ryan Tedder, as well as with new collaborators Xenomania and Julian Bennetta.

Enjoy!

The wait is officially ova. Rihanna plays a dangerous game of “Russian Roulette” on the eagerly-anticipated first single from her fourth album Rated R, due November 23. The dark and haunting song was written and produced by Ne-Yo (“Unfaithful,” “Hate That I Love You,” “Take a Bow”). The follow-up to 2007’s Good Girl Gone Bad also features contributions from Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, Chase & Status, Stargate, and Justin Timberlake.

Mariah Carey’s new album ‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’ is a piece of art that the singer considers ‘very personal’. Memoirs is a beautifully expressed piece of work in which MC pridefully dedicates to the fans. Helmed mostly by The Dream and his production partner Tricky Stewart, Memoirs consists of midtempo, laidback compositions and smooth full-voiced ballads. For a short period, one could be forgiven for thinking that MC’s voice got lost in the wind. But the truth is, MC’s vocals never left and are well displayed in all its full shining glory. Hurray.

The album has a very strong opening as Mariah goes in guns blazing with the woman scorned track ‘Betcha Gon Know’. MC’s attitude is very fiery as she goes on a rampage to plot her revenge: “Somewhere down the line you’re gonna get what you deserve you f*cking jerk!” she hotly fumes over the knocking percussive beat. Lyrically, it plays like a piece of narration. Vocally, she illustrates her pain well. From the very first scene when she catches her man and his missus, to her wallowing, and driving away like a maniac. The prologue continues with MC spending the night in her car, to telling her unsuspecting man that she fell asleep on her friend’s sofa, and pretending to be oblivious to what she just saw. All these are calculating motives of a woman determined to see her man pay. Lyrically, it started out strong but the names of her friends at the end (Jasmine Dotiwala, Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters, Rae Rae, etc) was unecessary and random as hell. During the songs conclusion, Mariah hints there will be a sequel to this play on events, leaving the listener wondering what type of revenge was carried out.
Other scornful songs that frequented the album include ‘Obsessed’, ‘H.A.T.E.U’, ‘Up Out My Face’ and ‘Standing O‘ which sees MC having fun with her comedic but very classy, hilariously and insulting play on words. Her rantings and ravings are so witty and clever that they can successfully knock out the target on first attempt. Everyone knows the deal with the heavy-bass, auto-tuned Obsessed, a diss track which is believed to be about rapper Eminem. The title is self-explanatory but when Mariah churns out the killer line: “He’s all up in my George Forman”, it’s pretty much over at that point. Very tongue-in-cheek and gimmicky in its nature but quite childish. That said, the song did its job, got folks talking and made somebody very angry.

H.A.T.E.U on the other hand is an abbreviation that stands for a woman who ‘Has A Typical Emotional Upset’. The song is a smooth slower-tempo track which has Mariah attempting to get all confrontational with a trifling partner: “I can’t wait to face you, I can’t wait to hate you”. The track has a nice beat but the overly synthesised vocals were a bit much. This was wildly compensated with the dreamy layering of several vocal techniques and a couple of jarring whistle effects. When she goes into full voice and starts belting, she does an outstanding job, and you tend to forget the little flaws within it. Up Out My Face is one of my favourite songs on the album. That’s probably because of the emphasis she puts on the word ‘boy’. It’s really laughable. But quite the radio friendly song with its dominant percussion and finger snaps. As far as the production goes, it’s a better diss track than Obsessed. This is then followed by the song’s Reprise which entails some heavy hitting marching-band style drums. This rides harder than the actual album cut and should have been longer. In the track, Standing O, MC scornfully gives her cheating fella a standing ovation for ruining a good thing. The hard-hitting and edgy mid-tempo is a concoction of staccato piano chords and catchy synths. Mariah even echoes the “oh, oh” which just so happens to be The Dream’s trademark vocal punctuation. The exact same style of singing is also evidenced in Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ but with the ‘Eh eh’s’ instead.
The songs that fell quite short reside in Ribbon and The Impossible. The Impossible is a Jodeci-meets-Blackstreet style slow jam but it goes nowhere and just drags on without so much as a flutter. The lyrics are pretty cliche and girly: “Love you like a freeze pop, love you like a milkshake”. A certified song to pass up on. Ribbon is tremendously overproduced with its unpleasant robotic sounds and lovey-but-not-so deep lyrical content. Putting aside those two tracks, there were quite a few more delights such as the piano/bass composition ‘More Than Just Friends’ which you’d blast out in the car on a cool breezy summer afternoon. The very chilled back ‘Candy Bling’ sees MC reminiscing about a romance from back in the day when she was young. It emphasises the innocence of such an era when life was simple and carefree. This is portrayed through teeny bopper references such as the ‘ring pops’, ‘candy bling’ and ’sweet tarts’. The track also samples Ahmad’s ‘Back In The Day’ (1994) with lyrical (and very touching) references to her late dog Jack and O.D.B. The whispering tone of her vocals fit the overall vibe of the finger snapping beat. Cute song.

More finger snaps and heavy bass frequent ‘Inseparable’. The beat becomes overly repetitive, but it’s her amazing vocal delivery over the loved up lyrical content that carries the song well. Also, a personal favourite of mine resides in ‘It’s A Wrap’ mainly because of the oldskool Motown-inspired/Doo-wop beat. Mariah certainly has an amazing vocal moment on the song, and plus, this is one for the more mature listener. It’s good that MC had that in mind rather than just concentrate on what the kiddies wanted musically. Then, there’s ‘Angel’s Cry’ which is very typical Mariah with the sparse handclaps. The track sounds like half of the songs that frequented her last album. Unfortunately, the last album could easily have been the remix CD to ‘We Belong Together’ and this song would have fit right in. But vocally, her riffs are pretty amazing. I am more a fan of the vocals than the overall song itself. The interlude ‘Languishing’ is ‘Petals’ meets ‘Sunflowers for Alfred’ meets ‘Close My Eyes’ meets ‘Looking In’ and several others. It also has a couple of piano chords remiscent to ‘Butterfly’ as well. The lyrics are beautiful and poetic, also serving up nicely against the piano-driven ballad and its melancholic melodies. Lastly but not least, the album closes off with the R&B/gospel-tinged rendition of the Foreigner classic ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’. Although MC stays true to the 80s powerballad, this piano-lead remake is very modest and contemporary. The choir gives it a churchy feel but just as the listener becomes engaged in the music, the song ends so suddenly. It’s like playing your music and someone walks into the room and rudely switches it off. Overall, Mariah’s full voice towards the end is once again, very impressive.
The album as a whole was very cohesive simply because it was mainly produced only by The Dream and Tricky Stewart. Cohesive, does not always necessarily mean a good thing. A lot of the songs started to sound too samey and repetitive.A lot of the fun uptempo songs which often frequented previous albums were not on here. There were no ‘Fantasy’s or ‘Heartbreakers’ and unlike the last project, this one is not as radio-hungry in terms of hit-driven music. Memoirs is a lot more organic. Maybe this is why I enjoyed it so much.

There were a bit too much finger snapping instruments throughout the album’s production. Being the melancholy album that it is, I can understand why the younger listener would consider it a ‘dull’ and ‘boring’ album. I’m not hearing much ode to the ‘Butterfly’ era except for that one particular track. ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’ is closer to ‘Butterfly’ in my opinion, whereas, this album has minor throwbacks but not all the way oldskool. I did hear some homage to a few of the albums in her back catalogue. The fact that she attempted to cater to all audiences is to be appreciated.

Overall, this album was used to show us that her vocal skill is not lost. MC did quite a few amazing things with it such as variation in texture, range, trademark whistle register and the belting. The production is a really nice and mellow R&B/Hip Hop offering but still very current. Having said that, it’s really inspiring that MC can still put out a solid record after sustaining a 20-year-career as a legendary recording artist. This is her twelth studio album and by far, it does not even touch her weakest. Good job!

Leona Lewis has returned with her new single “Happy”, which is the lead from her upcoming sophomore album “Echo”, out November 17th. The ballad was produced by Ryan Tedder who also wrote the song with Lewis hersel

Just several hours after a short snippet hit the net, here's the full, HQ of Mariah Carey's new single, "I Want To Know What Love Is" - a cover of the 1984 Foreigner #1, which will now serve as the lead single from her upcoming twelth studio album, "Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel"...

our very own Sarah Geronimo does her own rendition too its a pretty decent version but still i prefer the original. I love Mariah but I'm not blown away but it's a really good song and I think that Mariah has accomplished what she wanted, and she's given something that will please her loyalists.

After a hiatus of 7 years away from music due to some certain addictions and a rocky marriage, Whitney Houston is back. Now on her sixth studio album entitled ‘I Look to You‘, she proves she still has it, but with a little more of a huskier voice. The album has a pretty good feel to it, ranging from 70’s pop, belted ballads and a couple club bangers here and there. Along with Clive Davis, she worked with Swizz Beatz, Danja, Johnta Austin, Stargate, Harvey Mason Jr, Tricky Stewart, Akon, David Foster and Eric Hudson. With ‘I Look to You‘, she emerges back into the spotlight and keeps her title as ‘The Voice’, plus being one of the biggest diva’s in the music business since the 70’s.

Whitney gave us a good, solid R&B album. With your occasional ballad here and there, the rest of the album is pretty upbeat, mid-tempo driven. She also proved that even though her voice isn’t as high as before, she can still hit the notes, where she belts out on almost every song. Even though the album could’ve been better, everybody including Whitney did their thing.

Letoya Luckett returns with her sophomore album, ‘Lady Love’, which will see an official release on August 25th. The project, which leaked as early as yesterday, sees the former Destiny’s Child singer laying down a new chapter in her musical diary. The album boasts a collection of heartfelt ballads, uptempo stompers and infectious anthems that effectively exudes great production. At the same time, she scratches the surface by exploring new directions with her music, and stepping carefully out of her comfort zone. The 28-year-old Houston native puts much emphasis into her songs by conceptualising the ups and downs that come with love and being in a relationship, offering an album that’s both thrilling and on time for its audience.

This was a really solid contemporary R&B album. Whilst it is a lot more commercial than her last album, she didn’t stray too much from her signature style. I’m glad because I might have had a fit if she went towards the electronic/dance pop direction like everybody else. The album really surprised me. More chillingly is how much vocal growth I could hear in these songs. She so stepped it up! My only gripe would be that the subject matter on a lot of the songs were starting to sound very monotonous and the production on some of the songs began to sound too similar. Other than that, this album was very impressive.

Its nice to listen to Kris Lawrence doing his own cover version of some of the most well love song's from the past two decades.

Some people will be quick to say that Mariah got roasted like a pig on a spit or recieved the ultimate “lyrical beatdown”? But all this does is emphasise that Eminem is a very sad and psychotic childlike man, someone who is indeed ‘Obsessed’ with the singer. MC played by Eminem? More like Eminem played himself here.

This just shows that since 2002, he cannot let go of a past relationship that she refuses to acknowledge. Let her address him fully just this once, and his heart burns. For someone to react so viciously, shows he got owned and now felt compelled to respond to keep his ‘dignity’ intact (or whatever of it he has left).

Now, it’s time to close the book and move on. Leaving him to wallow in his own misery and underlying issues is not a way of backing down. It’s about being classy with it and feeling secure enough to realise that what you have in life is soooo good, some of the pettiness thrown your way is just not worth responding to. Everyone and their mama knew the diss track was on its way as soon as ‘Obsessed’ impacted radio and now it’s a hit. Result. As a happily married grown woman, MC does not need to go back and forth with the high school antics. It may be his style but it’s certainly not hers.

Rapper Eminem shows the world just how hot and bothered he is by Mariah Carey’s latest diss single ‘Obsessed’. In a brand new diss track, the rapper addresses Mariah mocking him in her new video, their previous sex antics (bustin’ a nut on her stomach as he so bluntly puts it, but even the “premature ejaculation” is embarrassing for him) and also uses snippets of her voice recordings towards the end of the song. Even the singers husband Nick Cannon becomes a target. He stresses that this diss is just a warning (his way of ‘holding back’) and that he has enough dirt to slay her should she continue to get at him

Tech Time. 2010 is almost here for real

The directors and writers of this movie do what many do, they change the screenplay to possibly do something that may be better. We as readers of the book always want to see what was in the book. The changes that were made were definitely not bad. There were a few things that I would have preferred to see the battle at the end, there was not enough of Nevile Longbottom, not much of Snape, especially teaching D.A.D.A., and the opening scene when Dumbledore should be talking to the Drusleys. Why they felt the need to burn down the Wesley home (the burrow) evades me and there is more Belletrix in this movie than the book but it kept the point of the book. People should get over the concept that it's not exactly like the book. That's very rare and if that were the case the movie would be 5 hours long!! I enjoyed it and people should give it a chance. Otherwise your gonna hate the final movie!