Who else thought the BET Awards sloppily and unjustly 'honored' Prince last night? The horror I experienced while listening to Trey Songz murder "Purple Rain" is indescribable! Did pregnant Alicia Keys reallly climb and slither on top of that piano during her terrible, ersatz version of "Adore U"? Well, someone needed to do something since Beyonce wasn't there to wake us up?
Poor Prince! I was feeling his OMG what the hell are they doing to my music thoughts running through his head with every camera pan shot. Oh, he tried to control his own shudders of horror by graciously applauding every performer, but I saw them -- in his eyes and smirky smile that really said OMG, this is the future of soul music?! WTF! LOL!
The highlight for me was witnessing the return of El DeBarge to the stage. What a lovely voice he still has and his ability to hit the high notes is still flawless! Regardless of your hardships and circumstances, God's gifts within you will flow forth until you leave this earth.
El looked like Rudolph Valentino, Kid Creole, a better looking, taller Marc Anthony and Ricky Ricardo all rolled into one! What a treat!
It is saddening and unfortunate to realize that no young R&B/ Soul singers are ready to accept the torch our music pioneers blazed before us. There are no more Barry Whites to look forward to -- no Teddy Pendergrasses, no Barry Whites, Luther Vandrosses and definitely no Princes or Michael Jacksons waiting in the wings.
Where are the Barry Gordys and Quincy Jones' or other music moguls who know a thing or two about artist development?
Luckily, the music of our soul masters will live on forever, because this new crap the industry is producing does not qualify for such an honor.
I wholeheartedly agree. I keep listening and waiting. Because I live in a small-town, I can not even bear to listen to the radio. Forget TV sometimes the trajedy is simply too great...LOL
ReplyDeleteThere are some new singers coming up> Have you heard of Al Olive, Randy Wilson, Jeff Hendricks, Kenny Wesley just to name a few? Sheck out my soul show called Luxury Soul on Smooth 98.1 fm coming out of Nigeria on Saturdays from 6 pm GMT.
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks for the opportunity. I'm new to the site and am diggin' it! Thanks, Sis!!
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I feel you on that BET debacle - after they got rid of Tavis, Bev, Teen Summit, Video Soul, and Ed Gordon, I stopped watching. Aaron McGruder was right. At the same time, I have to ask, what have us older folks collectively done to hip the youth to our rich musical history???My parents hipped me to MOTOWN, STAX, CHESS and Earth, Wind & Fire, Luther, when I was young, and many others, and I'm glad they did. As Chuck D said, "There ain't no is, without a was". Also, my Wife and I hip our 4-year old Daughter (and whatever other youth I come across) to old school music, as well as other genres of music.
Thirdly, and I apologize if I'm imposing, but I have an URGENT request to ask of you: I'm putting together a memorial video and I need a suggestion for a Neo Soul ( I hate that word - how is something "Neo" that's always been here????) song that would be good; something to help celebrate this person's life and not make people cry. Looking forward to hearing back. You can hit me up at ckhoward1@fuse.net.I also have a Facebook page, and my demo reel as well as some of my other videowork is posted on it at the following: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=792342071&v=app_2392950137.
Thanks again, Sis. I'll be definitely checking out your site some more. Continued Success on all your endeavors. Peace!