The World Is My Block

Tonight, in Brixton Academy (South London), Nokia presented an "exclusive" (the least exclusive 'exclusive' show I've ever been to) Rihanna showcase as her first official performance to promote Rated R. The place was heaving with the industry, Rihanna fans and Nokia phone owners, while the rest of the world were able to watch from via their computer screens on Nokia.com.

The night started with a stellar set by Chase & Status - they expertly mixed drum and bass into hip hop, R&B and funky house - they also remembered they were in Brixton and threw a healthy dose of dancehall into the mix too.

Around a quarter-past 8, the show opened with a VT featuring clips of Rihanna to "Mad House", Rated R's minute and a half intro. Rihanna tore onto the stage, finally revealing the only thing most females in the audience cared about - her outfit. We can leave discussing the fact whether a "musician's" clothes should ever be more important than their craft but it would be ridiculous to deny that Ri-Ri's not just a fashion icon of this generation, but a bad bish! I can honestly see more longevity in her career as a fashionista than as a vocalist.

As expected, she looked stunning, thankfully with no barbwire or eye-patches in sight. Clad in a black leotard embroided with sequins and a large, puffy glove on her left arm, Rihanna launched into "The Wait Is Ova."

She followed this with "Russian Roulette", and she exhibited vocal ability she definitely didn't possess a few years ago. That said, I'm sure many of her vocals were recorded as live as there was definitely some miming happening - and at times her voice was swallowed by production-heavy beats. She segued into "Please Don't Stop The Music", "Take A Bow" and "Disturbia" from Good Girl Gone Bad before performing Hard.

Young Jeezy took the stage, sending the audience into a frenzy while he performed his underwhelming verse on the track. Run This Town came next, and with murmurings of an appearance from Jay-Z the audience threw themselves into a frenzy. They weren't disappointed as Jay took to the stage to casually executed his verses. Finally, Rihanna ended her short set with her biggest release to date, Umbrella, and over-zealous audience members opened umbrellas to show their support.






I've never considered Ms Fenty as an "entertainer", thus, I attended the show with little expectations. Luckily, Rihanna exceeded these (to be fair, it wouldn't have been hard to) and not only had a little camaraderie with the audience, she also knew how to perform (even though she grabbed and rubbed her crotch JUST a bit too much) and exhibited a little personality I REALLY didn't believe she possessed. That said, the thing that impressed me most about the gig was the social networking aspect; before the show started the large screens displayed twitter updates from audience members and viewers who'd included trend #RihannaLive in their tweets and the stage production (which included the stage instillation of random silver clothing mannequin parts a-top of awkwardly positioned television sets).

Keep it locked to the Block for a review of Rated R.

Random sidebar/update: Ri-Ri raved it up hard last night with the UK's finest to celebrate her introduction back to the stage and stumbled out of Mahiki nightclub like THIS

check my interview with MF

This new offering from Robin Thicke has got me greatly confused...it's strangely hypnotically addictive. Actually, it's pretty rubbish but I just can't stop listening to it for the following reasons:

I've been beating this in my earphones for the last couple of days so I could review it for SoulCulture. With only one or two tunes I weren't feeling, the album is solid and will definitely stay in rotation...full review UNDER THE CUT

A few months back I managed to slyly get my hands on a pre-release copy of The 50th Law. This much anticipated book sees author Robert Greene, writer of "The 48 Laws of Power" collaborating with 50 Cent to produce an intriguing and mentally stimulating piece of work entitlied "The 50th Law"


As well as analysing 50's ascent to stardom, the book explores the social mechanics behind the resilience and inventiveness of some of history's most outstanding figures such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Malcom X and Frederick Douglas.


It's excellent. Whether you're a 50 fan or not, the principles explored were created to enthuse and prompt grand thoughts to germinate.....in anyone.



So, if you're a fan of "The Secret" or "The Power of Now" this should be right up your street. If not, then check out the 50th Law and reinforce your ambition


Peep this interview of 50 with Evan Davis, host of "The Dragons Den"




Till next time Blockfiends....


Pie-Ce


Blaze

So I could write a long review.

I'm not going to.

Eric Roberson BREATHES music. So does his band. Watch this clip from Jazz Cafe on 8th (the day before I went):



THEN BUY MUSIC FAN FIRST.

A week ago I was up in Glasgow pretending I was going to sample haggis. Before the show, I had a plan. A very serious journalistic review on the MOBO Awards 2009 was supposed have landed on The Block by Saturday. It was going to start with something to the effect of "for the first time ever, Britain's most established platform for recognising and awarding music Of black origin was live in Glasgow, Scotland..."

Then in the aftermath of Tahirah, Devill and Lady V's adventures in Glasgow 2009 - a review of the MOBOs were the last thing on my blogging agenda. But before I give you a rundown on the madness AROUND the big sparkly event, I might as well set the scene by telling you my thoughts on the awards.

READ ON

I need a rant...no, stop! Let's flip reverse this, I want to rave...rave about two very hot British young women that musically have seriously worked it out all out bloody well - they actually have talent and no need to hide behind any gimmicks!

Originally, I wrote this article as a rant, beginning with the aim to show off my musical knowledge/creatively funny verse by simply cussing and complaining about La Roux (my face is always painted with colours of the rainbow, or so white I resemble Casper) and Lady Gaga (the most annoyingly untalented celebrity of current, simply an embarrasmment to females in the pop industry). No, STOP! The critsiscms will stop right there! Instead, this, my first blog, (welcome to my block by the way, it's on an estate in North West London) is going to be a praising sesh; I feel almost as if my faith in truly talented female musical artists has been restored and I need to exhale with an 'Hallelujah!'

Keeping it short and sweet...take a look at these ladies, and start bumming them too because they've got it all very very right (and very few ladies at the mo seem to be doing a good job of this!)

Speech Debelle

With a voice which only naturally makes you question if she's related to Marge Simpson, just a little bit, but some real, good, honest lyrics, this girl has something very special! Completly different to her peers in the Uk rap scene, with no need to swear excessively or rhyme with an abusive 'bitch, I'ma rip your Argos bling off ya after I dun your man' attitude, the beauty of Speech Debelle's debut album 'Speech Therapy' is its simplicity. She tells it like it is, no
metaphors, ridiculous OTT poetry, just honesty and bluntness, so you can feel her pain in songs like 'Go Then, Bye' but laugh when she drops lyrics like 'I'm going to use my giro and buy a 16th' because you know exactly what she's going on about!

Another reason which mkakes this pint-sized mc stand out in my eyes is that she's been the first artist I've seen live since Ms. Lauryn Hill perform in 2007, to make me sing along with her and genuinely understand and believe in what she's saying..and that's deep! Maybe it was just me, but with all the love she's been getting from music critics nationally, she can't be going wrong!

Big up to her for 'Speech Therapy' being nominated for this year's Mercury Music Prize, someone who definietly deserves it (ahem, La Roux and Kasabian??!?)

Oh, her album was produced by Roots Manuva..nuff said, go get a copy!



Ellie Goulding
Yes, as much as I wanted every drop to speed up bpm and hit Drum & Bass, it is still a big, bad bassy tune (even thought it doesn't have one really, if you get what I mean?)

Now onto Ellie, the provider of the hauntingly Bjork-esque vocals..doesn't she make you want to go WOW? Hate to harp on about La Roux, but unfortunately there are a few similarities between the two Ellies (both are sort of ginger and signed to Polydor), only this Ellie's soprano voice is actually understandable and a pleasure to listen to as her words are decipherable!

Go check out her Myspace and start falling in love with the rest of her tunes; a good mixture of folk guitar and electronic but with an air of delicacy. She's making hot music suitable for both the city and country mouse, the only way I can expliain is 'Starry Eyed' works beautifully as you come up to Cloud 9 in a rave, just as 'Swimming Pool' works if you were lying in a field in the middle of no-where, both moments when you feel invincible and untouchable!

This girl's going to be HUGE!! Just please promise me you won't go painting your face silly colours!

Oh by the way, I'm Lady V..I love dance music, actually any music but it's got to be good, and I have a serious problem with/addiction to Drum & Bass - catch me every Tuesday night getting rather excited about Drums on BANG Radio, midnight - 2am!

I hate window shopping. It's not a concept I really understand (you know some girls actually make a day out of trawling shops...with no money, what the eff?) but today I had to engage in some...some of the street's biggest independent clothing lines had a sample sale so even though payday is somewhere in the distance, I hadta check out what it was saying.

So while I didn't catch all the brands listed online, Off The Radar was still a good look. I love collaborations between anything in the industries, whether it be fashion brands showing each other support, DJs, or artists. Hopefully they'll do another Off The Radar Pt2 real soon (around some sort of payday, maybe?)

And finally...I took a snap of the bikers in the Skate Park to prompt myself - one day in the near future I aim to be able to skate on those ramps!

Last night, following L-Berforce and I's show on BANG Radio, which is every Thursday night 9-10pm GMT (4-5pm EST), we shot out of the studio to meet Blaze Oh My Dayz (you know, that geezer who grows footwear in his garden) to make our way down to YoYo.

Before I get into that, let me just mention our guest last night was Swiss of So Solid who came in to talk about his book Spot The Difference. My brain was functioning at a capacity of minus-a-zillion so I had an innate inability to articulate myself but regardless he was a GREAT guest; very enlightened and socially conscious brother who is trying to share it with the world.

You need to buy the book - I likened it to a self-help/guidance book for young people. You can pick it up HERE.

Anyway, this week at YOYO Pharrell's signing Chester French were due to perform and I was keen to see them so I decided I was going down from the start of the week but they got cancelled - somehow I forgot quickly about them when the news that hip-hop legend TALIB KWELI would be DJing.
Fast FWD to near midnight, Talib steps in the place, Seb Chew and Leo Greenslade are warming it up nicely; playing everything from hip-hop to old skool UKG. The vibe was good - for those who don't know YoYo, Notting Hill Arts club is a basement with cement floor that can barely squeeze in more than 300 people and where there is zero-dress code. The YoYo crowd used to be a lot more exclusive; now many times YoYo seems to just be used as an industry showcase event but the party was as real as ever last night.

Talib stepped into the DJ booth; I was dancing on the stage next to the booth so I could see one of hip-hop's nicest lyracists step on the ones-and-twos. The way the set started, I thought I'd be coming home to blog, "well, the game's best lyracist can't be expected to be the game's best DJ I guess," and leave it at that.

But my review is taking a different turn because soon enough, he got into the swing of things. While he didn't possess the best technique, his tune selection was NICE; throwing on some classic Biggie, Pharoah Monche, Big Pun, other hip-hop heavies, some new tunes, from Drake to Wayne AND some UK funky house, then some 80's soul (he played Candy by Cameo so everyone was doing that damn dance on the stage...I joined in for about 5 seconds before giving up) and some other random stuff. De La Soul's Maseo was the hype man, so real hip-hop was definitely in the building! Maseo reminded us, "you are now part of the Talib Kweli Experience!"

But the highlight of his set was when he played the first few chords of Jamie Foxx's BLAME IT, then PULLED IT OFF and put on hip-hop's self-proclaimed omni-potent yoda Jay-Z's DEATH OF AUTOTUNE (I haven't posted my opinion on that yet; soon come)...the place went MAD. Mad I tell you. Even I went mad, dammit!

We partied until the lights came on, I gave Mr Kweli a simple handshake - no words were needed. Blaze is coming up with the pictures on pt 2.

Buy it HERE at WH Smith or HERE for a little cheaper at Amazon

Back in October I went to this show, Cellar Door's black history month show aimed at raising awareness for Sickle Cell. My sister has Sickle Cell, I have the trait - many people don't know they actually have the trait - I think it's important that people know about it. It was suchhhhhhh a good night, you'll get an idea from the video anyway. It should have been a LOT more packed though.

If you don't know about sickle cell, it affects 15,000 African/Caribbean/minority ethnics in the UK. Get to know HERE

So I decided to try and reclaim my youth this weekend by going to a couple of gigs aimed at the younger end of the spectrum. It didn't work; I ended up feeling like an OAP at the grand age of 20. However, I did get to see some wicked shows...

Yesterday, Iluvlive hosted a special at Cargo.

video filmed on my little digi-cam

Lesson of the day: forget trying to support by paying the full wack! ALWAYS sort out guestlist/tickets (",)

Tahi...x

9:10pm - Tuesday 11th November 2008, at the Roundhouse in Camden N*E*R*D (Shae Haley & Pharrell Williams sans Chad Hugo) casually saunter onto the stage to a rapturous applause from a sold-out audience. Although Chad is nowhere to be seen, the boys are accompanied by a full band including two very talented drummers and base players - who also happened to be good looking, supplying extra eye-candy for the females in attendence.


Across the City in the 02 Arena, around 15,000 people watched Kanye West 'Glowing In The Dark', but in the more intimate surroundings of the Roundhouse's main space, hosting 3,000 people, we - the audience - were part of the show.


Tearing through tunes from all three albums, In Search Of... , Fly Or Die and 2008's Seeing Sounds, my favourite hip-hop rock band kept the audience jumping, pushing and rocking. Obvious favourites from the set were Lap Dance, Rock Star, She Wants To Move, Everybody Nose & Spaz.


It seems like Beyonce is not the only superstar who assumes another persona once hitting the stage. Usually super-cool Pharrell bounces across the stage, working up a sweat without inhibition. The thing that impressed me most, however, was his audience interaction. He spoke to us reguarly.









"I heard there are some journalists from newspapers in here tonight. Well the headline should read N*E*R*D BLEW A MUTHAFUCKIN HOLE IN THE ROUNDHOUSE!"





Grainy picture courtesy of my digital camera

While pulling up around 10 guys onto the stage from audience - "I don't give a fuck if you're black, white, asian, latino, see-through, polka dot, glass - I don't give a fuck what you're made from, if you're here to party with N*E*R*D lets party!"






Picture by Ashleigh Jadee


After getting glow-sticks thrown at him - "I love getting stuff thrown at me from the crowd, but what the fuck is up with the glow-sticks? What about the good shit, like CDs, or panties?"


After pulling loads of girls on stage, one asks if her friend can come too - "Look, we're up here to party as FRIENDS, you are our friends, we ain't on no fan shit, don't be pointing out your friends to come on stage if you wanna party with me - now do you wanna party or not?"

We did party. We partied hard.



















Picture by Ashleigh Jadee

N*E*R*D at the Roundhouse gets a respectable 7 & 1/2 out of 10