Sunday October 6th, 2002
New CD's this past week:
Donna Gardier - Home (UK release)
3rd Storee - 3rd Storee
Isyss - The way we do
Floetry - Floetic
Short news stories this week:
Jaheim Says He Carefully Selected Songs For 'Still Ghetto'
Jaheim is currently on the Seagram's Gin
Live tour with Truth Hurts and
Biz Markie, and he will release his sophomore album, Still Ghetto, on
November 5. The set was produced by Eddie F., KayGee, Malik Pendleton,
Wesley Hogges, Michael Williams, Eric Williams, Kelly G., and T.O.
Former Bad Boy Entertainment hit producer Stevie J. lends his
songwriting skills to two cuts as well.
Jaheim made it clear that this time around he was very selective when
picking his songwriters: "I hope the fans love it. I think they gonna
love it because this album is more what I want and not everybody else
making songs for me, you know what I'm sayin', like a puppet. See,
basically what I'm saying is when I worked on the last album, I didn't
get what I wanted. I mean, I took it and it came out beautiful because I
had to make it that way. I had to do what I had to do, you know what I
mean? I felt like people were just giving me anything and I had to make
the best of it."
The Still Ghetto tracklisting includes: "Intro" featuring Duganz,
"Diamond In Da Ruff," "Fabulous" featuring Tha Rayne,
"Let's Talk About
It," "Put That Woman First," "Beauty And A Thug"
featuring Mary J.
Blige, "Me And My B-tch," "Backlight," "Special
Day," "Long As I Live,"
"Interlude," "Everywhere I Am," "Tight Jeans," and
"What You Want."
Craig David Takes On Willy Wonka In 'What's Your Flava?' Video
Craig David and video director Little X
create an adaptation of the
fable Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory for David's new single,
"What's Your Flava?" The song, scheduled to hit radio on October 7, is
the first release from David's sophomore album, Slicker Than Your
Average, due out on November 19 on Wildstar/Atlantic Records.
For the video shot in Prague, David portrays a mystical mastermind who
gives four "contest winners" a tour of his factory. Originally issued
as
a book and released as a film starring Gene Wilder in 1971, Willy Wonka
& The Chocolate Factory tells the story of a poor boy who wins an
opportunity to visit the world's most famous production house for candy.
Slicker Than Your Average also includes
"Rise & Fall," David's duet with
Sting, as well as production from Soulshock & Karlin, and David's
longtime collaborator Mark Hill.
David's 2001 debut Born To Do It has been certified platinum in the U.S.
and included three hit singles, "Fill Me In," "7 Days," and
"Walking
Away." "Fill Me In" earned him earned him a 2001 Grammy
nomination for
best male pop vocal performance
Usher Portrays Marvin Gaye In 'American Dreams' TV Series
Usher wrapped taping his role in the
American Dreams TV series this
week. For the NBC and Universal Television show co-produced by Dick
Clark, Usher portrayed legendary Motown singer Marvin Gaye during 1964.
As Gaye, Usher performs "Can I Get A Witness?", one of the late
singer's
early hits that broke into the top 30 in 1963.
American Dreams airs on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET. An air date for the show
featuring Usher has not yet been determined.
Usher has also appeared on television programs Gepetto, Moesha, and
Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and feature films She's All That, The
Faculty, Light It Up, and Texas Rangers.
Usher has two songs on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks
chart. "U Don't Have To Call" is Number 42, and "Can U Help
Me" is
Number 88.
Voyage To India Only Took Four Months
Neo-soul singer/songwriter India.Arie says
she still can't get over the
fact that her new album, "Voyage To India," only took her four months
to
complete. That time frame is significantly less than what she spent on
her debut album, "Acoustic Soul"-which she says took her two years.
She
explained, (quote) "I always write songs, and even if I have a set of
songs that I think are gonna be on my album, I write new ones
anyway-that's what happened with 'Acoustic Soul'… I had old songs, but
most of it was new songs that I wrote while I was in the studio
recording… but this time [on 'Voyage To India'] it's some of my favorite
older songs… and I wrote some new songs too-not out of obligation… but
just because I was goin' through things and I wrote songs and I just put
'em on my album… but 'Acoustic Soul' took two years, and this album only
took four months! Just four months!"
Blackstreet Says Don't Call It A Comeback
Blackstreet members Teddy Riley and
Chauncey Hannibal don't want the
group's recording of the new album, Level II, due out November 19 on
DreamWorks, to be considered a reunion.
The album does in fact reunite the talents of Riley, Hannibal, Mark
Middleton, and Eric Williams, who collectively released the group's most
successful record to date, 1996's Another Level, that featured the
explosive Dr. Dre collaboration "No Diggity." Former Blackstreet
members
Dave Hollister, Levi Little, Joseph Stonestreet, and Terrell Phillips
also show up on the project.
Still, Riley maintains that he hates the word "reunion." "We're
just
doing another record," Riley said in a cover story in the September 13
issue of The Network. "Everybody was thinking there was going to be yet
another new member...We can't blame people for that either. It became
kind of a gimmick for us."
Hannibal added that all families experience their problems. "If you're
not able to come back together, grow and be real with each other, then
it was never real from the start," Hannibal said.
Level II's first single, "Wizzy Wow" featuring Mystikal, entered
Billboard's Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart at Number 22 last
week.
Riley also added that his solo album, Black Rock, scheduled to be
released in 2001 on Virgin Records, was nixed when the executives who
brought him to the label lost their jobs, prompting him to ask to be
released from his contract. He filed bankruptcy to "reorganize," and
he
still has "everything." And he has no intentions of recording another
Guy album anytime soon. "The only way you'd ever see Guy happen again
would be on something [comparable] to a Motown 25 special, or one of
Sinbad's Soul On The Beach shows."
Brandy Preparing To Begin Work On New Album
Brandy and producer Mike City are preparing
to begin work on new
material for the singer. City wrote and produced Brandy's song "Full
Moon" that reached Number 16 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles
&
Tracks chart.
"We'll probably will be back in the studio [soon], hopefully," City
told
LAUNCH. "We're already talked about going back in. We might do a
soundtrack or something. It's been tossed up in the air. I know her
husband Robert [Smith] is going to work on a lot of the album. I'll come
and do a few songs."
While there have been four-year gaps between the releases of Brandy's
1994 self-titled debut, 1998's Never Say Never, and 2002's Full Moon,
City said that Brandy is ready to work on her fourth album.
"It's not an urgency," City said. "She really didn't get to do
her
normal Brandy thing this time around because she got married, and had
the baby."
City believes that on her fourth album, Brandy will show the depth of
her vocals. "I think Brandy is going to come back and let it out,"
City
said. "People don't know that she can really sing. They are used to her
messing around with the pretty notes and things, but she can really belt
it out."
Brandy's current single is "He Is."
TLC Says Size Does Matter In 'Girl Talk'
Men who are still upset that TLC dissed
them on their 1999 Number One
hit "No Scrubs" might protest the group's new single, "Girl
Talk," which
bashes guys who brag about their sexual bravado.
On the song, which is receiving limited airplay, TLC members Tionne
"T-Boz" Watkins, Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas, and the late Lisa
"Left Eye"
Lopes inform men that their sexual inhibitions make for good gossip.
T-Boz sings, "Listen y'all need to know this/That we'll straight up tell
ya business/So if ya gonna come ya better come with it/If ya ain't
swinging just put ya tongue in it/Some of y'all killing me/Thinking you
got powers like Austin/But you're more like Mini-Me."
In another verse, T-Boz adds, "Some of y'all be fooling us/Big feet, big
hands, just plain old big/But sex ain't worth a damn/Women want to know
this/If y'all got the bat and not the swing."
The song is the first single from the group's fourth album, 3D, due out
November 12 on Arista Records.
The song's producer Eddie Hustle, who is one of the last to record with
Lopes, describes the track as "phenomenal."
"It's a cool record," said Hustle, whose credits also include Usher's
"U
Remind Me." "It's exactly what the girls are saying, but we can't
hear."
TLC has been known for its frank sex talk since its quadruple-platinum
1992 debut, Ooooooohhh... On The TLC Tip, which included the
introductory single "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg." That album was followed by
1994's 11-times-platinum Crazysexycool, and 1999's FanMail which has
sold more than 6 million copies.
Lopes was killed in a car crash in Honduras in April.