After hearing of the tragic passing of Teena Marie (RIP), Lenny Kravitz turned on his iphone 4 cam and opened up about the significant role that she played in his life and career.
“Good morning, I’m in Paris and I just woke to the tragic news that my sister [and] long time friend, Teena Marie, passed away yesterday. I want to send all my love and respect out to her family. And I just want to say Teena Marie was a treasure, genius, composer, arranger, singer, musician, unique, underrated by far and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Teena. She took me in when I was around 16. I was just a musician on the street….
(Vado performing at Harlem’s Vault sneakerstore last month, via FreshnessMag)
Happy Snow Day! Although, it’s probably a very unhappy snow day is you were one of the 400 people stuck on an A-train in the Rockaways for 7 hours with no heat this morning. Eek. But thank based god, I’m able to work from home today. Also, because I’m obsessed with the weather channel, I spent all of Sunday stockpiling Trader Joe’s frozen tamales and cookies before the storm hit. So I’m all set to hole up and try to hook up the toys that Santa left me ; )
But today is the perfect day to catch up on some good blog reading, and the homie Vado is sharing one of the lost tapes from his Slime Flu sessions! An R&B duet with nsfw-video star Raheem DeVaughn called “It’s You.” Along with this song, Vado’s also leaked two other songs: “M.O.V.A.D.O” with Mavado, and the “Slime Flu Intro.” Maybe if fans make some noise, Vado will compile all his unreleased tracks into a “Lost Tapes” Mixtape! (Hint, hint, Team Vado_MH and Shari ; )
New Music: Vado feat. Raheem DeVaughn “It’s You” (produced by Omen + Audio BLK)
(the best thing I did was park my car in a garage yesterday…the snow comes up to my kneecaps!)
The lady who helped Jay pen is his first book, Dream Hampton, recently sat down with PBS and gave some insight into the process behind writing Decoded. In this clip, Dream mentions first meeting Jay in ’96, after she wrote a review of Reasonable Doubt for the Village Voice thathe loved. Hov actually thought it was written by a man prior to their meeting. (props J-Rod)
“Its not only about him but about a whole era, a whole generation.”
“With Decoded, I learned that Jay is incredibly thoughtful about not only with his process but other people’s processes.”
She’s also working on her own memoir (based on her life from 1990-2000) and a book with Q-Tip (Industry Rules).
Though the song has been floating around for a few years, Saigon and and a young looking Trey Songz’ music video was kept in the stash for a while. Check out the re-cut version. (The Greatest Story Never Told drops on 2/15/11)
new videos from Curren$y, Kendrick Lamar, & Lloyd Banks on Tim Westwood after the jump…
The music community lost a legendary singer this past weekend.
Teena Marie was found dead at her California home on Sunday, she was only 54. Known for her soulful R&B grooves and as one of the early singers to infuse hip-hop sounds into her records, Marie will not easily be forgotten. Throughout the years, her records such as “Square Biz“, “I Need Your Lovin“, and “OOO La La” have been sampled by Nas, Jadakiss, and the Fugees to name a few. (check out more: VIBE’s 9 Favorite Teena Marie Classics).
Check out some celebs remembering Teena on twitter:
Alicia Keys: God bless Teena Marie & her Family! Sending Blessings &prayers I was just saying that “Fre & Desire” is 1 of the most beautifully performed songs!
Q-Tip: u can run my MINI teena marie playlist back to the top… then do it again. hopefully a young singer can take this blueprint she left. RIP
(more tweets and info from MTV news after the jump)
You’ll definitely need to make time to sit back and take this in, above you can catch the bonus 1 hour interview from DJ Premier & Pete Rock that’s off their versus DVD that recently dropped in Japan.
Last night at the Paradise Theater in the Bronx, NY, Hot 97 held their annual holiday concert with the lineup of Nicki Minaj, Fabolous, Lloyd Banks & Fred Da Godson. Above, catch Nicki going through her catalogue of hits in 2010 for the sold out crowd yesterday.
Yesterday, Mariah Carey celebrated Christmas at the Magic Kingdom in Florida where she performed the classic “All I Want For Christmas”, in addition to debuting her new holiday song “Oh Santa”.
A gift for 50 Cent fans on Christmas Day, here’s the final version of the popular “Sunday Morning” that many have been waiting for a while. The closest you’ll get to the CDQ until Fif himself drops it.
New Music: 50 Cent – “Sunday Morning” (Full Version)
