Eddie Rockerz VibeZ

Janet Jackson may not have the vocal power of a Kelly Price or Whitney Houston, but she more than makes up for that with her ear for harmony & sweet vocal quality plus she is one hell of a dancer/performer & easy on the eye…yes Lawd! Beyonce & Rihanna – the reigning sirens of this generation – can’t hold a candle to Janet’s artistry or catalog of hits. She’s my girl!

      The Roots are icons of Hip Hop. Few rap groups can measure up to what this eclectic group brings  the table. From the moment they entered public consciousness with Organix in 1993, they still remain on top of their craft & in total command of their combination of jazz-influenced hip-hop and social awareness. With the exception of Outkast & Dead Prez , how many Hip Hop groups can you name today like this? Exactly- none! A Tribe Called Quest is gone. The Pharcyde-gone. Black Star, Goodie Mob, Digable Planets-all gone. Groups are no longer in vogue – the solo artist reigns supreme in these times. That’s unfortunate as we miss out on some great music as a group’s synergy can oftentimes catapult its music to unchartered territory. Take The Beatles or Earth, Wind & Fire . Each band had brilliant members and made ground-breaking music, but when they split up to do their own thing, their solo projects weren’t as consiste...

Thirty-six tracks from a Chicago rapper who is as gifted as anyone of his generation and has spent his career at war with the industry that signed him. Lupe Fiasco Wasalu Muhammad Jaco arrived in 2006 as one of the most technically accomplished writers in hip-hop, with a debut album about skateboarding, comic books, Islam and the West Side of Chicago that sounded like nothing else on the radio. What followed is one of the more instructive label-relations stories in modern music. His third album was delayed for years by Atlantic; fans organised public protests demanding its release; when it appeared, he publicly disowned parts of it. He has been an unusually outspoken critic of the industry, of American foreign policy and of hip-hop itself ever since. The work survives the noise. He writes in extended metaphors sustained across entire songs, uses multiple narrators, and builds verses whose meaning only resolves at the end — techniques closer to poetry t...

      When some of the biggest names in R&B and Hip-Hop are clamoring to be on a jazz record, you know you’re dealing with a special kind of jazz musician. Robert Glasper has worked in the traditional jazz-trio format before, but over the past few years he’s incorporated all the sounds he grew up with in Houston: soul, rap, rock … whatever feels good goes into the gumbo. He’s worked with the crème de la crème of black music to include Jill Scott, Eryka Badu & Musiq Soulchild. His band is the Robert Glasper Experiment, and his current album is Black Radio 2 which is a beautiful continuation of the Grammy award winning Black Radio 1. The liner notes for his records are a kind of manifesto lamenting the stagnation and “collective dumbing down” of black popular music in the US. Glasper opines, “When music is crashing around us, when you hear the same five songs on the radio that aren’t really saying much, we can always go ba...

    The must-see movie of the year has to be “ Get On Up ” which chronicles James Brown’s rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history. From Pop to Soul/R&B to Rock’n’Roll, James Brown has cemented his legacy for eternity. The music above appears on the movie’s soundtrack . Get on the good foot!

    I checked out this group last night at the Warner Theatre in Washington D.C & I gotta say, they brought the house down! The crowd was rockin’ & the ladies were especially beside themselves–even old granny a few rows down from me got out her seat,  put her hands in the air & waved ’em like she just didn’t care! Human Nature did a phenomenal job with the classics that influenced the world and it’s not surprising that they are now one of Australia’s most successful musical exports. The legendary Smokey Robinson admitted that their rendition of his classic, “ Ooh Baby Baby ” is the best he has ever heard which inspired him to put his name behind them on their latest tour, Smokey Robinson presents Human Nature: The Motown Show. This playlist presents my favorite cuts taken from various albums to include The Motown Record. Not included is “ Just My Imagination ” which they totally made their own…...

When Ghetto Heaven by The Family Stand was released back in 1989, I remember being quite impressed with the lead vocalist, Sandra St. Victor . She had that Chaka Khan sound & the beat of that international smash hit, Ghetto Heaven , made me curious as to how the rest of the album sounded, so I bought it. What I discovered on that album, entitled Chain , was a collection of soulful, eclectic beats that ran circles around everybody at that time. I wore that album out & everybody who heard it at my apartment was like, “Who is that ?” Their sound was different – keenly intelligent and pulsing with renegade intensity. The members – V. Jeffrey Smith, Sandra St Victor & Peter Lord Moreland (Howard Univ. alumni)- are all multifaceted artists whose talents combined to produce, in my opinion, the most explosive & memorable music of that time. Sadly, other than Ghetto Heaven , their music was not promoted in the mainstream wastelands or, in their wor...

  I love music & enjoy sharing it. Peace & love fam!