I understand Spin’s frustration, I also give celebrity DJs the side eye. How does one wake up and say “Today I’m going to be a DJ because I have the money to buy equipment and I have a lot of music.” Huh? To me that’s disrespectful to the craft of being a disc jockey. It’s true that they aren’t taking any money out of my pocket because I haven’t djayed a bar/lounge in years, but for those big name DJs this creates a huge problem. Clubs would increase their patronage with a big name DJ but are you paying to party or look at Kanye all night. I can only imagine how much it would cost to listen to Lil Wayne spin, but if he’s garbage, what did you really get?

I recently went to the Brooklyn Bowl to hear Talib Kweli spin. Questlove was originally supposed to spin and after the last time I heard him, I knew I needed more. He cancelled and Kweli took his place. He had absolutely no technique. The music choices were all over the place and his transition made grimace. Still, because I love music so much, I tried to enjoy myself.

In my opinion, unless celebrities are willing to take the craft seriously, they should leave the djaying to the professionals. In some cases like Idris Elba or Mike and Pauly from Jersey Shore, they really practice and study. From what I hear about Kanye West’s first gig, he played a nice eclectic mix of music but I hope he understands that it takes more to DJ than a Serato box, a laptop and a playlist.

Miss Aretha Franklin is getting married for the third time at 69. It seems the songstress is in love enough to tie the knot again. To some it may appear to be useless, but from what I’ve learned from my own grandmother, a woman never ceases to want that promise of an everlasting bond with a partner.

4 years ago, when my grandmother was 75, she shocked all of her direct descendants (including me) when she announced that she was going to marry her long time male friend. On New Year’s Eve 2007, everyone who could, made the pilgrimage to Memphis, TN to see our matriarch get married at the family church. The same cousin who married me, said the blessed words over the couple and there wasn’t dry eye amongst the family as they said “I Do”. For the first kiss, my grandfather grabbed my grandmother so fast, he startled her. I couldn’t blame him, after all, she had made him wait 30 years before she said yes. They are the happiest couple you ever did see and according to Grandma, “The pig in the blanket still works!”

Grandma talks about other vibrant 60-80 year olds in her church who still want to get married and enjoy relations with a man. The problem seems to be that the men in their age group tend to gravitate toward women under 60, leaving the women without prospects. I feel bad for them but as I approach 40, I see the same trend. A close DJ friend of mine, who has been a confirmed bachelor forever, recently got married at 50 to a woman in her 30s and they are expecting a baby any day now. I can’t help to think about the women in his age group who would have loved to have been married to him.

Like my grandmother, I tend to enjoy the attention of younger men.  Although I’m single, I’m think by the time I’m ready to settle down again, I won’t have much of a problem. And maybe like Miss Aretha and my grandmother, the third time will be a charm for me too.

D’Angelo apparently contacted TheUrbanDaily and wanted to have a phone interview with them. Now why he chose TheUrbanDaily? I have no clue…actually I had never even heard of this site before I saw this article. I really hope this isn’t a hoax cooked up by the site because I really been feenin for some new D’Angelo.

Unfortunately, D’Angelo doesn’t talk about his new music coming up in the interview, nor does he discuss his recent run-in with trying to pay for some snatch from an undercover police officer in NY a few months. Instead D’Angelo gives some insight into what bands he’s recently been inspired by and that can somewhat give us an idea of what to expect.

I know I know…you want more…but this is all I got! Interview below:

TheUrbanDaily: How are you?

D’Angelo: I’m good, man. I’m good.

TUD: What’s inspiring you lately?

D: I just got turned on to this group called Black Merda that I’m just kinda beating myself up over because I’d never heard of them before. I think about a couple of months ago, my boy turned me on to them. I’m just revisiting groups that are basically looked at like funk groups or funk artists, but I’m looking at it differently now. These guys who were really trying to push the envelope back then, I think they were just a head of their time as far as black rock is concerned.

TUD: Oh, so Black Merda’s from back in the day?

D: Yeah! Black Merda’s from 1969 or 1970 and they were on Chess Records. I’m also listening to s**t like Rick James, The Bar-Kays… These guys were like black rock & roll.

TUD: In listening to stuff like Black Merda and thinking about the multi-dimensionality missing from today’s Black music, is this influencing the stuff that you’re doing now?

D: Uhh, yeah. Definitely. I think it’s just the whole over-influx of what is stereotypically seen as Black music today, or hip-hop today, or Black culture or what have you. Just looking for alternative s**t that’s unquestionably, unmistakably Black, and doesn’t fit into this whole — what I feel is like minstrelsy almost.

TUD: Does it feel to you that in the past 10 years that Black difference has become almost impossible? What used to be a rainbow of offerings 20 years ago seems to be different flavors of the same s**t.

D: I don’t think so. I think it’s out there, but there’s a lot of folks, people in power, record executives or what have you, that are less willing to take chances on s**t that might be different. But I think there’s a underground bubbling up under. A lot of Black folks are trying to do different s**t or they wanna do different s**t. I don’t know the condition of what’s going on in the business right now, but they’re having a hard time cracking through. (Afro-Punk co-founder) Matthew Morgan turned me on to what he was doing probably a couple of years ago. I think it’s the s**t. I love it. One night we were at Raphael Saadiq’s studio and Bootsy Collins came through. I was trying to get in touch with Angelo from Fishbone, but he gave me the DVD of the AfroPunk film. But I’d been branching out and picking up on Bad Brains and s**t like that.

TUD: Do you ever envision yourself coming a little closer to that collective, either performing at the festival or collaborating with those artists?

D: Yes. Definitely.

TUD: Not this year, but maybe next year.

D: Yeah. I’m really just focusing on getting this album together.

TUD: We’ve touched on inspirations from the past, but are there any new artists who are inspiring you right now?

D: Yeah, but it’s funny. I don’t really want to get into that. I’m just kind of focusing on my s**t right now.

TUD: So in the midst of the creative process, you have to keep things very close and keep yourself sheltered from all the back and forth, from all the speculation and I completely understand that. But what is it that you want folks to know about you, about your music.

D: I just want them to know that I’m coming. That’s all. I’m in the kitchen and I’m cooking up something real nice.

Click here for the full story

Hey Everybody!!!

This mixtape is a step out of the box. Jimi Izrael contacted me and requested that I do a mixtape for the release of his new book “The Denzel Principle- Why Black Women Can’t Find Good Black Men”.

This was a new experience for me..I took his selected readings…read by the Dizzle himself and laid them over popular instrumentals. I took some of the most recent R&B and hip hop songs and placed them between the tracks.

Jimi talks about everything in this mix and it is extremely controversial! He starts it off with Da Dizzle- talking about the Denzel Washington effect on women. Jimi then goes into the Booty Scale where he rates the various aspects of  white female hindparts. He has a diatribe against Kevin Powell…he really doesn’t care for him as you may be able to tell! Ejaculation Negotiaton starts off talking about just that but it ends with a poignant twist! Birds and Bees is a talk that Jimi wants to have with his daughter when she is of age…really as blunt and straight forward as he can be! Jimi has a problem with Essence magazine too and he tells you all about it! if your girl has a lot of friends…then you need to listen to Peeps. He talks about the generational curse of Single Motherhood which almost made me mad enough to stop production (I’m glad I didn’t). In Exhale he talks about Terri McMillian and you know he goes in on her messed up gaydar! and in the final selection of The Lesson he talks about an important childhood experience and how it affected his life.

I know you will have a good time listening to this. Please purchase the book at Amazon.com (link provided) I’ve read it and you will be laughing, sighing, crying and cursing from cover to cover!

Thank you for choosing me to do this mix Jimi, I hope you sell a million copies!

Track Listing

1. Dizzle – Jimi Iz
2. Smackdown- Lil wayne & pharell
3. Da Booty Scale – Jimi Iz
4. Big ole butt- LL
5. Kevin Powell- Jimi Iz
6. I Wanna Rock (Remix) – Snoop, Jay Z, Ludacris
7. Ejaculation  Negotiation – Jimi Iz
8. Be A Father To Your Child _ Ed O.G and the Bulldogs
9. Un-thinkable- Alicia Keys
10. Birds and Bees – Jimi Iz
11. Soldier of Love – Sade
12. I am- Mary J Blige (Marley Marl Remix)
13. Essence - Jimi Iz
14. I Come First- NeYo
15. Peeps - Jimi Iz
16. Don’t Try 2 Call Her Now- Ryan Leslie
17. Single Motherhood - Jimi Iz
18. Exhale - Jimi Iz
19. Get Money- Junior Mafia ft the Notorious B.I.G
20. Lesson - Jimi Iz

You can also purchase the book at:

Borders Bookstores

Barnes and Nobles

Jimi Hendrix is coming back…well some of his unreleased music is…

Valleys of Neptune, containing a dozen previously unreleased studio tracks recorded mostly in 1969, arrives March 9 to kick off Sony/Legacy’s massive reissue campaign.

The legend’s 11th studio album — the eighth to be issued posthumously and first since 1980 — boasts his Experience trio’s final studio recordings, his earliest sessions with bassist Billy Cox and the long-shelved Mr. Bad Luck, intended for 1968′s Axis: Bold as Love.

Read more at USA Today

Call me psychic..but on the BART2009 I battled with Butta at Soulbounce with my prediction that Beyonce was gonna take a break. You should listen to that podcast.

So Beyonce is taking a 6 month break. Whether it’s gonna be to have a baby or to reinvent her style…either way I’m happy for her!

Full Story here at USA Today

And if you need a Beyonce Mix in your life… Here’s the best of Beyonce!

Maxwell on Trace TV. *Swoon* I just Love Him!!!!!!!!

Since this really isn’t Maxwell the singer as Media Takeout lied and claimed it was last night…

(Thanks Butta)

isn’t this just plain pornography?