History DVD – Michael Jackson

In 1995, Michael Jackson released his first ever Greatest Hits package, which was a double disc set comprising of all of the old favourites and another separate disc of mostly new recordings. To coincide with the album was a video cassette, which I personally dubbed from a friend of mine who lived around the corner from me.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

Words cannot describe the overall shock, disbelief and yes, the odd tinge of sadness that I was feeling when I was informed that the King of Pop had passed away on Thursday June 25th, 2009. In fact, for the longest time, I was quite speechless. Although he was a big star from quite an early age, he was also painted as some sort of “freak” who lived a rather strange kind of life and allegedly “bleached” his skin. I feel that these sorts of comments are inappropriate and should not be brought up now that he has left this precious Earth. Even when he was alive, it was sickening!

Uncle Jam Wants You – Funkadelic

This was the second last Funkadelic album, which was originally released back in 1979. By the looks of things, Mr Clinton and his gang of funky misfits consciously set out to take the piss out of the “Uncle Sam Wants You For US Army” campagin. The main “concept” of this album was “to rescue dance music from the blahs,” which meant that the P-Funksters were trying to get the “real” dance music away from the bland and boring folks of the world who were watering it down and turning it into “disco.” Only the hardcore funk for these cats. And why not? They were Parliament/Funkadelic, dammit!! Makers of the ultimate funky dance music, so let them slam disco music all they want.

Elephunk – Black Eyed Peas

The third Black Eyed Peas album was originally supposed to be much angrier and lyrically conscious, dealing with such issues as anxiety and the September 11th tradgedies. However, because their previous albums “Behind the Front” and “Bridging The Gap” didn’t sell too well, their record label, Universal decided to give them an ultimatum: “You either do a much more commercial sounding album, or…there’s the door.” Seeing as how they pretty much always wanted to have commercial success, they decided to go with the second option instead of choosing to remain relatively unknown and/or go independent with their music.

Billy Ocean Live at the Entertainment Centre, June 11th 2009

When I first heard about Billy Ocean touring Australia for the very first time in a long, illustrious career, the only thought that popped into my mind was “I wouldn’t mind checking him out.” However, nothing would compare to the sheer excitement that I’d later feel when I finally purchased myself a ticket to the show. Billy Ocean was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s and here I was, about to witness the man do his thing in concert. Not too long after that I received a phone call from the Entertainment Centre (the venue where he was playing) informing me that my ticket had been “upgraded” from section “D” to “J.” It just didn’t make sense how that could possibly be an upgrade.

Bridging The Gap – Black Eyed Peas

Although I quite enjoyed the first Black Eyed Peas album “Behind The Front,” I was somewhat skeptical when it came to picking up their follow-up “Bridging The Gap.” As a result of my skepticism, I more or less avoided purchasing the record for the longest time, until I eventually found a cheap copy sitting on the shelf of a second hand record store. I couldn’t tell you how much I paid for it, along with a copy of Guru’s “Jazzmatazz Volume 3,” but it was obviously right then and there that I finally decided to experience the record for myself.

Tennessee Slim Is The Bomb – Joi

This review was written in 2006 or so…..I haven’t really changed much in the review, I just felt like I had to put it out there, so if something is inaccurate, let me know. Also some of these views may have changed over the years. Check it out anyways. Thanks.

Although this was Joi’s fourth studio album, it was actually the second album of hers that I purchased after getting my hands on a tangible copy of her previous effort “Star Kitty’s Revenge,” which was her final album for Universal Records. Originally Joi was supposed to release this disc on Raphael Saadiq’s record label Pookie Entertainment (hence him being featured on most of the tracks)

Behind The Front – Black Eyed Peas

Unless you were big on your non-commercial urban music, I can guarantee you that if I had’ve mentioned the name Black Eyed Peas to you 10 years ago (ie:1999) you would’ve screwed your face up at me and said “Who the hell are they?!” Well I’ll tell ya. They were originally a slightly more rugged hip hop group called Atban Klan who were based in East LA and signed to Westcoast rapper Eric “Eazy-E” Wright’s Ruthless Records label. They officially made their debut in the early 90s on Eazy’s send up of the traditional Christmas carol “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” However, I won’t print the actual title simply because it’s far too profane. Sacreligious even. Their debut album for the label was called “Grass Roots” and was scheduled for a street date some time in 1995. However, it was never officially released.

Nigor Mortis – Terence Trent D’Arby

It was some time in 2007 that Whatsisname over there with the dreadlocks who now lives in Northern Italy began working on the follow-up to his double disc set “Angels & Vampires.” We were all made aware of this because the MP3 files were immediately made available for download via his official website, just like they were when he was making “Angels & Vampires,” which means that he released about four or five songs at a time and put them all under different headings, or chapter names. Such examples include “If You Were Living Here (With Me) You’d Be Home By Now,” “Suck My Contradiction” and “Pussy For Perjury! (Songs From An American Grave).” I kid you not, these are the names of some of the chapters.

Rahsaan Patterson – (Self Titled Album)

This album was released all the way back in 1997 to very little fanfare. Actually that alone would be an understatement – minute fanfare is more like it!! As a matter of fact, his music was first brought to my attention via a free CD that was given away with Mary J Blige’s album “Share My World. I don’t even have it anymore cause it got stolen, but I still remember not being too thrilled with most of what I heard from that particular bonus disc. In fact, I skipped all the way through it. When I heard Rahsaan’s contribution, I thought it was somewhat different. It may’ve even been just a tad bit too sophisticated for my then 15 year old ears. Not too long after that, I found a copy of this very album at my local library. I taped it, didn’t really listen to it, taped over it, borrowed it again, burnt it to a CDR and even then I still didn’t play it very often. It was his second album “Love In Stereo” that really had me hooked though.