“@Cole_STP: Aaliyah was one of the promising ones who would have definitely changed the R&B game even today.”

Earlier this morning, I tweeted this and I have to say, I stand by this statement.

Its mind boggling that at my age, I am disgusted with the state of music as it is today. A lot of people will not agree with me and that’s fine. There are few artists that I really appreciate in this day and age and it’s sad that in order to say “good music”, I have to creep into the crevices of the archives and pull out music from the 80’s and 90’s. That’s the music that I can consider great music for my time, even though I am an avid 60-80’s fan. I could still listen to some good Ella Fitzgerald and many more great artists during that time. I could still listen to some good disco and still feel the need to do some of the old time dances that yes, didn’t need my butt shaking up against a man. A lot of y’all won’t hear me on this one, but that’s fine too.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton would have been 33 years old today. That’s pretty amazing. I’ve heard people say that she would have been a great entertainer, but her singing wasn’t all that, but that’s up to your feelings. Many people such as Beyonce have been classified as great entertainers and personally, she has the voice to match what she does. I mean Jay-Z on Life and Times posted a video of her singing A Cappella to 1+1 before American Idol and I mean it was something epic. Pure passion and soul, coming from the inside and sounds melodic on the outside. Whitney Houston pre-Bobby Brown, changed the game. Mariah Carey did too. If you can hit a note like her, then come see me and prove it. You really can’t hate on women of this caliber, because they brought it and they worked hard to get where they were today.

Aaliyah gave us hit classics. She hit home with a lot of songs. I remember just sitting and watching music videos and just being in awe of her dance moves and just watching her sing her heart out. “One in a Million” will always be one of my personal favorites and “Try Again” is just something I could still bump with my girlfriends on those nights where it is appropriate to play those woman-empowering songs and be proud to be a woman. She died too soon, because I still strongly feel that she had a few more hit albums in her. She could have probably surpassed Beyonce’s success. Seriously.

What I am getting to here is that Aaliyah clearly shows the deteriorating state of R&B. We have to reach back to get classics. The newbies aren’t really pushing R&B to where it should really be. R&B always had a mature feel to it. The state of relationships and how we act as a people definitely influenced the new R&B and it really is not the same. We don’t get those songs about how great it is to be with someone you love. I hear about the one night stands and the “Quickies”. Yes I am referring to Miguel, but you see where I am going with this. Not a lot of people will really understand how much it hurts someone who has a positive hope for the music industry to actually be what it really is supposed to be. It really isn’t supposed to be about the money, but the business aspect of it has to be discussed in another article.

So as I listen to “Rock The Boat” and all her discography for the day, I want to know who will really step up to the plate after Beyonce, and all these other greats have run their course. Hopefully we shall see.

ThisIsTheDream - Never Needed Acceptance From All You Outsiders

written by @MelanieJoySims

–

Blue Ivy Carter is perhaps the most exceptional baby in all
celebri-babidom, right now.  She has half as many collabos with Jay-Z
as J. Cole does — and at less than 72-hours-old — B.I.C. did it in
only a fraction of the time it took Jermaine.  Months ago, she
diverted attention from even the .003 percent chance that her proud
papa might respond to Lil Wayne’s “gotcha baby money” rebuttal to that
line about “Baby money,” and Blue accomplished it simply by giving
Tweeps something else to buzz about, specifically, her in utero debut
at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.

click “continue reading” to read more if you are on the homepage.

There’s one more Blue achievement worth mentioning though – a feat
that hasn’t been repeated since Jodeci’s “Forever My Lady”* – that is:
Blue inspired a proud papa track.  What seems to have led many’a
listener on Monday to “get in their feelings” about “Glory,” was what
some folks perceived as pure joy emanating from a man who has just met
his “greatest creation” – a “younger, smarter, faster” version of
himself.  He seems genuinely enamored by this baby, who he and his
partner created at a time when they were both hoping to become
parents. — Like, on purpose, and whatnot.

Listen: Jay-Z – “Glory”

“Glory” is an alternate narrative – an other-end-of-the-spectrum look
at pregnancy, that lands the song opposite what seems to be the
genre’s more prevalent fare: songs that somberly — though honestly,
and admirably so – recount unplanned pregnancies looming in the lives
of individuals who are either unprepared for the situation, or can’t
outrun the feeling that they’ve been doomed by it. Please see:
Common’s “Retrospect for Life,” J. Cole’s “Lost Ones,” Wale’s “The
Friends N Strangers.”

Jay is certainly not rap’s only happy dad, but it’s kinda nice to be
reminded of that … especially over that beat from Pharrell.  Please
see: Ghostface Killah, “Baby”; Talib Kweli, “Joy.”

Melanie J Sims

(@MelanieJoySims)

Melanie Sims  is a journalist for ABC, Associated Press, Essence, and Vibe.com. She is also a co-producer of the “friggin’ hilarious” web series called “Mixed Babies”.

_________________

*Just kidding about the Jodeci thing.

Ghostface Killah – Baby f. Raheem DeVaughn

Talib Kweli – Joy

ThisIsTheDream - Never Needed Acceptance From All You Outsiders

Follow Christina at @CROMAN_

“Oversaturated”

The over saturation in this world has gotten to a point where it makes it damn near impossible to find credible sources for anything, especially in fashion.

With “models” around every corner, “photographers” at every event and “blogs” covering every story, it can be quite a difficult experience when finding who is real and who is here just for the title. Professions like these are meant to be driven by passion, love and dedication. Sadly not everyone thinks of them in that light, we have a bunch of posers looking to be “the next big thing” as if there isn’t more to life. Where are those models who are drawn to the life because they were destined for this or the designers who create for the love of the art. The bloggers who are actual writers spilling their hearts for the world to read. The photographers who strive to capture that perfection shot that’ll leave you breathless. Those very talents that have the capability to inspire a world of creatives. This is missing, but how do we fix the problem?

I would be lying if I gave you an exact answer, truth be told I have no clue. Maybe it’ll be writers like myself addressing the issue or websites like this one who are allowing people such as myself to speak out. Perhaps it’ll be that one generation that says enough is enough. It might just be that group of people who decide we are going to do this right and be the example our fashion world needs again. Either way, a change is coming. A time where true talents and real artists will be praised and admired for their work. Back to the understanding that you are nothing but a creative mind sharing your thoughts. I have a great belief that this is already starting to unfold, slowly but progressively. Artists all over I urge you to be everything and more. There is no better time than right now.

ThisIsTheDream - Never Needed Acceptance From All You Outsiders

Click “continue reading” below to read the full text if you’re on the homepage.

Written by Dr. J

How does it feel when you’re in a relationship with someone who continuously hurts you?  About a cool 50% of the advice I give to women is to stop talking to men that say they love them, but hurt them anyway.  Remember, your feelings only matter to you, the only thing that matters is what you do.  How does it feel when you know you don’t want to be with a person anymore, but they love you?  They love the sh*t out of you in a way that you don’t know if you’ll ever find anywhere else.  Ever had to step out on that?  That’s rough.  I been there before, it was hard, and in some ways it was really dumb.

I’ll tell you from the perspective of a dude who looked at that woman who loved me and I told her that I didn’t want to be with her anymore, it was hard, but it was something that I had to do.  The hardest cross to bear is knowing that you are going to break someone’s heart.  But at the same time, you know that you’ll end up hurting them even more and they might end up hating you.  See when you break someone’s heart they don’t always hate you, but if you stay around and just do straight ignorance, they will hate you.  And you might end up like Romeo with a bullet in your head…

And sometimes we deal with people who truly do care for us, but have those inherent flaws.  I’m not talking about Beyonce’s flaws, I’m talking about, your ex-boyfriend had a habit of slipping into anything that walked on a regular basis.  And yes, some of us dudes have been in relationships with women with kids and they still f*cking their baby daddy on a regular basis.  As long as you don’t ask me to buy nothing for your baby, I guess that’s cool.  I think it comes down to, if people really care about you, they won’t hurt you.  And the false reality that we convince ourselves we can deal with, is just that, false.

I think women deal with this more, they say things like, “He loves me, he don’t love those hoes.”  Or this really crazy quote, “Just don’t give me nothing.”  I guess if that works for them.  I don’t think anyone should be in those situations, but you know me, I don’t act like they don’t exist because that doesn’t help anyone.  We all end up strung out in relationships that we don’t really want to be in.  So yeah, I know that you may feel like the love he has for you or that you have for him can outweigh his disrespect or the bad ways he makes you feel sometimes, but it can’t, you don’t need the highs and lows, you only deserve the highs.

Real talk, I think I speak for most men when I say we get the most offended when women love us and we have given them no reason to feel that way.  I know that there is, “I love you Dr. J!” love everywhere on earth.  But when a girl looks me in the eyes and tells me she’s in love with me, or she tells me that about my boy, I’m just like “this is not going to end well.”  That’s that “hate that you love me” flow.  You get tired of women doing weird things because they love you and putting you in an awkward position where you feel like you have to do something back for them.  In my experience, you just have to do something extremely ignorant, like crash the car or suggest she smash off your homeboy.  Just hope she doesn’t say, yes.

Dr. J (@DrJayJack)

ThisIsTheDream - Never Needed Acceptance From All You Outsiders

In this video, Nova Giovanni walks us through how to score on the first date.  Pay attention —  I mean doesn’t this look like a face you could trust?  More from Nova on his site.  Or ours…right here.

ThisIsTheDream - Never Needed Acceptance From All You Outsiders