Artist of the Year: an artist who I was feeling. this does not mean they broke through or dropped an album this year. it just means i was rockin harder to their music than anyone else's. an artist of the year can be a contemporary pop star or a blues singer from the 20s.
disclaimer > So I know I named B.o.B. as my artist of the year earlier on, but I jumped the gun. I had concert afterglow: when you go to a realllllly really good show, and you think the artist is more amazing than they actually are, but then you calm down and put it in perspective. However, B.o.B. is great, and made the cut this year. here are the top 5 artists who kept me jamming throughout 2008...
#1 - NNEKA
Born in Nigeria and based in Germany, Nneka is a stylistically diverse, politically inclined English-language neo-soul singer reminiscent of Erykah Badu. Born Nneka Egbuna in Warri, Nigeria, in 1981, she immigrated at age 19 to Hamburg, Germany, with plans to study anthropology. Influenced by the towering legacies of Fela Kuti and Bob Marley as well as by contemporary urban American artists such as Mos Def and Lauryn Hill, she also pursued a career in music upon arriving in Germany. In time she met and began working closely with DJ Farhot and made her recording debut in 2005 with The Uncomfortable Truth, an introductory five-song EP followed later in the year by the full-length album Victim of Truth. The album spawned a series of singles ("The Uncomfortable Truth," "Beautiful," "God of Mercy," "Africans") and set the stage for her follow-up album, No Longer at Ease (2008), and its lead single, "Heartbeat," which became her first single to break into the German Top 50. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
this is the first song i heard by her that had me hooked, "Heartbeat"
i'm gonna start spotlighting Black people making strides in the professional world. In the media, Black people are overrepresented in negative and stereotypical images, and underrepresented in positive ones (not an opinion, a fact backed by statistical data), resulting in a distorted view of reality. i don't know what to call this feature yet, so for now it's "Black people doing their thing" lol, i promise i'll come up with a better name. i will try to include people from a wide array of professions, but i have a feeling most will be involved in the media to some extent, since that is my passion. breaking into the industry is hard for anyone, but Black people face even more obstacles, and i admire the ones who are jumping those hurdles and trying to change things. So here's the first spotlight!
Keith Powell, also known as, "the OTHER Black guy on 30 Rock" (30 Rock airs Thursday nights on NBC, really funny show). My favorite comedic actor right now.
Here's one of his shorts, called "Terrific", a satirical look at what Black actors face at auditions.
and here's a silly spoof he did on Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married?" called "Why Did I Bang That Ho?"
Check out more of his stuff at his website, and his YouTube Channel, PowellToThePeople.
I'm not crazy about University City, and the freezing rain put a little damper on it, but date number 2 was great! i was reminded how much i suck at pool, and how much fun it can be to really connect with someone. i won't go into details, it's not that serious yet.
stay tuned for date #3! lol _______________________________________________________
jammers of the week: Thievery Corporation. they're just too darn talented
sorry the clip is so short. my camera battery was low.
The annual Free Mumia rally was yesterday. I marched from City Hall to Independence Hall alongside justice fighters. It was painfully cold outside, but it was worth it. pics coming soon! _______________________________________________________
oh and I went on a really cute date last night. We saw Four Christmases which isn't my type of movie, but it turned out to be kinda funny. but back to reality: 11 days until finals are over. I will be spending the next 4 days confined to the Tech Center :(
Before I had to do my assignment on Black superheroes, I was convinced that WordGirl was of color. When I first started watching it, I thought she was White, because... well, 99.9% of people and characters on televison are. She looks like a grown up version of Dora the Explorer, so I say she's Latina/Hispanic (pick whichever term you prefer). Yes, her name is BECKY BOTSFORD, lol, which really screams American White girl, but after looking at her family more closely I saw that they were of a noticeably darker shade than everyone else on the show (except for the Black people of course). I wonder why the creator made this conscious decision to color them this way? Is it supposed to be progressive? Usually in cartoons, it is clearly laid out, when a character is not White. For example, the guy Wordgirl has a crush on is Asian, and they gave him a stereotypical Asian last name. On Clifford The Big Red Dog, they make sure we know that the Black kid is West Indian: they give his father the accent, make references to Trinidad. Whatever the reason I think it's good for children's shows to have colorful casts that better reflect society.
