RnB, Soca, Soul, Rap, Reggae, Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz, Dancehall, Spoken Word, Quotes, Photographs, Each Post On The #SoultrainAfterDARK Blog Is Dedicated To Inspire & Uplift, To Encourage & Motivate
"Walkin' on the Moon" is the third single by The-Dream from his second album Love vs. Money. The song features rapper Kanye West.
The video was premiered on May 20, 2009 at a Def Jam event.[3] On May 27, 2009, the video was premiered on 106 & Park. The video was directed by Hype Williams. The video doubles as a homage to Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson's hit 1995 music video, "Scream". The video ranked at #71 on BET's Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2009 countdown.
Jorja Smith performs "By Any Means" in a classical version with the WDR Funkhausorchester, the orchestra of Germany's TV & radio station WDR. The song is part of the series "Machiavelli Sessions". All songs arranged & conducted by Gordon Hamilton. --- Jorja Smith singt "By Any Means" in einer Klassik-Version, gemeinsam mit dem WDR Funkhausorchester. Der Song ist Teil der Reihe "Machiavelli Sessions". Alle Stücke wurden von Gordon Hamilton komponiert & dirigiert.
In My Songs is the ninth studio album by American singer Gerald Levert. It was released posthumously on February 13, 2007 on Atlantic Records. Levert reteamed with longtime collaborator Edwin "Tony" Nicholas to work on the entire album which was completed shortly before his death from an apparent heart attack in November 2006. In My Songs debuted and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200, becoming his highest-charting effort, and won Levert his first Grammy Award in the Best Traditional R&B Performance for the title track at the 50th awards ceremony.
Of the many musical acts which call Trinidad & Tobago home, perhaps none embody its polyglot culture more than KES, the eclectic soca outfit behind some of modern Caribbean music’s most indelible anthems. Celebrated for Carnival hits [“Wotless,” “Savannah Grass”] and island pop jams [“Tuesday on the Rocks,” “Endless Summer”], the band has brought Trinidad to the world, sharing stages with the likes of Will Smith, Major Lazer and John Legend. For the group — charismatic singer Kees Dieffenthaler [aka KES] and his brothers Jon (guitar) and Hans [drums], along with childhood friend, Riad Boochoon [bass] —blending soca, pop, rock, reggae, calypso, dancehall and afrobeats together is one part of their greater calling: To spread good vibes. The last three years have proven to be the most successful in the band’s decade-plus-run. “Hello,” a fusion of afrobeats and soca originally released in 2017, continues to reach new audiences over two years after its release. With over 40 million plays on YouTube alone, it is one of the most streamed soca songs of all time. We Home, a live project recorded during the Covid-19 quarantine, is the band’s first album in over five years, with fresh renditions of KES’ carnival classics showcasing their prowess as a live band par excellence.
Vito, Tony Lelo, and 2E are a trio of North Carolina natives known as The Hamiltones. The group started as background vocalist for Grammy winning soul singer Anthony Hamilton. When their behind the scenes clips of quartet-styled cover songs were uploaded to the internet, it caught fire! Since then, The Hamiltones have been featured on The Breakfast Club, Steve Harvey Morning Show, sold out The Apollo, and have been featured on four Grammy nominated albums; including Anthony Hamilton, PJ Morton, Johnathan McReynolds, and Tori Kelly.
Courtesy: https://triangleonthecheap.com/nc-roots-music-series/
Artists and activists assemble to learn, to heal, and to raise awareness for the Equal Justice Initiative.
The conversation has begun - and now it’s headed for the next level. More artists and activists than ever are joining in to discuss and confront the issue of race in America. #BearWitnessTakeAction 2: Continuing the Movement, hosted by Common & Keke Palmer.
Bashar Barakah Jackson [July 20, 1999 – February 19, 2020] known professionally as Pop Smoke, was an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He was considered by many to be the face of Brooklyn drill. Born and raised in Canarsie, Brooklyn, Pop Smoke began his musical career in 2018. He often collaborated with UK drill artists and producers, who employed more minimal and aggressive instrumentation than drill artists from Chicago.\ Pop Smoke rose to fame with the release of his breakout single "Welcome to the Party" in April 2019.
Following his rise to fame, Pop Smoke signed a recording contract with Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records, and released his debut mixtape Meet the Woo [2019]. The mixtape's second single, "Dior", produced by 808Melo, reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. His second mixtape, Meet the Woo 2 [2020], debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200. Two weeks after the release of the project, Pop Smoke was fatally shot in a home invasion in Los Angeles. His debut studio album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, was posthumously released in July 2020 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with all 19 tracks from the album charting on the Billboard Hot 100.
Bashar Barakah Jackson was born on July 20, 1999, in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jamaican mother and Panamanian father. He spent his childhood in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. Pop Smoke was expelled from eighth grade for bringing a gun to school, and spent two years in house arrest after being charged with weapons possession. When he was 15, he won a basketball scholarship to Rocktop Academy, a Philadelphia prep school, but was forced to leave after being diagnosed with a heart murmur.
"When philanthropist, songwriter, and friend, Denise Rich @nisijoy, asked me to produce the Studio 54 themed virtual edition of her annual Angel Ball fundraiser for cancer research (in which we raised over one million dollars), she asked me to put together something special with @nilerodgers and @kathysledge for the grand finale of the event. I’ve been excited to share this since the event on September 15th, so here it is...“Thinking Of You” and “We Are Family,” Pass The Mic style. Enjoy and get ready for Pass The Mic: Volume 4, coming soon" --- DJ Cassidy
Go For Your Guns is the fifteenth album by The Isley Brothers. Released on April 16, 1977 on their T-Neck label, it was also the band's fifth album to be distributed by their deal with Epic. It is generally regarded by fans, particularly fans of the funk genre, as their best album overall. The album was remastered and expanded for inclusion in the 2015 released CD box set The RCA Victor & T-Neck Album Masters, 1959-1983.
Winston Foster OD [born 1956], better known by the stage name Yellowman, is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay, also known as King Yellowman. He was popular in Jamaica in the 1980s, coming to prominence with a series of singles that established his reputation.
Winston Foster was abandoned by his parents and grew up in the Maxfield Children's Home and the Catholic orphanage Alpha Boys School in Kingston, and was shunned due to having albinism, which was not typically socially accepted in Jamaica. Alpha Boys School was known for its musical alumni. In the late 1970s Yellowman first gained wide attention when he finished second [to Nadine Sutherland] in the 1978 Tastee Talent Contest. Like many Jamaican deejays, he honed his talents by frequently performing at outdoor sound-system dances, prominently with Aces International. He had success as a recording artist, working with producer Henry "Junjo" Lawes. In 1981, after becoming significantly popular throughout Jamaica, Yellowman became the first dancehall artist to be signed to a major American label [Columbia Records]. His first album release was in 1982 entitled Mister Yellowman followed by Zungguzungguguzungguzeng in 1983 earning instant success. Yellowman's sexually explicit lyrics in popular songs such as "Mad Over Me" boasted of his sexual prowess, like those of other reggae singers/deejays, earned Yellowman criticism in the mid-1980s. Yellowman appeared in Jamaican Dancehall Volcano Hi-power 1983 which featured other major dancehall musicians such as Massive Dread, Josey Wales, Burro Banton and Eek-A-Mouse. Yellowman proclaimed, "I never know why they call it slackness. I talk about sex, but it's just what happens behind closed doors. What I talk is reality."
He had success in 1987 with a version of "Blueberry Hill", that topped the charts for several weeks in Jamaica. Yellowman had met Fats Domino where he performed on the island earlier in the decade, and Domino had presented him with a copy of his version. By the mid-1990s, Yellowman released socially conscious material, rising to international fame along with singers such as Buju Banton. Yellowman became the island's most popular deejay. During the early 1980s, Yellowman had over 40 singles and produced up to five albums per year. He re-invented himself with his 1994 album Prayer, which stepped away from the slackness that gave him his initial fame. His latest albums are New York [2003], Round 1 [2005], and No More War [2019]. Yellowman was also a featured guest vocalist on the Run-DMC track "Roots Rap Reggae". Yellowman continues to perform internationally with his Sagittarius Band, and has toured through places such as Nigeria where he retains a following of fans, as well as Spain, Peru, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Britain, France, Kenya, the United States and Canada. He also featured on OPM's 2004 album, Forthemasses. In 2018, it was announced that he would be awarded the Order of Distinction [Officer Class] by the Jamaican government.
Foster's daughter Kareema followed him into a career in music.
In 1982, Yellowman was diagnosed with skin cancer, and was told that he only had three more years to live. However, this prognosis proved to be inaccurate, and after several surgeries Yellowman was able to continue his career. The cancer went into apparent remission during this time. In 1986 it was diagnosed that the cancer had spread to his jaw; Yellowman underwent very invasive jaw surgery to remove a malignant tumor. This surgery permanently disfigured Yellowman's face, as a large portion of the left side of his lower jaw had to be removed to successfully remove the tumor. The instrumental for Yellowman's 1982 "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng", the "Diseases" rhythm by "Junjo" Lawes, has been sampled and imitated repeatedly since its original release. The original version of this rhythm was performed by Alton Ellis for a song called "Mad, Mad, Mad" produced by Coxsone Dodd in 1967. Coxsone Dodd had already released two dub cuts, "Talking Dub" and "Lusaka", plus a 1980 cut by Jennifer Lara, "Hurt So Good." This rhythm came to be known as the 'Diseases' rhythm after Michigan and Smiley recorded their song, Diseases, with Henry Junjo Lawes in 1981. "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng" was remade by Beenie Man and released on July 3, 2020. Yellowman said of the release, "I wish somebody else did do Zungguzungguguzungguzeng, maybe Shaggy or Sean Paul….Me nuh even hear it." The vocal melody of "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng" has also been sampled heavily in various reggae and hip hop songs.
“Mother Nature” is published right before Julian Marley’s European tour. European tour that will among other festivals in the Europe perform in “Nisville Jazz Festival” in Niš, Serbia. Single “Mother Nature” talks about the ongoing problem in the world and not just about the nature’s desecration and it’s resource exploitation, pollution and what not… but also about economical slavery and debt. --- Jah Tooth
Artists and activists assemble to learn, to heal, and to raise awareness for the Equal Justice Initiative.
Bear Witness, Take Action is a 2020 American teleconference that livestreamed on YouTube on June 13, 2020, as part of a YouTube Original programming supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in correspondence with the George Floyd protests. It gathers notable people of color in the United States such as Patrisse Cullors, Rashad Robinson, Alicia Garza, Prince Ea, John Legend, etc., and hosted by Keke Palmer and Common. The one-and-a-half-hour long livestream centers around the history and experiences as people of color in America, as well as exploring ways to raise awareness and end the long inequality. On November 17, 2020, it was announced that a second teleconference titled Bear Witness, Take Action 2: Continuing The Movement will premiere on December 5, 2020.
Recorded in his hometown of Detroit, KEM's Tiny Desk performance is light, welcoming and beautifully decorated. So is his music. After almost 20 years of recording R&B hits like "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Love Calls," he still comforts my soul with his sultry voice and simple, yet satisfying melodies. Fans have been waiting since 2014 for a new album and it finally dropped earlier this year. Love Always Wins is filled with his signature romantic style. With accompaniments by veteran musicians, Michael "Nomad" Ripoll on guitar and David McMurray on saxophone, we get to hear three songs from the album in this lovely set. The first, "Friend Today," poignantly articulates a love for our fellow humans: "There's a roll like thunder / They killing our babies, Lord / They headed straight for the border / And we can no longer ignore it." KEM wrote "Not Before You," a classic romantic love song, as a dedication to his wife, Erica. "Lonely" ends the set with an upbeat, hopeful vibe: "There's a life waiting for you / In your brokenness." It's an affirmation that personal struggles can end in true happiness. --- Suraya Mohamed NPR Music
James Walter Castor [January 23, 1940 – January 16, 2012] was an American funk, R&B, and soul musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he is credited with vocals, saxophone and composition. He is best known for songs such as "It's Just Begun", "Bertha Butt Boogie", and the biggest hit single, million-seller "Troglodyte [Cave Man]."
James Dewitt Yancey [February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006] better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer and rapper who emerged in the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan, as one third of the acclaimed music group Slum Village. He was also a member of the Soulquarians, an influential musical collective active during the late 1990s and early 2000s. His obituary at NPR stated that he "was one of the music industry's most influential hip-hop artists." He is considered by some as the "godfather of lo-fi hip hop".
Sean Duval Price [March 17, 1972 – August 8, 2015] was an American rapper and member of the hip hop collective Boot Camp Clik. He was half of the duo Heltah Skeltah, performing under the name Ruckus [sometimes abbreviated as Ruck], along with partner Rock.
A member of the underground hip hop collective Boot Camp Clik, Price first appeared on Smif-N-Wessun's 1995 album Dah Shinin'. He would soon resurface in 1996 as one half of the critically acclaimed Brooklyn duo Heltah Skeltah, who released their debut album Nocturnal on Duck Down Records that year. Heltah Skeltah would go on to release two more albums, 1998's Magnum Force and 2008's D.I.R.T.. In the 2000s, Price established himself as a strong force in the underground hip hop community. In 2005, he released his first solo album Monkey Barz, to critical acclaim. He followed this in 2007 with Jesus Price Supastar and Mic Tyson in 2012. Songs in the Key of Price, a mixtape recorded before Price's death, was released posthumously on August 21, 2015. In 2011, Price was a judge on the Ultimate MC TV show alongside Royce da 5'9", Organik, Planet Asia, and Pharoahe Monch. Price was interviewed on the online series Grand Angel TV in 2008 and 2010, with Paid Dues performance footage alongside Boot Camp Clik and Dru Ha, respectively. In 2011, he formed the group Random Axe with Guilty Simpson and producer Black Milk. He had a planned collaborative album with rapper Ill Bill in the works, called The Pill.
On August 8, 2015, Price died at the age of 43. Details were not immediately available, but a statement from his reps confirmed his death, while adding that he died in his sleep. "It is with beyond a heavy heart that Duck Down Music is sadly confirming that Sean Price passed away early this morning in his Brooklyn apartment, Saturday, August 8th, 2015," read the statement. "The cause of death is currently unknown, but it was reported that he died in his sleep. He's survived by his three children."
“Beautiful Revolution Pt. 1. is affirmation. It's recognition. It's elevation. It's music to go with a movement. Because the truth is, there is still so much work to do." --- Common
PJ a.k.a. Paris Jones is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and producer from Greensboro, NC. Jones began her career as a songwriter, and has written for Wiz Khalifa, Usher, Chris Brown, Charlie Puth & Fantasia. She categorizes her sound as "Come Up Music", and doesn't hold herself to one specific genre. PJ released her Atlantic Records five-song debut EP, Walking Around Pools, in March 2015. On July 15, 2016, she released her debut album, Rare, which has features from G.Eazy and Ty Dolla $ign.
Michael Samuel Kiwanuka [born 3 May 1987] is a British singer-songwriter and record producer who is signed with Polydor Records. His 2012 debut album, Home Again, went gold in the United Kingdom and his second album, Love & Hate, debuted in 2016 at number one. He has been nominated for numerous honours, including the Brit Awards, MTV Europe Music Awards, and BBC Music Awards. In January 2012, he won the BBC's Sound of 2012, and in September 2020, he won the Mercury Prize.
Atlantic Starr is the self-titled debut album by R&B/funk band Atlantic Starr. Produced by Bobby Eli, founding member and lead guitarist of Philadelphia studio group MFSB. The nine-piece band had an impressive showing on the Billboard R&B charts with "Stand Up", "Keep It Comin'", "(I'll Never Miss) The Love I Never Had" and "With Your Love I Come Alive".
Cookin' Soul is a Spanish producer-DJs duo known separately as Big Size and Zock. Producing work since around 2005, the two have developed a strong presence in the mixtape circuit in the US, according to El País.
