JumpinJack AJ

SKEE-LO - At The Mall I Can't Stop (2000/2001) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eZ9sz33ua0

ICE CUBE + KRAZIE BONE - Until We Rich War + Peace: Vol 2. (2000) This should have been a bigger hit than it was.

I feel like I posted this awhile ago, but I recently picked up her book that came out 5 years ago. I haven't started reading it yet, but I just flipped to this page and figured I'd share (again). This excerpt is definitely a little longer than the except I found online years ago... "We were the headliners for this tour, which was also featuring Will Smith. He was calling himself the Fresh Prince, and he and DJ Jazzy Jeff had a hit song out, "Parent's Just Don't Understand." I thought Will was really cute and we would hang out a lot on the road. He liked to take care of me and never let me spend a dime. He was that kind of guy, real generous. I remember when they won their first Grammy. He was so excited. We were walking along the street getting ready to grab something to eat, and he just gave this homeless guy a $100 bill. I sometimes kick myself when I think about what could have been. He was so nice to me, but I really wasn't feeling him. I guess I couldn't appreciate a nice guy like Will Smith. He wasn't thug enough. I was attracted to thugs and hoodlums, the jerks, and the mean guys. Will was too nice for me." http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Talk-about-LETS-TALK/dp/B001TM9L0I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1377300122&sr=8-3&keywords=let%27s+talk+about+pep

Brandy humiliated by playing to crowd of just 40 people in 90,000 capacity stadium Brandy at a previous concert with a few more fans. Picture: Splash Source: Splash News Australia DID Brandy play to a stadium of 89,960 empty seats? That's what the Twitterverse is saying after reports the singer performed to just 40 people in a 90,000 capacity arena at the Mandela Sports and Culture Day in South Africa on Saturday. The American R&B star was the surprise guest at the FNB stadium in Soweto - the only problem was that no-one knew she was playing. Tens of thousands of people had therefore left the arena before she arrived on stage. "Brandy [just] performed to an empty stadium. With the stadium lights on," tweeted South African musician, Kabomo. "People didn't know there was a concert after the games. No one knew Brandy was around. Maybe a 40 people audience ... She sulked after two songs and walked off. "There are more people there on a random Tuesday... Depressing." Added @My2_Melo: "I gave up the min I saw the empty stadium. Brandy performing for the chairs!" While @dawn_ngwenya said: "Brandy is going to perform for herself and Mbaks only," referring to South Africa's minister of sport, Fikile Mbalula. The singer reportedly walked off in embarrassment after just two songs. The country's national TV channel SABC reportedly also ended their broadcast of the concert before Brandy could even emerge on stage. http://www.perthnow.com.au/entertainment/music/brandy-humiliated-by-playing-to-crowd-of-just-40-people-in-90000-capacity-stadium/story-fnhofkpw-1226702196482

So, it looks like the coma part was a hoax... http://globalgrind.com/2013/08/20/raz-b-coma-life-support-report-hoax-details/

MARY J. BLIGE - Don't Mind My Life II: The Journey Continues... (Act I) (2011) I didn't even realize there was a music video for this. Music videos deserve a proper amount of airing on TV!!

OMARION w/ FABOLOUS + PUSHA-T - Know You Better Self Made 3 (2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U8ka0Zt1zg

I would kill to hear those. Seriously, I would.

TONI BRAXTON - Un-Break My Heart Secrets (1996) I remember the Summer that this played non-stop. I miss ballads getting mainstream success.

I guess the coma story is true. Global Grind just posted this story, that he is okay and off life support. Praise God. http://globalgrind.com/2013/08/18/raz-b-off-life-support-smiling-responsive-recovering-details/

I'm not sure if this is entirely true. The day this news broke, there was this article, and there was one who said how he was released and actually submitted comments after leaving, saying how he was going to move back to the US soon and focus on a comeback.

ANOINTED - Adore You Under The Influence (1996)

EMINEM + SKYLER GREY - Survival (2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz0oOR4l_0o&feature=share He's back. While I rather have a straight Hip-Hop song, I'm glad he unpredictably did a rock song. He lyrics have been so much better since his come back.

I actually think the "king of New York" line is hilarious. But year, too many legends have the team player attitude toward the guys currently on the radio. Most of them are wack...why support them unless it's somehow benefiting your career?

It took me a few days to get around to responding to this. I think the sound is simplistic and breaks no new ground, but I like that it's not polished. I don't follow any of these guys too closely. I've listened to some of Big Sean's stuff and I find it annoying and elementary, but I feel this verse is the best thing I ever heard from him. Kendrick Lamar has been hit and miss with the stuff I've heard from him. I like a couple of his songs, but I find a good bit of it too influenced by commercial stuff. I admire his boldness and I love that he broke the mole with a verse that long. I like that he's stirring things up, but I don't think he's as nice as he thinks he is...lol. I'm curious how much of this is just to get attention. Jay Electronica, is my favorite of the group overall. It was appropriate for the best emcee to finish the song, but he didn't push to top off the sting of the verse before it. Having some healthy competition during a time where Hip-Hop is mostly absent from the radio is good. Having lesser known emcees and underground emcees coming out of the wood work is nice. I was actually disappointed with Lupe's and B.O.B.'s response. I wanted theirs to be the best, but both of them took a "song" approach and neither bring a proper response. I just hope there aren't any idiots who burn competition into a tired beef. Nice track, but I don't see why so many people find this mind blowing.

I'm really looking forward to this. I love Darkchild, but to be honest, a think a lot of their stuff on Invincible was kinda average. I'm hoping this material is a little stronger.

Back in the mid-90's, Skee-Lo and Ahmad were two of my favorite "new" emcees. They still are to this day. I acknowledged their similarities, but never knew of the connection either. I've been listening to the new album. I don't feel that I'll like any of his albums as much as his first, but I'm loving it. I kinda wish he didn't start cussing in his music though. He made a point to keep things clean up until the last few years.

QUEEN LATIFAH - The Hook White Men Can't Jump (1992)

What is this guy even doing? I mean, does he have much of a following. His corny arrogance, and that fact that he hasn't released this old song is getting annoying. I would never know this guy existed it if it weren't for FP visiting him once. He looks like one of those dime a dozen rappers who stays busy without making progress. Let's see the focus. Let's see the heart. Let's hear good music.

MC LYTE - Ice Cream Dream Mo' Money Soundtrack (1992) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBm_S_TsK4Q I don't know how someone cannot love this song. Early 90's New Jack Swing by one of the top three female emcees of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqd29-aOzMU

You can stream his new album on his Myspace... https://myspace.com/skeelo/music/album/fresh-ideas-18761848

Skee-Lo Details "Fresh Ideas" Album, Says "I Wish" Began As Good Life Freestyle by Jake Paine posted July 29, 2013 at 11:55AM EST | 17 comments Exclusive: Skee-Lo recalls moving to Los Angeles as a devout B-boy, and developing a flow under the tutelage of Freestyle Fellowship's Myka 9. "I’m probably one of the misunderstood and underestimated recording artists in the music business, but I like that. I really do," Skee-Lo told recently told HipHopDX. According to his spokesman, Skee-Lo's musical role in a current Toyota campaign involved him in one of the most-seen commercials of all-time. This is all thanks to Skee-Lo's 1995 hit "I Wish," a self-deprecating anthem for the hopeful everyman. Released on Altra Moda Music, the MTV darling of its day (yellow Ford Pinto and all) was a blockbuster independent crossover. However, Skee-Lo, tied to one of the most-revered lyrical movements of all time, says he's wrongfully labeled a one-hit wonder. In fact, Skee-Lo has a gold-certified debut album, two Grammy nominations, and numerous soundtrack and television appearances that would make today's rapper salivate. Seventeen years removed from many of those accolades, Skee-Lo released Fresh Ideas late last year. Whether the public realizes it or not, the album was a break from retirement. "At the time I was at the Grammy [Awards], I was already retired, but nobody knew it because I never vocalized it," he admitted. "I never went to the public to say, 'Hey I’m retiring.' Some people need attention; I’m a different kind of artist. With me, the music is sincere and so is the person." Skee-Lo Talks Rap Retirement, Fresh Ideas Discussing his new album with DX, the Chicago, Illinois native explained the title and impetus. "Fresh Ideas is new music, it’s a new sound, its new production, new ideas, new concepts; everything is new with this album. [i have been] studying the history of Hip Hop music and where it’s been. You’ll hear the best of the old school, the new school and things from the next school, things that have not even been invented. We really pushed the bar on this." Despite some sales and critical benchmarks in his resume, Skee-Lo waves off the media and charts' perspective of his studio sophomore LP. "For us to do something like this is unheard of," he said after reportedly picking up the microphone in 2012 for the first time in over a decade. "We took it Soul, we took it Hip Hop, and we took it R&B—which is the core Hip Hop structure, that’s always been the foundation. We just really kept it true to Hip Hop and look at what Hip Hop is. When we put out records in the early days of Hip Hop, the media was like, 'We ain’t feeling it and it ain’t going to last, it’s a fad and they went on about their business.' But in the Hip Hop community we didn’t listen, we kept doing what we do. Fresh Ideas comes with the spirit of Hip Hop and that I got ears on the brain, Billboard cannot tell me what a #1 hit is," he said, with a Top 15 hit under his belt. "If I never heard Tupac’s All Eyez On Me and it was never released, and you played that for me now, it would be one of the best albums out today, whether or not Billboard says it or not. In other words, we’re not playing the industry game. We’re not going with the numbers, we’re not going with the payola, we’re not going with the 'Oh, I bought a million of my own records,' and we’re not going with the 'Oh, we are giving away a million free records so therefore we’re platinum.' We’re not playing that game," said the Los Angeles, California-based emcee/producer, likely referring to Jay-Z's recent Magna Carta Holy Grail roll-out with one million Samsung users. "We’re not looking at a week sales; we’re not looking at first-day's sales. We’re looking at the longevity and the effect of the music on the people when they hear it, period and this is a bold move to do that. Nobody’s doing that." To Skee-Lo, Fresh Ideas and his return is a call-back to his early love affair with Hip Hop 30 years ago. "I actually started rapping in New York, years ago, when groups like Run-DMC and U.T.F.O. were on. I was already still an emcee when I came to California in '85, still a reputable emcee. I’m originally from Chicago, but there was no Hip Hop scene when I was younger. So when I went to New York Hip Hop was alive, but it was only in New York. It was the first time I seen this and it was like 'Oh my God, this is the most exciting thing ever.'" Skee-Lo Talks Project Blowed & The Good Life Cafe Those perceptions changed when Skee-Lo moved to L.A. during the Colors era. In the early 1990s, he found solace and inspiration at a famous South Central hang-out which opened in 1989, The Good Life Cafe. "When I got to The Good Life, I saw a world of emcees like Souls Of Mischief, Pharcyde, the Freestyle Fellowship—in which case its leader Myka 9, he invented the Skee-Lo flow structure, I got to give credit where credit is due. This is like my mentor. You listen to Pharcyde, Souls Of Mischief and Ahmad, you might hear similarities to Skee-Lo. It’s because we are from the same Rap club so a lot of our flow, structure, and everything, that’s Hip Hop." Ahmad was another independent success story from the Project Blowed crew Skee-Lo also represented. His 1994 "Back In The Day" was a gold-single and Top 50 hit on Giant/Warner Bros. Records, prior to the emcee/singer's leading 4th Avenue Jones. "We pay homage to where we get our skills from. The Good Life is one of the places I got to. I saw all these legendary emcees who weren’t in the mainstream and a lot of them went mainstream and blew up." Within The Good Life community, the misunderstood Skee-Lo revealed that he initially began as a producer. "I originally started with music, I would give all the O.G. emcees free production to rap to every Thursday and they would be on the mic and they would be like, 'Yo, Skee-Lo did my beats.' You had like 10 emcees that night saying that," recalls the man who co-produced much of his own material. "Then I would get up there sometime at the end of the night and I would be like, 'My name is Skee-Lo' and I would do my song." Skee-Lo Explains The Origins Of "I Wish" Skee-Lo's nightly "song," as he calls it, would often stem from a freestyle. Those freestyles, over his beats, would later grab Grammy nods, right out a South Central coffee-shop. "If you want to know what I did at The Good Life all you have to do is buy the I Wish album. Every song on that album was songs that I recorded for the next Thursday to perform for the underground club, including 'I Wish.'" He continued, "'I Wish' was first performed at The Good Life. It’s a Good Life classic, I performed it twice there. It was so big the first night we did it that two Thursdays later we came back with it and it killed it that night to. It originally started a freestyle, I had the music and the freestyle was as you hear …'I Wish.' That took us out." Fresh off of Fresh Ideas, Skee-Lo was asked about his plans now. "We’re back on the grind. I got much work to do and I’m doing much work," he said, with his new self-named label. "The work I’m doing now goes beyond albums. I’m in business. A lot of people are expecting me to return. This is a comeback; 'Oh, I’m a rapper trying to make it.' Nah, **** that," he dismisses. "Look, I got a label, I got a record company to run here. I got artists, I got Gospel artists, I got Hip Hop artists, I got Jazz artists, and you name it, brother. We doing business and I’m working with other businesses on other projects, helping other businesses to get on their feet." Skee-Lo's Fresh Ideas and his other works are currently available on digital and physical retailers.

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JASON MRAZ - Be Honest Love Is A Four Letter Word (2012)