JumpinJack AJ

I don't see how fans should do something illegal toward the people they admire 

Yes, this is from the 1995 UK CD single, which has the same cover to the 1993 in a slim case.  The tracklisting is as follows:
1. Hula's Radio Remix 3:35
2. LP Version  3:51
3. Street Remix  4:30
4. Hula's Dub  5:31
5. Club Radio Mix  3:55
6. Mr. Lee's Club Mix   5:02
7. Hula's Extended Remix  6:09

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS - Too Late
Simply Christopher (2015)
http://singersroom.com/content/2015-10-05/RB-Veteran-Christopher-Williams-Drops-New-Single-Too-Late/
Another 90's legend returns. If you remember the R&B singer who was formally on Uptown Records (then Giant), you can peep the new song at the link above.

It's definitely good to hear something after so much time. But when I read collaboration with Kanye West and Drake, I'm like NO thanks... I hope this new album will have Will's flavor, hip hop, lyrics and a touch of Jazzy Jeff. Because hip hop needs to be resurrected.
 

​I'm very much of the same opinion. He doesn't need to preach it, per se, but I think that there's no gain or benefit to him doing it, so why start now? I almost think he didn't say the word completely, but the point remains that he has so much equity built up in how he's approached rhyming that I would hate to see it dropped. Especially now that people have really moved away from hard lyrics. No one is clamoring for the G-Unit types anymore. If anything, much of popular hip hop has gotten over the "coolness" of a curse.

He may have cussed on other records, but other than "U Saw My Blinker," it was edited.  I don't care to hear him do it.  It's not that it personally bugs me much, it's that he's spent 30 years saying how truly intelligent people don't use that kind of language to express themselves. It is hypocritical. For those expecting lyrics that can be played in front of the entire family, he is a staple. He's known for that by millions. I don't want to see him throw that away, nor to a I wanna hear an album by the 'Prince that's littered with lazy, common, foul language.  Look at the comments in the news articles, social media, and YouTube, there are a significant amount of people who are quoting his lyrics, his previous interview quotes, and even Eminem's line from "The Real Slim Shady."

I got it in the mail the other day and I finally have time to write about it.  Playlist: The Very Best of DJ Jazzy Jeff + The Fresh Prince is a collection for the fans.  Many of you are underwhelmed because this collection is so similar to 2006's The Very Best of DJ Jazzy Jeff + The Fresh Prince, but I suggest you get over it and be happy that a widely released compilation is coming out in 2015, prior to their return.
First off, the songs are REMASTERED for 2015, and as you know, there is no better sound quality than what you can get on a modern CD.  Musically, it's more more rare offerings are the 1986 original version of "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" which was previously available on the 1986's original single release, 1986's Mr. Magic's Rap Attack Volume 2 (on CD), and 2006's The Very Best of JJ+FP. and the Hula Radio Remix of "The Things That U Do," and "Jazzy's Groove (Grover's Groove), which were previously only available on various cassette, vinyl and CD singles and the 2006 compilation.  For US fans, this is the first time the T.L.A.C Remix of "Lovely Daze" is being released (as it was previously only in singles released overseas.  It takes the original 1992 and tweaks it a bit for it's 1998 release on Jive's 1998 JJ+FP Greatest Hits. The highlight, of course, is the "Brand New Funk (Live At Nassau Coliseum)," which is the version they used for the video. This is the FIRST TIME it's being released on CD!!  Previously it was only available on the 1988 vinyl single.  While I converted it from vinyl to CD years ago, hearing it remastered on CD, blasting loud in my car for the first time, I may have peed myself a little bit.  At such a great/low price, y'all should stop complaining about the greatest hits package featuring the greatest hits that we've already heard and get this CD for that reason alone.  I do miss the presence of "The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff" and "I Wanna Rock."  Since "U Saw My Blinker" was only ever performed live and not a true video/single, I can live with it missing.
There's a nice briefing of their career in the notes, as well as the credits and chart positions. While I had looked at the chart position of their singles before, I never realized that And In This Corner...'s singles performed better than Rock The House's, even though many consider And In This Corner... to be their weakest performing album.  I also noticed for the first time that "A Touch of Jazz" positioned higher than "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble," which was interesting.
Lastly, another thing that makes this release great is the photography included. Some of it we've seen. Some of it we've seen on a rare occasion, and some we've never seen. Check the pix below...

As Playlist always does, they include the album or source that the song is from. They are always accurate when they do this. You'll notice the yellow sticker that comes on the plastic.  Check out that Rock The House pic on the back!  I've never seen it before!

Check the pick on the back of the insert.  The only time I've seen this Code Red pic before is when Jive flipped it and made it really blurry for the 1998 Greatest Hits insert and on the JJ+FP Greatest Hits Megamix CD and vinyl  promo pressing.
 
 

It's not worth starting a new post about it...but here's a pic of Tatyana and FP at the Black Girls Rock event.

That jacket is fly, but the open shirt, scarf, and full beard....I'm not feeling them.  LOL

This is pretty dope.  In 1996 2Pac was working on a script for a film called All The Way.  He jotted down his dream cast and put him and FP in the leading roles, and even refers to him as "Fresh Prince."  He also lists Jada, Bill Bellamy, MC Hammer, Heavy D, Ice Cube, MC Eiht, Robin Givins, Marky Mark, Marlon Wayens, Chris Tucker, Everlast, Ricky Harris, the group Illegal, Mac Mall, Richie Rich, Arsenio Hall, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Scarface, Yo Yo, Treach, Sticky Fingaz, Freddie Foxx, R. Kelly, K-Ci, Mary J. Blige, Snoop, Vesta, Luke, Pattie LaBelle, Method Man, Rakwon, Shyheim, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield.
That would pretty much be the dopest cast ever...lol.  I especially like that it really shows who 2Pac respected.  Notice the lack of Deathrow artists.  It's mostly classic emcees and emcees who had mainstream success.  If anyone ever thought there was tension between FP and 2Pac since Jada was one of 2Pac's best friends, I'm pretty sure that's been squashed with this.  It shows that they were cool enough that he believed FP would accept the role.  At the time that he wrote this, Independence Day probably hadn't even been released, which says a lot.
Here's a page from the exhibit that's currently at The Grammy Museum in LA.  Apparently pages from the script are on display as well.

hell yeah ima try to watch this

In case you haven't checked the store at DJ Jazzy Jeff's website in awhile, he has a few pressings of And In This Corner..., the instrumental album, pressed in 1989 for promotion of the album. It cost a good bit, but I had some some Christmas money to spend and had to seize the moment. Like all the vinyl on his website, he autographed it and personalized it. His crew was cool enough to include the Summertime: Volume 4 mixtape, Vinyl Destination stickers, and a coupon for my next purchase. Super hyped to give this a listen!

AJ, we might not have agreed on much during the last 10 years, but thanks for this one

Seriously... why are you rapping? Don't take it personal but i can see no talent at all... you are mumbling so hard, if you wouldn't post the lyrics to your songs I couldn't understand about 50%... plus there is no flow in any of the songs, sounds like you're reading a book or something!

THE FUGEES - Foxy
-unreleased- (2005)


Man, I wish they released an EP of what they recorded during their brief reunion.

Here's the first collabo Jazzy has released with Dayne Jordan. I know I've peeped this song somewhere before (he probably put it on Facebook or something). Not exactly what I'd expect from Jeff, but I like it. Something fresh, dope scratches, a refreshing beat, and a new school emcee who isn't relying on cussing/ho's/money/sex/self-centeredness.

And no, it’s not as simple as “hip hop is dead,” because it’s not. If you’re plugged in to what’s going down at Coachella, you’ve no doubt heard by now that one of the most illustrious hip hop acts of all time suffered a disastrous reunion set in California on Friday night, to the point where Andre 3000 asked the lackluster crowd mid-performance, “are y’all still here?” As the set progressed, people streamed out of the crowd and the supposed climax of “Hey Ya!” went over with the intensity of a poorly faked orgasm. Well, this got off to an awkward start…I guess appropriately so. There’s no other way to describe a legendary reunion show being met with such malaise.

Fifteen years ago when lyrics-based hip hop ran the popular music scene, a Coachella audience would go crazy for a show like this. Live hip hop was the most exciting game in town, and your average festival-attendee would have a more personal connection with the act on stage. They were more likely to buy their ticket not with a “music festival experience” in mind, but with particular artists in mind. With the advent of the modern music festival, driven by dance music, this sentiment has shifted dramatically.

A large portion of your average, mainstream festival-goer of 2014 heads out their front door with a different expectation than their counterparts in the past. Festivals today with any sort of electronic tilt have implicitly promised stratospheric production values, insane light shows, and flawless control of crowd energy: in summary, an opportunity to lose your ****ing mind. You can plop down hundreds of dollars without knowing a single artist and still know you’re going to have a blast. The needle has slowly shifted away from “music,” towards “party.”
That’s okay. We all like to party and dance around. But now a great deal of people that come out to festivals have an expectation of immediately accessible music. You could have wandered into Dillon Francis’s Coachella set without knowing a single song and absolutely loved it. EDM, in a live setting, has a way of being instantly entertaining – and here’s the kicker – in a way lyrical, 90s-style hip hop really has no chance at matching. When you’re accustomed to thousands of perfectly synced strobe lights and the energy-building peaks and valleys of a common electronic dance music set, suddenly, watching a guy pace back and forth on stage uttering halfway-audible lines isn’t as entertaining anymore.

So when Outkast took the stage, and began performing Outkast songs, with no dramatic flourishes or fireworks displays, the crowd almost seemed puzzled. A song that should be easy to sing along with, “ATLiens” for example, barely got a vocal reaction from the crowd. Wave your hands in the air, that simple command they could understand. But calling out one of the quintessential hooks of the 90s? Not happening, because most of the crowd didn’t know it already. What we saw in full force Friday night was a generational disconnect, mixed with a mismatch of expectations. To be fair, not a single person could be expected to go berserk for “Aquemini” if they were hearing it for the first time at a concert. If you’ve been bumping that album for a decade and know every word, you’d be loving it – but that type of person is increasingly becoming an endangered species at massive festivals.

When Andre asked “Coachella are you tired?” it was indicative of the fact that most of the crowd had no idea what was going on. Having no idea what’s going on works just fine at most popular EDM performances – that’ll soon be remedied by a catchy melody, easy-to-follow chorus, or blast of bass – but at a hip hop show it’s fatal. Lulls between hit songs used to be tolerable, because A) it was expected to happen, and B) the crowd would be stocked with fans who knew every song anyway. But now the percentage of people like that has been diluted, and perhaps most critically, everyone is conditioned to that time between hit songs being filled with, well, more hit songs, often from other artists.

Which is why many forms of music outside of the electronic sphere now just can’t hang with even a GTA or a Deniz Koyu at a major festival. The bar for energy and excitement has been set too high, and the mainstream interest at attending music festivals, driven by the proliferation of EDM mega-fests, has brought in a wide swath of people who simply aren’t what readers of a site like this would consider music fans. Everyone, from the most intense fan who listens to full albums on the day of release, to the casual listener whose only source of music is the FM dial in their car, can have a great time at a big EDM show. Toss that same wide cross-section of people in front of Outkast performing “Spottieottiedopaliscious?” You get the artist exclaiming, “I feel like I’m here by my goddamn self.” Can you even imagine a DJ at Coachella having to say that?

It’s a new era for live music, and acts that aren’t going to be bringing the requisite amount of energy to please a crowd filled with thousands of casual fans need to consider their audiences more carefully now than ever before. You can’t expect someone who just staggered away from getting their brain rearranged at an explosive, confetti-filled Zedd performance is going to respond in any meaningful way to lyrical hip hop, unless they’re already a fan. It’s sad in a way, that a duo with such a storied career can no longer sufficiently entertain a large festival audience - but all is not lost. It’s a matter of “picking your spot,” and I can say with complete confidence that Outkast, or any of their contemporaries from the bygone golden era of hip hop, can still rock a crowd of thousands. Just not at a mainstream festival anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFK6IaRFNKc

This isn't news, really just an opinion for the people at Centric. I just figured I'd share. It feels good reading "Will Smith has already confirmed that BB3 is in the works." I'd love to see them team up, but not for Bad Boys 3. FP and Martin need to work as a duo. The comedy comes from the fact that the characters they interact with them are nothing like them. For a second I tried to picture Jamie Foxx as a villian, but I think it works better when you don't have one of the biggest names in Hollywood in those roles for the Bad Boys movies.

"Bad Boys 3
Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do, what you gonna do when they come for you? We couldn’t resist. It’s time Bad Boys switch it up a bit. Will Smith has already confirmed BB3 is in the works and we love the Martin Lawrence and Will dynamic duo. Throw in Foxx for a trio and you have some classic comedic moments. As much as the BB franchise is about drama, what made it work so well was the humor done effortlessly by Martin and Will. If you’ve seen Foxx’s standup comedy movie I Might Need Security, you recognize this trio combination as gold."


http://www.centrictv.com/whats-good/entertainment/2013/11/14/three-roles-we-d-love-to-see-jamie-foxx-in.html

Queen Latifah is doing big things with her show, so I figured it'd be a good idea to start a topic where we can constantly post interviews and performances from her show. I wanted to start it off with her recent polished performance of "Just Another Day." This is one of my all time favorite Latifah songs, and while I wish it was grittier and the full version, this polished version is still excellent.

If you need any JJ/FP instrumentals, let me know. I might be able to help out.

This is definitely a crowning moment for the forum. To think that the seed for this was planted in the mid-90's is pretty crazy. I wish there was time for more of our questions, but I'm glad he hit a few of them. I was happy to hear one of my questions asked, but I was even happier to hear it answered. He gave a great introspective answer on that. I actually inspired me with something I'm dealing with right now. ...crazy.

I love that he really gets what the website and forum is all about. Tim has done an amazing job over the years and there's been dozens of amazing people who've contributed to the site and graced the message boards. This is a dope moment in the website's history.

If this has been posted before, just delete it. I've seen the other part of this interview before, but not this part...




I've gone ahead an clumped all of the videos from this April interview together for those have haven't seen them before.

Let me guess, the writer is a white guy, 20-37 years old? I'm guessing this because most annoying, overly opinionated, arrogant writers/personalities that come off this way ARE. LOL While I agree with some of the points made, the whole tone of it is annoying and off.

The truth is, Happyness is probably the last FP movie that I truly enjoyed. I like MIB3 and Seven Pounds. I grew to like Legend (other than the end), but the magic of his movies has fizzled. Granted, I don't care about them much. I'm all about the music, but USUALLY I hyped up when they drop and enjoy them. And I STILL haven't seen After Earth. I'm just busy, and this isn't Bad Boys, Hitch, or MIB. I will in the next couple of days.

I think the bottom line is this, there is a time to produce and have creative control over your movies, and time to let it go. He's not going to grow if he isn't challenged, stirred up, and stretched. COLLABORATING is key in movies, TV, and theater. If he fails to collaborate and let some control go, I could see things staying like this. The same goes for his kids career; have involvement TO A POINT. I have to say that I don't like Tarantino at all. I've watched Pulp Fiction through and pieces of a few of his other movies and for the most part, I hated them. They have a specific taste for a specific kind of person.


Not every movie can be a hit. He's had lack luster success before. People are just making a big deal of it this time. They still love him though. He'll always have that on his side and that's why reactions like this are just a flash in the pan.

I have to be honest, I still haven't seen it. I will this week, and I don't ever care what critics say. I've just been busy and this kind of movie doesn't pull me in like most of them do. I like how he took the critical questions from Jimmy in stride. He was comical about it didn't seem to be that bothered. Not may people get confronted with questions like that, and he handled them perfectly. It may not be a critical success, but can we really call it a "flop?"

THAT WOULD BE...awful. As far as I'm concerned, the movie can tank. I want music. Psy is obnoxious and doesn't make actual music. We know the movie is gonna be large, tho.'