Etta in recent years

I couldn’t think of a better way to end this month than with this great mix that comes to us by way of DJ Polished Solid. What a befitting tribute to the legacy of our AOM and a great introduction to DJ Polshed Solid’s work on the mix. If you caught this great article a couple weeks ago you’ve already witnessed her great work with words. Polished Solid hosts a weekly show live every Sunday from 4pm-6pm EST at http://mixlr.com/djpolishedsolid. Make sure to keep your ears open for mixes here on GFM from DJ Polished Solid.

Checkout the tracklisting after the jump.

1. Something’s Got A Hold On Me – Etta James – [Fantasy Records]

2. Good Feeling (Hotwire Main Mix) – Doi-Oing – [Northern Exposure]

3. Get Misunderstood – Troublemakers – [Guidance Recordings]

4. Let’s Straighten It Out – Etta James – [Private Music]

5. Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

6. Leave You Alone (Amended Album Version) – Cam’ron – [Asylum]

7. Seven Day Fool – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

8. The Very Thought Of You – Etta James – [Private Music]

9. Baby What You Want Me To Do (Live 1963 New Era Club) – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

10. Baby, Baby, Everynight – Etta James – [Virgin]

11. This Bitter Earth – Etta James – [Private Music]

12. Good Feeling (Sick Individuals Remix) – Flo Rida – [Atlantic Records]

13. Gonna Have Some Fun Tonight – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

14. Damn Your Eyes – Zap Mama – [Luaka Bop]

15. Song – Plej – [Exceptional Records]

16. Good Feeling (Original Mix) – Doi-Oing – [Northern Exposure]

17. I’d Rather Go Blind – Bettye Swann – [Atlantic Records]

18. All I Could Do Was Cry – Beyoncé – [Columbia]

19. Rather Go Blind (Etta James Rework) – Lucky Paul – [soundcloud]

20. Addiction – Kanye West – [Roc-A-Fella]

21. I Only Have Eyes For You – Etta James – [Private Music]

22. At Last / Trust Me / Sunday Kind of Love – Etta James – [Fantasy Records]

23. Please Send Me Someone To Love – Etta James – [Fantasy Records]

24. Damn Your Eyes – Bettye Lavette – [Munich Records]

25. Fool That I Am – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

26. Finally Moving – Pretty Lights – [Pretty Lights Music]

27. Life, Love & The Blues – Etta James – [Private Music]

28. You Give Me What I Want – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

29. I’d Rather Go Blind – Etta James – [Fantasy Records]

30. Feelin’ Uneasy (Single) – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

31. Waiting For Charlie (To Come Home) – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

32. Don’t Cry Baby – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

33. You’re Gonna Make Me Cry – Etta James – [Private Music]

34. Thats Who I Am Instrumental – Young Jeezy -

35. Amour et peines – Kohndo – [Greenstone Records]

36. Call Me Back – Logistics – [Hospital Records]

37. Threats – Blue Sky Black Death – [Babygrande Records]

38. i’m leaving – Shateish – [soundcloud]

39. Do You Believe VIP – DC Breaks – [Restless Natives]

40. At Last – Etta James – [UMG Recordings]

Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Luther brought his heart felt respect for this time-honored song and his ultimate influence Ms. Dionne Warwick, who originally recorded A House Is Not A Home for  her 1964 album, Make Way for Dionne Warwick.  As the fate of any great composition, this single has been rotated through the voices of Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and many other icons. However on the flip side, this song has also been “punked” by Twista featuring Kanye West & Jamie Foxx so it hasn’t gone unscathed. But despite it’s musical travel, this song holds an emotional agony that I absolutely love to hear through the riffs, runs and “on the edge of your seat” anticipation of Luther. While I respect the original version from Dionne, the song seems to find “a home” in the expression of the late Luther Vandross.

Here is Luther giving a well deserved tribute to his idol with that wonderful song. Oh and by the way, you new artists and BET, let this be a teachable moment. This is what a real tribute looks like. Those Trey Songz and Tamar Braxton performances you’re passing off as tributes ain’t cutting it. Please take note and properly execute.

Yes I am back again for another installment of the Twitteranti Series but today I thought I would provide some space for a special guest: Phonte Coleman and his thoughts on whether or not he would sign to a major label deal having been there and done that and did the dance with Atlantic as part of Little Brother. As the late Allen Funt might say: “Hilarity ensues.” Lots of great info contained in here from an artist who is never afraid to say what’s on his mind and without any further adieu this week’s Twitteranti!

Happy Mother’s day to all the mothers around the world. Make sure you hug her and tell her that you love her, you only get one!

This can be an especially difficult day for those who have lost their mothers. I hope you’re able to enjoy and celebrate the great things that your mother instilled in you and reflect upon the good times you shared together.

Enjoy this TSOP (Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia – Live in Concert)
classic from The Intruders, and more after the jump.

“I’ll always love my mama
She’s my favorite girl
I’ll always love my mama
She brought me in this world

Sometimes I feel so bad
When I think of all the things I used to do
How mama used to clean somebody else’s house
Just to buy me a new pair of shoes

I never understood how mama
Made it through the week
When she never ever got
A good night’s sleep”

“(Talking ’bout mama)
Oh, she’s one of a kind
(Talking ’bout mama)
You got yours, and I got mine
(Talking ’bout mama)
Ah, Hey mama
Hey mama
My heart belongs to you
Oh, yeah”

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Sadie – The Spinners

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Cheryl “Pepsi” Riley – Thanks for my child

Shout out to Q-Tip (@QtipTheAbstract) for this one!

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Here we go again… now before I get the why is GFM using up value blog real estate for an editorial that seems more suited to the readership of (insert blog here); I have to say in my defense that the impetus for these few words come directly from the title. Never thought I would appropriate a title of anything by Rick Ross but that’s a whole other posting for another day. Let’s begin with the statement by Ashley Judd that has had cyberspace buzzing for the last few days.

“Along with other performers, YouthAIDS was supported by rap and hip-hop artists like Snoop Dogg and P. Diddy to spread the message…um, who? Those names were a red flag… As far as I’m concerned, most rap and hip-hop music — with it’s rape culture and insanely abusive lyrics and depictions of girls and women as ‘ho’s’ — is the contemporary soundtrack of misogyny.” – Ashley Judd

Also for context I will posit Ashley’s apology that was made during an interview with Russell Simmons and posted on Global Grind. Continued…

“My intention was to support artists to know that they have so much power. That they make incredible life changing impressions, particularly on the young. And we have choices everyday with our expressions, either empower and celebrate people or to re-enforce inequality and degradation… there are elements, and that is the part that has been so distorted… what I’m being accused of is condemning rap and hip-hop as a whole, and the whole community and when they say community, they mean the fans, and African-Americans, it’s become so generalized. My intention was to take a stand to say the elements of that musical expression that are misogynistic and treat girls and women in a hyper-sexualized way that are inappropriate. That is not acceptable in any artistic expression, in any cultural form, whether its country music or in television story lines. And if they read more than one paragraph in the book, they would see that all four hundred pages are about that.”

First let me state that my intention here is to wrestle with some of the larger issues that can result in statements like these not really to be on some bash Ashley Judd sojourn. That’s entirely too easy and that entirely too easy broad stroke generalization is how we ended up here in the first place.

I get the personal responsibility argument and yes personally, I’m not a fan of using music to further degrade women or any individual or group. To be blatantly honest, I’m really a fan of music that either makes me think or causes me to experience great joy or great sorrow and never at the expense of another human. A couple of things come to mind here:

1. We live in a society that was built on and in many instances continues to exist in a very paternalistic and misogynistic manner. That’s a cultural phenomenon brought to you by the first real crew: “The Founding Fathers” who brought us great hits like “I Got 3/5ths On It”, “All Men (That Have As Much Property As I) Are Created Equal” and “We(White Males)The People”. Quite simply the issues of ill treatment of women permeate the entire media, our entire culture and while the language may be coded differently from arena to arena, the case is that women are often still being treated in the same manner they just may not be called the same things.

2. Snoop, Kanye, Puff and anyone else you want to name would be no different than the guy who walks down my street or you know, the guy who is in every barbershop spewing their hyper-sexualized opinions of the world save for the fact that they have the power of a corporation behind them to mass produce and mass transmit their respective message. Funny how the CEO’s, stockholders, and other senior management who benefit monetarily from these products being in the marketplace are never seen or pointed out when there’s time for outrage. As I mentioned before all of these adults are perfectly capable of making decisions about what they should and should not say but I think it’s incredibly easy and lazy to hold the creator responsible and not hold the distributor or the presenter responsible.

3. Please, please, please can we make a conscious effort when we make statements to stay off “Broad St.” It’s never good when you begin a statement with most which can easily equate to you and then degenerate into you people. When you use most you are suggesting that you are familiar with fair amount of the whole. Now I don’t want to be guilty of the same broad stroke generalizations that Ashley Judd has made so I will just simply ask for her to submit her Hip Hop playlist here in the comments section. She could very well be hip to a lot more than I am so until I can get some evidence to the contrary, I’m withholding judgment. Ashley, I hate be the bearer of bad news but most hip hop artists don’t regularly appear on E! News maybe that’s how you are familiar with the aforementioned artists work but I would submit they represent a small group that is nowhere near approaching “most”.

4. In Ashley’s apology she speaks directly to something I deem one of the root causes of these issues that we have in our culture and that is this “power” that has been ceded over by parents and other adults to this idea of celebrity. If it wasn’t Sunday I would use a few words describe how I feel about that, but suffice to say no reality, rap, movie, sports or other “star” can raise my child or influence me to do anything. You might have a good beat and something that I might like to shake a leg to but that’s where the influence stops. I wish I thought one of my kids would do something because “Uncle Snoop” said… the irony is I believe that a lot of these folks Snoop included would be in agreement with me on this point: Parents raise your children and for you adults who let entertainment influence your reality get a grip. Reality is real, no re-takes, no editing, no confessional where you analyze what happened after the fact and then you make up with the person who you just ripped out their weave at the 22 minute mark.

Statements like the one Ashley Judd made will continue to happen(insert media personality) if we don’t get a handle on an accurate representation of both our present and past treatment of women. This is not in defense of rap music that plays to the lowest common denominator as the title states it’s much deeper that rap. I am just as guilty as anyone else, having drank the Kool Aid(media in all its forms) for many a year about how this or that should be in my relationships with the fairer sex. Eventually, I became wise enough to question who’s making the Kool Aid? I guess a rule thumb that I’ve been trying to work on is carefully choosing my words tempering them by gauging how much love was in that statement? But more important than my words what about my actions because that’s where the words truly have meaning.

If you have a steady diet of a lot of things in what I deem “popular” culture and don’t balance that with reading, getting to know and engaging with people from other cultures and points of view, traveling, and on and on then obviously the words of these celebrities have weight. I was trying to think back to my youth and wondered if I could find someone who’s words had more weight in my life than the people that mattered. Nope. Sure, there were and are lots of artists whose work I enjoyed but their words never superseded the words of my parents or other positive adults in my life (well except for James Baldwin and a few Stevie, Marvin, Donny, EWF and Curtis records but nevertheless). Matter of fact those words still resonate with me all those years later. I think if we all decided as a culture that we were going to spend the time collectively talking to our own kids and other kids who need us there wouldn’t be any need to have this discussion. Truth be told it’s like my Dad told me “People can only call you what you answer to.”

Update

Had to post this entry from Ashley Judd’s blog today… she has really had time to consider the backlash and has crafted a very heartfelt and balanced response. I hope you will consider reading it. http://ashleyjudd.com/2011/04/10/reflections-the-hip-hop-and-rap-remarks-in-all-that-is-bitter-sweet/

Also, I have to say this… can we reach some point in this country where we can have civility in our discourse whether we agree or disagree with someone’s point of view? We should often consider before we make a statement or fly a flag for that matter, do we understand the entirety of what we are responding to? Reading is fundamental.

Update #2 I thought it would be interesting if I posted a few responses (positive & negative) that Ashley has received via Twitter since this story broke.

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Well you know they always say “The streets is watchin…” you can add your Facebook, Twitter and a whole assortment of social and interactive feeds to that as well.
True up to this point we had not weighed in on the current Kanye West news cycle, but I agree wholeheartedly that it is a very important story, as the resident hablador here I probably just dragged my feet.

If you haven’t checked out the widely circulated clip above please do so and form your opinion whichever way your convictions lead you. I’m going to keep my words brief and posit this thought for all of us to ponder: Like him or not isn’t it powerful(and potentially empowering) for one of the largest media outlets in the world to devote this much airtime to the thoughts and opinions of an entertainer? The fact that we are still talking about those 10 seconds(regardless of how you feel about what he said) 5 years later shows the magnitude that being unafraid to be a square peg surrounded by a bunch of round holes can have.

Discuss.

Here’s a quick recap of the top 10 most popular stories, tweets and random foolery from this week:

1. [Video] Atlanta Tastemakers Respond to the T.I. and Tiny Arrest [SFTA]
2. Facebook Ads For Musicians – Ultimate 1 Cent Click Guide [RockStars]
3. Janet Jackson considers Independent Record Deal [MR]
4. Apple’s Stealth Plan to Conquer the Media Industry [DF]
5. Miles Davis: The Muse Who Changed Him and the heady Brew that rewrote jazz [Guardian]
6. Kanye West Apologizes To Taylor Swift: “I Wish They Could Accept That I’ve Grown” [NB]
7. iTunes Ping Draws Fire From Facebook & Indie Music Community  [Hypebot]
8. Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2010 Black Weblog Awards [BWA]
9. [Free Download] The Foreign Exchange – Maybe She’ll Dream Of Me [FE]
10. Kelly Price Interview Pt 2. “Music & The Machine” [GFM]

Bonus: Where are they now? 5th Dimension [ST]

Chicago native Ashaki is now taking her place center stage after years of working with artists such as R. Kelly, Sparkle, Ten City and Tony Thompson and Oprah(yes that Oprah). You can also add to her list of accomplishments being selected by Kanye West to handle the choreography duties for his “Jesus Walks” video.

From comparisons to Miss Jackson and Niecy, Ashaki is poised to forge her own Something Special.

The new remix that dropped last night on Hot 97. NSFW, but you can turn it up subliminally.