Most of thought Kanye was off his rocker when he said some months ago that Lady Gaga was the new Madonna. Y’all were like, Lady Who??? Yeah, I know! I dug her first couple of songs. But I’m gay, and this stereotype is true, GAY MEN LOVE POP LOVE MUSIC! I mean Poker Face was in heavy rotation in 2-chome and the children were getting their lives!
It’s taken the rest of you a while to get in to her. She’s out there! Waaaaaay out there, like from the Oort Cloud! And that’s before you even really notice what she’s wearing, which is a best described as a hodge-podge of Madonna-inspired 80’s punk, ultra-modern European haute couture and apparently the Spring/Summer line of her home planet’s hottest fashion designer whose name can’t be properly expressed in any written Earth language but sounds alot like “Bob”. There’s also of course the matter of her live performances which are nothing if not intense. Still, all that aside, y’all can’t deny her sheer brilliance. I mean, at the end of the day, she can actually sing!
In her latest video, she combines the hottest Sea Monkey fashions, a bit of MJ’s (May the King rest in peace) Thriller, and more intergalactic haute couture than any three fashionistas styled personally by Kanye the God could shake a stick at!
You’ve seen it before, but I KNOW you want to see it again!
Earlier this year, in my daily worship at the altar of Kanye I discovered a new GOOD Music artist by the name of Kid Cudi. The video for his lead single Day and Nite really grabbed my attention. Sure, it was mad creative, but what would you expect from one of Kanye’s artists? Still, the video resonated with because it’s really just a guy going about his day imagining his life as something other than it is… walking in his own daydreams as it were. If you know me for real, you know that’s pretty much me!
Listening to the album, Kid Cudi really takes you there with the depth of introspection and emotion. He’s something like Kanye minus the ego, something like hip hop emo. And I was feeling it from track 1. Months after I first “acquired” it, Cudi’s Man on the Moon is still in heavy rotation. It’s something the soundtrack to my day on the grind! And perhaps no song primes me up for that daily grind more so than this track here….Pursuit of Happiness!
Grind with me on this one!!!
If you ain’t up Man on the Moon yet, you LATE AS HELL! Lemme help you though…
I know I have a very small but faithful group of readers! And I love and appreciate the HELL out of y’all! Y’all mean so much to me, if for no other reason that there are so many things that I want to say but can’t quite seem to be able to express anywhere else but here. So…. Thank you! Sorry it’s been such a long time since my last post. From today, I promise to get back on it and try to catch you guys (and gals) on all the extreme craziness that has transpired in the last few weeks.
In the meantime, I saw this video a few weeks ago when Black Mamba came for visit. I had never heard of this group(?) before but I was feeling this song from the break. Granted I don’t what ol’ boy is singing/rapping about but I dig his passion, and the song is just beautiful in any language.
Wanting to get it in (IMMEDIATELY) with Kanye has nothing to do with him being gay (or not). It’s a creative genius thing really. I mean, the man is a f-ing creative genius!!! If Jay-Z is our generation’s Sinatra and B is our Tina Turner, Kanye has to be like our generation’s Prince or Rick James! So he’s either gonna turn you out with just a look in his eye, or he’s gonna smack you, tie you up and beat you for three days! How could you deny him? World, I wonder… WHY WON’T YOU LET THIS MAN BE GREAT? Really??? LMAO
I mean, my man is from the 24th century for real. And Captain Kirk ain’t got anything on Kanye. We got him walking on the moon one minute and the next minute he’s giving us the raw and unadulterated fever. Peep how he even recruited the alien queen to star in his video… got her all paranoid! GENIUS!!!
While I’m in the mood to post viddies, I might as well post these too. Not necessarily representative of the City Under Red Sun mind you, but if my life here in the City were a movie these would be good candidates for the soundtrack. You know, right at the part were the hero (read: moi) gets it together and hits the scene again.
Here’s just a lil bit of what’s giving me life right now. (I wish some folks wouldn’t be such stingy bastards and lemme embed – love that word – what I want! Hell, I’m trying to hype their joints!)
Anyway, you already know the first joint HAS to be from my diva idol!
And if you don’t know Röyksopp, get your international music game up (waaay up) and get into them ASAP!!!
My postings have been pretty heavy lately. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – the fabulous times don’t last always. Good thing is though, neither do the bad! As my Momma would say, “Joy comes in the morning!” But let me not get to preaching… LOL. G-d knows I got a testimony!
The resident rockstar extraordinaire will return! More fabulous than ever too! Just let me work through this right here. In the meantime though, I want to post some of my favorite J-music viddies. Let me know if you like them! Let me know if you have your own favorite!
I still remember the brilliance of the first video I saw from the Japanese “rock” group, Special Others. It was one of those things were, you know, you’ve called in “sick” from work and you’re sitting on your couch in your underwear, flipping through the channels when something catches your attention. The video for their song Aims, featuring a kickball playing polyurethane elephant, was just one of those things. The actual music was dope too! And being straight instrumental, it was one of those things I could enjoy without all that annoying Japanese! Needless to say, Special Others quickly found their way on to my iPod.
Almost 3 years later, I still rocks with Special Others. Their sound is hard to describe. It is rock. But it’s also very much jazz. I think the best description I’ve seen for it may be “post-rock”. In any case, I think it’s something that everybody can get in to.
Fall in love with the video too!
Get in to their (partial) discography here:
PB (2009) [M/U]
Good Morning (2006) [M/U]
Idol (2006) [M/U]
Uncle John (2005) [M/U]
Ben (2004) [M/U]
My interest in Japanese music is an on again, off again affair. Sometimes I’m all about it, and sometimes I couldn’t be bothered. Only G-d knows how many times I’ve pressed the skip button trying to get to that random Dream track. (Loving The Dream’s new album by the way!) Anyway, I was walking in Shinjuku the other day and I saw a billboard truck advertising Utada Hikaru’s new CD “This is the One”. I’d heard of her before but never really heard her music. But being born and raised in New York, singing in both English and Japanese, and being rated the #1 artist of 2008, I decided she was interesting enough to give her at least temporary space on the iPod.
The album, sung entirely in English, was something of a surprise. Far from being the typical collection of Japanese ultra-pop (read:annoyingly pitchy, kitschy and cute), she goes right in with the 808’s and electro synths that are ruling R&B and Hip Hop right now. Definitely flavor from the break! Stargate and “Tricky” Stewart earn those paychecks there.
Utada gets it started with party party tracks like “On and On” and “Poppin’”. But she also hits off with sentimental and vulnerable on tracks like “Apple and Cinnamon” and “This One (Crying Like a Child)”. She even gets a lil’ X-rated, talking about working the 9 to 5 dreaming of “6’s and 9’s” and “loving you long time”. At first listen, I was like “Word, mama?” Word! LOL
Still trying to figure out what my favorite song is though. It may be “Come Back To Me”. It’s good, very radio-friendly (even in the US). But maybe, it’s my favorite by default since it’s the first single with a video and I’ve seen it like a thousand times on MTV Japan.
If you know me, you know that I’m crazy about Kenji Furuya. The man is SMOKING HOT!!! God knows not to ever let me meet this man in real life! Wait, what I am I saying, he’s a straight, married man! But has that ever stopped me? Ummmmmm…. LMAO
Anyway, Kenji’s band Dragon Ash released their new album a few weeks ago. The album Freedom is actually pretty good. Haven’t listened to the whole thing though just yet because all of Kenji’s man-sexy aside, I have to be in a mood to listen to Japanese. The lead single though, 繋がりSUNSET [Tsunagari Sunset], I could listen to all day!
This song has been stuck in my head for weeks now. I was holding off on posting the vid for it here just because it’s like everywhere but I just couldn’t resist the urge. The vid is dope, mad creative like. Peep Kid Cudi’s genius “Day and Night” here! Brilliant!
Music | young city extraordinaire | 
December 11, 2009 4:16 am | 
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