One of the releases that I've been waiting for this summer is Goapele's new album, Change It All. I've read numerous places that the CD is going to drop next week (on August 16th to be exact), but for some inexplicable reason, her official website (http://www.goapele.com/) indicates that it's coming out on December 27th. My guess is that it was originally slated for release at the end of 2004, but has just fallen quite a bit behind schedule. If anyone knows for sure, feel free to drop some knowledge in the comment section.
For those of you who haven't been following her career, Goapele's music is generally classified as neo-soul. I personally hesitate to describe it that way, because neo-soul has become a wastebasket category that covers far too much terrain to be effectively used as a descriptive term. That genre name has been applied to everything from Jill Scott to the troubled sounds of a goat in heat. What I can say about Goapele is that she masterfully fuses an eclectic variety of styles into her music, much of which she writes and produces herself. Add some socially and politically-conscious lyrics into the mix, and you can understand why I'm completely souled on her as an artist. Download.com is hosting a free mp3 at this very moment: http://music.download.com/goapele/3600-8558_32-100025029.html?tag=listing#100731231. If you've heard Common's song "Go", you will definitely recognize certain elements in the mix.
VH-1's 2nd Hip-Hop Honors show will air on September 26th, and will be hosted by Rev. Run and Russell Simmons. This year, there will be performances by Eve, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Jazzy Jeff, Nelly, Common, and Missy Elliott. Getting a shout-out this time around will be Big Daddy Kane, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Salt-N-Pepa, LL Cool J, Ice-T, and the Notorious B.I.G. More info here:
http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001012154.
Lastly, this shit is totally stupid, but I still can't resist. For anyone who missed Peter on Family Guy when he was high on Ecstasy, this is my personal version of must-see TV: http://www.dailyhaha.com/_vids/PeterEctacy.htm.
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