BGC: Music and Words

So, I love all types of music, I mean all types! Anyone who knows me can tell you that. But, my bread and butter is soul and r&b and sometimes I don't need complex arrangements and esoteric or just plain obscure references.lol. Sometimes I need good music and a great vocal and a slight message, cause that's what good r&b does. I think Fantasia accomplished this on this song. She went through a lot, with a very private heartbreak being blasted in the public, one of the unfortunate prices of fame sometimes. But, in this song, she extols the virtues of putting yourself first,not being the "ride or die chick", not accepting someones bad behavior and staying with them. Even in her song "Bittersweet" she admits she still loves him, but the video and the song show she is moving on. Yet, a pet peeve of mine in a lot of recent r&b songs,with singers who can either sing very well or at least pass, has been the need to sing about being treated terribly and staying in that terrible situation. What R&B does best is talk about, spotlight, offer solutions to our struggles. And while that is a real struggle some of us have, it is not a healthy one, it is not one that should be a trend in songwriting, especially when the primary audience is young girls and women of color. Dysfunction should never be normalized, as much as I might like the song.

New Fantasia Vid: Doing Me
http://www.youtube.com/user/FantasiaVEVO#p/a/u/0/n0YrpnpaWSY

Jasmine Sullivan: Circles
It's a great song, just wish their was light at the end of it's tunnel.lol



And my least fav.lol. Melanie Fiona




a writer at Clutch also talks about it here
http://clutchmagonline.com/lifeculture/feature/holdin%E2%80%99-you-down-the-circle-of-insanity/

BGC: Music

One of my fav singers,Muhsinah, doing a Kings of Leon cover. BGC at it's finest. She's a singer/ songwriter/ producer/ dope individual :) Check it!

Use Somebody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y2M0Cyy-vU&p=7A4154ADB8F5B15B&playnext=1&index=10

And this is an interview and performance of her
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y4idd_6764

This is a new chick I just discovered from the UK, Szjerdene. She sounds pretty good on this live song below. Not sure what I think yet, but she's worth a watch.
http://soulukblog.com/2010/10/14/video-pinboardblog-com-presents-rehearsal-rooms-with-szjerdene-lead-the-way/

Black Girls what do we think??

Hmm..to this article.It's about what the writer coins as the "Black Box" the "box" black people, specifically black women find themselves being placed in, climbing out of, or half way entrenched.

While I think the article jumped all over, I was heartened by this sentence at the end, "Thankfully, women like Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, and a myriad of others, have given us examples of Black girls who’ve broken out and have claimed their freedom.Instead of giving our quirky sistas the side-eye, we should celebrate their fierceness and jack a little bit of their fresh. By being themselves and pushing the boundaries of what it means to be Black, they help us all get just a little bit more free."

I have discussed this issue extensively on my blog, in my life, with my work, as I am probably a Black girl outside of the box :), but I am still very proud of being a Black woman,and everything I am is intersected, I cant separate one from the other and I don't just because I'm "quirky."

As this is the first post I have done in a while, I wanted to open it up to my peeps to weigh in. So, what do you think?


http://clutchmagonline.com/lifeculture/feature/the-black-box/

Last vid in Cool Kid Series

This is the last video in The Cool Kid Series on youtube. I will of course be making more videos, but now these songs will be on a actual mixtape! I'm in NY and prob won't be able to record, but I'm going in when I come back! So, stay tuned, it will be FREE, so spread it around! More info to come on the mixtape and my happenings in NY soon!

2nd Photoshoot!

The 2nd shoot went great! I love my friends, they are all so sweet and down and made the shoot lovely. We were at the perpetually gray Ocean beach in San Francisco, but the sun was trying to fight through.lol. Michelle was awesome as usual and my fellow Virgo Christian Eddings took photos documenting the shoot. They are below, 3rd shoot coming this weekend and then New York here we come!

The Outsiders

So, I've always felt a little different, my thinking, my style; a little off center. Definitely, have always felt very grounded in my identity as a black woman, a person of color, but my aesthetic and interest were not always in line with the cultural box that society likes to put us in or that we put ourselves in, especially women of color.

So, that among other reasons is why I have always felt like an outsider, but not an outcast, so I coined the term, "The Outsider Inside" it's how I think of myself and others who relate. That is why it is also the name of my debut album, which is coming soon and a new project I am producing.

Along, with singing,writing, and performing; I am really into aesthetics and how images can shape and influence how we see ourselves and our world. Images are very powerful, so I want to be a purveyor of aesthetics; meaning fashion styling and image consultation, being in creative control of my image, and producing images in many arenas that show different, positive, and unique images of women of color. Which brings me to the new project called, "The Outsiders Inside." It is a photo project I am producing that is spotlighting and celebrating my friends who are beautiful,but do not have conventional aesthetic expression and to spotlight their passions and talents. So, my girls with dope haircuts, tatts, piercings,and unique style. ;)

This is my mission, this is BGC's mission, so enjoy some of the shots I took with my phone as a preview and more to come from this weekend. Official website coming soon and maybe launch party!

Say you will (cover)

4th Song in Cool Kids Series, one or two more coming. Feeling real interesting about love and life, this is what came out at 2am.lol

Reach For The Sky

4th song in the Cool Kid Series: Dedicated to Yemaya

DOpeness from Toronto ;)

Brown peeps in Toronto doing lovely things ;) Check below. I wanna do something similar, with several different groups of people.lol. BGC in full effect is coming soon, shot out to Belinda!! I'm plunging head first into my art, I wanna come up soaking in it! Join me?

I'm Fiending(Im Beaming)

2nd song from the youtube mixtape "The Cool Kids Series" I'm Fiending(Im Beaming)