Quincy Jones Secret Garden (Feat. Barry White, Al B. Sure, James Ingram, El Debarge TubeMyMixtape 2012-10-28 | Follow On Twitter| @RetroEraTVAn impresario in the broadest and most creative sense of the word, Quincy Jones' career has encompassed the roles of composer, record producer, artist, film producer, arranger, conductor, instrumentalist, TV producer, record company executive, magazine founder and multi-media entrepreneur. As a master inventor of musical hybrids, he has shuffled pop, soul, hip-hop, jazz, classical, African and Brazilian music into many dazzling fusions, traversing virtually every medium, including records, live performance, movies and television.Celebrating more than 50 years performing and being involved in music, Quincy's creative magic has spanned over six decades, beginning with the music of the post-swing era and continuing through today's high-technology, international multi-media hybrids. In the mid-50′s, he was the first popular conductor-arranger to record with a Fender bass. His theme from the hit TV series Ironside was the first synthesizer-based pop theme song. As the first black composer to be embraced by the Hollywood establishment in the 60′s, he helped refresh movie music with badly needed infusions of jazz and soul. His landmark 1989 album, Back On The Block--named "Album Of The Year" at the 1990 Grammy Awards-- brought such legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Miles Davis together with Ice T, Big Daddy Kane and Melle Mel to create the first fusion of the be bop and hip hop musical traditions; while his 1993 recording of the critically acclaimed Miles and Quincy Live At Montreux, featured Quincy conducting Miles Davis' live performance of the historic Gil Evans arrangements from the Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain sessions, garnered a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance. As producer and conductor of the historic "We Are The World" recording (the best-selling single of all time) and Michael Jackson's multi-platinum solo albums, Off The Wall, Bad and Thriller (the best selling album of all time, with over 46 million copies sold), Quincy Jones stands as one of the most successful and admired creative artist/executives in the entertainment world.
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@Ludacris Ft @KellyRowland| Representin TubeMyMixtape 2012-11-01 | Follow On Twitter| @RetroEraTVChristopher Bridges, better known as Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. He was born on September 11, 1977 in Champaign. Began rapping at an early age, Bridges joined a Chicago, Illionis-based crew at the age of 12 before he moved to Atlanta, a place where he would go on to make a name for himself as one of the most prominent Dirty South rappers in this era, and rapping his way through high school. Bridges firstly began his music career as a radio DJ personality, Chris Lova Lova, on the Hot 97 urban radio station in Atlanta, Georgia, and made his mark rapping over promos on the night show. He later made his recorded debut on "Phat Rabbit", a track from Timbaland's 1998 album "Tim's Bio: Life from the Bassment." Saving enough money to fund the recording of an album, Bridges adopted the name Ludacris and released "Incognegro" on his own Disturbing Tha Peace Entertainment label. Born Kelendria Trene Kamasia Rowland on February, 1981, Kelly experienced huge fame when performing as trio in Destiny's Child with Beyonce Knowles and Michelle Williams (II). Even after the group have disbanded, Kelly continued to pursue career in music by going solo, kicked off nicely with the duet with rapper Nelly on "Dilemma".....Kelly is the daughter of Doris Rowland Garrison and Christopher Lovett who resided in Atlanta, Georgia and got married only after she was born. Inspired by Whitney Houston in 1985, four-year-old Kelly began singing and joined church choir. However, her father was an abusive alcoholic which made her mother decide to leave him and take Kelly with her when Kelly was only seven. They moved to Houston, Texas where she was practically raised by the Knowles family. Kelly became friends with Beyonce and formed a girl group with her and some other girls. Initially named Girl's Tyme, the group was seized down to six members. Producer Arne Frager personally flew to Houston to meet them and brought them to his studio in Northern California. The group were debuted at talent show "Star Search" but they unfortunately lost.......
Stevie Wonder| Knock Me Of My Fee TubeMyMixtape 2012-11-01 | Follow On Twitter| @RetroEraTVWonder was born Steveland Hardaway Judkins in Saginaw, MI, on May 13, 1950 (he later altered his name to Steveland Morris when his mother married). A premature infant, he was put on oxygen treatment in an incubator; likely it was an excess of oxygen that exacerbated a visual condition known as retinopathy of prematurity, causing his blindness. In 1954, his family moved to Detroit, where the already musically inclined Stevie began singing in his church's choir; from there he blossomed into a genuine prodigy, learning piano, drums, and harmonica all by the age of nine. While performing for some of his friends in 1961, Stevie was discovered by Ronnie White of the Miracles, who helped arrange an audition with Berry Gordy at Motown. Gordy signed the youngster immediately and teamed him with producer/songwriter Clarence Paul, under the new name Little Stevie Wonder. Stevie released his first two albums in 1962: A Tribute to Uncle Ray, which featured covers of Stevie's hero Ray Charles, and The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie, an orchestral jazz album spotlighting his instrumental skills on piano, harmonica, and assorted percussion. Neither sold very well, but that all changed in 1963 with the live album The 12 Year Old Genius, which featured a new extended version of the harmonica instrumental "Fingertips." Edited for release as a single, "Fingertips, Pt. 2" rocketed to the top of both the pop and R&B charts, thanks to Wonder's irresistible, youthful exuberance; meanwhile, The 12 Year Old Genius became Motown's first chart-topping LP.Wonder charted a few more singles over the next year, but none on the level of "Fingertips, Pt. 2." As his voice changed, his recording career was temporarily put on hold, and he studied classical piano at the Michigan School for the Blind in the meantime. He dropped the "Little" portion of his stage name in 1964, and re-emerged the following year with the infectious, typically Motown-sounding dance tune "Uptight (Everything's Alright)," a number one R&B/Top Five pop smash. Not only did he co-write the song for his first original hit, but it also reinvented him as a more mature vocalist in the public's mind, making the similar follow-up "Nothing's Too Good for My Baby" another success. The first signs of Wonder's social activism appeared in 1966 via his hit cover of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and its follow-up, "A Place in the Sun," but as Motown still had the final say on Wonder's choice of material, this new direction would not yet become a major facet of his work.
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@ChiefKeef | Laugh To The Bank (Snippet) TubeMyMixtape 2012-10-29 | Follow On Twitter| @RetroEraTVLong before Chief Keef (born Keith Cozart) was one of the most popular teenage rappers in America and the youngest major label head in history, he was a legend among kids on the South Side of Chicago, a gritty set of neighborhoods that most recently made the news for its astonishing rise in murder rate (up 38% in 2012 alone). On December 4, 2011, at age 16, Keef was shot at by police and arrested for unlawful use of a weapon and subsequently placed under house arrest, at his grandmother's house, for a month. On the day he was released, the world outside of Chicago got their first taste of Keef's presence: a viral video called "It's Something Wrong With This Lil Boy: Freaks Out When He Finds Out His Favorite Rapper 'Chief Keef' Gets Out of Jail.'"In the video, a teenager screams and sings in delight for about four and a half minute about Chief Keef's release, prompting YouTube comments like "Who the hell is Chief Keef?" But many people knew exactly who the hell Chief Keef was because he'd been doing something almost unheard of in the Internet age: becoming massively popular through local word of mouth.Although Keef himself stopped attending school at age 15, his music gained prominence in the Chicago Public Schools, the third-largest school district in the country with over 400,000 students. Keef's YouTube video for "Bang," a song off of the mixtape Bang that he released in 2011, garnered about a million views before Keef had any visibility outside of his home city, spurred by young listeners who found the atmosphere in Keef's sound and the message in his lyrics to be resonant in their own lives.Keef's music, primarily comprised of minimalistic homemade string and drum tracks punctuated by his menacing, nihilistic lyrics, sounds like the next evolutionary step in the style of tracks by Lex Luger and Waka Flocka Flame. But more importantly, his music accurately and honestly reflects the violence, hopelessness and frustration, as well as moments of joy and victory, of the environments that Keef and hundreds of thousands of other poor and working-class kids live in all over the world. On "Bang," Keef raps with punchy, syncopated delivery, "That smoke's got me gone, can hear it in the air/we on top like some stairs, don't give a f**k, I be goin' to hell."Keef's loyal fanbase in Chicago was built on the support of local listeners and through a network of likeminded rappers like Keef's cousin Fredo Santana, SD, Lil Durk and Lil Reese, as well as producers like Young Chop and DJ Kenn. DJ Kenn, who was literally taken off the street by Chief Keef's uncle after coming to Chicago from Japan, explain's Keef's appeal this way: "First time I came to the studio, I didn't [work] with a lot of people. But when Keef came to my studio, I was like, this boy... He's different. [He] always comes with something new. Everybody is trying to [rap like] somebody [else] — no disrespect to anybody—but Keef, each song he comes with something new, just him."
Tevin Campbell| Dont Say Goodny TubeMyMixtape 2012-10-29 | Follow On Twitter| @RetroEraTVBefore Tevin Campbell busted on to the scene with "Tomorrow" in 1989 he was an "average" little boy with a talent. He was born in Texas by Rhonda Byrd and grew up with brother Damorio and sister March?. In the church choir Tevin developed his vocal talents. In 1988 he sang for Bobbi Humphrey over the phone and that brought him to the legendary Quincy Jones. In 1989 he recorded the single "Tomorrow" on Jones' Back on the Block album. He stared being compared to supreme vocalist such as Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and other R&B sensations. He eventually caught the eye of Prince who game him his second hit from the Graffiti Bridge Soundtrack, Round and Round. He made a little cameo in Graffiti Bridge movie singing the song, but even though Tevin had a role on the pilot "Wally and The Valentines" he wasn't headed for the big screen he was heading towards the studio. By 1991 he started recording T.E.V.I.N his debut album. Co-writing some of the tracks he worked with Al B. Sure, Narada Michael Walden, Prince, Kyle West, and Producer Quincy Jones. This album got rave reviews and put him on the charts with "Tell me what you want me to do", "Just ask me to", and "Goodbye". He even did some more acting on the "Fresh Prince of Bell Air" playing Ashley's( Tatiana Ali) date.In 1993 Tevin did what came naturally, he recorded his sophomore album. I'm Ready provided Tevin with a permanent spot as a solid R&B sensation and not just a one hit wonder. Again working with legendary artists and producers like Prince, Quincy Jones, Narada Michael Walden and this time Babyface and Daryl Simmons. Tevin himself even co-wrote again. But Teivn didn't let stardom go to his head, he took some time off to be a teenager and experience life, crediting his mom and family for keeping his head level.
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Jesse Powell| You TubeMyMixtape 2012-10-27 | Follow On Twitter| @RetroEraTVBorn in Gary, Indiana, Jesse's earliest introduction to music came via his family: with his mother, two sisters and younger brother, Jesse sang in and around the city on local talent shows. "I don't remember a time when I didn't hear music", says Jesse, who mentions hometown natives The Jackson's, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin among his influences. "Honestly, I never considered doing anything other than music. I kept my fingers crossed that I could make a living doing it..." Throughout his school days,Jesse sang with the family group, moving to Los Angeles in 1993 to fulfill his musical dreams. A stop in Kansas City on the way brought him in contact with up-and-coming writer/producer Carl Roland, and the pair began working together upon their arrival in L.A. "I didn't have a plan when I got to Los Angeles", Jesse recalls. "First off, I had to get a job... and then I performed at talent contests, industry showcases, just wherever I could..." Jesse got his break when Silas Records' founder Louil Silas, Jr., was blown away with his performance at an artist showcase. Silas immediately heard the honesty in Jesse's super soulful vocal delivery. "Believe me, I was nervous!" Jesse smiles. "But it went well and shortly afterwards, Louil offered me a deal. That's when I knew all the work I had been doing on my career was not in vain." The beginning of a musical collaboration between the two was soon born. Masterminding the project, executive Silas worked closely with Jesse in selecting the right mix of songs for his all-important first album, "We started on the great quest, searching for the right songs", says Jesse. "I wanted to find tunes that I could relate to which is one of the reasons I co-wrote songs for the album. It was very important for me to stay true to myself as an artist, finding material that was R&B at its core. There's definitely an "old school" sound to some of the songs, and yet we tried to make sure the album had a 90's feel to it." Hard-pressed to select his own personal favorites, Jesse says each song "shows some part of my personality, my character. After we picked a song, I'd ask myself, 'is this really me?' That was the key." Tunes like "Spend The Night" and the infectious "I Like", written with hit songwriter Gordon Chambers (Brownstone, Anita Baker), shows Jesse's sensual side while his Enchantment medley is a testament to his unbridled sensitivity. In addition to working with so many talented producers and writers, Jesse had the opportunity to include members of his own family on different tunes: mother Emerald and brother Jacob can be heard on "Is It Over" and "You", while sisters Tamara and Catrina added their singing skills (individually or collectively) to a total of eight tunes. "Having my family sing with me was really great", says Jesse. "They have been so supportive of me over the years and they know that having this album out is the fulfillment of a dream. They know the sacrifices I went through in moving away from them and from my friends to come to Los Angeles to pursue my musical career... and they know how thrilled I am about all that's happened since I signed with Silas Records." Now, with the release of Jesse Powell, the music-buying public is about to discover what executives at Silas Records have known ever since this talented singer/songwriter began recording his exciting debut: with the combination of a vocal maturity that belies his youth, his unpretentious, for-real kind of personality, natural good looks, and an innate soulful approach to his music, Jesse Powell has truly only just begun!
@AsvpxRocky Fucking Problem (Feat. @Drake, @2Chainz, And @KendrickLamar) TubeMyMixtape 2012-10-27 | Follow On Twitter| @RetroEraTVInfluenced by the Southern-style swagger of UGK and the rhymes of his hometown heroes the Diplomats, ASAP Rocky gave up slinging drugs in Harlem and moved to Elmwood Park, New Jersey, where he started rapping. By the time he had completed his GED, the self-proclaimed hood outcast had already gained comparisons to Wiz Khalifa and was being championed by Fader magazine, Stereogum, and rap superstar Drake, due to the Internet-leaked singles "Peso" and "Trilla." In 2011, just after he turned 22, ASAP Rocky released the Deep Purple mixtape and followed it months later with the digital release of his debut album Live Love AAP. After signing a reported large deal with Sony, the album was re-released in February of 2012
Pebbles| Always TubeMyMixtape 2012-10-27 | Although dance-pop singer Pebbles scored several hit singles on her own during the '80s, she has become best-known as the manager (and creator) of one of the genre's biggest hit machines the following decade. Born Perri McKissack in Oakland, CA, on November 6, 1966, the singer (who is the cousin of R&B singer Cherelle) got her start in the early '80s as a backup singer for percussionist/band leader Bill Summers and the funk outfit Con Funk Shun, helping co-pen one of the latter band's hits, "Body Lovers." By the end of the decade, however, McKissack was ready to strike out on her own, going by the name Pebbles and signing a recording contract with MCA. The singer's self-titled 1988 debut featured contributions from both Babyface and Michael Sembello (as well as renowned producer L.A. Reid, who Pebbles would eventually marry), and spawned a pair of Top Five hits, "Girlfriend" and "Mercedes Boy," pushing the album to platinum status stateside. Pebbles' follow-up recording, 1990's Always, fared nearly as well, going gold and spawning another Top Five hit with "Giving You the Benefit," while both Salt-N-Pepa and Cherelle made guest appearances on the record. Instead of pursuing her solo career, Pebbles then founded her own record label, Savvy Records, and created the Atlanta, GA-based hip-hop/dance trio TLC (comprised of members Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes). Guiding TLC's career and serving as their manager, the trio became one of pop's biggest hit-making groups by 1994, thanks to their 11 times platinum smash Crazysexycool. Pebbles returned back to her solo career in 1995 with her third release overall, Straight From the Heart. Although it was a much more mature work (and featured contributions from such producers/songwriters as Sean "Puffy" Combs, Kyle West, and Organized Noize), it failed to match the commercial success of its predecessors. 2000 saw the release of a 14-track career overview on the Hip-O label with Greatest Hits. Greg Prato, Rovi
@KendrickLamar| Swimming Pool (Drank) (good Kidd, m.A.A.d city TubeMyMixtape 2012-10-27 | Buy The Album Today On iTunesFollow On Twitter @RetroEraRecKendrick Lamar likes to compare himself to Tupac Shakur. But Tupac wasn't from Los Angeles and didn't know his father growing up. By the time Tupac was 23, he had already been shot multiple times and begun serving a prison sentence. Lamar, on the other hand, was born and raised in Compton. His parents are still married. He's 23, and so far he has dodged the almost inescapable bullets that dart through what he calls his "mad city." Enjoying this Kendrick Lamar Biography? Keep reading!Even so, Lamar seems to share Tupac's soul; better still, he seems an evolution of it. The line between "Pac the Playboy" and "Tupac the Tortured Poet" was drawn with an indelible marker, but the sides of Lamar's personality bleed into one another. The chorus of "P&P" (an ode to "Pussy and Patron" punctuated by a girl pouting, "Hey, what's up, daddy"), for example, is cookie-cutter braggadocio. Its first verse, however, stacks a precarious tower of thoughts almost tipped over into rage by an incident at a gas station — and leaves him searching through his phone for a comfort he admits is temporary.Candid vulnerability and a voice that sounds as though he's just inhaled great mouthfuls of smoke (even though he abstains from weed) are why Lamar is on everybody's lips. Last November, Dr. Dre (who was led to Lamar by Eminem's manager) said out of the blue on Power 106′s popular morning show Big Boy's Neighborhood that he wanted to work with the rapper.By now, Lamar has not only worked with Snoop Dogg and Dre, he was snapped, paparazzi-style, sitting courtside at a Lakers game with the legendary producer. His buzz has ratcheted to such a roar that he's considered a shoo-in for XXL magazine's "Freshman 2011″ cover.But he doesn't want to hear that he's the next in line to wear hip-hop's crown. No wonder, considering that honor can be as sturdy as the ones you can get from a box at Burger King. Lamar says he still wants to be making albums when he's 45."The hardest thing for me to do is to get you to know me within 16 bars," the rapper says on a track from last fall's O(verly) D(edicated), "Average Joe," in which he relates a story of being shot at by a gang, even though he's not affiliated. The problem isn't that Kendrick Lamar can't reveal himself. It's that there's too much he wants to reveal. His thoughts tumble furiously; words swarm so frantically that in one song he eventually chokes on them."Goin' crazy in your head is wanting to say so much, but you can't. I think it comes from my struggling relationship with God — my whole life, I go to sleep every night and just think about God," he says, faltering for a moment. "Is that a trip? That's me trying to find myself in a relationship with Him. Righteous, but at the same time being so [caught up] in the vanities of the world ... it messes me up inside."Lamar's parents moved from Chicago to Compton in 1984 with all of $500 in their pockets. "My mom's one of 13 siblings, and they all got six kids, and till I was 13 everybody was in Compton," he says. "I'm 6 years old, seein' my uncles playing with shotguns, sellin' dope in front of the apartment. My moms and pops never said nothing, 'cause they were young and living wild, too. I got about 15 stories like 'Average Joe.' "In school, Lamar was a quiet, observant kid who made good grades. "This is always in my head: There was a math question that I knew the answer to, but I was so scared to say it. Then this little chick said the answer and it was the right answer, my answer. That bothers me still to this day, bein' scared of failure."Maybe the memory of that missed opportunity is what landed 16-year-old Lamar in front of the "dude to get your music to" in Compton, DudeDawg, chief financial officer of TopDawg Entertainment. "He threw me in the booth. I freestyled for, like, an hour. He said I got raw talent." He's been with the company, along with one of last year's XXL Freshmen, Jay Rock, ever since.When Kendrick Lamar was growing up, his father used to cheat while playing basketball with him. A few days ago, standing in the middle of a court in a park not far from a sign welcoming you to Compton, Lamar looked up at a hoop and shrugged. "He wanted me to know that was what was gonna happen in life."Lamar ends sentences with smiles. He's friendly and funny, offering to share the lunch he eventually lets go cold and teasing that he wants to switch interview roles. Yet there are a few instances when he retreats, suddenly looking harder, older.At the park, he's laughing as he bounces onto the basketball court. He calls a friend who lives a couple of houses down to bring over a ball.
@KendrickLamar| The Heart (good Kidd, m.A.A.d city) TubeMyMixtape 2012-10-27 | Buy The Album Today On ItunesFollow On Twitter @RetroEraRec
@KendrickLamar | Now Or Never Ft @MaryJBlidge (good Kidd, m.A.A.d city) TubeMyMixtape 2012-10-27 | Buy The Album Today On ItunesFollow @RetroEraRec
