(Akiit.com) His baby sister said it best via an old Joni Mitchell sample in one of her hits from the late ’90s: “You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.” Now, nine months after Michael Jackson’s sudden death at age 50, Sony, his longtime label, is ready to cash in on the music the superstar left behind. Of course, this move is nothing new. Several pop artists have sold more records and made more money dead than alive: Elvis, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin chief among them.

But Michael, whose record sales and business contracts set unprecedented benchmarks when he was here among us, continues to break records after his death. Sony just announced that the King of Pop’s estate has signed a $200 million guaranteed contract for 10 projects over seven years. The deal, good through 2017, could be worth up to $250 million if certain conditions are met. An album of previously unreleased material is supposed to hit stores in November, just in time for the holidays. Other future projects may include a DVD compilation of his classic videos, a video game and a reissue of perhaps his most satisfying album, 1979’s Off the Wall.

This new deal comes as no surprise, given that Michael has sold more than 31 million albums worldwide since his death in June. And it’s not a stretch to say that even after the man closed his eyes for the last time, he has helped to resuscitate an ailing industry. That was certainly the case in 1982 when Thriller, the biggest blockbuster album of all time, hit the streets and sold more than 20 million copies within the first year. The industry was in a sad state then, as record sales lagged and pop was undecided about where to go. Then came Michael, the former Motown prince, with a sound that braided together all the loose strands of the previous decade: disco, punk and funk. His pop amalgamation was fresh, vivacious, a sonic revolution. Also at the same time, he turned the music video into an art form just as MTV was born. And when the cable station threw shade at videos from people of color, it was Michael and mighty Sony (then known as CBS) who kicked down the door.
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(Akiit.com) A couple of days ago my colleagues at VIBE magazine were sharing their opinions in a webcast on the “We Are the World” remake, which both celebrates the song’s 25th anniversary and aims to raise money for Haiti. I decided to check out the video as I hadn’t seen it yet, and then sat with an influx of emotions as I wrapped my head around the newest incarnation of the pop classic penned by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, the original video of which I’d watched as a child.

The contemporary version of “We Are the World” features more artists and had the potential to feature more genres. Sure enough, a new hip-hop verse is thrown in towards the end, and it’s this portion of the song that stands out as being its own, grooving entity. Interestingly, even with the potential to use artists and sounds that could represent a wider palette of music, the song’s production speaks more to the commercial factory pop that’s currently de rigueur. It’s big and bombastic, befitting a song meant to unite billions.

Yet simplicity often has the greatest power when it comes to relaying connectedness. It’s one of the reasons why the original “We Are the World” holds more sway for me. That more straightforward tune placed seemingly disparate artists together to make something beautiful, taking us inside of ourselves. Some of the juxtapositions were jarring and humorous; Kenny Roger’s twang next to James Ingrams’ smoothness, or Cyndi Lauper wilding out on the bridge, the original’s biggest moment of bombast .
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(Akiit.com) Shirley Chisholm was born on November 30, 1924, in the city of Brooklyn, NY to the proud parents of Charles and Ruby St. Hill. As a child, she was an exceptionally brilliant student in school. While attending Girls High School, which was located in Brooklyn, NY, she excelled in a variety of subjects. She graduated in 1942, and enrolled at Brooklyn College, where she majored in sociology.

While attending Brooklyn College, Chisholm occasionally encountered hateful acts of racism, but she openly fought against them. On one occasion at Brooklyn College, all of the black students were denied admittance into a social club on campus, so Chisholm in turn, formed an alternative club. With academic honors, she graduated in 1946, but because it was so difficult for black college graduates to find employment, it would take her a little time to find a job. After being denied employment on several occasions, she would obtain employment at Mount Calvary Childcare Center, which was located in Harlem, NY.

In 1949, she married a Jamaican by name of Conrad Chisholm. They both participated in local politics, and would soon form the Bedford-Stuyvesant political league. Chisholm not only dealt with politics, but she also dealt with early childhood education. From 1959-1964, she worked with the New York City bureau of child welfare.

In 1964, she won a seat in the state assembly, and served in the New York General Assembly from 1964 to 1968. In 1968, after serving a term in the legislature, Chisholm campaigned in pursuit of representing New York’s Twelfth Congressional District. She would win the election and become the first African American woman to ever be elected to Congress. Chisholm was a strong believer in women rights, so she hired an all-female staff during her first term in Congress.
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(Akiit.com) Technological changes in the last decade made it so that you could fit your entire music collection, thousands of songs, into a contraption the size of a credit card. But beyond the boom of MP3 players, iTunes and the Internet, pop music itself changed dramatically, especially the sounds that fall under the urban umbrella-ella-ella. (Sorry. Got carried away.)

The “neo-soul” movement, which for a brief moment brought a lyrical and musical depth back to urban-pop at the close of the ’90s, gave way to a colder, heavily digitalized sound in the last decade. Most of it was concocted on a laptop. Once upon a time, arrangements cushioned voices in urban music. Sure, the beat was always important, but the voice often drove it.

Not so in the last decade. Urban music - what used to be called soul, R&B and you can throw hip-hop in there too - is now all about layers of noise throbbing, whizzing, palpitating, bouncing off the walls. And the voice, even the most distinguished ones, is often reduced to just another sound in the arrangement, or robotized altogether by Auto-Tunes. Melodies have been supplanted by repetitive chants perfectly suited for ringtones, which saw big business in the last 10 years.

But as the music industry itself, crippled by the Internet age, struggles for relevance, as artists see less and less royalties from album sales, and as the pop audience continues to fragment, what will become of urban music in the next decade?

“Technology has helped creativity to go beyond one interpretation of an idea,” says Prince Charles Alexander, associate professor of music production and engineering at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

He says the proliferation of production software, like Pro Tools and Digital Audio Workstations, has provided almost limitless possibilities in urban music. Perhaps raw talent may not be all that important anymore.

“Can a great artist be great if there is specifically nothing great about them, or do we have to lower the bar in order to appreciate their talents?” says Alexander, whose production credits include Mary J. Blige, Destiny’s Child and Luther Vandross. “All of this is a direct result of technology freeing artists from the rigors of practice and focus.”

So new urban music, at least the sounds pumped through the mainstream, may remain hollow and ultimately disposable for a while.

But another great aspect of the technological boom of last decade is that the consumer can easily discover new music on his own. The more adventurous urban music, the sounds that fondly remember black music’s rich past while strutting into the future, is certainly out there.

But given that the Internet has all but destroyed a shared pop culture, major label infrastructures have crumbled and commercial radio has long become a wasteland, local venues for live music are probably the best way to discover new sounds in urban music.
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(Akiit.com) Now I’m gonna say, right out the box, this might not be a column you want your children to read—or maybe you will. I know my publishers usually don’t like profanity laced commentary, and Lord knows black people have had a reason to cuss lately, but I’ve always been one to push my First Amendment rights (as well as push the love my media outlets have for me) so here goes…

The last couple weeks has been a little much as it relates to our “confrontation culture.” I’ve never been one to tolerate a bunch of dumb sh*t, and really hate watching it play out. I hate even more the residual conversation about it. It’s okay to confront legitimate issues in our society if it goes to benefit the betterment of society. But to confront stuff just to confront stuff really irks me. The “shock” culture has lost its shock value.

It’s like listening to people who like to hear themselves talk, or people who complain just for the sake of complaining. When there’s really something to talk about or when a legitimate complaint surfaces, you have heard so much dumb stuff that you really don’t pay attention to what is being said. There are bigger problems in the world than sports and entertainment. In fact, sports and entertainment offer a release from the troubles of the world—or at least they are supposed to. That’s when dumb sh*t becomes really aggrevatin’.

Last week was dumb sh*t overload when Serena Williams threaten a lineswoman and Kanye West snatched the microphone from an award winner because the person he thought should have won, didn’t win. Now, I consider myself a rebel, and I rebel with the best of them, but what was Serena’s and Kanye’s objection to, at the end of the day?

It was all much ado about nothing. Serena didn’t even challenge that her foot crossed the serving line. So, was she mad that she did it, or mad that the lineswoman saw it? And was it enough to forfeit the game over? I’ve seen Serena Williams come from two sets down to win a match. One point down (with her serving) wasn’t anything. I really think Serena was having a bad day, and her reaction appeared real out of character. Still, her reaction to the call, though in the heat of battle, amounted to some real dumb sh*t.

We have never been disappointed when either Williams sister lost, because they play their hearts out and some days it’s just not their day. But I was real disappointed with the way Serena lost that match because it was so unbecoming of her. No match was worth tarnishing her image. Yes, Serena is a rebel. She rebels in her dress, her intensity and her ability to overcome unwarranted criticism. Yelling at the linesman “John McEnroe” style doesn’t become her. Hell, it didn’t become him. It was dumb sh*t when he did too. You just shook your head and hoped it would be over soon. I hope I never see Serena act that way again. I like her too much.
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