Top Music Blog

According to Newsday, The Essence Musical Festival is coming back to New Orleans, after moving to Houston last year while the city recovered from Hurricane Katrina. The musical festival, which is will take place next year on July 5-7, is known for its Hip-Hop, Rap, R&B and Soul performances at night, and during the day inspiring “empowerment seminars”.

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, president of Essence Communications, said Louisiana has worked since a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina to make sure the state didn’t lose the festival, which was started in New Orleans in 1995 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence magazine.

Essence’s return to Louisiana sends the signal to the world that we are back in business. This major event, which attracts over 200,000 visitors each year, will be a shot in the arm for our economy and the thousands of small businesses and employers that rely on tourists.
- Landrieu said in a statement -

Based actually in New York City, Brazilian Girls’ latest album, “Talk To La Bomb” comes with 12 new tracks, pushing their innovative fusion of electro, dub, pop, punk and dance music. The only girl in the band, Sabina Sciubba alternates between five different languages on the album: English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Don’t let the band name fool you. There’s some Latin beat mixed in as well. Anyway the Brazilian Girls are on the road with their album Talk To La Bomb, meanwhile check out the first single, “Jique”.

At its debut The New York Times described the band as “catchy, musically ambitious and proudly theatrical…irresistible,” Entertainment Weekly called the album as “…unceasingly irresistible,” while the Associated Press said its one of the “top 10 albums of 2005.” Rolling Stone wrote of the band “…so finessed that they leave their scent on every musical landscape they visit…” and The Miami Herald considered “…the best debut in a decade, since Missy Elliott, PJ Harvey, Massive Attack and Sleater-Kinney first blew people’s minds.” (more…)

The rap celebrity, DMX, has canceled the concerts he planned to give for the United States troops in Kuwait and Irak. According to the United Service Organizations, the rap singer was supposed to depart for the Persian Golf region on August 22. But DMX delayed his trip to August 23 when it seems like the rap celebrity didn’t show up and lost the flight which was going to Kuwait even if the military worked very hard in satisfying the rap celebrity’s travel requests.

The good news is that 50 Cent, Ludacris, Master P., Lil’ Romeo declared their wish to go perform for the United States troops. Anyway, John Hanson, USO senior vice president for marketing and communications said that they are extremely disappointed that DMX decided not to complete the tour he asked them to arrange for him and that when they announced this tour, troops were extremely excited about the possibility of seeing a performer they admired.

The hip-hop artist Jay-Z and his ’student’ Rihanna will be concert together in South Africa in October. This three-date tour includes concerts in Cape Town on the 11th, Durban on the 13th, and Johannesburg on the 14th. The hip-hop celebrity Jay-Z and R&B singer Rihanna were brought in South Africa by Heineken Music, 5fm and Big Concerts. Jay-Z came back in the music industry although he announced his retirement from hip-hop world. The rap artist returned to the stage June 25 at Radio City Music Hall to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his debut album ‘Reasonable Doubt’.

The hip-hop heavy weight Jay-Z will also begin an international tour, which kicks off in Turkey, wanting to educate people about the water crisis in poor countries because 4,500 children die daily from diseases caused by poor sanitation and a lack of water. He will also have his own documentary called ‘The Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life’, set to premiere November 24. These are not the only plans Jay-Z has. The hip-hop celebrity is also preparing the releasing of a new album. Did he ever really retire?

Yes, it’s true. The celebrity, Lindsay Lohan, wants to go in Irak with Senator Hillary Clinton to give a concert for the troops that are there. She said that she wants to do exactly like Marilyn Monroe who visited troops in Korea during the 1950s. She also said that it’s so amazing seeing one woman just going somewhere, this beautiful sex kitten, who’s basically a pinup, which is what she has always aspired to be. For the protection of the actress her security guard will take her to a gun range and she will start taking some shooting lessons.

What is she doing in Irak? She’ll never even get close to what Marilyn Monroe was anyway. I think that the concert will be a disaster. She’d better give up this crazy idea and go on with her acting career.