OOPS. Your Flash player is missing or outdated.Click here to update your player so you can see this content.
| Top 10 Moments of 2007 |
|
|
|
| Written by Bavu Blakes | |
| Monday, 14 January 2008 | |
 Disclaimer: These Top 10 Moments are in no particular order. Also, it's just my personal list of memorable moments, so of course it's quite Austin- and Texas-centric. These are the biggest moments according to my mouth and as I see it, very much editorialized and biased.1. Grupo Fantasma An amazing hall-of-fame musician and second generation rock-n-roller named Prince recognized their amazing musicianship and started playing with them often. Not only was this a coveted, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it also led to them receiving higher profile gigs worldwide. By the grace of God and good management [fast forward ] it basically started with a residency at Prince's Las Vegas venue in January, and snowballed through L.A., Miami, the U.K. and such. This all added to Grupo Fantasma's local "cool factor", and helped further diversify Austin's cultural and musical capital*! It's also a great look for Grupo's sibling projects, Brownout and Ocote Soul Sounds. I may or may not be doing a live concert taping with Brownout in the next few months, or a 10-minute feature at Grupo's huge New Year's Ball at the Monarch Event Center in Austin tonight. 2. Inside the Circle A serious businesswoman-turned-documentarian, Marcy Garriott, followed the B-boy City scene for years, came up with a great storyline and developed it into an award-winning movie sure to ring bells in 2008. Finally, someone invests time in further exposing the most consistent hip-hop movement in Austin (and allows Adrian Quesada, Hydroponic Sound System, DJ Baby G and myself to do the music). Visit Insidethecircle.com and while you're at it, search "Honeydripper movie" on Google and Youtube, too. 3. Mixtapes fading out Mixtape king DJ Drama got busted at his Atlanta headquarters like he was Frank Lucas, which finally and officially made the term "mixtape" synonymous with "free download" and "for promotional use only". Meanwhile, I got tired of rapping on mixtapes all the time. In 2008 I want to focus on real albums, especially my own! 4. Kanye West vs. 50 Cent Kanye went plat in a week! 50 Cent did not retire as he promised. They both sold tons of records. And later in the year, Kanye lost his mother but kept touring. So that which didn't kill him, only made him stronger. It also continued making Common and John Legend stronger once again. 5. The Mims movement moment New York underground rapper Mims switched his style up and made a huge hit called "This is Why I'm Hot". On the record, he boased "I can sell a million saying nothing on a track." He didn't sell a million albums, per se', but he certainly got tons of airplay, sold a lot of ringtones and should have some money in his pocket. To this day, it's fair to say that more people know his song (or at least the hook) than his name. There are other groups in the same position, but I'd rather not teach you their names since their careers are over already. 6. Amy Winehouse Says No She became a big star across the pond from her native UK, earning more Grammy nods than everyone but Kanye West. But by the fourth quarter of 2007 her drugs, her husband and the two combined became an even bigger recurring story than her music. Her biggest hit was about her unwillingness to go to "Rehab". Really. I like Winehouse's music, but her off-the-court drama kept me far away from her and turned me off of her music. I played her videos as little as possible on my show. Sorry. 7. Stephen Marley The son of a legend dropped his debut album, "Mind Control" and rocked (too small of a venue to begin with) Antone's like it was Woodstock. Alongside his equally tireless little brother, Damian, Stephen and company redefined discipline and made a dozen or so musicians sound like a clean quartet. Senegalese immigrant and "dusty foot philosopher" K'naan, who opened with only a hype man, a guitarist and an African drummer, also blew the audience away without a hit song. To top it off, Stephen came back and slaughtered the Austin City Limits festival. 8. (Insert here) feat. Lil' Wayne Half of the singles in contemporary black music featured Lil' Wayne and T-Pain, when Akon was busy. Lil' Wayne was on songs by Lloyd, Playaz Circle, Kanye West, Mya, Jay-Z, Wyclef Jean, DJ Khaled, Swizz Beatz, Ja Rule, Fallout Boy, Enrique Iglesias, Devin the Dude, Birdman aka his daddy who he stunts like, Little Brother don't even get me started. At one point, T-Pain was on at least half a dozen songs in the Top 40. 9. UGK for Life Pimp C died at 33 years old in December, and nobody really knows why. As a musician, producer, songwriter and outspoken person, Chad Butler is to Southern rap music what Ike Turner (who also died in December) is to rock and roll. C had also, in the last two years, come from prison to No. 1 (UGK Underground Kingz) and No. 2 (Pimp C Pimpalation) on the Billboard albums chart, respectively. What made it all even realer is that I saw two of UGK's most important shows after Pimp C got out and UGK "came back". The first was at Erykah Badu's Black Forest Theater in Dallas where Scion sponsored a UGK show. The second, in a tie for highly unlikely, occurred when I performed with UGK, Crime Mob, Zion I and a few others at South By Southwest in March. 10. Last but not Least I, Bavu Blakes, was named Urban Music Director of M.E. (Time Warner Ch. 15, Digital 577) in late March, accepting full-time employment with benefits for the first time in at least seven years. My grown and sexy alter-ego "Mr. Blakes" continued hosting the station's soul/reggae/gospel/jazz/blues show, "Smooth", which featured four Grammy-nominated guests (Pinetop Perkins, Stephen Marley, Dwele, Emily King) in 2007. *capital Function: noun Etymology: French or Italian; French, from Italian capitale, from capitale, adjective, chief, principal, from Latin capitalis Date: circa 1639 a store of useful assets or advantages Top Five Honorable Mentions (again, in no particular order) 1. No Further Comment John Legend, Robin Thicke, Talib Kweli and Chamillionaire weren't nominated for Grammys. 2. No Flash, No Bang Major rapper/actor/businessman (and convicted felon) T.I., or T.I.P. aka Clifford Harris, allegedly bought 'army guns' and silencers from his bodyguard (and police informant) on his way to the BET Hip Hop Awards in his native Atlanta. Then the cops raided his house and found way more 'army guns'. It was unbelievable, like "Really!?!" 3. The new Reality TV The new "Really!?! with Seth and Amy" skits on Saturday Night Live tore into Michael Vick (pre-pit bull drama) and Senator Larry Craig (post-bathroom drama). Thankfully, they never did a skit about T.I. and the army guns. Search for "Really!?! With Seth and Amy" on Google or Youtube. Yes, really. 4. The Mitchell Report featuring Roger Clemens. 5. Barack Obama A Black man runs for president, and folks take it seriously. Folks like Oprah Winfrey and Common take it seriously. But seriously, what can he or any of these folks actually change in office? I guess we must vote and see. |
|
| Last Updated ( Friday, 07 March 2008 ) |
| < Prev |
|---|
