The Show, The After Party, The Hotel 03.04.09: All Around The World....

Posted by Weng Yu on 03.04.2009

This week I take you on a fantastic voyage around the world to discover new music. Plus new promos from Fiddy, Rick Ross, The Dream, Ne-Yo and Twista.



Good day all. Sorry I didn't put in a column last week, it was a pretty stressful time for me so I couldn't focus on writing.

- I'm going to Canada in three weeks for a snowboarding holiday. Can't wait!
- Remember, you can tune in to my show every Monday 10pm-12am UK time at Rocsolid FM.

I haven't found much solace in American music recently, so for this weeks column I thought I'd take y'all on a voyage of discovery and introduce some artists from around the world. Hopefully it'll be interesting, educational, and a good listen!


She wants you to get on that plane.....

All Around The World

It may come as a surprise to many that urban music isn't exclusively confined to the United States. Shock horror! Although I would have though that was obvious, especially considering the recent success of British artists such as Corrinne Bailey Rae, or Leona Lewis. Western Music has reached all over the world in unusual forms. A couple of weeks ago I saw an African boyband singing an uptempo r'n'b dance number on the MTV African Music Awards. It was interesting to say the least. Then there's the Shanghai Jazz Bands of the 50's, Brazilian Bossa Nova, the Japanese Rock explosion......the list is extensive. I've been fortunate enough to have been exposed to quite a few of these artists on my travels, so I thought I'd share a few with my readers. Most of these are from Asia, since that's where I hail from, but I can assure you that they are quality artists in their own right.

Les Nubians are a french duo who had quite a bit of sucess in the States about 10 years ago with their cover of Sade's "The Sweetest Taboo". Black Thought of the Roots featured on the record, a neo soul intepretation which is still popular today.



France has a large African population due to France's history of extensive colonisation of African states, so Les Nubians aren't the only quality French music act. However, how many of you know that Nas collaborated with a Dutch rapper called Brainpower for a official remix of "One Mic"? Embedding is disabled on the link, but you can view it
here. It's pretty good.

Leading on from that, Hip Hop has been a music genre which has inspired quite a few artists around the world. Slick Rick is orginally British, then there's Jin Tha MC, the chinese rapper who is famous for his work on the freestyle circuit. In recent times, Japan has thrown out quite a few notable hip hop acts. The most famous is probably the producer Nujabe, who composed the music for the hit anime "Samurai Champloo". If you can get hold of any of his work I would highly recommend it. It's an interesting blend of hip hop, jazz and funk, with a ton of experimental stuff thrown in.



Another Japanese hip hop producer who I absolutely love is Nomak. His sound is similar, but a bit more acoustic.



While I'm on the subject of Hip Hop, I gotta give some love to one of my mates out in Malaysia, a rapper called Point Blanc who's been quite successful out there.. It's rare to see a chinese rapper who's actually from Asia. The music is pretty raw, but its also very asian in it's style. This song is an autobiograpical account of his childhood.



Going back to r'n'b, when I was out in Australia I picked up a tune by an artist called Isreal, who orginally hails from the Philippines. He's been out in America for a bit working with some American artists, but I'm not sure what he's doing at the moment. I absolutely love this tune, called "Gemini" feat Fabulous.



Che'nelle is a mixed Chinese Malaysian/Indian/Dutch lady who also grew up in Australia. She's pretty well known in the club scene for one of her tracks "I Fell In Love With The DJ". She also has another song called "Teach Me How To Dance" which was featured in two movies, "Take The Lead" and "Make It Happen".



Hong Kong might seem like an unlikely place for a neo soul artist, but in the past three years Khalil Fong has emerged and become one of my favourites. Born in Miami, before moving to China as a child, he writes and produces all of his own music. He's also the leader of a music revolution in Hong Kong, which has traditionally favoured good looking, but talentless singers.



The recent popularity of hip hop dance has found an interesting hotbed in South Korea. The Koreans are absolutely dance crazy, and they're pretty damn good at it too - the South Korean team were the World Bboy Champions in 2006. Most of the music that comes out of there is r'n'b and hip hop, and its virtually compulsory for all Korean artists to be good dancers. If any of you have seen the movie "Speed Racer", you might recognise Rain, who played the character of Taejo. He first started out as a singer, and is often called the Justin Timberlake of Asia, with his smooth voice and smooth moves.



A guilty pleasure of mine is the absolutely gorgeous Lee Hyori, who is a poor singer, but is SMOKIN hot. This next video is actually a really long advertisment for a Samsung phone. She sings the song, and looks very sexy throughout.



This is really long, so I think I'll end it here. I'll probably go back to it in the future. I love these column cheat codes! If you can recommend any international artists, drop me a comment or email and I'll check it out.


News

Rihanna back with Chris Brown, and her family is unhappy - If my daugher got a beatdown from her boyfriend, I'd be pissed too. Surprisingly she's forgiven him. Everyone makes mistakes, but there's no excuse for what he did. No matter how bad your temper is, a line has to be drawn.

Snoop is now a Muslim - Will he drop the name?

Rihanna's dad comments - Might as well twist the knife.

Kanye runs his mouth off again - Whatever.

Madonna getting copies of "It" in the mail - Yeah I know its not related, but I thought it was funny.

Kanye runs his mouth off again - I've never been a fan, but I'm sure some people will find this good news.

Enimem suing label for digital royalties - This could have some pretty interesting ramifications for the future of the industry. Artists are definitely getting stiffed on digital sales - a win could mean a lot more money going out of record companies pockets and into an artist's bank account, which is a good thing. After all, they are being cheated out of money they deserve.

Promos

Ciara feat Justin Timberlake - Love and Sex and Magic - Remember I reviewed this a while ago? It's also on the hiplist, but with Justin only. So I guess the rumour that it was a demo was true, this is definitely going to be on Ciara's album. As I said before, the beat is a win, but I preferred it when it was just Justin.

Ne-Yo - Waiting - Finally, a song that isn't a winner. This is kind of average.

Ne-Yo - Bossy - And another average song. This is getting a bit much now. I count 7 tracks so far that didn't make the album, 5 of which would have taken it to the next level.

Keri Hilson - Turn Up The Radio - I didn't like this at all. Terrible beat, uninspiring vocals, and it just annoyed me after about a minute.

Dr Dre feat T.I and Nas - Topless - Pretty good edgy rap song. Wicked line from Nas 'Your skin's a travelling bag of your existence'. Thumbs up.

Rick Ross feat Avery Storm - On Top Of The World - This is seriously lacking in orginality. Predictable beat, predictable lyrics. I never really understood how he got so big.

50 Cent feat R Kelly - Do What It Do - Uninspiring. The beat sounds like Snoop's "Sexual Seduction", so I'm sure it will prove to be quite popular, but I'm not feeling it.

The Dream - Sweat It Out - Boring slow jam. This guy has a big rep as a songwriter, but I've never been hugely impressed with his work, apart from one or two gems.

The Dream feat Kanye West - Walking On The Moon - AWFUL.

D Woods - Legalize Me - Just ok. Its unsure whether she will pursue a solo career or not.

T-Pain feat Kanye West and OB - Flight School - So much for T-Pain giving up the vocoder. I found this kinda boring.

Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) - Another house remix from Pitbull. This guy sounds so good on party tunes its ridiculous. I feel this will be a big hit in the clubs.

Twista - Wetter - I kinda liked this, but unfortunately only got a half song sample.

Colby O'Donis - Let You Go - The beat sounds almost exactly like Mario's "Let Me Love You". Which is a bad thing, because this basically equates to a cheap rip off.


The Hiplist




Video of the week

Think there's been enough videos already here, so I'm giving this a miss.

Peace.