A Word From The Wise Women of Jazz, Blues, Soul and Gospel

• “If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling. Not two people on earth are alike, and it’s got to be that way in music, or it isn’t music.” - Billie Holiday

• “When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulders and I wouldn’t notice.” - Sarah Vaughan

• “The only time that I am really truly happy, when I feel my best, is when I’m on stage.” - Etta James

• “Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was apart of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.” - Nina Simone

• “Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I’m using to the highest degree possible, the gift God gave me to use. I’m happy with that.” - Aretha Franklin 

• “I am always aware that there’s an audience out there, and as a performer, I have to make a warm connection. People want to see as song as well as hear it.” - Nancy Wilson

• “I’ve been happily married to my profession for years.” - Shirley Bassey

• “I do not have an act, I just do Eartha Kitt. I want to be whoever Eartha Kitt is until the gods take me wherever they take me.” - Eartha Kitt

My First Love

This might sound like a clique, but music is my life. I can't function without listening to music, I dream about it. I have never gone a day in my life without listening to music. A stream of emotions runs through my body when I'm listening to it. It's kind of freaky how one minute I'm jamming to Reggae all happy and full of life, then the song changes to a heartbreaking slow jam songs and I'm fighting back the tears.

Besides the emotions, what I love about music is the layers of instruments and synthesisers that a song can hold. With every song I lay down and analyse every instrument, the timing of every beat, the levels and the rhythm. My favourite instrument would have to be the saxophone. The sound that comes out seem so effortless and smooth, but it's not easy you got to have strong lungs to blow any woodwind instrument. I guess that's why I have such a strong attraction to Jazz and Blues music.

I adore all genre of music. Hip Hop, Rap, R&B, Trap, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Gospel, Pop, Electronica, Reggae, Dancehall and African. All of these genres give me a different type of warmth, joy, happiness and excitement every time I click that play button. Gosh I hope I have this much love in my future relationships, but until then music and God will always have my heart.

Powerful Messages

Lyrics: Nas - I Can

Verse 1

"B-Boys and girls, listen up

You can be anything in the world, in God we trust

An architect, doctor, maybe an actress

But nothing comes easy it takes much practice

Like, I met a woman who's becoming a star

She was very beautiful, leaving people in awe

Singing songs, Lina Horn, but the younger version

Hung with the wrong person

Got her strung on that heroin, cocaine, sniffin up drugs all in her nose...

Coulda died, so young, now looks ugly and old

No fun cause now when she reaches for hugs people hold they breath

Cause she smells of corrosion and death

Watch the company you keep and the crowd you bring

Cause they came to do drugs and you came to sing

So if you gonna be the best, I'ma tell you how,

Put your hands in the air, and take a vow"

Chorus - 2x Nas (Kids)

"I know I can (I know I can)

Be what I wanna be (be what I wanna be)

If I work hard at it (If I work hard at it)

I'll be where I wanna be (I'll be where I wanna be)"

As always the media portrays rap and hip hop music as a negative connotation in society, but it's only the negative that their focusing on. There are many positive artist and music out there that promote education, health, doing the right things and staying away from the wrong people. Artists like Nas, an American rapper and lyricist, who is apart of many rappers who speak positivity in their music and aim to deliver powerful, yet simple messages to not only the youth of today, but to all ages. The message is primarily about staying in school, getting your HSC or high school diploma, stay focused and avoid the bad crowds, making your dreams come true, stick to what you believe and always show respect when deserved. 

I hope artist continue to spread such positivity and healthy growth into the society, and give the right type of guidance and influence to the youth.

Happy Birthday to the Queen of Jazz, Ella Fitzgerald

Please enjoy one of my favourites performances "Mack The Knife" by Miss Ella Fitzgerald

May you rest in perfect peace beautiful!

Oh! So you're a Bad B*tch?

Continuing on from the previous post about the portrayal of women, I've found an example of how language and slang in the hip-hop culture can not only influence young girls, but also young boys. Lupe Fiasco, an American rapper, lyricist and record producer who is known for being a pioneer of the "conscious hip hop", which is a movement in hip-hop that focuses on social issues. He has always had dislike for the hip-hop industry because it's indecency and misogyny.

Lupe has always written songs about stereotypes, religion, war, prostitution, poverty and education; but his 2012 single "B*tch Bad" is a song that has hit me personally and has made people in the industry and society think about the usage of the word "b*tch" and the effects it has on the youth of today. The songs tells of two different stories, a young boy and a young girl.

The first verse starts of will a young boy listening to his mother singing along with the radio to the lyrics "I'm a bad b*tch, something that's far above average". Now the boy, who doesn't know any better, is associating his mother, who is his number one source of nurture and love with the term "b*tch". The boy takes this term and sees it as a sign of respect, because that's the way his young undeveloped mind has interpreted it.

The second verse Lupe talks about little girls from the ages of nine through twelve watching music videos that have male rappers surrounded by beautiful women in close to nothing outfits, the rapper says "Bad b*tches, bad b*tches... That's all I want and all I like in life is bad b*tches". Since these girls are so young and naive, they don't realise that these women are just paid actress doing their job. So they associate the image of a "bad b*tch" with a sexually exotic young women with their favourite artist and assume that this is the "ideal women" they should aspire to become.

In the third verse, the little boy in verse one and the little girl in verse two are both grown up and have randomly met on the street. The girl is dressed provocatively like the women in the music video she watches. The line "And he thinks she a bad bitch and she thinks she a bad bitch. He thinks disrespectfully, she thinks of that sexually" is Lupe trying say, because the boy in verse one has a skewed perception of respect for women through his connection of his mother with the term b*tch, he views the girl disrespectfully. He believes she is a bad b*tch in the sense that she is bad at being a b*tch in his mind. His conception of a b*tch is his mother, who he shows respect to and the girl doesn't quite match up to his expectations of a “b*tch” so that’s why he calls her a bad b*tch using term "bad" in a literal sense. She views herself sexually because she is trying to reach the standard set by the music video actress.

"Bitch bad, woman good, Lady better, they misunderstood" is the chorus repeated throughout the song. It's basically saying to men and young boys that calling a female a b*tch is bad, calling her a woman is good, but calling a lady better and much more respectful. The song shows that there is a double meaning to this term and that different people interpret it in different ways and the usage of it has to be carefully thought about.

When I first heard this song I had a "Thank God" moment. It's about time someone in the industry come out and said "Hey! What going on here?". There's too many young naive children that believe every world that come out of their favourite artist mouth is Bible. Children are like sponges, they soak up everything they see, hear and listen too. They then apply all of that into a everyday lifestyle. I know artist are free to speak their minds and have freedom of speech, but they just need to be more careful about what they put out there and parents need to be better examples and focus on their children's behaviour and remove any negative connotation that will influence them down the right path.

Adults please please think about your actions when youth is involved. Try your hardest not to introduce negative influences to their undeveloped and malleable minds.

Close Your Eyes, Little Girl

The portrayal of women in rap music and by artist is sadly degrading and embarrassing, especially for a lifelong rap and hip-hop fan like me. Women are constantly depicted as whores, a piece of meat, a prize, gold diggers that will do anything for money, something to be used over and over again like a dish rag and worthless. Now all of these view of women are on being played out in society.

The hip-hop culture today is notoriously known for its hyper sexual negative images of females that male artist portray to the public, but it's not only today. This image of women has been around since the 1970's. An example of this is when 80's hip-hop group "2 Live Crew" jumped into the scene with extremely sexual and explicit singles and videos, which was a very rare thing to do back in the days. Their videos would show women as the main focus, wearing super tight mini dresses and string bikinis that left nothing to the imagination. Their video "Me So Horny" is a perfect example. 

*Warning - Video contains extremely explicit lyrics and visuals*

Since fashion and style is forever being recycled, many females today in the music industry like Rihanna, Lil Kim, Nicki Minaj and many video vixens are now dressing and posing provocatively like the women in the video above and this therefore influencing their young naive fans to portrait themselves in the same way. The use of drugs by females in the industry is most definitely glamorise. Again artist like Rihanna who photographs herself on a regular basis on Instagram smoking marijuana.

I've notice that a lot of young girls are now dressing more provocatively and starting to experiment with drugs stronger than marijuana. Young girls today are convinced that drugs, trashy clothing, a skinny body, but a big booty, bad behaviour and women hating (which is depicted in lyrics) is the definition of beauty and power. This new trend of behavior is causing the hip-hop culture to shape an unrealistic and negative image of women, therefore creating a devastating effect on the identity and cultural standards of an ideal woman. Sadly in today's society, sex = money = power... apparently that's all that matters.

Little girls of the world, don't feed into the hype. Be who you are, because that... is more beautiful!

Good Girl Gone Bad or Just Growing Up?

From the outside looking in, the lifestyle of a celebrity is something to envy and aspire for. The many mansions in each country and state, the luxurious multi-million dollar cars, fine dining, expensive jewellery that needs it's own security guard, the money and the fame. All of this is what the average person dreams about, but to the people who live in this world of glitz and glamour; all of this can become a headache... especially the fame.

For celebs like Miley Cyrus, the spotlight isn't always a warm place to be. Starting of has Disney's sweetheart in the hit television show Hannah Montana, Miley was always seen as the sweet little 11 year old who was perfect and always did the right thing. Which at the time was true, but just like any other pre-teen growing up and experiencing life, things started to changed.

Remember when we all go through that awkward stage in life when puberty started to hit, our body changed and we discovered the opposite sex? Well everyday average kids going through that at home in private, but for Miley Cyrus and several other child stars she through all of that and more in the public eye. 

She went from singing songs about best friends, having fun in the summertime and telling little girls that their beautiful no matter what to singing about breaking free from the good girl image, expectations that the media has put on her and relationships which gave her more of a sexualised image.

After releasing her third studio album Can't Be Tamed and going on tour, Miley received a lot of media criticism from her outfits that were deemed too provocative and lyrics that seemed selfish by the media, but that wasn't the image she was aiming to portrait. When receiving criticism for the music video to the single Can't Be Tamed, Miley stated "I think the video explains my life but it doesn't exclude other people's lives. It's not just about how fabulous and glamorous and all this. It's about the core of 'I don't wanna be in a cage. I want to be free and do what I love'"

As teenagers get older and go through new life experiences they express themselves in forms of dramatic makeovers, listening to a different genre of music, rebelling against school and their parents etc. Miley Cyrus back then was a teenager growing up as well. Not only did she go through all of these normal teenage behaviour in the spotlight, but she also expressed herself through was she loved to do, music.

She was being judged by the media and parents of children that looked up to her, for being a teenager. For growing up and learning from her mistakes. She is not here to raise your children. There's no need for her to continue portraying that 11 year old girl, that she's not anymore. There is no need to constantly judge someone for going through life like you did. So before you open your mouth to judge anyone, just stop and think about when you were a teenage.