KALEIDOSCOPE (1999)

Kelis Rogers-Jones, best known for the smash hit “Milkshake” from her Platinum-selling album Tasty in 2003, has been dropped from her U.S. label Jive Records recently. The apparent reason for this was cited to the poor lack in units pushed for the singer’s 2006 album Kelis Was Here, which barely went Gold, thus failing to make an impression on the charts.

First, former NSyncer JC Chasez decided to part ways with Jive Records, and now, EW has learned, Kelis has been dropped from the label that’s home to Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and R. Kelly. The R&B singer’s 2003 album, Tasty, yielded the massive hit “Milkshake,” and was certified gold, but Kelis’ most recent effort, 2006’s Kelis Was Here, had less success in the U.S.—despite plenty of guest spots, including a collaboration with her husband, Nas. Kelis was originally signed to Pharrell Williams’s Star Tracks, which had a distribution deal in place with Virgin, which was later moved to Arista and, through the SonyBMG merger, she ended up with Jive. “It was a case of being in the ever-shrinking world of the record industry and finding herself on a label she wasn’t signed to and without a champion,” says Kelis’ manager, Jeff Rabhan. “She’s a different kind of artist — very image and style-driven. It’s either something you get or you don’t.”

Kelis has been working on an indie dance record with Cee-Lo. A full-on pop effort with Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams) will be shopped around soon. “We’re not opposed to another major label deal, but it would have to be non-traditional,” adds Rabhan. Kelis is also in talks to host a Project Runway-like show on VH1 and is auditioning for numerous TV and film roles. [ SOURCE ]

Well, maybe, just maybe if Jive promoted their artists a little better (because they have some good artists) it would not result to this but Kelis didn’t need them anyway. The reason why I put that 1999 album cover of Kaleidoscope up is becos that is possibly my most favorite album from Kelis. I still bump tracks 1-14 every now and then, and if you notice, that’s the whole album. Becos I thought it was simply a masterpiece, stark brilliance really, I was too young when she came out but I started learning about her in like 2005. She truly is an ARTist and I wish her well. It is so sad to see all that talent go to waste! She needs a label that will grant her COMPLETE creative control like M.I.A.

I TOLD Y’ALL that “Watch Dem Roll” was going to be Sean Paul’s new single - now here is the official video premiere! Ugh, it could have been better than what I expected. Like a club setting with glowing cyber sticks and striper midgets … ANYTHING! This is getting redundant and you can totally tell they shot this on a 3-chip and edited this shit in Final Cut Pro (although there is NOTHING wrong with that! Final Cut Pro is an excellent program) but COME ON! There must have been some budget cuts going on here, indeed.

Granddad’s nemesis, Colonel H. Stinkmeaner, returns from Hell to seek vengeance on the Freemans and picks an unlikely vessel in poor Tom. Episode also includes a brief cameo from rapper Ghostface Killah. Eh, it gave me a few laughs, the plot was a little twisty. What did you guys think? I might do this through the whole season for you guys ;-) On another note, I MUST find the soundtrack to Boondocks! BOOM BAM!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH!

Jay-Z returns with American Gangster. After nearly a decade the rapper is still going strong with his tenth studio album set to release November 6th in accordance with the film American Gangster, which is in theaters November 2nd.

American Gangster has some ultra solid productions from The Neptunes, including the single “Blue Magic” and “I know,” my favorite. Other productions from the album include Just Blaze, Jermaine Dupri and Mario Winans. This album is trill as f*ck, Hov definitely wasn’t lying about taking it back to the Reasonable Doubt, lyrical wise, I think this can be Reasonable Doubt’s latter. I cannot stop playing “Pray” and “Success” among others. I feel like this album is relative in so many ways, this is seeming proof that you can come from rags to riches in due time and Shawn Carter has paid all of his. Period.

MY RATING: 10

“Success” ft. Nas • ( FULL )
“Hello Brooklyn” ft. Lil’ Wayne • ( FULL )
“Say Hello” • ( FULL )
“I Know” ft. Pharrell • ( FULL )

MARIO • “IF”

Here R&B singer Mario can be heard doing a cover of Beyoncé’s “If” over Trey Songz’ “Can’t Help But Wait” beat produced by Stargate. Wow, I must say, Mario had some solid delivery on this song. Kudos to whoever hooked up the arrangements! I think with material like this, it will definitely improve Mario’s versatility with different melodies, I would say he’s right up there with Trey Songz. I truly believe him and Mario are the two most underrated R&B artists out there at the moment. Anyway, overall, this isn’t single material in my opinion - but this would be great for mixtape material or as buzz track until the album releases. Now, when the album releases … I do not know. I here Mario’s label is releasing the Explicit version on October 30th and the clean one November 27th? No, no, NO! Who is the person over that? What I would do … I would release the Clean version FIRST, that way it’ll get folks all psyched up for the Explicit version when it drops. Because if the Clean is any good then everybody will be like, “damn, I want to hear the explicit version of this!” you know? J Records needs to hire me, indeed.