September Playlist

Hello!

September was not meant to have three music posts going up (the last one will publish on Monday!) but since stopping my main ‘Music Monday’ series, I had room to fill and I guess I took advantage of it. Thankfully, they are all different and have a large selection of music for everyone to enjoy!

For today, we are getting into the monthly playlist, plus a special dedication for an artist that sent me a message late in August for my services, so before I give you the top songs, I thought you should look into my thoughts on what I thought about Rad Luck’s song “Too Lit”.

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Rad Luck is an independent hip hop artist from North Carolina. Apparently he’s released several songs and mixtapes since early 2019, and what I really like about him is that everything he does, he does it himself. Nowadays, everybody is doing this, but I still appericate the passion, people are doing things without the help of record companies. Although, most artists still want to be a part of a famous label and blow up into a mega star, but there is no ganuertee that once you get there, how much power you will able to release what you want, so even though this way is time-consuming, at least you have creative control on everything you put out there for your growing fanbase.

Anyways, I actually liked the song. I didn’t love it exactly, but I thought the beat was good and totally gave me this vibe of everything that screams “summer” and though we are nearing the end of the season, everyone is trying their best to keep it in their lives right now, as part of a good aspect to this interesting year! The video itself is very trippy, which adds another part to the “good times” flare throughout the entire song.

Please before continuing with the rest of my post, listen to his track and check it out for yourself. I’d like to see what your thoughts are on it too! You can find Rad Luck on Instagram and Twitter.

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Okay, now we’re back to our regular scheduled post.

I think this monthly playlist is short compared to the others, but I think I know why. Since I was busy with my other posts and their playlists, I just forgot to add songs that I’ve enjoyed listening to throughout the month. I’ve tried my best to pick through the songs I could remember and continued to add more newer tracks afterwards. Here is my Top 20 songs that I just loved so much that I thought you should check out as well!

Exhale by Plumb
Master Passion Greed by Nightwish
Tears Don’t Fall by Bullet For My Valentine
Bad Guy by Conquer Divide
Barefoot In The Park by James Blake featuring Rosalia
I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth
I Did It by Raja Kumari
Goddess by Krewella x NERVO featuring Raja Kumari
Getting Over It by COUNTERFEIT
The Diary Of Jane by Freya Catherine
Blood Diamond by VERIDIA
All Around Me by Flyleaf
The Bleeding by Five Finger Death Punch
Good In Goodbye by Madison Beer
Whore by Violet Orlandi
Six Feet Under by Oshins featuring Leslie Powell
Brand New Thing by Zayde Wolf
Giant by ZZ Ward
Another Level by Oh The Larceny
Aerials by Halocene featuring Violet Orlandi and Lauren Babic

If you are on Spotify and want to keep taps on the other songs I listen throughout the day (and sometimes night!) you can click here to be directed to the playlist in general.

What were you listening to?

Music Monday | Missy Elliott

Howdy!

When I was thinking about doing the series, I know I wanted to keep it diverse, not because my love of music is all of the place, but it is very important to say that there are women music producers out there. In fact, I decided to talk about two of them that I knew were important to my life and musical journey. However, if you know and love of any other women producers out there, please tell me about them in the comments. I would love to learn more about why you adore them, and of course check out their music too!

A couple of years ago, Missy Elliott was awarded by MTV’s VMAs (Video Music Awards) with the Lifetime Achievement award. Back when MTV did play hours and hours (boy, do I miss those days!) of music videos, you probably saw one or if you were really lucky two Missy Elliott videos within 20-30 minutes of each other. I’d say from 1998 to 2004 is when she was just creating all kinds of stuff. A lot of them included dancing, but she was very known for her crazy antics and style in those days. They all looked fun every single time they appeared on your television screen. I’m sad to say I haven’t seen any of her previous videos, but remembering her others, I know she would continue going down that way for as long as she is allowed.

Missy is most known for her songs and friendship with Timbaland and Aaliyah, but I think it’s important to say that she has worked with all kinds of acts throughout the years! In 2004, when the R&B artist Ciara appeared, especially after watching her first music video for “Goodies” you probably hoped that she’d work with Missy one day. Dancing played a big part in the two artists, but it also just seemed like a great combination because Ciara has that same soft voice that Aaliyah was known for–even though nobody could ever be as good as her–you still hoped that they would work together. So, by the time “1, 2, Step” came out on the radio, it was like the music gods were really hearing our prayers and then it happened again in 2004 with Missy’s track “Lose Control” with Fatman Scoop. It was an awesome sequel to the story of these two big female singers.

Since we’re on the subject of girl power, I think we should discuss the remake of Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade” of the film Moulin Rouge in early 2002. Instead of having one singer do the entire song, she produced and worked with four powerhouses of the popular genres of that time. You had the R&B artist Mya to start off and then we move on to Pink, who at the time was a mixture of pop-R&B at the time. Brooklyn’s own Queen rapper Lil’ Kim lended a nice section and gave the song an added flare, and finally Christina Aguilera graced us at the end. I still think this is where she began weaning herself out of the cookie cutter bubblegum pop music. The song itself went on to win lots of awards but I think a lot of people either don’t know and/or forget that Missy Elliott was a huge part of making this happen. I mean, think of it as like the first time The Avengers assembled. Yes, I just did that and I’m not even sorry about it either!

Are you a fan of Missy Elliott? Do you have a favorite music video from over the years? Is there any other artists that you think she should consider working or maybe not collaborating with next? Please give me your thoughts about that down in the comments.

Music Monday | Timbaland

Last month I started this new series; essincally talking about the two people who were at the heart of my decision of wanting to go off to college for Audio Recoedings ten years ago. The first was Dr. Dre and I discussed my love for him and the influences between him, Eminem and 50 Cent that made me want to explore the world of hip hop when I was a teenager. A week later, I talked about Rick Rubin and how much I respected him for not sticking to one genre, he experiments with various genres and musicans. The work he has done with Linkin Park really struck a cord with me because it made me realize that it was perfectly fine to love all kinds of music.

This time we really start at square one. I know I should have started it out this way, but in a way both people were the beginning although there were many years between them. I was introduced to rap music when I was like four or five years old, so early 90’s so for the next couple of months I will take you through the other music producers that have kept me entertained and inspired throughout my life.

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As you can see above in the banner, May is going to be about Timbaland and Missy Elloitt. So, we are moving on to the later part of the 1990’s and easily into the early 2000’s.

Timbaland is a very unique indivdiual. He has been able to be around for a lot of the ups and downs in the music insturdy. He has worked with a lot of various people, some of them have put him at the forefront of their music for a time. He and Missy Elloitt have worked together for a very long time. He has written and produced a lot of her music. He has even been featured in her wacky music videos too! These two had a great time in the late 90’s with R&B artist Aaliyah. They quickly became the dynamic thrio in a way, because they just dominated the charts. Unfortunately, when she died in 2002, of course it was sad. It still makes me upset everytime they make a comment about her on her birthday or anniversary of her death.

As you go into the 2000’s though, you see him working with newly solo boy band member Justin Timberlake on his first record “Justified” and honestly, I don’t think it mattered that he was the favorite of N’Sync, I just think that the two of them worked so well together was insane! In 2005, they came to work with Nelly Furtado and those next three years were really interesting because almost every track that was released I was totally into, and it was just like a steady stream and I kept falling into it everytime. However, I don’t think nothing could have prepared us for the introduction of OneRepublic in 2008. Once the song “Apologize” came out we were all gone. I know I wanted more and thankfully, we didn’t have to wait that long until the band released their second track “Stop and Stare” a few months later.

By 2009, I wasn’t really watching what was going on with Timbaland. Although, when Justin Timberlake released his second album, I took notice because I hoped that they teamed up again, which they did and everything was awesome, I started growing out of both pop and R&B, as this was the time I was officially introduced to Linkin Park and I immediately went rock bottom. However, I recently found out that a song I have been enjoying lately that was remixed by Timbaland. I’m pretty sure you have heard of it. The original track has Dolly Parton, which is awesome too, but I love Of King & Country’s version of “Only God Knows” with Echosmith is amazing! I think it’s a interesting track because with both singers and their styles, it allows the song to be played in two different radio airways: country and pop.

I am curious to see how farther Timbaland can push the boundaries in music. How many other collabrations he can create with new and older acts. It will be interesting if he can get back to leading the charts in R&B and/or pop again like he has done in the past. It’ll be fun to see what else he has up his sleeves in the next year, I mean think about this, summer is quickly appoarching so he could surprise us all with a new track that could be your new anthem. You never know these days, but you know I’ll be keeping my ears and eyes open to the music.

Are you a fan of Timbaland’s music? What decade do you think he hit his peak? Which team do you side with as being the best too?

Tune Tuesday | Greece 2016

Hey guys!

Today we’re going to talk about one artist: Xenia Ghali!

I am a big supporter of women in music; I think a lot of people see both heavy metal and electronic dance music as male produced. Over the years, I’ve tried to do my part and help promote these women in bands of guys or in this case women DJs. I don’t talk a lot about Xenia because truth be told, I don’t know a lot about her but I have seen her popularity rise since November of last year so that’s a plus! While writing this post, I was busy listening to different tracks on YouTube seeing which ones to add onto this post and I have to say, it was difficult because I was starting to like them a lot!

I need more Grecian musicians for next year’s Tune Tuesday, who should I add onto my list?

Tune Tuesday | Germany 2016

Hey guys,

So we’re onto Germany for the week!

I think I’m going to start out with Dark Fortress. They were a band I found on my Facebook first, I could be wrong of course but I’m pretty sure that’s how I found them. I seriously don’t know how I would find them because I rarely listen to black metal bands but every once in a while I do get in the mood for them. Nobody would think that, but I really do have my days where I want something really heavy and dark. Anyways, these guys sort of remind me of Motionless In White and another surprising band that I know Cradle Of Filth. They’re pretty great I think! I just wouldn’t watch any of their music videos!

This next band is pretty interesting I think, they’re called Van Canto and they are a symphonic metal band but they don’t necessarily use the same insturments that you would think they’d have to create such music. They are the metal version of Pentanox, they use only their voices and sounds they can make with their mouths. They’re one of the most unique metal bands I’ve found in the last six years! They make you rethink what heavy metal should sound!

Now time to share a section of the electronic dance music, Zedd is one DJ that has had a lot of good hits but I haven’t agreed with some of his opinions about music. I’ve only started to pay more attention to his music. I like the remake of his track “True Colors” with singer Kesha. I think despite the fact things didn’t end ideally for her, I think the song is a perfect song for new beginnings for her!

So what do you think of these artists? Do you know any more German music I should put on next year’s rota?