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?

Nothing Lasts Forever

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If you’re currently sick and tired of hearing about Zayn Malik leaving One Direction, this is not the post for you. For everybody else, let’s get right to it. It happened. It actually happened and why does it usually happen whenever I just get into the group or artist? That’s the one thing I’ve never been able to figure out. Zayn left One Direction, the news came after he left the tour because he was “stressed.” He left to be a normal 22 year old outside of the media. When I heard the news about this, I knew I’d have some thoughts about that and thought I’d share them on here too!

I remember watching their film This Is Us and was of course hooked to that after seeing it the first time, but my sister and I were both sad for the guys because they didn’t have much of a private life, they were kind of thrown into this during their time on The X Factor four years ago, they can’t be normal people going through their ups and downs without somebody saying something about it or taking their pictures while they’re out and about, so I feel for all five of them, not just Zayn. I understood his reason for leaving.

Now about the song that Naughty Boy released, I thought that was a little fast. Whether or not it was Zayn’s descision or not, it was still pretty quick! We all know that there’s a good chance all five members of One Direction will want to release solo music projects. Harry, Louis, and Liam have been writing and composing songs for themselves and other artists in the last few years. I don’t usually read music blogs or articles of that nature, but I did find one that got me, I don’t remember the website of where I saw it on but they “found out” that Zayn was working on his solo project with Naughty Boy, we’ve all known about that. We might not wanted to believe it at times, but you can’t expect them to drift away. Something that everybody keeps forgetting that these are FIVE individuals, they might want to go in different directions at one point in their lives and we are going to have to accept it and move on. Something that I’ve also kept in mind is that we can choose to see this in a bad or good way, maybe the guys need a break from each other for a little while. A quote I’ve recently found in the mess of all this.

“The bad news – nothing lasts forever. The good news – nothing lasts forever.”   

I’ve been thinking of the time where I had both of my childhood boy bands break up. I grew up in the 90’s so the break up of N’Sync burned me bad, but not as bad as the news of Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys leaving the group in 2004. Holy cow! I was sad but even back then I knew things couldn’t have lasted long. All members of BSB have had separate careers outside of the group, even N’Sync too! Despite Justin being the only one that I’ve seen have a successful solo music career, everybody was freaking excited about the reunion performance last year at the Billboard Awards. That’s another thing that fans keep forgetting about these groups and bands, that even though they might be leaving the group – that doesn’t mean that they’ll never get back together! Who knows maybe in a few more years if they are all on good terms with each other, maybe Zayn will join them for in 10 or 20 years. These guys have been through so much and clearly love all of their fans so much that they will never be gone.

Backstreet Boys have been together for 20 years! It’s been a long journey for them too! Kevin came back into the group early 2012 and they released their first album as five members again in the summer of 2013. Every group has had a break up of some kind, whether the original members leave and only one is left or they disband altogether. It’s still heartbreaking! When everybody heard about My Chemical Romance break up, my entire Facebook page exploded! Everybody was so sad. Classic rock band Guns ‘N’ Roses has had every original member leave the band except for Axl Rose. I can’t even tell you how many times they’ve had to replace a member. However, not every break up can be considered a bad thing. Singer Tarja was symphonic metal’s Nightwish first lead vocalist and after leaving the band, she has had a very successful career! Remember R&B group Destiny’s Child? You gotta remember that Beyonce was once in the group too! They even changed formation twice, before becoming a trio. I also feel like that both Kelly and Michelle have had excellent careers too!

We need to stop expecting that our favorites are perfect, they’re not. They may have dreamt of becoming what they are, but on certain scales I don’t think they all expected where they’d end up. They’re all human beings, so let them be just that! Musicians count on their fans so much to go to their shows, buy merchandise, etc so they can continue to live their dreams. It takes a lot out of one a person, imagine what it does to five people. It’s not easy. I love being a fan of music and I’ll support them in any way I can, that goes for good and bad.

Road To Find That Something Again

I had the right mindset yesterday. I did almost everything right. Until I got on the floor and actually started drawing. Man, did it feel weird. I’m use to sitting in weird places for when I draw. Growing up and drawing at my nana’s house I’d sit in the hallway, kitchen, living room, etc. I was everywhere. At school, especially in Elementary, I could never reach the tables. So I would sit on top of the table. Surprisingly, I sat up there until I think fourth grade because when fifth grade came along everybody was too afraid to lift me because of my back. Which I didn’t blame them. I actually don’t remember what we did about that. Sitting up on the tables was awesome, because sometimes I felt as though as I was “Queen of the Art room.” Thank god I grew out of that stage.

Once I started middle school, I was being shipped back and forth with different aides because I didn’t have my own aide around that time. I took art four times during both sixth and seventh grades. I didn’t want to take gym in middle school, but when eighth grade came along I had to take gym. Anyways, the aides didn’t want to lift onto the tables either so I actually had my own little desk in there that was my height. It was long but not big enough for huge paper. That was always the downfall. It was a nice thing to have in art since I could do most of the stuff myself, except for the clay. That went straight to hell. When I started high school I took a break from art. I didn’t take it for two years, which seems interesting thinking about it now. It wasn’t until my Junior year, second semester that I went back into it.

I did the 2D classes, because I knew if I did the 3D classes my aide would be the one to do the projects and not me. So I never did that or Painting, even though I actually considered the Painting class as one of my last classes during my Senior year, but I was never good at painting. The mess was always fun but underneath my feet is really ticklish. Drawing was always fun to me. I hated it, and loved it at the same time. Junior year I did three projects that were out of the nine projects we had to do in all. My “Charmed Flower” was created in the dark part of the classroom on a small desk. During this time, I had another table but it was much smaller and had less room than the other table. I had some trouble with that drawing because where I was in the room, I couldn’t get the shading the come out right and I liked my little space in the corner of the room.

I did a “White Tiger” with ink wash. It was mainly ink and water. It was like you were painting because you used a brush to make this come to life on paper. I always had problems with keeping the paper and water cup on the desk. Something would always fall off. So my teacher gave an easel but instead of raising it up, it was flat. I can’t work with it up, my feet can’t do it. My legs can’t tired easily. Finally, I had room and enough stability that everything would stay on the desk. After I was done with that project, my last favorite was the “Justin Timberlake” portrait. It was made with charcoal. It actually looked like him. It was my first portrait and definitely wasn’t my last.

When senior year came along, in December I knew I was going to have my last Drawing class. I had to be prepared for this year and the projects. Our class was another small class, and finally I wasn’t the only upperclassmen in the class. There were two seniors in the class. I had to do nine projects but somehow I got away with doing seven in all but completely all the medias and only doing two doubles. Charcoal and pencil were the only two that were doubled. I did “The Six” which were the six members of Linkin Park and as my last project I did a pair of purple eyes I like to call “Legacy.” I vowed to take a break from drawing for a while because around that time everybody was driving me crazy about not doing art is a career. Art was always a hobby for me. Like, most of everything I do.

It’s been almost two years since my days at drawing. Three of “The Six” drawings are now two years old, and the other three projects are now three years old. Now I’m starting again. Starting on my next group of people. Yesterday wasn’t much fun to tell you the truth. It drove me nuts. Between thinking I broke the printer and the boxes my dad graphed out for me where too small, I was worried. I put too much pressure on myself. It’s just one picture but it’s one out of 15. You can’t tell your mom that though, she’d just think you’re crazy. Even though I think mom was already thinking that yesterday afternoon since I broke down. I’m an idiot and I’m insecure about how it’ll turn out since I haven’t done this in so long. I wonder how I acted after I went back into art after I took two years off when I was in school?

Movie Review: Friends With Benefits

Hmmmm… I just popped my neck. I wonder if Justin heard it. If you haven’t watched the movie yet you won’t get that first sentence at all. I just watched this movie, dying to see it for months now. For, of course the obvious Mr. Timberlake, but once I started watching it I noticed something. I never really liked Mila on That’s 70’s Show, but for some odd reason she looked really hot on here. I don’t know what it was that made the switch but I’m definitely not complaining yet. Oh, and seeing Shaun White, the snowboarder in this movie was a nice plus too!

I had seen No Strings Attached, and I really liked that movie as well. So I was kind of worried if both were going to be the same. Both have the same meaning in a sense. Friends just want to have sex with each other. Nothing else. Luckily, in both movies they had different storylines. Despite what others say, there is a difference between the two movies. Especially with the characters. In NSA, it was Natalie’s character (Emma) to have the emotional ties for Ashton’s character (Alex) and with this movie, it was mutual, well kind of.

I actually think I laughed more in this movie than the other. Ashton’s funny, but Mila is better. She made me crack up more than Justin did. Which is strange, but everytime I got a good look at his face, body and butt. I just lost all sense of control afterwards. I probably smiled more than anything else. It was a cute and funny movie. It was also interesting how much Mila’s character reminded m of myself and my habits. I want my Prince Charming, but something always goes wrong when I try to find. And I definitely have her potty mouth too!

My Love/Hate Relationship With Art

In grade school my favorite class wasn’t lunch or recess, instead it was Art. My friend Ashlyn gave me a suggestion on my Twitter earlier. She gets very creative with these ideas, they’re definitely making me think. Today she told me to talk about my favorite thing to do as a kid and now and then compare each of them. Art, either it was drawing or painting I always loved it. Not necessary doing it myself, but I loved everybody’s else pictures. When I was in school besides writing, drawing was my second gift God blessed me with. Everybody was always amazed with me whenever I’d do both, but drawing was everybody’s favorite I think. My Art teacher in Elementary was Mrs. Hays. She was my favorite teacher out of like seven teachers I had. She always encouraged me on my artwork. She made me feel better after everybody watching me all the time while we worked on our projects.

When I got into middle school, we got into the 3-D type of projects. I noticed after my first attempt of making a cat in clay and it ended up looking like the Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt. Except mine wasn’t suppose to end up like that and ironically enough the nose actually fell off when our teacher Mr. Ross welded them. We still have it somewhere, I actually hate it but everybody seems to still love it. It made realize that the 3-D projects were not for me. And I didn’t just do that one to make me realize it either. I made a box and cup and both of those were made by my aide. During my Junior year, I tried painting after five years of not painting at all. I did the ingredients of Salsa. We finally have those up after three years. I didn’t think I did well with those either so I never continued with painting.

Drawing, doodling for me is fun. It’s always been interesting what I’ll find and want to draw. When Senior year came I didn’t have art until second semester and I was worried that I’d never be able to have it then either with my ISTEP classes I had to have and others as well. When second semester came, I had ideas of what I wanted to draw and already had the pictures picked out. I was prepared. The only thing I was worried about was my teacher’s approval of the pictures. I had six guys I wanted to draw and only one picture out of the six was the original picture I picked out at first. Everybody’s would go back and forth. I got six portraits done in four months. Three of them were started a day after the other. My fourth was my shortest time, I did that one for three days. The longest amount of time was my last portrait and it took me two weeks. After I finished those drawings, I could have just stopped right there, but we had to have 9 to 11 projects.

Now I know you’re thinking, I only did six drawings, but however I did put two medias in one drawing. So it shortened my projects down a bit. When May came, my teacher didn’t want me to not do anything in his class so I had to find something else to draw. So I started searching for my best and favorite feature on a person: Eyes. I love eyes! With or without make up. I found hundreds of pictures but chose this picture of baby blue eyes. I already went into about this drawing a month ago, so I’m not going to talk about it again. After graduation, I vowed I was done was art. After years of people watching me and admiring my artwork I just stopped. I didn’t see the point of going on. The reason why is because when I was in class, even though everybody was admiring my artwork I was admiring their’s. I loved watching everybody else draw. It was more like envy, because they hated everytime I’d watch them. Thankfully, they never said anything about it, but I know the feeling of being watched and it sucks. Especially when you’re doing average things like writing and drawing.

So going back to Ashlyn’s topic. I have not gotten back into drawing. After two years, I’d like to start drawing again but I liked the fact that when I was in the class I had the teacher there to watch me and help me if I needed it. Which was often. I don’t think I can do it now. I already have pictures lined up in my head of who I want to draw. Everytime I look at different photography of people, I think “oh, that would be cool as a drawing.” Since I have a history of drawing celebrities like, my first was Justin Timberlake (Junior year) and Linkin Park (Senior year) they’re the first thing I want to do. I’ve been thinking of trying to go small, but that never happens in my case. There is one picture I’d just like to try to it’s a picture of James Michael. The lead singer of Sixx:A.M. I saw this picture and I literally went “I want to draw this” and then I start to get worried. Because all my doubts start flooding me and making me think twice about doing it on my own. This is what the picture looks like, it looks too detailed for me and my other drawings didn’t have that much detailed on them. See, all my doubts are coming in and making me think twice about it.