Urban Music Guide

If you think television contests like “Making the Band”, will get you nowhere, then think again. Making the Band 3 winners, an all female group named “Danity Kane”, topped the charts for two times in a row. Formed by veteran musician Sean “Diddy” Combs, the all female group has indeed proven that with the right amount of talent combined with the right knowledge on what’s “in” and “hot” in today’s entertainment world, any performer can go a long way. Compared to previous “Making the Band” winners like O-Town (Making the Band 1) and Da Band (Making the Band 2), Danity Kane is surely a one-hit-wonder.

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Do you really think people don’t miss the uber schmaltzy and uber mushy songs of boy bands and girl bands? Think twice. When the Spice girls got back together for a one-time world tour last year, it proved that people STILL want to hear their sappy songs and reminisce the good old times. Now, another groupie wants to join the “bring back the old times” phenomenon: the New Kids On The Block. Yes, even though their youngest member is already turning 30 next year, they still want to get back to whatever they have left in the music industry. NKOTB as a group has sold a total of 70 million albums worldwide during the peak of their careers and became the icons of other teeny-bopper boy bands such as Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

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Singer and producer Kanye West’s “The College Dropout” was declared by Rolling Stone magazine as the best album of the year in 2005. Spin magazine also voted this album as the best release in the same year. And last but not the least, Time magazine included this album in their 100 best albums of all times list.

Kanye West himself produced the album and did the dirty work himself to get the permissions of the veteran artists whom he used in some tracks. Even though artists like Lauryn Hill and Aretha Franklin did not permit Kanye to use their songs (it would have been great though), the album raked in positive reviews.

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Ja Rule is probably most notable for his duet with Jennifer Lopez. But apart from the duet feat he did, this rapper won a total of 9 awards (MTV Video Music Award, Teen Choice Award, World Music Award and so on and so forth) and sold over 20 million albums worldwide. He has also been nominated numerous times in the Grammy’s. He has had different feature duets not only with J. Lo, but also with Missy Elliott and Ashanti. His “Pain Is Love” album reached number 1 in the Billboard 200. Ja Rule is set to release his latest album entitled “The Mirror” in May 6, 2008. He stated in an interview that this album includes less feature artists as he wants the album to be about himself.

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Sean Paul is best loved by folks who do clubbing. His “Get Busy” single in 2003 has been heard all over the bars in town and has made boys and girls “shake their thing” on the dance floor like there’s no tomorrow. After two years, Sean Paul released yet another dance music entitled “Temperature”. This single again hit the dance clubs as well as the US Billboard Hot 100. Sean Paul’s dance tunes plus his unique style of singing the lyrics (sometimes inaudible but rhyming) indeed branded him as a man of talent. He also tends to sing fast (in a jibberish manner) and so sometimes, you wouldn’t be able to get the exact lyrics of the song not unless you search for it.

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