James Brown Attends Ga. Festival
MACON, Ga. (AP) - James Brown returned to his musical roots at the Macon Music & Heritage Festival, crediting a local radio station's willingness to play his records with helping launch his career. The Godfather of Soul cited Macon native Little Richard and local promoter Clint Brantley as strong influences ...
| Quincy Jones Pens Memoir
NEW YORK (AP) - Super-producer Quincy Jones has laid it all out - from his days of playing with Count Basie to producing Michael Jackson's "Thriller'' album - in a new memoir that includes chapters by Ray Charles and family members. In "Q,'' Jones recalls how in 1964 he and the other black members of ...
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Rap music seeking favorable spin in D.C.
WASHINGTON (Variety) - Hip-hop, here's a message from your elders: Don't squander your potential to shape culture and politics. At a Friday summit sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, rap leaders were urged to help others understand the musical genre as a positive, potent force. "What are you ...
| River City Rebels Play and Live Punk -- Album Review
NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - As a new generation of music fans pumps its collective fist and embraces punk music for what it has become, it is refreshing to find a band connected to the past -- one hand on the guitar and one foot in the pit. Like many of today's punk fans, the River City Rebels is a group ...
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Neptunes' Pharrell Williams Rethinks R&B
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Like his childhood friend Timbaland, Pharrell Williams wants to do more than simply make hit records. The flamboyant half of production stars the Neptunes, and songwriter responsible for the Britney Spears hit "I'm a Slave 4 U," would like to inject more variety into rhythm & blues. ...
| OutKast, D12, And Xzibit Join Snoop On 'Bones' Soundtrack
NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - Snoop Dogg serves as the executive producer for the soundtrack for Bones, the horror film that stars the rapper as the evil villain Jimmy Bones. Snoop has enlisted OutKast, D12, Xzibit, Warren G, and Nate Dogg for the album, scheduled to be released October 9 on Priority Records. ...
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Nelly Furtado Hatching Follow-Up To Whoa, Nelly!
NEW YORK (Reuters) - After proving her pop chops with "I'm Like a Bird" and gaining some hip-hop cred with her appearance on Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On" remix, Nelly Furtado says she feels free to do "whatever the hell I want" on her next album, due by the end of 2002. Though Furtado plans to ...
| Quincy Jones Boxed Set And Bio Release Nearing
NEW YORK (AP) - A complete retrospective on the life and music of 26-time Grammy winner Quincy Jones is set for release October 16. The main feature will be the four-CD set titled Q: The Musical Biography Of Quincy Jones from Rhino Records; additionally, Doubleday is releasing Q: The Autobiography Of ...
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Casting Call For Eminem Film Taking Place This Weekend In Detroit
DETROIT (AP) - An open casting call is taking place in Detroit this weekend for hometown rap hero Eminem's autobiographical movie, which is expected to start filming this fall. The call takes place Saturday and Sunday (September 29 and 30) at the Detroit Academy Of Arts & Sciences, and producers are ...
| LL Cool J To 'Deliver Us From Eva'
NEW YORK (AP) - LL Cool J is reportedly set to star in USA Films' Deliver Us From Eva, a romantic comedy that will feature the rapper-actor as a born ladies' man paid $5,000 to go out with a family's meddling sister-in-law. Rising star Gabrielle Union has been cast as Eva, the sister-in-law that LL ...
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Randy Jackson May Get Probation
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Prosecutors have recommended that Michael Jackson's brother, Randy, be placed on probation and fined $21,100 for failing to report that he owned a sport utility vehicle when he filed for bankruptcy protection. "He committed fraud against the court by not disclosing that he owned a ...
| Marvin Gaye, Temptations, Curtis Mayfield And Others Featured On Six-CD Boxed Set
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Most of the biggest names in R&B music from the '70s are featured on Can You Dig It? The '70s Soul Experience, a six-CD boxed set, scheduled to be released October 16 on Rhino Records. Out of the 136 songs in the collection, 65 reached Number One on the R&B and/or pop charts, ...
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Whitney Houston's 'Banner' To Benefit Relief Funds
NEW YORK (AP) - Whitney Houston will re-release her performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as a commercial single, and donate all royalties and net proceeds from the sale to the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Fraternal Order of Police. An Arista Records spokesperson ...
| CeCe, BeBe Winans To Perform On Oprah's 'Music To Heal Our Hearts' Special
LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) - Gospel star CeCe Winans will perform live on a special episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, titled "Music to Heal Our Hearts," on Friday (Sept. 21). Winans will perform "Looking Back at You," from her new self-titled CD, as well as a duet with her brother BeBe Winans on the ...
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Rhino Scours No. 1 Hits For Soul Box Set
NEW YORK (AP) - Rhino has compiled 136 tracks -- 64 of which were No. 1 R&B and pop hits -- for the six-CD box set "Can You Dig It? The '70s Soul Experience," due Oct. 16. The set features familiar hits from Marvin Gaye ("Let's Get It On"), Isaac Hayes ("Theme from Shaft"), Bill Withers ("Lean On Me"), ...
| Evans Returns With 'Faithfully'
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - R&B star Faith Evans will release her third solo album, "Faithfully," Nov. 6 via Bad Boy/Arista. Executive produced by Bad Boy founder Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Evans, and Todd Russaw, the album will be led by the M.A. Saulsbury-produced single "You Gets No Love." A supporting video ...
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Former Manager Sues Afroman For Breach Of Contract
NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - Mo' money, mo' problems -- at least that's what Afroman is probably starting to think. The Mississippi-bred rapper (real name Joseph Foreman) behind current radio sensation "Because I Got High" has been hit with a breach of contract lawsuit from his former manager, Hey Red ...
| Singer Writes Anti-Terrorist Song
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - Calypso singer Mighty Sparrow has written a new song condemning the deadly terrorist attacks in the United States. The song, published in Wednesday's Trinidad Guardian newspaper, uses rhyme to relate the tragedy: "Without any provocation, they massacre and destroy Manhattan,'' ...
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Whitney Houston's singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner'...
LOS ANGELES (AP) - PATRIOTISM: Arista Records rereleasing Whitney Houston's soaring version of "The Star-Spangled Banner," which she performed at Super Bowl XXV on January 27, 1991 and which became a unifying song for Americans during the Gulf War. The single already is on the radio, and Arista hopes ...
| Dr. Dre Pledges $1 Million To Help With Relief Efforts
NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - Superproducer, talent scout, and rapper Dr. Dre has pledged $1 million to help with the relief efforts stemming from last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Dr. Dre joins a growing contingent of entertainers who have pledged everything from concert proceeds ...
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