Ashbella:

Register for a domain at www.domainking.com.
They offer the following features• Free email forwarder
•2 free custom email I.e info@yourname.com
•free whois
So its very cool and cheap,just for N3000 for a year...for .com

Wow. Thanks a million.
Never knew it was this cheap
I definitely will register

bedfordng:
then you are wrong. They have lots of search terms and lsi.entertainment search terms is even mostly searched than other niche. You even get more weired hidden search terms for celebrities and their music. Some one searching for when did micheal jackson died. Most entertainment blogs don't add seo to their articles probably because they follow the bandwagons. If you do keyword research on entertainments, then you will know they have more search terms than any other niche. Instead of writing 2face just released a new single, there is a search term people are using to search for that single while those who followed the bandwagons gets zero traffic because they only write what they copied, no lsi, no keyword for what people are searching..check this example search term for 2face from a keyword research tool and you will understand that lots of searches are done by people but most bloggers only copy and paste in entertainment blogs without adding the search terms and lsi. The tool even have the ability to automatically do a domain name availability search for the keywords

Hmmm. very educative

SEO is truly a must learn for every blogger

therealchase:
This is great am glsd you are persistent and your blog is well detailed which is cool ..I Would advise you to get a domain name a commercial one(.com) because its mostly used then keep advertising your blog on any social media possible ..e.g nairaland has millions of registered users try using nairaland keep posting real stuffs sit back smd watch your users grow day by day its a matter of time.... It takes time to make time

Thank you for checking my blog out. I'll see to getting a domain name soonest.

newsphase:



If you are using blogger it is very easy.... But if for wordpress... I have to go back to my wordpress blog since I have forgotten where it is... But when you look at the formatting options in which you can make text Bold or Italic or edit you will see an option which is either jump break or page break..

just click on where you want the words to break then click on that jump break or page break.. and thats all ... save and publish

Thank you so much Sir

Finally a dream come true for the Afro-fushion hit maker.

Davido who was signed in January 2016 to SONY MUSIC Entertainment recently announced that he has completed work on his EP. He made the revelation today on networking app, Snapchat, stating that the green light has been given for him to release his the project. The EP, which is yet to be titled, also comes through with videos.

From his Snapchat handle:

“I’m happy I waited, I’m about to turn up. Happiest day of my life, finally got my date of release. September about to be a movie, best music and videos I ever made in my life.”

The entire EP recording process is being handled by Efe Ogbeni, the Sony Music executive, who brokered the deal, and works extensively with RCA Records, a subsidiary of Sony, which Ayo Jay is also signed to. Photos of the singer in the studio has been a social media regular in the past three months.

After working with Meek Mill to release ‘Fans mi’ in 2015, the singer has more collaborations up his sleeves, with a few confirmed to make the project. US singer Tinashe is a big part of it, and will feature in Davido’s forthcoming single. The video has already been shot, with photos on the internet. Tinashe is half-Zimbabwean herself, so it remains to see what direction the sound will go.

Other collaborations which have been connected to the EP include Trey Songz, and Young Thug. These two stars were reported to have their features originally housed on the shelved forthcoming album, but they might just be thrown in. No confirmation yet though.

Sony Music will be handling publishing and distribution of every work by the singer. It will be handled by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a music publishing company, presently co-owned by Sony Music Entertainment and the estate of Michael Jackson.
In the US, the singer’s releases will be handled by RCA Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music. RCA Records is an American flagship recording label (alongside Columbia Records and Epic Records) of Sony Music Entertainment (SME).

The singer was recently interviewed by Ebro Darden on the Beats 1 by Apple Radio

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/29/davidos-debut-ep-with-sony-music-to-be-released-in-september/

politicalcritik:
Am beginning to think that all bloggers have similar beginning.
I don't know you, but deep within me when I was reading your post I thought you were narrating my story. The hustle is real bro. Keep your head up. We shall make it to the top.

This is my own baby blog
www.politicalcritics.com.ng

I'm really glad the article resonated with you

Emeka71:
Get domain.

I will. But do you have any idea of how much a domain will cost me.

Wow... I truly bless God and everyone of y'all who took out time to view this post on Nairaland and even visited my blog.

This is the first time a post I penned is receiving Nairaland's front page honour... Am so filled with joy.

newsphase:
First of all you blog has a problem..... You need to insert page break (it is called jump break in blogger) This cuts your post so that everything is not lined out the way it is in your blog..

Secondly, are you writing according to SEO.. because if you are then when you buy a domain you wouldn't have to complain about traffic (thats if you are really good in literature and writing unique contents)

Thirdly, before you just spot on into blogging in music .... you have to understand your audience.. what motivates them.... In my blogs I have plans which will entertain my users and keep them coming... I have free giveaways and so much stuff in store for them....

Now this will implant them in my blog..

My Name Is Paul Samuel
CEO/Editor in Chief Newsphases (just search newsphases in google)

Brov how do I apply page breaks ? Cuz am finding it difficult from my end

Surprisingly, on the 29th of June 2016 the long awaited video shoot for Drake’s One Dance took place in South Africa. The problem is Wizkid was absent in the video shoot. It may have come as a shocker to most Nigerians but not me, i foresaw the possibility of Wizkid having no appearance in the video.

Read more:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/22/wizkid-ditched-by-drake-in-one-dance-video-shoot/

Fans of Drake showed up at Budden's house on the 25th of July and began harassing Budden. In the videos which they filmed and shared online, the kids can be seen approaching Budden as he sits in the driveway of his house and he reportedly advises them to leave.
After Budden enters his house, one of the men can be heard shouting “OVO b*****s” in reference to Drake’s record label. Budden then emerges from his house and chases after the kids in his car before both vehicles eventually pull over to the side of the road. The Slaughterhouse rapper is then seen banging on the window of their car with rocks in his hand before telling them: “ If you come on this block again, I’m going to kill one of you little n*****s.”

Addressing the incident, which later became a viral sensation on social media, Budden later tweeted: “These are some of the greatest memes ever, but I truly hope u kids don’t make running up to ppl’s homes a thing. It’s dangerous.”

After the weekend attack on Budden, Drake who goes by the pseudonym Champagnepapi on instagram, shocked the world of music and social media yesterday by displaying a hysterical move, a move where he follows one of the kids responsible for attacking Budden. Simply put, Drake wants to thank the guys for making the internet a brighter place with a social media cosign...

Read more:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/27/drake-becomes-instagram-follower-of-the-kid-responsible-for-ambushing-joe-budden/

Fans of Drake showed up at Budden's house on the 25th of July and began harassing Budden. In the videos which they filmed and shared online, the kids can be seen approaching Budden as he sits in the driveway of his house and he reportedly advises them to leave.
After Budden enters his house, one of the men can be heard shouting “OVO b*****s” in reference to Drake’s record label. Budden then emerges from his house and chases after the kids in his car before both vehicles eventually pull over to the side of the road. The Slaughterhouse rapper is then seen banging on the window of their car with rocks in his hand before telling them: “ If you come on this block again, I’m going to kill one of you little n*****s.”

Addressing the incident, which later became a viral sensation on social media, Budden later tweeted: “These are some of the greatest memes ever, but I truly hope u kids don’t make running up to ppl’s homes a thing. It’s dangerous.”

After the weekend attack on Budden, Drake who goes by the pseudonym Champagnepapi on instagram shocked the world of music and social media yesterday by displaying a hysterical move, a move where he follows one of the kids responsible for attacking Budden. Simply put, Drake wants to thank the guys for making the internet a brighter place with a social media cosign...

Read more:

https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/27/drake-becomes-instagram-follower-of-the-kid-responsible-for-ambushing-joe-budden/

My names are Macquis Michelangelo Udochukwu and am a music Blogger.
Blarckbillboard a blog I started with the assistance of a friend and partner (Joshua) came into being on the 11th day of June 2016. In other words, the blog is barely two months old.

Being a music addict and a lover of literature I carefully thought of inventing a channel through which I could connect with music lovers as myself and most importantly contribute my quota to the growth of the Nigerian music industry. At that period in time in the year 2014 I conceived the whole music blogging idea. Though the idea of starting a music blog had been birthed in the year 2014, I never considered materializing the idea until after my service year in 2016.

My blogging experience so far ?

Blogging is quite difficult and time consuming, except you are nothing more than a plagiarist blogger.
Considering my blogging nitch the stress and difficulty is even doubled. Blarckbillboard most importantly deals with music news and reviews, and you will agree with me that the music industry both locally and internationally is always buzzing with one news update or the other.

Understanding the way things work in the media and blogosphere, the experienced news blogger strives to have a particular breaking news published on his/her blog first. If the news is hot enough, with adequate promotion of the blog post it could fetch the blog a lot of traffic. So I’ve had to constantly source for hot music news, rewrite them before publishing; write a detailed review on a new hit single; announce an upcoming music event and above all promote my blog posts on every available social media. Consequently, I’ve had to blog everyday, either in the sense of writing a new post or promoting one of my already published blog post, in other to make my baby-blog relevant to readers.

I recall nights when I’ve had to sleep for just 2 hrs owing to my sourcing for fresh music news to publish on the blog, and during the day spending long hours in a particular sitting position rewriting or typing a new post. The few hours I put into sleeping and relaxing my body both during the day and night began to take its toll on me as I fell ill few weeks into blogging. But my broken body wasn’t going to discourage me from pressing on. Even when the daily results I got paled in comparison to the hardwork and dedication I was putting into blogging.

Is my Blog being Successful ?

According to one source: “There are more than 164 million blogs… Most of these blogs get less than 1,000 visitors per month, and the harsh reality is, the majority of those blogs are, for lack of a better word, failures”.

Well, judging my blog’s success in the light of
Linda ikeji’s blog success from a traffic perspective would definitely spark up depression within me and kill my blogging drive, so I don’t ever make such insane comparisons. The problem with most newbie bloggers is that they make the mistake of comparing the traffic of their baby-blogs with that of older blogs or bigger blogs. It’s no wonder most individuals who kick off a career in blogging throw in the towel 2 – 3 months into blogging. I have also understood that blogging success doesn’t come overnight and there is certainly hardwork that needs to be put in to eventually bring success.

As for my baby-blog’s traffic I’ve had great days when I got over a hundred visitors, days when I recorded between 5-8 visitors, and even days I recorded no visitor or reader at all, terrible days. The pressure builds up to the point whereby you continue to look at your blog stats to see if anybody has visited your blog. Such days alone were enough to make me quit blogging but my passion and interest in music has been the anchor holding me fast and keeping me from falling. The process of writing a blog post, editing, adding pictures and then proof reading is definitely time consuming! Not to talk of the longer minutes one has to spend publishing a single post in a country like Nigeria due to bad network. And so to feel that no one has read your post apart from yourself is undeniably quite upsetting.

During down times and periods I’ve considered quitting blogging, God has somehow always sent an angel in the guise of friends. Their words of encouragement have been my strength and kept me going. The success stories of established bloggers have also been a source of inspiration and motivation for me.

As a newbie Blogger I’ve learnt that pressure will always remain as you want to do well and have people read and benefit from your blog. That is the reason you blog in the first place, so people read it and comment on your opinions and thoughts and so I try to reassure myself that people will come, and that I need to promote my blog more and not give up easily. I also tell myself that regardless of the Nigerian blogosphere being overly crowded, everyone has their position and followers, and if I work hard enough, make my blog posts more unique and stay focused on achieving my goals, I on the long-run will definitely establish myself as one of the most successful music bloggers in Africa.

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/27/a-month-and-two-weeks-into-blogging-my-experience/

My names are Macquis Michelangelo Udochukwu and am a music Blogger.
Blarckbillboard a blog I started with the assistance of a friend and partner (Joshua) came into being on the 11th day of June 2016. In other words, the blog is barely two months old.

Being a music addict and a lover of literature I carefully thought of inventing a channel through which I could connect with music lovers as myself and most importantly contribute my quota to the growth of the Nigerian music industry. At that period in time in the year 2014 I conceived the whole music blogging idea. Though the idea of starting a music blog had been birthed in the year 2014, I never considered materializing the idea until after my service year in 2016.

My blogging experience so far ?

Blogging is quite difficult and time consuming, except you are nothing more than a plagiarist blogger.
Considering my blogging nitch the stress and difficulty is even doubled. Blarckbillboard most importantly deals with music news and reviews, and you will agree with me that the music industry both locally and internationally is always buzzing with one news update or the other.

Understanding the way things work in the media and blogosphere, the experienced news blogger strives to have a particular breaking news published on his/her blog first. If the news is hot enough, with adequate promotion of the blog post it could fetch the blog a lot of traffic. So I’ve had to constantly source for hot music news, rewrite them before publishing; write a detailed review on a new hit single; announce an upcoming music event and above all promote my blog posts on every available social media. Consequently, I’ve had to blog everyday, either in the sense of writing a new post or promoting one of my already published blog post, in other to make my baby-blog relevant to readers.

I recall nights when I’ve had to sleep for just 2 hrs owing to my sourcing for fresh music news to publish on the blog, and during the day spending long hours in a particular sitting position rewriting or typing a new post. The few hours I put into sleeping and relaxing my body both during the day and night began to take its toll on me as I fell ill few weeks into blogging. But my broken body wasn’t going to discourage me from pressing on. Even when the daily results I got paled in comparison to the hardwork and dedication I was putting into blogging.

Is my Blog being Successful ?

According to one source: “There are more than 164 million blogs… Most of these blogs get less than 1,000 visitors per month, and the harsh reality is, the majority of those blogs are, for lack of a better word, failures”.

Well, judging my blog’s success in the light of
Linda ikeji’s blog success from a traffic perspective would definitely spark up depression within me and kill my blogging drive, so I don’t ever make such insane comparisons. The problem with most newbie bloggers is that they make the mistake of comparing the traffic of their baby blogs with that of older blogs or bigger blogs. It’s no wonder most individuals who kick off a career in blogging throw in the towel 2 – 3 months into blogging. I have also understood that blogging success doesn’t come overnight and there is certainly hardwork that needs to be put in to eventually bring success.

As for my baby-blog’s traffic I’ve had great days when I got over a hundred visitors, days when I recorded between 5-8 visitors, and even days I recorded no visitor or reader at all, terrible days. The pressure builds up to the point whereby you continue to look at your blog stats to see if anybody has visited your blog. Such days alone were enough to make me quit blogging but my passion and interest in music has been the anchor holding me fast and keeping me from falling. The process of writing a blog post, editing, adding pictures and then proof reading is definitely time consuming! Not to talk of the longer minutes one has to spend publishing a single post in a country like Nigeria due to bad network. And so to feel that no one has read your post apart from yourself is undeniably quite upsetting.

During down times and periods I’ve considered quitting blogging, God has somehow always sent an angel in the guise of friends Felix Brambaiyefa, Idris Aliyu and Otosirieze Obi-Young. Their words of encouragement have been my strength and kept me going. The success stories of established bloggers have also been a source of inspiration and motivation for me.

As a newbie Blogger I’ve learnt that pressure will always remain as you want to do well and have people read and benefit from your blog. That is the reason you blog in the first place, so people read it and comment on your opinions and thoughts and so I try to reassure myself that people will come, and that I need to promote my blog more and not give up easily. I also tell myself that regardless of the Nigerian blogosphere being overly crowded, everyone has their position and followers, and if I work hard enough, make my blog posts more unique and stay focused on achieving my goals, I on the long-run will definitely establish myself as one of the most successful music bloggers in Africa.

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/27/a-month-and-two-weeks-into-blogging-my-experience/

Beyoncé and Adele lead the nominees for the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, with Bey topping all other contenders with a career high 11 noms for her visual album Lemonade . The British singer is just behind her with 8 nods for her global smash 25 . Also snagging multiple noms for the show — that will air live from New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Aug. 28 at 9 p.m. ET — are Drake, with 6 for his
“Hotline Bling” clip, Ariana Grande (5) and Rihanna (4).

Adele stacked up 7 nominations alone for her YouTube crushing “Hello” video, which will go up against Beyonce’s “Formation” , Drake’s
“Hotline Bling” , Justin Bieber ‘s “Sorry” and Kanye West’s “Famous” for the Video of the Year prize. The nominees were unveiled via a Facebook Live broadcast from New York on Tuesday (July 26), during which the Video of the Year nominees were revealed with a huge street mura

See full list of Nominees here:

https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/26/2016-mtv-video-music-awards-list-of-nominees/

Nigerian Afro-beat star Wizkid puts in extra effort in his quest to break into the international music market.

Following previous successful international collaborations Wizkid just nailed it again with his new collaboration with Sean Paul, who happened to just knock off Drake and Wizkid’s One Dance from the top spot on the Billboard top 100 chart, thanks to his feature on Sia’s Cheap Thrills.

For more info on this hot gist do hit the link below:

https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/26/wizkid-records-song-with-sean-paul/

Compton’s finest Dr. Dre was searched by law enforcement in front of his home after a racially tinged road rage incident yesterday.

According to reports from TMZ, a man had stopped in front of the driveway to Dr. Dre’s home, prompting the super producer to request for him to move his vehicle.

The motorist would then oblige, but begrudgingly so, as he is reported to have cursed at the mogul as he moved.
Dr. Dre then pulled out his phone to record the scenario, in which the upset motorist responded,
“Here we go again, another black guy with a gun.”

Apparently the irate driver called 911 to report that Dre had pulled a gun on him.

When law enforcement arrived they handcuffed the Doc and searched him before releasing him after no weapon was recovered.

The Hip-Hop legend was not physically arrested by deputies.

In spite of Dre’s apparent innocence the driver insisted on making a citizen’s arrest and filing a report of his accounts of the scenario.

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/26/music-mogul-dr-dre-handcuffed-after-unknown-white-guy-accuses-him-of-pulling-a-gun-at-him/

Magnificent singer and songwriter Sia makes it to the top of the biggest music chart in the world, the billboard hot 100. Sia scores her first leader as an artist, while Sean Paul returns to the top after 10 years, as “Cheap Thrills” replaces Drake’s “One Dance” after 10 weeks at No. 1.

“Cheap Thrills” released on Monkey Puzzle/RCA Records, and from Sia’s album This Is Acting , becomes the 1,056th No. 1 in the Hot 100’s history (which dates to Aug. 4, 1958). While it’s Sia’s first No. 1 as an artist, she previously reigned as a writer, having co-written Rihanna’s “Diamonds” which led for three weeks in 2012. “ Cheap Thrills” meanwhile, was intended to be recorded by Rihanna for her Anti album, but, as fortune would have it, Sia wound up recording it herself.

Sean Paul tallies his fourth Hot 100 No. 1, following
“Get Busy” (three weeks, 2003); as featured on Beyonce’s “Baby Boy” (nine weeks, 2003); and his own “Temperature” (one week, April 1, 2006). Paul ends the longest break (10 years and four months) between Hot 100 leaders since Dr. Dre went 12 years, two months and three weeks between “ No Diggity” by Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre, in 1996, and “Crack a Bottle” his collab with Eminem and 50 Cent, in 2009.

After decades of writing smash hits for other artists, Sia can finally claim HER very own well deserved number 1.

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/25/sias-cheap-thrills-seizes-no-1-spot-on-hot-100-from-drake/

Day11:
Who is DRAKE?


We don't know him here in gwara-gwara

lol.
You guys in gwara gwara might not know Drake but Drake is the currently the most trending artist in the world.

sonature1:

When I heard Wizkid was featured by Drake, I had to go check it out and well I wasn't surprised. The thing is, it is easier for Nigerian artistes to feature American artistes because we have fully accepted their music and lifestyle, but they are yet to accept ours.

If an American artiste features a Nigerian artiste on a song I wonder "what accent" he or she will be using to sing. I hope it wouldn't be a fake American English accent though. Well, bravo to Wizkid for doing us proud, but I didn't see the impact of Wizkid on the song.

Nigerian artistes don't need to fake their Engish accents to be accepted internationally.... Everyone has an accent and music they are known with...we must sell our brand of music to the world just like America has succeeded in selling theirs to the world. If we could conquer African entertainment biz with our originality, we could do same to the world.

Nigerians are talented!

You definitely are on point brother

The long awaited video shoot for Drake’s One Dance took place in South Africa. The problem is Wizkid was absent in the video shoot. It may have come as a shocker to most Nigerians but not me, i foresaw the possibility of Wizkid having no appearance in the video. By the way Wizkid was assigned a flimsy role in the song, a role where he only echoes Chirp melts ‘Back up’ into the rythm of the song.

Do hit the link below to get the full gist:

https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/22/wizkid-ditched-by-drake-in-one-dance-video-shoot/

Mavin Record’s first lady Tiwatope Savage Balogun, better known by her stage name Tiwa Savage is currently in South Africa for an event to mark the birth of the legend Nelson Mandela.
Prior to the commencement of the event the pop star thought it wise to visit the residence of Mandela where she was received by Mandela’s grandson Ndaba Mandela.

Tiwa would be performing today the 17th of july a day before Mandela’s birthday (18th of July) which the United Nation have honoured in memorialization of Nelson Mandela annually

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/17/tiwa-savage-visits-nelson-mandelas-home/

Photo Speaks:

In a bid to reach out to Drake pop songstress and songwriter Sia took the fan route. From her Twitter handle she sent out a tweet to Drake with the following words:

“I’m trying to get in touch with you. I want to do something! Can you dm me your person? Thanks! Your fan, Sia!”

With the Canadian rapper’s blend of rap and R&B sounds and Sia’s impressive vocal range and
out-of-the-box artistic expression , there’s no question a collaboration between the two would excite both artists’ massive fanbases.

Sia has written hit songs for previous Drake collaborators, including Beyoncé, who worked with Drake on “Mine” and Sia on “Pretty Hurts” both from her 2013 self-titled album. Sia also wrote Rihanna’s “Diamonds” which was a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit. Rihanna and Drake are seasoned collaborators, with their hit singles
“Work”, “What’s My Name” ,“Take Care” and the brand-new “Too Good”.

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/16/a-collaboration-between-drake-and-sia-seems-to-be-underway/

(Please endeavor to read to the end for better comprehension)

Following the killings of Black Americans Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Shawn Carter popularly known as Jay Z released a stirring single he titled “SPIRITUAL”.
It’s been three years since we got anything new from Jay Z, the song is Jay Z’s first as a lead artist since the release of his Magna Carta Holy Grail in 2013.

if nothing else all through these years have inspired Hov to hit the studio, the recent humiliation and massacre of blacks in America have won him over.

The song, which was released on Tidal, was accompanied by a long open letter in which Jay Z said he began writing a while ago, and considered releasing it after the 2014 murder of
Michael Brown , in Ferguson, Missouri. The letter reads thus:

“I’m saddened and disappointed in this America,” he wrote. “We should be further along. We are not. I trust God and know everything that happens is for our greatest good, but man … it’s tough right now.”

The music lives up to its name with an opening spiritual skit:

“And it says, now the works of the flesh are manifest

Meaning…the things that are in the sinful nature
They always come to the surface

And when they come, when they come to the surface

They come to the surface as demons…”

The opening hook also addresses the issue of police brutaliy on young Black Americans:

“Yeah, I am not poison, no I am not poison

Just a boy from the hood that

Got my hands in the air

In despair don’t shoot

I just wanna do good, ah”

The above lyrics depicts a scenerio in America where a young black American pleads with a white police officer by explaining he has done no harm (poison) and shouldn’t be gunned down.

Above all its amazing to witness an A-list Celebrity like Jay Z using his music as a medium to address societal ills and as a weapon to fight injustice, unlike what we have here in Nigeria.

Nigerian revolutionary Fela Anikulapko Kuti who pioneered the Afrobeat music genre considered music as a medium to address societal ills and used his music as a weapon. Its just a pity that the so-called New Generation Nigerian Music Artistes who claim to follow the lead of Fela have lost their way, releasing songs that add no value to society or help repair societal damages.

If an Artiste like Jay Z could be overly concerned about the security and lives of his black folks, then the Average Nigerian should have a rethink and consider this question: Do these artists i would throw huge amounts of money on just to watch their shows give a Bleep about my welfare and security ?

For years now Nigeria has been battling with several issues in both the security and economic sphere. What have our beloved artists done about it ? Nothing ! No one is asking them to start distributing money, but their voices on behalf of the poor and afflicted would definitely make a difference. Afterall, their voice counts. All these celebrities ever do is promote themselves and not the needs of Nigerians whenever they hook up with politicians, and it’s so sad.

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/14/an-insightful-review-on-jay-zs-new-single-spiritual/

It’s okay if most of yall don’t know this dude, considering the fact he ain’t mainstream yet. But trust me on this, the dude’s got potential. Am sure artists like Frank Ocean, Weeknd and Miguel are currently experiencing insecurities following the advent of Paak.

If I perfectly recall it was a Monday afternoon, I was bored with watching movies so I turned on my radio in a bid to discover new music. Coincidentally the first song I met was a song I barely knew. It really was a great song and the artist sang with so much soul.

After consulting Shazam I realized the mysterious artist was an upcoming black singer named Anderson. Paak and the very song from him I heard earlier was titled: The Dreamer.

The story of Anderson .Paak could one day make a barely believable biopic. As a child, he witnessed his addict father nearly kill his mother. Years later, she ended up bankrupt and then in prison for tax evasion. Meanwhile, after losing his job on a medicinal marijuana farm, the musician himself ended up homeless and selling drugs with a (second) wife and son to support.

But the movie should really begin at the inflection point in the musician’s roller-coaster ride to success – a pool party held last year in Los Angeles to launch Dr Dre’s much-hyped Compton, the hip-hop mogul’s first album in 16 years. Anderson .Paak, born Mr Brandon Park Anderson, an artist largely unknown outside LA’s underground scene, had made it onto six of the album’s 16 tracks. “Nobody knew who I was at the party,” he says. “Dre took a real risk, he took a gamble. When he met me, I was essentially a nobody.”

Mr Anderson, now 30, has a distinctive voice that is both as smooth as late-night soul and as husky as a hangover. His sound is a genre-blending mix of 1960s funk, 1970s soul, 1980s RnB and 1990s hip-hop, infused with gospel. He has drawn comparisons with artists such as Messrs Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams and Outkast’s André 3000, and released three full-length solo albums (the first filed under his initial recording name Breezy Lovejoy) and a mixtape of covers. He is also one half of the RnB duo NxWorries.
He is currently touring his second album, Malibu – which was released in January to universal critical acclaim – with his band The Free Nationals. “One of the year’s best albums,”

Pitchfork declared. “He may not be a household name yet but Anderson .Paak is on the way to becoming one,” The Guardian raved. Just watch his Mr David Bowie tribute on Canal+ for a masterclass in bravura, Anderson .Paak-style – an all-singing, -drumming, -dancing and -rapping performance.

Mr Anderson and his three sisters (two older, one younger) were born and raised in Oxnard, a Californian town halfway between LA and Santa Barbara. His mother and uncle were orphaned during the Korean War in the 1950s and adopted by an American soldier, who took them back to the US and raised them with his family in Compton. His father also served in the military, as an Air Force mechanic, before being discharged; he ended up a violent drug and alcohol addict and was imprisoned for 14-and-a-half years for nearly killing his wife – a brutal assault that Mr Anderson remembers witnessing as a seven-year-old – as well as firearms offences.

After the incident with his father, his mother remarried and worked hard to support the family, building up a fruit stall into a successful organic strawberry business. Having at one time lived in a one-bedroom apartment, Mr Anderson spent his school years in a comfortable five-bedroom home. He was “an MTV kid” who learned every word to Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre tracks and performed them for the school’s show and tell, swear words and all. Once, his teacher called his mother, concerned that he was making disruptive noises in class. “I was beatboxing,” he says. At home, the soundtrack to his early years was his mother’s funk and soul from Mr Curtis Mayfield to Mr Marvin Gaye, Mr Michael Jackson to Mr Stevie Wonder, and his older sisters’ hip-hop albums of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest.

Aged 12, he started playing drums in a black Baptist church group. “I had never done anything that I understood so quick, it was so natural. I was just going for the music,” he says.

The family’s luck ran out when the El Niño weather system ruined two consecutive strawberry crops and his mother filed for bankruptcy. She and his stepfather became successful professional gamblers in Las Vegas, but, in Mr Anderson’s final year of school, they were imprisoned for not declaring their winnings and that’s when “everything went to poo”. His mother served just over half of her 14-year sentence.

At 21, he married his church-going girlfriend, but it was swiftly annulled. He went to the Musical Institute college in Hollywood, where he met his second wife, who is from South Korea. When she fell pregnant, he panicked. “I poo a brick. What am I going to do? I can’t even support myself,” he says. He and a friend in a similar situation landed well-paid jobs tending the plants on a medical marijuana farm in Santa Barbara, earning $150 an hour. “Eventually, we started selling it,” he says. “Making a lot of money – $5,000 every few days, in cash.” But he didn’t save any of it, and when he lost the job and couldn’t pay rent at his sister’s house anymore, he, his wife and young son, Soul (now five), found themselves homeless, sleeping on friends’ floors while he scraped a living, earning a few hundred dollars a month from gigs. As he sings on his track “The Season/Carry Me”: “I was sleeping on the floor, newborn baby boy. Tryna get my money pot so wifey wouldn’t get deported.”

That was his wake-up call. “That experience [being homeless] added so much character. It made me really appreciate being able to record, being able to work. I was eager to work after all that.” So he knuckled down. He dropped the Breezy Lovejoy moniker and started going by Anderson .Paak instead.
“The dot in his stage name stands for detail – always be paying attention to detail,” he says. “I spent six, seven years making music and nobody cared. And now some of those same people care, and they are going to have to put the dot. It says a lot to me when people don’t do it.” Point made.

“In truth, I first discovered him when I was looking for the next Prince,” says Anderson .Paak’s manager, Mr Adrian Miller. On songs such as “Might Be” (off his 2014 album Venice), or “Silicon Valley”, Mr Anderson offers himself up as a funny and unconventional Romeo who has no problem handing control over to the women he’s trying to woo.

“With RnB and hip-hop, you’re ‘The Man’, always,” he says. “But I’ve always had that little bit of vulnerability. I wasn’t a sex symbol in high school; I was just a chubby kid, so that’s very much a part of my personality. I like putting that wit in there.”

He began to find reason in his rhymes and then he and fellow artist Knxwledge – performing together under the name NxWorries – came up with a track called “Suede”, which last year went viral, amassing 1.4 million views (and counting) on YouTube. Dr Dre was looking for a new sound and Mr Anderson’s voice chimed with the godfather of West Coast hip-hop. “I was a little apprehensive,” he says of getting the call to meet his idol. “Everybody says they got a plug in with Dre. I figured I’ll show up even if nothing is happening.” It proved to be genuine.

The recording of Compton was shrouded in secrecy: “Until it was out, I didn’t know what actually was going to make it [onto the album],” Mr Anderson recalls. “When the online pre-order came up, I was in my room, looking at my computer and I couldn’t believe it. And then my phone just started going nuts.”

Mr Anderson is already hard at work on his next album, which, he says, Dr Dre is helping him to produce. His list of dream collaborators is as eclectic as it is ambitious: Messrs Jack White and Pharell Williams, Nas and Adele.

“I love her voice,” he says of Adele. “She doesn’t get with anybody; she doesn’t ever feature with another vocalist, so it would be nice to get her on something greasy.” And with that the humility gives way to the kind of hubris you’d expect from hip-hop’s next big thing.

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/15/introducing-yall-to-hip-hop-and-rbs-next-big-thing-anderson-paak/

dejahvu:
I dont think Drake is underated he is just hated and like saintdennis said anoda factor is because Drake is Canadian. If Drake was American the story will be different just the same way Beyonce is promoted more than Adele when Adele is the Killer of songs. He is no thug and they expect him to rap about what he didnt live as.... Drake is the reason I started listening to Rap again. Kendrick is dope too and I also go with the opinion J.Cole I boring cos I've tried listening to J.Cole but him songs no dey enter.
How can you say Kendrick is showing versatility by rapping on different beats then you condemn Drake? Nah! Hommie
Please you people should stop saying Drake is not a rapper dude has a grammy award under category of Rap. When Drake is rapping he kills it when he sings he kills it when he does hooks he kills it and I leave you with one of the simplest punchline with weight i've heard in Rap
Last Name Ever, First Name Greatest - Drake "Forever"

Hmmm saintdennis has finally got a brother in the house. (Drake supporters)
Am glad am not alone here tho, at least I've got a fellow Kendrick supporter

It's so sad there's no J cole fanatic here. lol.
I once thought I was the only dude who didn't fancy cole.

It’s okay if most of yall don’t know this dude, considering the fact he ain’t mainstream yet. But trust me on this, the dude’s got potential. Am sure artists like Frank Ocean, Weeknd and Miguel are currently experiencing insecurities following the advent of Paak.

If I perfectly recall it was a Monday afternoon, I was bored with watching movies so I turned on my radio in a bid to discover new music. Coincidentally the first song I met was a song I barely knew. It really was a great song and the artist sang with so much soul.

After consulting Shazam I realized the mysterious artist was an upcoming black singer named Anderson. Paak and the very song from him I heard earlier was titled: The Dreamer.

The story of Anderson .Paak could one day make a barely believable biopic. As a child, he witnessed his addict father nearly kill his mother. Years later, she ended up bankrupt and then in prison for tax evasion. Meanwhile, after losing his job on a medicinal marijuana farm, the musician himself ended up homeless and selling drugs with a (second) wife and son to support.

But the movie should really begin at the inflection point in the musician’s roller-coaster ride to success – a pool party held last year in Los Angeles to launch Dr Dre’s much-hyped Compton, the hip-hop mogul’s first album in 16 years. Anderson .Paak, born Mr Brandon Park Anderson, an artist largely unknown outside LA’s underground scene, had made it onto six of the album’s 16 tracks. “Nobody knew who I was at the party,” he says. “Dre took a real risk, he took a gamble. When he met me, I was essentially a nobody.”

Mr Anderson, now 30, has a distinctive voice that is both as smooth as late-night soul and as husky as a hangover. His sound is a genre-blending mix of 1960s funk, 1970s soul, 1980s RnB and 1990s hip-hop, infused with gospel. He has drawn comparisons with artists such as Messrs Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams and Outkast’s André 3000, and released three full-length solo albums (the first filed under his initial recording name Breezy Lovejoy) and a mixtape of covers. He is also one half of the RnB duo NxWorries.
He is currently touring his second album, Malibu – which was released in January to universal critical acclaim – with his band The Free Nationals. “One of the year’s best albums,”

Pitchfork declared. “He may not be a household name yet but Anderson .Paak is on the way to becoming one,” The Guardian raved. Just watch his Mr David Bowie tribute on Canal+ for a masterclass in bravura, Anderson .Paak-style – an all-singing, -drumming, -dancing and -rapping performance.

Mr Anderson and his three sisters (two older, one younger) were born and raised in Oxnard, a Californian town halfway between LA and Santa Barbara. His mother and uncle were orphaned during the Korean War in the 1950s and adopted by an American soldier, who took them back to the US and raised them with his family in Compton. His father also served in the military, as an Air Force mechanic, before being discharged; he ended up a violent drug and alcohol addict and was imprisoned for 14-and-a-half years for nearly killing his wife – a brutal assault that Mr Anderson remembers witnessing as a seven-year-old – as well as firearms offences.

After the incident with his father, his mother remarried and worked hard to support the family, building up a fruit stall into a successful organic strawberry business. Having at one time lived in a one-bedroom apartment, Mr Anderson spent his school years in a comfortable five-bedroom home. He was “an MTV kid” who learned every word to Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre tracks and performed them for the school’s show and tell, swear words and all. Once, his teacher called his mother, concerned that he was making disruptive noises in class. “I was beatboxing,” he says. At home, the soundtrack to his early years was his mother’s funk and soul from Mr Curtis Mayfield to Mr Marvin Gaye, Mr Michael Jackson to Mr Stevie Wonder, and his older sisters’ hip-hop albums of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest.

Aged 12, he started playing drums in a black Baptist church group. “I had never done anything that I understood so quick, it was so natural. I was just going for the music,” he says.

The family’s luck ran out when the El Niño weather system ruined two consecutive strawberry crops and his mother filed for bankruptcy. She and his stepfather became successful professional gamblers in Las Vegas, but, in Mr Anderson’s final year of school, they were imprisoned for not declaring their winnings and that’s when “everything went to shit”. His mother served just over half of her 14-year sentence.

At 21, he married his church-going girlfriend, but it was swiftly annulled. He went to the Musical Institute college in Hollywood, where he met his second wife, who is from South Korea. When she fell pregnant, he panicked. “I shit a brick. What am I going to do? I can’t even support myself,” he says. He and a friend in a similar situation landed well-paid jobs tending the plants on a medical marijuana farm in Santa Barbara, earning $150 an hour. “Eventually, we started selling it,” he says. “Making a lot of money – $5,000 every few days, in cash.” But he didn’t save any of it, and when he lost the job and couldn’t pay rent at his sister’s house anymore, he, his wife and young son, Soul (now five), found themselves homeless, sleeping on friends’ floors while he scraped a living, earning a few hundred dollars a month from gigs. As he sings on his track “The Season/Carry Me”: “I was sleeping on the floor, newborn baby boy. Tryna get my money pot so wifey wouldn’t get deported.”

That was his wake-up call. “That experience [being homeless] added so much character. It made me really appreciate being able to record, being able to work. I was eager to work after all that.” So he knuckled down. He dropped the Breezy Lovejoy moniker and started going by Anderson .Paak instead.
“The dot in his stage name stands for detail – always be paying attention to detail,” he says. “I spent six, seven years making music and nobody cared. And now some of those same people care, and they are going to have to put the dot. It says a lot to me when people don’t do it.” Point made.

“In truth, I first discovered him when I was looking for the next Prince,” says Anderson .Paak’s manager, Mr Adrian Miller. On songs such as “Might Be” (off his 2014 album Venice), or “Silicon Valley”, Mr Anderson offers himself up as a funny and unconventional Romeo who has no problem handing control over to the women he’s trying to woo.

“With RnB and hip-hop, you’re ‘The Man’, always,” he says. “But I’ve always had that little bit of vulnerability. I wasn’t a sex symbol in high school; I was just a chubby kid, so that’s very much a part of my personality. I like putting that wit in there.”

He began to find reason in his rhymes and then he and fellow artist Knxwledge – performing together under the name NxWorries – came up with a track called “Suede”, which last year went viral, amassing 1.4 million views (and counting) on YouTube. Dr Dre was looking for a new sound and Mr Anderson’s voice chimed with the godfather of West Coast hip-hop. “I was a little apprehensive,” he says of getting the call to meet his idol. “Everybody says they got a plug in with Dre. I figured I’ll show up even if nothing is happening.” It proved to be genuine.

The recording of Compton was shrouded in secrecy: “Until it was out, I didn’t know what actually was going to make it [onto the album],” Mr Anderson recalls. “When the online pre-order came up, I was in my room, looking at my computer and I couldn’t believe it. And then my phone just started going nuts.”

Mr Anderson is already hard at work on his next album, which, he says, Dr Dre is helping him to produce. His list of dream collaborators is as eclectic as it is ambitious: Messrs Jack White and Pharell Williams, Nas and Adele.

“I love her voice,” he says of Adele. “She doesn’t get with anybody; she doesn’t ever feature with another vocalist, so it would be nice to get her on something greasy.” And with that the humility gives way to the kind of hubris you’d expect from hip-hop’s next big thing.

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/15/introducing-yall-to-hip-hop-and-rbs-next-big-thing-anderson-paak/

ibrews:
"So, if you get your first big check and you cop a chain before you buy a house, you are a vanity slave.
If you are a female and you got four, five, six rings on your finger,four holes in your left ear and a nose piercing, you are a vanity slave". My best line from the song. This is a bonus question for me though.

Trust me I learnt so much from that song.
Those lines were Insightful.

I hope saintdennis agrees with us on that

IAMMUIC:
Living up to its title: Very Insightful. I hope Nigerians get to read this.

Thanks

Following the killings of Black Americans Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Shawn Carter popularly known as Jay Z released a stirring single he titled “SPIRITUAL”.

It’s been three years since we got anything new from Jay Z, the song is Jay Z’s first as a lead artist since the release of his Magna Carta Holy Grail in 2013.

if nothing else all through these years have inspired Hov to hit the studio, the recent humiliation and massacre of blacks in America have won him over.

The song, which was released on Tidal, was accompanied by a long open letter in which Jay Z said he began writing a while ago, and considered releasing it after the 2014 murder of
Michael Brown , in Ferguson, Missouri. The letter reads thus:

“I’m saddened and disappointed in this America,” he wrote. “We should be further along. We are not. I trust God and know everything that happens is for our greatest good, but man … it’s tough right now.”

The music lives up to its name with an opening spiritual skit:

“And it says, now the works of the flesh are manifest

Meaning…the things that are in the sinful nature
They always come to the surface

And when they come, when they come to the surface

They come to the surface as demons…”

The opening hook also addresses the issue of police brutaliy on young Black Americans:

Yeah, I am not poison, no I am not poison

Just a boy from the hood that

Got my hands in the air

In despair don’t shoot

I just wanna do good, ah

The above lyrics depicts a scenerio in America where a young black American pleads with a white police officer by explaining he has done no harm (poison) and shouldn’t be gunned down.

Above all its amazing to witness an A-list artist like Jay Z using his music as a medium to address societal ills and as a weapon to fight injustice, unlike what we have here in Nigeria.

Nigerian revolutionary Fela Anikulapko Kuti who pioneered the Afrobeat music genre considered music as a medium to address societal ills and used his music as a weapon. Its just a pity that the so-called New Generation Nigerian Music Artistes who claim to follow the lead of Fela have lost their way, releasing songs that add no value to society or help repair societal damages.

If an Artiste like Jay Z could be overly concerned about the security and lives of his black folks, then the Average Nigerian should have a rethink and consider this question: Do these artists i would throw huge amounts of money on just to watch their shows give a Bleep about my welfare and security ?

For years now Nigeria has been battling with several issues in both the security and economic sphere. What have our beloved artists done about it ? Nothing ! No one is asking them to start distributing money, but their voices on behalf of the poor and afflicted would definitely make a difference. Afterall, their voice counts. All these artists ever do is promote themselves and not the needs of Nigerians whenever they hook up with politicians, and it’s so sad.

Source:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/07/14/an-insightful-review-on-jay-zs-new-single-spiritual/