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John Legend and The Roots- Wake Up! (album review/preview)

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When I first heard these 2 music titans were getting together and doing an album together I couldn’t believe it. Well myself and thousands of others are believers now cause it’s finally out and the album is a beast! If you thought the Jay-Z/ Linkin Park Collision Course album was nuts this album is a must by.

Soulful singer John Legend & the baddest band in all the land The Roots present Wake Up!, and if you think that this dream team of a combination looks good I can assure you it sounds even better! This album is packed with 12  songs pulled from the soulful music of the 60’s and 70’s all with a theme of awareness, engagement and consciousness all blessed by John’s voice and the Roots instrumentation/ lyrics. The album is highlighted with familiar tracks like “Little Ghetto Boy” by Donny Hathaway mixed with more obscure selections like Baby Huey and the Babysitters’ “Hard Times” which is my cut. Wake Up! also includes one original composition, John Legend’s “Shine,” which is featured in the documentary Waiting For Superman.

From the very start of the album this killer combo comes out of the gate’s full blast with a loud, soulful, live, hard hitting sound that you can’t help but get excited and bob your head too with “Hard Times.”  This track is probably one of my favorite because it’s the perfect combo of John’s high notes, The Roots instrumentation and Black Thought lyrics. I had to bless yall with a live in studio performance of it which gives you one hell of an idea as to how they all recorded this album which makes sense as to why it’s so live! I swear if you closed your eyes with the volume all the way up you’d swear John and the Roots were playing live right in front of you. It’s that live yall.

“Hard Times (live in studio)”

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOgkRniSNTs

“Wake Everybody”

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJgxJ6JrPkc

01. Hard Times Feat. Black Thought

02. Compared To What

03. Wake Up Everybody Feat. Common & Melanie Fiona

04. Our Generation (The Hope Of The World) Feat. Cl Smooth

05. Little Ghetto Boy (Prelude) Feat. Malik Yusef

06. Little Ghetto Boy Feat. Black Thought

07. Hang On In There

08. Humanity (Love The Way It Should Be)

09. Wholy Holy

10. I Can’t Write Left Handed

11. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free

12. Shine

01. Hard Times Feat. Black Thought

[audio: 01. Hard Times (feat. Black Thought).mp3]


02. Compared To What

[audio: 02. Compared To What.mp3]

03. Wake Up Everybody Feat. Common & Melanie Fiona

[audio: 01. Hard Times (feat. Black Thought).mp3]


06. Little Ghetto Boy Feat. Black Thought

[audio: 06. Little Ghetto Boy (feat. Black Thought).mp3]


09. Wholy Holy

[audio: 09. Wholy Holy.mp3]


10. I Can’t Write Left Handed

[audio: 10. I Can’t Write Left Handed.mp3]

12. Shine

[audio: 12. Shine.mp3]

5 out of 5 Cartons


-Black Milk



John Legend & The Roots release video “Little Ghetto Boy”

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Website/Twitter/Facebook

Unless you have been living under a rock, that is under another rock, you know about John Legend and The Roots collaboration album coming September 21st, 2010.  You can pre-order the album here. Singles and now video has slowly begun to seep out, to give us all a taste of this powerful talent packed album.  They have just released the video “Little Ghetto Boy”.  A mellow laid back track, that makes you feel that you are in Harlem in 1975 with your afro pick. :)  Enjoy.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbY7KTZFR5Y

John Legend’s little nephew + wack supervision= Broken Grammy

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*announcers voice* “And the Ass Whooping of the Year goes to… *drum roll*… John Legends little nephew!” *applause*

So apparently John’s little nephew was at his apartment and who ever was suppose to watch him wasn’t watching him good enough because he some how managed to get a hold of one of Uncle John’s prized possession’s which was his Grammy that he won for 2005’s Best R&B Album  “Get Lifted.”

BAM!!!!!!!!!

John was actually pretty cool about the messed up situation as he’s joked about the situation on his @JohnLegend twitter page…

A lot of John’s followers on his twitter agreed with me that his nephew needed some type of discipline for the big break. “It was truly an accident,” he responded. “I’m just gonna have to nephew-proof my apt. a little better.” Apparently John’s messed up situation caught wind to the Award show via Twitter as he received a tweet from them saying

@TheGRAMMYs “Don’t worry, we can send a replacement GRAMMY Awards to you.” John later jokingly replied “The Grammy’s twitter response was the bailout plan his nephew needed. Plus, he still has five other Grammys — no sweat.” I for one would still whoop that ass. lol

What would you guys do?

-Black Milk

Get up with a Legend

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Getting two top notch talents to collabs on a project is not easy. But when it happens, we are all in for a great project. Sitting here still listening to Nas and Damien Marley’s project together, Distant Relatives, it makes me want more artist to join as one to give the fans something special.

One of my favorite rap groups The Roots, has joined up with a multi-talented singer in John Legend to present to the world, Wake Up!

There are so many endless possibles to this project. I’m happy to see these two super talents push aside their ego’s and produced a cd together. From the early reviews, this has the makings of a classic disc.

September 21st is the date to remember. The Roots and John Legend are giving the world an early Christmas present.

Wake Up! tracking

1. Compared To What
2. Hard Times
3. Little Ghetto Boy
4. Wake Up Everybody w/ Common and Melanie Fiona [audio: Wake-Up-Everybody-feat.-Common.mp3]

5. Our Generation [audio:  Levis_JohnLegend_Our_Generation.mp3]

6. Love The Way It Should Be
7. Hang On In There
8. I Can’t Write Left Handed
9. Wholy Holy
10. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
11. Shine

Here is an added bonus. This is the trailer for the video The Fire

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHlLS2yUBaQ

[Updated] Jazz in the Gardens Brings the Heat to Miami + Win Free Tickets

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I just found a reason to squeeze a weekend trip to Miami, and a chance for you to WIN tickets.  Jazz In The Gardens is having their fifth annual concert March 20th and 21st, and the line up has something to offer everyone.  You have Mary J. Blige, John Legend and Melanie Fiona for the soul lovers. Then you have K’Jon, Robin Thicke, Teena Marie and Boyz II Men for the R & B crowd. For the Jazz lovers, the line up is David Sanborn, Cassandra Wilson and Joe Sample.  To make it even better, it’s hosted by Tom Joyner and his crew.  Now tickets are $45 – $70 for a one day pass, and they range from $75 to $125 for the two day pass.  Tickets are available via TicketMaster.

This concert series shows the on going work of the City Of Miami Gardens,  Saunders Entertainment Group and Circle Of One Marketing and Concertz Entertainment to put on a note worthy event.  Here is what Leon Saunders from Saunders Entertainment Group had to say about this endeavor. “Jazz in the Gardens” is the brainchild of Mayor Shirley Gibson, under whose leadership the City of Miami Gardens has experienced tremendous growth and progress. Her motivation for creating the music festival was to help revitalize the city and brand it as a place where people can come and enjoy all the wonderful things that Miami Gardens and South Florida has to offer. We had a four-year plan to establish the event and we are proud of the fact that in that time the Saunders Entertainment Group together with Circle of One Marketing and Concertz Entertainment has grown the event from 1,800 attendees to nearly 40,000. It has been very satisfying to see this event continue to grow in a time when other events like it around the country are being canceled for lack of support. We have a simple formula that has been very successful; we give a lot for a little. We realize that even when times are hard, people still need entertainment and Jazz in the Gardens is a fun party environment.”

Now for the info on winning the tickets.  This is a great concert series in a wonderful part of Florida, so why not give a way (two) Two Day Pass tickets.  It’s real easy to enter the contest. Just post a comment here, on how you would enjoy the weekend in Miami.  The person with the best description of that weekend wins.  Then on February 1st, the winner will be announced.  It’s that easy.  If the airlines act right  you may even see us down there. :)

[Update 2-1-2010] We have a winner. Mia Allen is the winner of the Jazz In The Gardens Contest.  Thank you MiaAllen for for entering, and being a frequent reader of Soulified.  Please email your address, so the we can send out the tickets. Please be on the look out for future contests.

Summer Concerts in Memphis

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It looks like Memphis will have a much better summer concert turnout, compared to last year.  With Memphis it has become harder and harder to really grab the headliners, or even leseer known artists.  So, to make sure that we don’t miss the good shows, I have compiled a list of the shows that I am currently aware of.  If you know of any that I am missing, please let me know and I’ll update the list.  I’m also working on a interactive calendar that will work a lot better.  It looks like India Arie, Anthony David w/ Musiq Soulchild, John Legend, and Anthony David w/ N’Dambi.  So far so good.

India Arie

India Arie (Buy TIckets)

Place: Orpheum Theatre Memphis

Date/Time: Sun, May 24, 2009 08:00 PM

Anthony David

Anthony Hamilton & Musiq Soulchild (Buy TIckets)

Place: Desoto County Civic Center

Date/Time: Sat, May 30, 2009 08:00 PM

John Legend

John Legend (Buy TIckets)

Place: Harrah’s Casino Tunica Event Center

Date/Time: Thu, Jul 2, 2009 07:30 PM

N'Dambi

N’Dambi & Anthony David (Buy TIckets)

Place: Minglewood Hall

Date/Time: Sat, June 27th, 2009 08:00 PM