Etta James, Powerful Voice Behind ‘At Last,’ Dies at 73

 

NYT :

Ms. James was not easy to pigeonhole. She is most often referred to as a rhythm and blues singer, and that is how she made her name in the 1950s.
She was also comfortable, and convincing, singing pop standards.
She is in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.

More after the jump…

Photoshop of Horrors | Wired Readers Show BP How It’s Done

Wired readers show BP that when hiring unethical photographers (or photo editors) in the future, they should look for Photoshop proficiency on their resumes. The Wired audience put BP’s pathetic photo-doctoring of oil-cleanup press photos to shame by being more skilled and far more imaginative.


*"I'mma Let You Finish": Urban Dictionary | Kanye Gate | Kanye West Will Let You Finish

**The Kanye West "I'mma Let You Finish" Tumblr: Why the Internet Was Invented | VV

Lords of Dopetown

Below find excerpts from: Lords of Dopetown written by Mark Jacobson and published October 25, 2007 by the New York Magazine in their Dirty Money current issue:

During the Harlem heroin plague of the seventies, few dealers were bigger than Frank Lucas and Leroy “Nicky” Barnes. Both made millions selling dope, lived the wide-brimmed-hat high life, enabled the addiction of whole neighborhoods, and, eventually, got caught. Both were locked up and later cooperated with authorities—some might call it snitching. Now, with Lucas confined to a wheelchair and Barnes in some Witness Protection Program locale, each is the subject of a current film. Barnes reports on his life and times in the flava-full documentary Mr. Untouchable. Lucas hit the ultimate Hollywood jackpot, getting Denzel Washington, no less, to play him in American Gangster (reviewed this week in “The Culture Pages”).
And so, three decades after their heyday, these former street titans are still generating commerce. This makes sense, as both insist they were businessmen, first and foremost. The trick for an ambitious black man in the seventies dope game was to minimize the sway of the Italian distributors who had controlled the Harlem scene for decades. Using sheer volume as an edge, Barnes cut increasingly favorable deals with his Mafia partners. He had the biggest clientele—hundreds of thousands of repeat (and repeat) buyers. It was a captive market, and he was their low-cost retailer. Lucas, more of a boutique operator, managed to bypass the Italians altogether by establishing the grisly but exceedingly lucrative “cadaver connection”—a direct line from Asia’s “Golden Triangle” poppy growers straight to 116th Street, smuggling heroin inside the coffins of American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.
When the possibility emerged that these two old-school street rivals might be willing to engage in what could only be called a historic conversation—they haven’t spoken in 30 years—it was easy to envision yelling, phone slamming, and maybe even a death threat or two.

My two cents:
I was made privy to copy of American Gangster this past Saturday. Although I am a fan, Denzel’s pageantry of signature facial expressions and standardized cavalier bravado have been mundane since Ricochet yet for AG they’re chock full (no-homo). Though casting was “best in years” for a Hollywood A-movie the action was shiftless and the idleness molded boredom save for the shooting scenes which best explicated the destruction of a bullet.
Get in gear to ready yourself for Dame Dash's (producer) Mr. Untouchable.

+Mr. Untouchable trailer: YouTube
+Hi-Tek & Dame Dash: Mr. Untouchable Mixtape
+No I.D. (formerly known as Immenslope & Kanye's mentor) produces Jay-Z's Success featuring Nas for American Gangster: XXL

Mickboogie's Mixboogies

Mick Boogie, Terry Urban and 9th Wonder The Graduate w/ Kanye West Download Mick Boogie and Young Chris Politically Incorrect Download Mick Boogie & Terry Urban Unbelievable Download Mick Boogie & Little Brother And Justus For All Download

+ Mickboogie: Official Site

Brothered by Jay-Z, Mentored by No ID

50 Cent: Part-Time Lover (addressing Lil Wayne & Baby)
From: Sabrina's Baby Boy

Kanye accuses Jay-Z of biting off of him in the form of a “cold collabo” with Chris Martin of
Coldplay. In the song called “Big Brother” he raps: “I told Jay I did a song with Coldplay, Next thing I
know he did a song with Coldplay.”
The banal precursor of September 11^th finds Singer Kenny Chesney Challenging 50 & Kanye.

+Kanye: Official site I MySpace I MTV I Rocafella I Art Born of Outrage in the Internet Age
+No ID: Discogs I NNDB I Wiki I Whudat
+Tim Westwood: Official site I BBC

Raised by Game

Common: The Game Ft. DJ Premier
From: Finding Forever (July 31, 2007)

While in college I ran with cats from Evanston Illinois; ergo, Windy City’s folklore poses no conundrum. Formerly known as Common Sense Can I Borrow a Dollar? dropped on October 6, 1992. Common’s enigmatic time with the: Soulquarians and Neptunes for two albums worth of women-radio-ready-lollipop foci often goes to the blame of Baduisms yet I do not concretely concur. As of Be, an acronym that feigns no ending, Common has reasserted himself as the talent he walked into the game facilely expositing.


*MP3 courtesy the Tinman Has It
*Other downloads available at Kanye Talks