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Diddy and Lil' Kim Reunite for One Historic Night; Hip-Hop Icons Back Together

  • Article
  • 27 April 2007

Diddy's critically acclaimed Bad Boy CD, ''PRESS PLAY,'' has spawned its third hit single, ''Last Night,'' featuring R&B songstress Keyshia Cole. ''The success of 'Last Night' has truly been a blessing,'' says Diddy. ''And you know I had to do a remix.''With that said, Diddy reached out to someone who could turn up the heat, none other than multi-platinum rapper and style icon, Lil' Kim. After several years of putting their artist/producer relationship on ice, Diddy and the sexy queen of rap have reunited to make music history once again.''We've always had amazing chemistry together,'' says Lil' Kim. ''It was a great feeling to pick back up where we left off years ago and do it again.''The release of ''Last Night'' (remix) marks Lil' Kim's return to music following her stint in a Philadelphia prison, from which she was released in July 2006.
''It feels great to be working with Lil' Kim again after all these years,'' muses Diddy.
Never one to stop a good thing, Diddy reached out to several other big names in music to create additional remixes. Game, Busta, Rich Boy, Noreaga, and Bad Boy South/Block Enterprises Yung Joc all lent their personal flair to the record.''I appreciate all of the people who have constantly supported the album andalso appeared on the remixes,'' says the rap mogul. ''And a special 'thank you' to Keyshia Cole for blessing this track with her beautiful vocals.''''PRESS PLAY'' is the hip-hop impresario's first solo collection in five years. The CD made a stunning debut atop the Billboard 200, marking Diddy's return to the 1 spot after nine years. The CD has already spawned two huge hit singles -- ''Come To Me,'' featuring Nicole Scherzinger from The Pussycat Dolls, and ''Tell Me,'' featuring Christina Aguilera. Diddy recently completed a sold-out European tour with Snoop Dogg.Lil' Kim has been spending the past year working on a book, titled ''Price of Loyalty,'' which is expected to be released later this year; preparing for the launch of her clothing line, 24-7-Star; as well as helping those in need through ongoing programs via her non-profit organization, Lil' Kim Cares.Contacts: For Diddy - Cara Donatto Atlantic Records 212-707-3060 cara.donatto
atlanticrecords.com For Lil' Kim - Tracy Nguyen 5W Public Relations 212-584-4312 tnguyen 5wpr.com

David Bowie ''Biography''

  • Article
  • 17 August 2006
The cliche about David Bowie says he's a musical chameleon, adapting himself according to fashion and trends. While such a criticism is too glib, there's no denying that Bowie demonstrated remarkable skill for perceiving musical trends at his peak in the '70s. After spending several years in the late '60s as a mod and as an all-around music-hall entertainer, Bowie reinvented himself as a hippie singer/songwriter. Prior to his breakthrough in 1972, he recorded a proto-metal record and a pop/rock album, eventually redefining glam rock with his ambiguously sexy Ziggy Stardust persona. Ziggy made Bowie an international star, yet he wasn't content to continue to churn out glitter rock. By the mid-'70s, he developed an effete, sophisticated version of Philly soul that he dubbed "plastic soul," which eventually morphed into the eerie avant-pop of 1976's Station to Station. Shortly afterward, he relocated to Berlin, where he recorded three experimental electronic albums with Brian Eno. At the dawn of the '80s, Bowie was still at the height of his powers, yet following his blockbuster dance-pop album Let's Dance in 1983, he slowly sank into mediocrity before salvaging his career in the early '90s. Even when he was out of fashion in the '80s and '90s, it was clear that Bowie was one of the most influential musicians in rock, for better and for worse. Each one of his phases in the '70s sparked a number of subgenres, including punk, new wave, goth rock, the new romantics, and electronica. Few rockers ever had such lasting impact.
David Jones began performing music when he was 13 years old, learning the saxophone while he was at Bromley Technical High School; another pivotal event happened at the school, when his left pupil became permanently dilated in a schoolyard fight. Following his graduation at 16, he worked as a commercial artist while playing saxophone in a number of mod bands, including the King Bees, the Manish Boys (which also featured Jimmy Page as a session man), and Davey Jones & the Lower Third. All three of those bands released singles, which were generally ignored, yet he continued performing, changing his name to David Bowie in 1966 after the Monkees' Davy Jones became an international star. Over the course of 1966, he released three mod singles on Pye Records, which were all ignored. The following year, he signed with Deram, releasing the music hall, Anthony Newley-styled David Bowie that year. Upon completing the record, he spent several weeks in a Scottish Buddhist monastery. Once he left the monastery, he studied with Lindsay Kemp's mime troupe, forming his own mime company, the Feathers, in 1969. The Feathers were short-lived, and he formed the experimental art group Beckenham Arts Lab in 1969.

TV on the Radio ''Biography''

  • Article
  • 7 August 2006

The Brooklyn-based group TV on the Radio mixes post-punk, electronic and other atmoshperic elements in such a creative way that it only makes sense that its core duo, vocalist Tunde Adebimpe and multi-instrumentalist/producer David Andrew Sitek, are both visual artists as well as musicians. Adebimpe is a graduate of NYU's film school and specializes in stop-motion animation, which his Brothers Quay-like video for the Yeah Yeah Yeah's single Pin demonstrates amply. He is also a painter, as is Sitek, who also produced the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Machine EP and their full-length Fever to Tell. The duo met when Sitek moved into the building where Adebimpe had a loft; each of them had been recording music on their own, but realized their sounds would work well together. Sitek's brother Jason, began playing drums and other instruments with the pair during their recording sessions, which resulted in a self-titled, 24-track CD released by the Brooklyn Milk imprint. Jason Sitek left the band for a short time due to other musical commitments but returned to the band when they recorded their Touch & Go debut, the Young Liars EP. After the EP was completed, TV on the Radio added guitarist/vocalist Kyp Malone to their fold. Young Liars, which also features the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Brian Chase and Nick Zinner, was released in summer 2003 to critical acclaim, coinciding with their gigs opening for the Fall. Their first full-length release, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes arrived in spring 2004. The band remained busy for the rest of the year, embarking on their own tours as well as dates with the Faint and the Pixies. That fall, they released the New Health Rock EP and won the 2004 Shortlist Prize. In 2005, the band kept busy with touring and returned to Sitek's Stay Gold studio to work on their second album. They also made an MP3 criticizing President George W. Bush, "Dry Drunk Emperor, available on their website. TV on the Radio signed with 4AD for European distribution of their albums and moved to Interscope in the U.S. In summer 2006 they resurfaced with Return to Cookie Mountain, a more polished but still searching collection of songs that featured David Bowie on backing vocals.Written by allmusic.com

Kid Rock ''Biography''

  • Article
  • 21 July 2006
One of the unlikeliest success stories in rock at the turn of the millennium, Detroit rap-rocker Kid Rock shot to superstardom with his fourth full-length album, 1998's Devil Without a Cause. What made it so shocking was that Rock had recorded his first demo a full decade before, been booted off major label Jive following his Beastie Boys-ish 1990 debut, Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast, and toiled for most of the decade in obscurity, releasing albums to a small, devoted, mostly local fan base while earning his fair share of ridicule around his home state. Nevertheless, Rock persevered, and by the time rap-metal had begun to attract a substantial audience, he had perfected the outlandish, over the top white-trash persona that gave Devil Without a Cause such a distinctive personality and made it such an infectious party record.
Bob "Kid Rock" Ritchie (b. Robert James Ritchie, January 17, 1971) grew up in Romeo, MI, a small rural town north of the Detroit metro area. Finding small-town life stiflingly dull, Ritchie immersed himself in rap music, learned to breakdance, and began making the talent-show rounds in Detroit. Inspired by the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill -- white performers fusing rap and hard guitar rock -- Kid Rock recorded his first demos in 1988, and eventually scored an opening slot at a Boogie Down Productions gig. That performance, in turn, led to a contract with Jive Records, which issued Kid Rock's debut album, Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast, in 1990. Produced by Kid Rock, Too Short, and D-Nice, the album was heavily derivative of Licensed to Ill.

Portishead ''Biography''

  • Article
  • 21 June 2006
Portishead may not have invented trip-hop, but they were among the first to popularize it, particularly in America. Taking their cue from the slow, elastic beats that dominated Massive Attack's Blue Lines and adding elements of cool jazz, acid house, and soundtrack music, Portishead created an atmospheric, alluringly dark sound. The group wasn't as avant-garde as Tricky, nor as tied to dance traditions as Massive Attack; instead, it wrote evocative pseudo-cabaret pop songs that subverted their conventional structures with experimental productions and rhythms of trip-hop. As a result, Portishead appealed to a broad audience -- not just electronic dance and alternative rock fans, but thirtysomethings who found techno, trip-hop, and dance as exotic as worldbeat. Before Portishead released their debut album, Dummy, in 1994, trip-hop's broad appeal wasn't apparent, but the record became an unexpected success in Britain, topping most year-end critics polls and earning the prestigious Mercury Music Prize; in America, it also became an underground hit, selling over 150,000 copies before the group toured the U.S. Following the success of Dummy, legions of imitators appeared over the next two years, but Portishead remained quiet as they worked on their second album.Named after the West Coast shipping town where Geoff Barrow grew up, Portishead formed in Bristol, England, in 1991.

Fall Out Boy ''Biography''

  • Article
  • 16 May 2006
The four members of Chicago's Fall Out Boy came together in suburban Wilmette around 2000. Vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Peter Wentz, drummer Andrew Hurley, and guitarist Joseph Trohman had all been in and out of various units connected to Chicago's underground hardcore scene. Most notably, Hurley drummed for Racetraitor, the furiously political metal-core outfit whose brief output was both a rallying point and sticking point within the hardcore community. As Fall Out Boy, the quartet used the unbridled intensity of hardcore as a foundation for melody-drenched pop-punk with a heavy debt to the emo scene. They debuted with a self-released demo in 2001, following it up in May 2002 with a split LP on Uprising that also featured Project Rocket. The band returned on the label in January with the mini-LP Fall Out Boy's Evening Out With Your Girl, but by this point a bidding war of sorts was already in full swing. Fall Out Boy eventually signed a deal with Gainesville, FL's Fueled by Ramen, the label co-owned by Less Than Jake drummer Vinnie Balzano, but also received an advance from Island Records to record their proper debut. The advance came with a right of first refusal for Island on Fall Out Boy's next album, but it also financed the recording of Take This to Your Grave, which occurred at Butch Vig's Smart Studios compound in Madison, WI, with Sean O'Keefe (Lucky Boys Confusion, Motion City Soundtrack) at the helm. Grave appeared in May 2003, and Fall Out Boy garnered positive reviews for its gigs at South by Southwest and numerous tour appearances. The ambitious From Under the Cork Tree followed in spring 2005, and Fall Out Boy headed out on tour again. via:allmusic.com

Antony and the Johnsons ''Biography''

  • Article
  • 26 April 2006
Growing up in California, Antony felt himself to be the consummate outsider until he came face to face with the image of Boy George on the cover of the Culture Club's 1982 debut album, Kissing to Be Clever. He relocated to New York City in 1990, where he found a world more accepting of his avant-garde sensibilities and sexually ambiguous nature. He created the cabaret ensemble Blacklips and modeled himself after Blue Velvet-era Isabella Rossellini and the drag queen that graced the cover of Soft Cell's 1982 single "Torch." He formed Antony and the Johnsons and released their self-titled debut on David Tibet's Durtro label in 2000, followed by an appearance on the Lou Reed albums The Raven and Animal Serenade -- he toured with Reed as well throughout 2003. He has also appeared in the Steve Buscemi film Animal Factory as an androgynous convict. Antony and the Johnsons released a series of EPs in 2004, followed by the band's second full-length, I Am a Bird Now, in February of 2005.via:allmusic.com

Calexico ''Biography''

  • Article
  • 21 April 2006
Calexico, a Tucson collective of musicians focused around Joey Burns and John Convertino, forged an eclectic identity through their exploration of Southwestern culture. Composer Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Westerns as well as Portuguese fado, Afro-Peruvian music, and '50s and '60s jazz, country, and surf music all factored into Calexico's music.
Burns studied classical music at the University of California-Irvine before starting his rock career. Calexico formed after Burns met John Convertino in Los Angeles in 1990. At the time, Convertino was playing with Howe Gelb's experimental rock group Giant Sand. Burns joined the group as their upright bassist for a European tour. Burns and Convertino found their voice as a duo during a break from work with Giant Sand. They moved to Tucson in 1994 and began collecting instruments from the Chicago Store. First, they worked with Tucson's neo-lounge combo Friends of Dean Martinez. They started to play marimba, cello, accordion, and vibraphone in addition to their usual work on bass, guitar, and drums. After a split with Friends of Dean Martinez founder Bill Elm in 1996, the duo began to get session work with Barbara Manning, Richard Buckner, Victoria Williams, Michael Hurley, Bill Janovitz, Vic Chesnutt, and Lisa Germano (as the trio OP8). Burns and Convertino experimented on their own with their new instruments in a home recording studio in 1996, releasing their debut CD, Spoke, on Germany's Haus Musik Records. After signing with Quarterstick/Touch and Go Records in Chicago, they released The Black Light in 1998 and The Hot Rail in 2000.

Paul Weller ''Biography''

  • Article
  • 19 April 2006
As the leader of the Jam, Paul Weller fronted the most popular British band of the punk era, influencing legions of English rockers that ranged from his mod revival contemporaries to the Smiths in the '80s and Oasis in the '90s. During the final days of the Jam, he developed a fascination with Motown and soul, which led him to form the sophisti-pop group the Style Council in 1983. As the Style Council's career progressed, Weller's interest in soul developed into an infatuation with jazz-pop and house music, which eventually led to gradual erosion of his audience -- by 1990, he couldn't get a record contract in the U.K., where he had previously been worshipped as a demi-god. As a solo artist, Weller returned to soul music as an inspiration, cutting it with the progressive, hippie tendencies of Traffic. Weller's solo records were more organic and rootsier than the Style Council's, which helped him regain his popularity within Britain. By the mid-'90s, he had released three successful albums which were both critically-acclaimed and massively popular in England, where contemporary bands like Ocean Colour Scene were citing him as an influence. Just as importantly, many observers, while occasionally criticizing the trad rock nature of his music, acknowledged that Weller was one of the few rock veterans who had managed to stay vital within the second decade of his career.

The Zutons ''Biography''

  • Article
  • 17 April 2006

Rock band the Zutons was formed in Liverpool, England, in the spring of 2002 by singer/guitarist David McCabe, lead guitarist Boyan Chowdhury, bassist Russell Pritchard, and drummer Sean Payne, with saxophonist Abi Harding joining later. The group was taken up by the Deltasonic label, the same company responsible for the Coral, and released its debut single, "Devil's Deal," in September 2002, followed by "Creepin' an' a Crawlin'" in May 2003. The band then began working on its debut album, produced by Ian Broudie (also the Coral's producer), with a new single, "Pressure Point," appearing in January 2003. Who Killed ...... The Zutons went gold and was nominated for a Mercury Prize upon its release in the U.K. in April 2004, and further singles "You Will You Won't" (April 2004) and "Remember Me" (June 2004) were released. The album was issued in the U.S. on Epic Records in October 2004 with an added song, "Don't Ever Think (Too Much)," just after the Zutons had toured America opening for the Thrills. Released as a single in the U.K., "Don't Ever Think (Too Much)" reached the Top 20, the Zutons' most successful showing yet. The band returned to the U.S. for more touring in November. December 2004 saw the release of another Zutons single in the U.K., "Confusion," while "Pressure Point" was being used in a Levi's ad in the U.S.via:allmusic.com

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