While Chris Brown has shown a passing interest in flexing his hip-hop muscle over the years, the singer revealed in a recent interview that he doesn’t know if he’s ready to record an entire hip-hop album.

“For me, I think I would have to progress more as an emcee first,” he said in an interview with Power 98. “It’s just me having fun and showcasing who I am. So an album, I would really have to be taken a hundred percent serious as a rapper. I like Rap. I love it. Music is my passion. Even on my album now, there’s a couple songs that I rap on. But as far as a whole album, I don’t know if the world is ready for Chris Brown, the rapper.”

“Music is for everyone,” he added. “When you put genres on music, you segregate it… I want to always be able to do any kind of music I want. When I get older I might want to do a Country album. Next year, I might want to do an all Hip Hop album or Alternative album. Just making sure that anything that goes down, showing my audience or showing people that have a creative mind that you can do anything you want, it’s just about believing and loving what you’re doing in a positive way.”

Contributor : Chris G.

What’s in a name….everything when it comes to the triple threat artist, singer, songwriter, and producer SHOW TYME

The epitome of soul expression. Born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey, Show Tyme began honing his skills at a young age in the church as a drummer for gospel artists. Being the son of a prominent singing/piano duo of parents it was predestined for him to one day pick up the one thing that would set him on the path laid before him – The Microphone. “Growing up in a household where Donny Teddy, Stevie, Aretha, EWF, Sam, Otis, and James were the order of the day it was only a matter of time before the Soul Gods paid me a visit” says Show Tyme.

Show Tyme was bestowed the name by a chance encounter with the singer Case who is credited for the name change. Show Tyme has worked with some of the music industries elite artist, i.e. Case, Donell Jones, Kelly Price, Guru, City High (15 Will Get U 20) Pharoahe Monch (Desire, Push, Pain, Clap one day) KC and Jo Jo, Musiq Soulchild, Mop (Whoa, It ain’t hard to tell) J. Dilla, Nikolay Rook, Miguel Atwood Ferguson and presently the lead singer of the Las Supper.

Show Tyme credits his love for people and humanity as his inspiration!!!!

MOTTO (I do what I love and love what I do)

Credits

City High (15 Will Get U 20) Booga Basement/Interscope

Pharoahe Monch (Desire, Pain, Push, Clap One Day) SCR Universal/Duck Down

Mop (Whoa, It Ain’t Hard to Tell) Wendy Williams Brings the Heat Vol 1

J Dilla (We Must be in Love) the Shining

Guru (Sippin on Hennessey)

Nikolay Rook (Bright Lights)

Peter Jackson Feat Joel Ortiz and Show

Tyme (Head Up)

NBA2K8

Madden 2008

TV

HBO 24/7 Paqcuio/Marquez 2012 episode 1

Musiq Soulchild (Jay Leno, Michael Baisden, VH1 Soul Live, BET 106& Park, BET’s Rip the Runway) Donell Jones (106 & Park, Regis & Kelly, and Jay Leno)

Chris Brown shared his thoughts on his reputation for feuding, specifically with fellow stars Drake and Frank Ocean. In an interview with Power 106 in Los Angeles, the R&B singer said that he’s done with the Drake issue.

“People can coexist,” Brown said. “It’s not entertainment for me. It’s just more of me being real, saying what I gotta say. I ain’t out here trying to go at him, I ain’t got n*ggas after him. I ain’t got ‘people’ after him. We just chilling. I have my differences and he has his — his music’s still hot. … I’m not gonna put myself in a situation to mess up my career. Focus on what it is. Focus on your music.”

“With the Frank Ocean situation, I’ll put it like this–it’s in the past,” Brown added. “Some stuff went down, but it’s whatever. It’s always sensationalized and always blown out of proportion. I got respect for his music. I got respect for everybody else, so I ain’t really trying to really go back down that route. Everything for me is moving forward. I do my music now so I’m good.”

Contributor : Chris G.

T-Pain and Future seem to be embroiled in a bit of a feud. T-Pain posted a back-handed “compliment” aimed at Future on Instagram last week, and in a recent interview with Hot 93.7, T-Pain offered criticism of Future’s music.

“I don’t think Future gets the technology very well. I don’t think he understands how it actually works,” he said. “He’s writing great songs. He’s a great writer. Keep in mind, you can use Auto-Tune and you can know how to work perfectly, but you still have to know how to write a good song. Just because he sound good dosen’t mean he’s saying good stuff. As far as how he uses Auto-Tune, I don’t think he knows how it works. I think he’s thinking that you just turn it on, and then it just happens. But nah, he writes great, great hooks and great songs themselves. I just don’t think he actually knows how to use Auto-Tune yet.”

“A lot of people don’t sing with it, a lot of people just sing and then put it on after, which is a terrible mistake,” T-Pain added. “There’s a lot of stuff you’ve gotta know about Auto-Tune before you can start using it, because it’s the hot thing to do. But Future’s still great right now, he’s doing his thing.”

Contributor : Chris G.

Ever since the infamous 2009 domestic abuse incident that ended his relationship with Rihanna and made him a pariah in the eyes of many, Chris Brown has had to quiet rumors. One rumor that just wouldn’t go away is that Jay-Z (Rihanna’s mentor and the head of her Roc Nation management team) has had a beef with Breezy ever since then and that Jay even warned Chris to keep his hands off Rih-Rih lest Hov crush his career when they last ran into each other at Barclays Center.

But Chris Brown told Big Boy that none of that was true.

“It was cordial,” Brown said of the exchange between he and Jay. “It was real respectful. It was nothing like that. I went to the Center to see the show. People like to take it and run with it, because they have nothing else.”

Contributor : Erica Moore

Maimouna “Mumu Fresh” Youssef is a Grammy nominated seasoned singer, emcee, songwriter and poet. She received a Grammy nomination for her contribution on the Roots hit “Don’t Feel Right” in 2007 for best rap song. She has swapped musical licks with such artists as Angelique Kidjo, Brian Wilson’s band, Big Daddy Kane, Nas, Dead Prez, Wilco, Zap Mama, Cody Chestnut, Martin Luther, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli. Maimouna has also rocked the stages of many renowned venues such as Denver Colorado ‘s Red Rocks Amphitheater, New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, Switzerland’s Moniteau Jazz Festival, and The Carter Baron Amphitheater in Washington, DC. Her musical endeavors were a springboard for Youssef to make her big screen debut in Dave Chapelle’s hip hop documentary “Block Party.” Maimouna released her first Solo EP entitled Black Magic Woman March 1, 2011 and is currently working on her inaugural solo full length LP scheduled for release in the summer of 2011

Maimouna “Mumu Fresh” Youssef is a Grammy nominated seasoned singer, emcee, songwriter and poet. She received a Grammy nomination for her contribution on the Roots hit “Don’t Feel Right” in 2007 for best rap song.

After one day on set together, rumors began flying that new “American Idol” celebrity judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj were having words with each other. Despite the rumors that Carey kept interrupting Nicki and that Nicki finally went off; everyone was all one big happy family when MTV News showed up on-set.

“How are we gonna feud in two days? A feud takes a little longer to spread out [than that],” Mariah responded, when asked about the rumors. “It’s fun, it’s music, it’s singing, it’s laughter.”

So, there is no bad blood between the two divas.

Not yet, anyway.

Contributor : Erica Moore

Nicki Minaj got very defensive in a recent interview with The Guardian. The interviewer asked Minaj if she had alienated some of her fans with her forays into pop singing, and Nicki’s response was swift and direct. The Young Money rapper says that critics haven’t really followed her career–if they had, they’d know that she’s been singing for years.

“That’s the thing. I really want you to write that. Because it’s the most bullsh-t thing I’ve ever heard – you liked me only when I was doing rap? I never only did rap,” she explained. “My first single was called ‘Your Love,’ and it was a pop song. I did a song called ‘Knockout’ with Lil Wayne about three years ago. Nobody said anything about that. Why? Because it didn’t become huge like ‘Starships.’”

“That’s what irritates me. People always want to talk about who I was, but I’ve always been singing, always been experimenting with pop music,” she continued. “So the fact that it got huge one day–should I apologize for that? Should I apologize that ‘Starships’ and ‘Super Bass’ did well, and children like them, and middle America can sing along? There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m just broadening my fan base. I think everyone should enjoy music.”

Contributor : Rayna Dean

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.

Publicist Kristen Foster said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unknown.

At her peak, Houston was the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world’s best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like “The Bodyguard” and “Waiting to Exhale.”

She had the perfect voice and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

“The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy,” Houston told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.

Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.

“The time that I first saw her singing in her mother’s act in a club … it was such a stunning impact,” Davis told “Good Morning America.”

“To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine,” he added.

Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with “Whitney Houston,” which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. “Saving All My Love for You” brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. “How Will I Know,” ”You Give Good Love” and “The Greatest Love of All” also became hit singles.

Another multiplatinum album, “Whitney,” came out in 1987 and included hits like “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”

The New York Times wrote that Houston “possesses one of her generation’s most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity.”

Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the “Soul Train Awards” in 1989.

“Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?” she told Katie Couric in 1996. “You’re not black enough for them. I don’t know. You’re not R&B enough. You’re very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them.”

Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop’s pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own. (The couple had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.

But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.

“When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place,” she told Rolling Stone in 1993. “You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that’s their image. It’s part of them, it’s not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody’s angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy.”

It would take several years, however, for the public to see that side of Houston. Her moving 1991 rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America’s sweetheart.

In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with “The Bodyguard.” Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer (Houston) guarded by a former Secret Service agent (Kevin Costner) was an international success.

It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” which sat atop the charts for weeks. It was Grammy’s record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the “Bodyguard” soundtrack was named album of the year.

She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with “Waiting to Exhale” and “The Preacher’s Wife.” Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, “My Love Is Your Love,” in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay.”

But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, she said by the time “The Preacher’s Wife” was released, “(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. … I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. … I wasn’t happy by that point in time. I was losing myself.”

In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.

Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2010. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.

She was so startlingly thin during a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumors spread she had died the next day. Her crude behavior and jittery appearance on Brown’s reality show, “Being Bobby Brown,” was an example of her sad decline. Her Sawyer interview, where she declared “crack is whack,” was often parodied. She dropped out of the spotlight for a few years.

Houston staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album “I Look To You.” The album debuted on the top of the charts, and would eventually go platinum.

Things soon fell apart. A concert to promote the album on “Good Morning America” went awry as Houston’s voice sounded ragged and off-key. She blamed an interview with Winfrey for straining her voice.

A world tour launched overseas, however, only confirmed suspicions that Houston had lost her treasured gift, as she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walked out. Canceled concert dates raised speculation that she may have been abusing drugs, but she denied those claims and said she was in great shape, blaming illness for cancellations.

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY | Associated Press