LOVE CORK SCREW

                                      

Head Over Heels, Good Times Good Friends, Touch the Sky, doesn't that just scream "pass me a bottle of wine?" I am not a wine drinker but I have a nice pallet and know a good wine when I taste one. When I tell you it was an amazing experience to taste Love Cork Screw collection of wine! I simply fell in LOVE. I was attending Love Cork Screw Wine & Fashion Mixer at the Bronzeville Collectives MKE hosted by Tiffany Miller this past weekend, it was a vibe of love, support, locals and lots of connections. 

While at the Mixer I was able to meet the owner and CEO of Love Cork Screw Chrishon Lampley while she was doing wine tastings and on spot purchases. Chrishon is one of few African-American vintners in the industry. Her energy was amazing and her knowledge of pairing the wine and the background gave me more confident on making a purchase. What I loved about LCS wine is that after tasting each one, the name of them matched the taste. For example, I dislike with a passion Pinot Grigo because they are always dry. I would choose Chardonnay over it any time. However this Pinot Grigio had a crisp taste to it, a clean and refreshing feeling with a subtle after taste of the apple and pear. It literally made me smile and think of having a "Good Time with Good Friends." The 'Hard Knock Life" was nothing short in flavor. Upon first sip the blasting flavor of fresh concord grapes took me back to childhood. Almost like Smuckers, if I wasn't careful I would have done the Smuckers lip smack (lol). My favorite of the five (5) flavors was Niagara also known as "Touch The Sky."When sipping this an array of seafood dishes came rushing to my mind on how to prepare the two together.

When we are invited somewhere it is always hard to choose which "Thank You' wine you should bring, however you cannot go wrong with any of these choices. They are all literally perfect. I will be ordering some for myself and others as party favors. If you want to learn more about Love Cork Screw wine and where to purchase just click any of the links below!

KEEPING UP WITH LOVE CORK SCREW

www.lovecorkscrew.com

Twitter: @ChrishonLampley

InstaGram: @lovecorkscrew

Facebook: @OfficialChrishonLampley

S.I.N.S (Stories I Never Shared)

S.I.N.S (Stories I Never Shared)

"I wrote S.I.N.S as a therapeutic way to express myself. I wanted to create an intimate project where I opened up on a specific aspect of my life, that aspect being my relationships and experiences with love and women. Each song is inspired by a different person/experience shared with someone." - Genesis Renji

Thursday October 26th, Genesis Renji dropped a 26 minute, 8 tracks of  nothing but big MOOD project called 'S.I.N.S' (Stories I Never Shared). Genesis Renji has put out a few other projects, songs and videos and is known to have a volt of songs, projects, and throwaways more than we can imagine. Oh but this, this is what was needed to grab the attention of his current fans and ones who have been skeptic. On a poetry tip the title alone would has you deep in thought. 'S.I.N.S' is like a open letter (more so a note in my opinion) that Genesis Renji has been contemplating on delivering to his fans but also finding comfort and understanding with life's relationships and being able to deliver in a way that is not saturated like today's false overly hyped love songs. I probably memorized word for word 'X's & O's' and 'Love Me Down' within 24 hours of it dropping. 'Redd Eye' is one of my favorite as well.
Thinking about 'S.I.N.S' title Stories I Never Shared makes your mind drift to your own what ifs, your own sinful yet fun indulgence. I can guarantee you after a listen or two, you unconsciously find yourself in a prophetic mood singing the songs line for line, bar for bar, metaphor for metaphor; recreating what you have gone through. The track-list order is perfect, no change is needed. The album itself is not perfect, there are two songs I would leave out but at the same time feel it interrupts the flow of what he is trying to deliver. There is growth in this project from his past catalogs and I am here for it. Who knew that vulnerability would channel the artist that we are growing more and more to love. 

                          STREAM S.I.N.S (Stories I Never Shared) On All Music Platforms 

KEEPING UP WITH GENESIS RENJI 
www.HouseOfRenji.com
Twitter: @GenesisRenji
InstaGram: @GenesisRenji
Facebook: @GenesisRenji

 

Tokyo Jetz

Tokyo Jetz

As my friend Apolleaux would say "Florida will Florida bruh," meaning they are going to produce some good quality stuff or they're not. In this case and Florida has been just doing that producing great things. Getting a huge spotlight more lately with all these female rappers coming to light and since Comedian/Rapper Lil Duval song 'Smile', here's Jacksonville, Florida's Top 5 female rapper Tokyo Jetz. 

Co-signed by T.I and now affiliated with his label Hustle Gang, I remember watching her on Facebook doing freestyles and seeing 1 or 2 videos last year and thinking she was dope. She didn't catch my attention musically that hard but it was enough to keep me as a fan to watch her grow. It wasn't until just recently when I was at the (my favorite rapper) Kevin Gates concert in Dallas that she opened up for him, making me more intrigued again. Tokyo Jetz rocked the hell out of that stage.  She most definitely has stage presences. I know it's not me personally that she is trying to convince but this showed me that she was ready and was developing into a true artist. 

I'm going to admit I downloaded her new album 'Bonafide' which is out now on all music media, but I did not listen to it right away. I have ton of music that I have to get to. This past weekend I finally sat down to listen to it all the way through. Production wise I give it a 6 out of 10 there are some flaws in the mastering of it, and personally feel she should work on her delivery or find beats that form to her. The are some SOLID features on this album including Florida's Bad B*tch, the beautiful Trina, Kash Doll, Trey Songz and T.I. To rate this album I would say a overall 7. Not to say this is not a good album but there's room for growth, content wise, production wise etc. My top songs from this 11 track project are 'No Problem', 'The One', and '1000 ft T.I. & Trey Songz'. In that order. I have some of Tokyo Jetz's singles and other projects and I know she can hold her own, however the majority of her songs in her catalog that I like have features and I don't want her to turn into just a feature type of artist. 

Patiently waiting for her growth and development I have high hopes for Tokyo. Check out her new project by streaming below or follow her pages by clicking the link in KEEPING UP WITH TOKYO JETZ. 

KEEPING UP WITH TOKYO JETZ

www.TokyoJetz.com

Twitter: @RealTokyoJetz

InstaGram: @TokyoJetz

Facebook: Tokyo Jetz

Ella Mai

Ella Mai a beautiful British singer and songwriter has released her new self titled album Ella Mai. She caught my attention in the end of 2016 when I was searching for new music on Apple Music and her EP Change popped up and 10,000 Hours instantly became my favorite and I started searching for her everywhere. Ella received a lot of love and buzz from another single 'Boo'd Up' from her other EP Ready (2017). This is where it's like suddenly she blew up as I was hoping she would. Ella is signed to DJ Mustard's label 10 Summers Records, where she debuted her first album Ella Mai.   

Ella Mai being young, with great craftsmanship and having a foundation with music her growth in the industry will be amazing. The time that it took her to create a project seemed quite quick for a new artist, however she has put out a couple of EPs before doing so. I take it that this might be a great solid R&B project. On her 16 track self-titled album Ella Mai has some pretty nice features, Chris Brown on Whatchamacallit, John Legend on Everything, and H.E.R on Gut Feeling. The album is not a miss I wanted more sound diversity and it did not give me that. As a poet I most definitely enjoyed the spoken word/poetry Ella used throughout the album. I have some favorites on there, like 'Own it' a great rendition of Adina Howard's "T-Shirt and Panties" and it was, 'Everything' with John legend, 'Gut Feeling' featuring H.E.R and the bonus track 'Naked.' To keep her on the billboards and on the radio she will either let her album sit or use 'Sauce' , Gut Feeling, Whatchamacallit or 'Cheap Shot'

 as her next single. All three tracks are wavy, something we can vibe to during the winter and New Year. 

I can't wait to watch her develop more as an artist overall. Stream or download the new album Ella Mai and choose your favorites. Go download or stream now on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Music, TuneIt, and all other outlets. 

KEEPING UP WITH ELLA MAI

www.EllaMai.com

Twitter: @EllaMai

InstaGram: @EllaMai

Facebook: Ella Mai

KINKY

Yesterday (yes on a Sunday) my bestfriend and I went to see the movie "Kinky". When I saw the trailer several months ago on Facebook and I saw my celebrity crush Robert Ri'chard was playing in it, I made it a must go see. Plus I support everything Black. I did forget about it because there was very little to no promotion about it, which I was sadden by because the actors were prime actors and this was not the directors first film. I commented on the Kinky website/post and they sent out a notification that the movie was out and they had a list of theaters that it was showing in, which was not many. 

I would rate the movie as a solid 7. Reason being the introduction was too long and off back it seemed as if it could have been a YouTube series, or even a Netflix Special. The plot of the story was okay could have been better, it just felt dragged and not really well put together. The dialogue had too many long dramatic pauses, the staging of the scenes weren't the best. Like when Robert's character was on his boat and was sipping champagne I saw the bar code sticker still on the bottom of the glass. It was a lot of little things that was hard not to notice. 

I wasn't a fan of  dawn's character until it came time to the bedroom scenes. Her character seemed overly shy and somewhat annoying to me. However the start of all the bedroom scenes had me yelling out "okay ma'am you better get it." It really was the climax throughout the movie. I just it was more to them. They either ended too abruptly and or didn't give much detail as I imaged it would've based off the trailer and my own desires. Especially the bachelorette  party, I wanted more, it was a quick okay hi an bye. For the ending not to tell the story but just say the ending made me super mad and disappointed. 

Overall the movie was pretty okay and if I had to rate it, I would give it a solid 6.5. I wouldn't go to the movies again to watch it but if it was on BHer (BET), Netflix, Hulu, or HBO I was most defiantly watch it again. 

***At the end of the credits I took a picture of the song list of all the songs that played throughout the movies. They were pretty dope. I will be downloading all of them if they are available on Apple Music or Tidal.***

FIND A THEATRE NEAR YOU AT WWW.KINKYTHEMOVIE.COM

Usher - "A"

Okay Usher with the surprise release album.  We know that artist leaves and rebrands themselves by doing the alter egos things; Beyonce vs Sasha Fierce, T.I. vs TIP, Usher vs Usher Raymond. You get the point. On Friday Usher dropped a surprise album produced totally by Zaytoven called the "A", always showing tribute to his home Atlanta. I was skeptic because the two collaborations didn't make sense, Usher is a R&B, Let It Burn, sexual dance moves, confessions, pouring my heart out type of guy and Zaytoven is trap music and club scene music maker. After the first listen all the way through, I AM HERE FOR THIS COLLABORATION! 

Despite Joe Budden's hating ass tweet, we know Usher is not 18. Some of us like change and if it works it works. This is not your typical Usher meaning you can't sing these songs with your parents like you could all his other projects. Being 40 or not this is for US. When I say US I mean the 25-30 somethings. Like I can't sing Ata, She Ain't Tell Ya, or Gift Shop with my moms around. Nope, Nope, not Never. I most defiantly can sing Confessions, My Way, or Nice and Slow. Not charting well with his last single "Good Kisser" in 2014, these 8 tracks is worth all 27 minutes of your time. R&B turned Pop, turn Trap (more or less) artist Usher has proven that he is willing to take risk and is willing to try any genre during any time frame. 

I don't give this album a solid 10 but I most defiantly give is a strong 8. That's just because some of the lyrics and delivery wasn't hitting for me. If you haven't heard it yet, don't go in wanting the old R&B Usher, think about who he is collaborating with and use that perspective. Almost like when first collaborated with Lil Jon and the impact it made during that time.      

      

  

A Piss Poor Job with The HamilTones

 

HEATED!!!! For those who don't know who The HamilTones are, they are the background vocalist for R&B Singer and Songwriter Anthony Hamilton. The HamilTones were in Dallas, Texas Friday October 5th as the main act for the Food For Soul Concert at the South Side Ballroom. This was the worst hosting and venue set up ever. As a gift my mom purchased 3 $65  VIP with Meet and Greet Tickets for me and my siblings. Meet and Greet was suppose to start before the concert which started at 7 pm. Like I said SUPPOSE to. The doors to the venue did not open until 7:34 pm. General admission and VIP was in 1 long line until people start complaining. It took almost an hour to get in, because there were only two people working the ticket booth and only one of them had a half working computer, so all the staffing personnel was operating off sheets of unorganized papers. After finally getting our wristbands and in the venue we were told our seats are when we first walk in. I did not understand how our seats would be the first seats when we walk in if we paid for reserved VIP seating with meet and greet. On the website The table seating which was $35 was supposed to be BEHIND the VIP Seating but they had it the other way around in the venue. It was so many people upset and complaining to the staff but all the employee people said is "its not our fault and nothing we can do." After all that complaining there were people with NO wristbands meaning they bought standing room only, sitting in the VIP Seats and refusing to get up. Security did nothing. One security guy said "fuck it here are some wristbands," to a group of people 3 rows ahead of us. I'm furious at this point. I wanted to leave however I was not going to waste $200 with tax plus $30 for parking. So I stayed. By now it is 10:30 pm and STILL NO HamilTones. The people who was hosting this event had 12 acts before the HamilTones, they were unorganized, ghetto and unhelpful. The Meet and Greet did not start until 12:15 am and so many people left because it was ridiculous on the timing and organization. At the meet and greet we were unable to talk the the HamilTones and only allowed ONE picture before getting shooed out the back door to leave the premises. The HamilTones have reached a plateau in which they should be choosy on who books them, the venue location, the hosting, the band all things that it take to put on a show just like if they were performing with Anthony Hamilton. This concert was a JOKE. 

HamilTones is too great of a group to be hosted by the mere basics. A search to find a better booking agent should be on the agenda. 

-Signed an HIGHLY Disappointed Fan and Customer

A Social Cocktail

A Social Cocktail

Located at The Black Ivy in Deep Ellum

This is a networking social event welcoming established, new and in process entrepreneurs/business owners, artists, producers, writers, teachers, graphic artists, life coaches, food vendors and more. This event is designed to bring people together to build contacts and a support system for each other. Discuss how you will start new projects for the upcoming 2019 fiscal year for yourselves and how we can even involve and give back to youth with our knowledge and contacts. 

Alcoholic beverages, 2 famous signature cocktails and finger foods from sponsors will be served and are included in the ticket price.

The Black Ivy

3002 Commerce Street (Suite B)

Dallas, Texas 75226

CLICK A Social Cocktail TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Dom Kennedy Volume Two EP

Dom this is a solid no for me. Dom Kennedy recently dropped a long awaited full- length EP entitled Volume Two. I simply could not get into it. I appreciate him being true to how he started hwoeve with this I personally feel he hasn't been great since the Yellow Album. The production is the same from 2011, there's no growth. The bars are mediocre at its best. I was even disappointed with his verse on Nipsey Hussle Album Victory Lap, just seemed lazy. The Revamp of 2Pac "Brenda's Got a Baby" did not help my thoughts nor did the video. We all know Dom can do better. He needs better beats, production, and real constructive criticism. I don't want him to turn into just a feature artist because I know he can put out solo projects. If you feel I am being too harsh well that's on you. You are more than welcome to watch "Brenda's Baby' video or click the links below for streaming and or downloading below. 

Dom Kennedy - Brenda's Baby 

Download on Itunes: Volume Two   Datpiff: Volume Two   

Keep Up with Dom Kennedy: www.dopeitsdom.com