The As-I-Amber Podcast & BlogTimbaland and Swizz Beatz recently announced that the next Verzuz Battle on Easter Sunday will be The Isley Brothers vs Earth, Wind, & Fire! Who are you going for? In the meantime here’s a playlist to get us ready. Click below to listen on Spotify, Click here to listen on Apple Music, and Click here to listen on Tidal.
I had the opportunity to write about two songs, “I Know” & “Blue Magic” off of Jay Z’s “American Gangster” album. Click here to read about it on As Told By Kia’s website.
In honor of #JanetJacksonAppreciationDay I curated a playlist of some of her hit songs and had an opportunity to write with other writers and music fans about her 1997 “The Velvet Rope” album and it’s impact over twenty years later. Click the underlined link to read the article on “As-Told-By-Kia’s” website.
Apple Music users click here for the playlist. Tidal users click here and Spotify users click below for the playlist and podcast episode of my concert review of Janet’s 2017 #StateoftheWorldTour.
Janet Jackson 2017 concert review.
Today, is January 28th which is J. Cole’s birthday and a title of a track on his “2014 Forest Hills Drive” album. Back in August of 2017, I had the opportunity to attend rapper J. Cole’s #4YourEyezOnly concert in Duluth, Georgia at The Infinite Energy Arena. The concert started on time at 8 P.M. and lasted until about 11:30 P.M. J. Cole had four opening acts. The first to perform was the singer, Ari Lennox followed by rappers J.I.D. and Bas. These three artists are signed to J. Cole’s Dreamville Records. Also, Grammy nominated singer-musician Anderson.Paak and his band the Free Nationals were the last opening act for J. Cole.
After Anderson.Paak’s performance of “Am I Wrong” there was about a fifteen-minute break and all of a sudden all the lights in the arena went off and the sold out diverse crowd of over 10,000 people went crazy!
J. Cole’s songs and the concert theme reflect his life perspective of growing up in North Carolina, dealing with life, love, racial politics, and becoming a famous rapper. The stage was centered in the middle of the arena as if it was a boxing ring with no ropes and instead streetlights props and surveillance camera footage being displayed on the jumbo screens showing various audience members in a surveillance camera type filter. All of a sudden J. Cole was spotted walking in the audience wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and being escorted through the crowd by men wearing police uniforms as he walked up the stairs and got on the center stage to perform “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Immortal” followed by the smash hit “Déjà vu”.
The thought provoking fourth song performed was “Ville Mentality”. The live band with violins and keyboards offered for a very thematic and soulful background as J. Cole took time to speak to the audience about the meaning of the song and the pros and cons of living and being in the moment, yet also being aware of having a future. After speaking J. Cole went back to performing a few of his other songs from other albums such as “Nobody’s Perfect”, “Power Trip”, and “No Role Modelz” and then continued to perform other songs off of his latest album.
Next J. Cole performed “Neighbors” and took the time to passionately explain the origins of the song. J. Cole was inspired to write this song from an unfortunate incident where one of his white suburban neighbors called an armed SWAT team to his property accusing him of “criminal activity”. The heavily armed SWAT team, with loaded rifles, broke the door to his home down and turned his home’s surveillance cameras off as they searched the premises, but they did not find anyone or anything. After J. Cole explained to the audience what happened the arena jumbo screens showed the real life footage of the surveillance video cameras capturing what the SWAT team did to his home.
After this song, J. Cole performed a few more songs and then the show ended. I thought of J. Cole as a pastor speaking to his congregation through music. The message he delivered that night was about life and living and enjoying yourself. I really had a good time and would pay to see him perform again. He has a positive and humble vibe. Overall his energy, stamina, and stage presence was great. If you ever have a chance to see J. Cole perform live I would most definitely recommend you to go.
Hey y’all! I love to do my nails and I decided to do some newspaper nail art at home. To achieve this look you’ll need the following items:
-White or a light colored nail polish of your choice
-Newspaper articles cut into small squares
-Clear nail polish
-Rubbing alcohol in a small bowl
#1) Apply two coats of white or a light nail polish on your nails and let them dry for about 10-15 minutes.
#2) Dip a finger into the bowl or container of rubbing alcohol for about 5 seconds and take out and apply/rub the cut up newspaper square on your nail for about 10 seconds and peel off. Repeat on other nails.
#3) Once finished apply a clear top coat and let nails dry for 10-15 minutes.
The As-I-Amber Podcast & Blog 