Music News Today - Vol. 2

Excluding the Chicago and Detroit areas - the rest of the nation has been experiencing a very mild (damn near hot) Winter. I guess the "heat wave" has inspired artists to put out their summer-like jams early.

* Ashanti is most familiar to us from Ja Rule's "Always On Time" track. But she's out on her own now with "Foolish," and trying to find her niche in the hip-hop soul world. She has a nice voice, but the track is mediocre.

My primary problem with it is that the music is not original, simply a rehash of a rehash. The original tune is a sample of a Debarge song - which would be okay, however before Ashanti used it, it was used by the late Biggie Smalls on "One More Chance," a track from his first album. Its like enough already - can someone get original? If I could get past that, I might enjoy the song.

The only thing that's attracting me to the song at all, is the video, based on one of my favorite movies, "Good Fellas." I like the video theme, it captures the essence of the movie well, but from a diferent perspective. For that, I'll tolerate the song!

Like most artists who finally catch a break, Ashanti isn't new to the scene. She began singing in 1994, but also dances and had acting roles in two Spike Lee films, Malcom X and Who Da Man.

Since she's best known for her vocals backing up Ja Rule, she'll likely remain best known for a hip-hop soul blend. But, she has nice voice quality, and I'm curious to see what kind of tracks she'll lay.

* Right about now, R. Kelly is kicking himself. Its one thing to be accused of having sex with a minor, quite another to allegedly be caught on tape with said minor and quite another still when these antics start costing you dough! That's right, Kelly's latest run in with the Kiddie Porn Squad is about to cost him the "Best of Both Worlds" Tour planned with Jay-Z.

The album drops March 19th - stepped up to cut into the profits of bootleggers. But the tour, planned to begin soon has been postponed so that Kelly can keep dates open for a possible court appearance.

I haven't seen the tape and don't know if the charges are true - but you have to wonder sometimes about the position these people put themselves into. R. Kelly makes some of the sexiest R&B music out there, but if indeed he'd rather sex someone not yet legal his large female fan base may start to wane.

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