Zo! – Just Visiting Too

I interrupt catching up on my blog for an important announcement.....

Last week, my boy, Zo released his EP called Just Visiting Too and what an EP it is! It’s a collection of covers featuring more of my friends Darien Brockington, Yahzarah, Phonte and Carlitta Durand. The best part is that it is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD!



Here’s a bit of a breakdown:

1. Perfect Angel Featuring Yahzarah - What a beautiful start to the EP. Yahz does a wonderful job covering Minnie Riperton leaving you feeling all warm and fuzzy
2. Nights Over Egypt Featuring Carlitta Durand - It seems that Carlitta's voice was made for this Jones Girls track! Great vibe especially for cruising in the car!
3. Crazy You Featuring Sy Smith - I have to admit I didn't know this Prince track at all and had to research the original. Just a very pretty song with pretty vocals done by Sy. I love the guitar in this one.
4. Holding You, Loving You - In this track originally performed by Don Blackman, Zo shows that he doesn't necessarily need a vocalist to make good music!! Grab a glass of wind and chill with this one, absolutely gorgeous!
5. My Flame Featuring Phonte - When I saw the title of this Bobby Caldwell song, I didn't know it but as soon as I heard it, I recognized it right away. Phonte continues to impress me as a singer.
6. Somethin Special Featuring Yahzarah - If I had to choose just one song off of Just Visiting Too as a favorite (trust me it would be hard!), it would be this one originally done by Quincy Jones & Patti Austin. Every time I hear it, it makes me wanna move! I cannot get enough of Yahz or this song!!
7. The Highways Of My Life (Parts 1 & 2) Featuring Darien Brockington - After my first listen, all I could say was WOW!! The original done by The Isley Brothers, Zo & D-Brock do their thing in the their version!! Do I dare say that it's better than the original? You decide.

All in all, this EP is a masterpiece done by a truly talented musician and producer complete with equally talented vocalists. I cannot get over the instrumentation of it, it's just glorious. I hope all who read this don't think I'm biased because I consider Zo a friend. So don't take my word for it, listen for yourself! Enjoy!! You WILL NOT regret it!

CLICK HERE TO GET JUST VISITING TOO BY ZO!

Manifesto

A little while back, a friend of mine, Grammy award winning producer 9th Wonder told me that he and his boys will be in town for a party called Hip Hop Love which would be a part of the annual Manifesto Festival. It’s a festival that Toronto has to celebrate hip hop music and culture.
Once I found out the date and location, my cousin, Jojo, friend, Rica and I got tickets. I was so excited because this was the first time Rica and Jojo would be hanging out and also because I haven’t seen 9th in over a year. We got there a little too early so when we got there we were just hanging out and taking pictures.

Jojo has this thing about taking pictures; she hates them. So of course, what did Rica and I do? We tried to get her as much as we could! LOL!

As soon as 9th and his boys arrived, he saw me and gave me a huge hug. We spoke a bit before he had to go to the DJ booth. Rica, Jojo and I spent the rest of the night joking around and dancing. Eventually, 9th and his True School Crew: Vince, Jay Clipp & Cuzzin B, took over the party and threw it down! I loved hearing them play.

The music was so good we danced until our feet started to hurt which is when we went to chill on some couches. Soon, 9th came out of the booth and came over.

I told him the news of my mother and he just kept hugging me. Jay Clipp came over and introduced himself to me. Then 9th’s best friend, Vince came over to us, meeting him was especially cool because he had been through what I’m going through with my mom but unfortunately, he lost his mother this year. 9th had spoken to me about Vince and I guess he told him about me as well because as soon as 9th introduced us, we hugged and didn’t let go for the longest time. 9th left us to mingle a bit and Vince and I just stood there. He was just talking to me and giving me encouragement. I swear Vince had me in tears, in a good way though. It was good just to be held and given support. The fact that it came from someone I met for the first time, really touched me. After a bit, I decided that we should get going. It was getting late and I still had to drive Jojo home to Brampton. I went over to 9th to say bye and he asked what I was doing the next day. When I told him I had to go to the office to catch up on some things, he looked at me surprised that I wasn’t planning to go to the show. Sunday, Manifesto continued with a huge all day free concert at City Hall consisting of numerous Canadian acts with the finale being Talib Kweli. He kept telling me that I should come then grabbed my blackberry from my hand and entered his number. Then he just stated “I’m seeing you tomorrow. Call me.” All I could do was nod and say okay. Lol! I was kinda in shock, to tell you the truth. I mean, I knew 9th and I were cool and all but I didn’t know we were THAT cool!
The next day, I woke my ass up early even though I came home sometime after 4am to go to the office. I managed to get everything done which was good. I asked my sister to come with me even though she doesn’t have much hip hop knowledge and she agreed to meet me. We got there early to take in the sights and performances. When 9th and the crew arrived, it was starting to get busy so he didn’t see me at first. Eventually through texting, he came out of the backstage tent to see me. I introduced him to my sister and we just stood around talking for awhile. It was kinda funny cuz I was just hugging on him while we were hanging out, laughing and people kept interrupting us. They wanted to talk to 9th, get his picture or autograph. Those folks had more guts than me cuz if I saw him huddled up with someone the way I was, I wouldn’t even think of interrupting. He was really good about it though. Whenever someone would stop us, 9th would say “Yeah, I’ll do that for you but I’m spending time with my family right now so you gotta give me some time”. I thought it was cute when someone stopped him, my sister said, “Wow, he’s really popular, huh?” Lol! At one point 9th told someone, “See dis girl right here, this is my God sister and we haven’t seen each other in a long time. We were separated when we were young, some years ago so lemme spend some time with her and I’ll get to you in a minute.” I couldn’t keep a straight face anymore so I just buried my head in his chest laughing. When I asked him why he was lying, all 9th said was that he was getting tired of saying the same thing! LOL! Then this dude that I hardly know approached us. I recognized him as some guy that tried to pick up a friend of mine at a club years ago and couldn’t even remember his name. I’d see him around from time to time but he’d only speak to me if that friend of mine was with me. Last I saw him was at the Rock The Bells show last year. He walked over, gave me a weak hug and said, “Hey girlfriend! Long time no see! When was the last time? Rock The Bells?” (He didn’t even know my name! LOL!) I awkwardly said yes and then he proceeds to turn to 9th to say hi, trying to chat him up, asking for a picture. 9th said the same thing he was telling everyone else then dude was like, “Oh aight! Sure! I’ll wait.” He just took a step back and stood there still close to us! I whispered to 9th that I really didn’t know that dude and he just said, “I know, sweetie. I could tell.” We just had to laugh about it, it was crazy!
Eventually, even though we told him he didn’t have to, 9th went and got us wristbands so we could go hang out with him and the boys in the backstage tent. Cuzzin B came up to me to introduce himself since I didn't get to meet him the night before. We all got talking about this restaurant that they all fell in love with called Richtree. He even showed me pics of the food! Yep, it was THAT serious! LOL! I agree though, Richtree is one of my faves!
It was really cool to watch the show from side stage and see some of the performers in the tent. Soon, Talib Kweli showed up and I was floored! 9th went over with his boys to say hi. When he came back, he must’ve seen my eyes buggin’ out cuz 9th had asked me if I had ever met Kweli before. I couldn’t even speak; I just shook my head no. Then 9th goes back over there and the next thing I know, Talib Kweli is following him, walking over to me! I had to keep my mouth from dropping as 9th said, “Yo, I want you to meet my fam.” Talib went over to my sister first, shaking her hand and asking her name. Then he went over to me and did the same, only I could barely speak. When I finally managed to, I spoke a bit to him and asked to take a pic with him. While my sis took the pic, 9th was standing behind her, laughing at me. I said thank you to him and he went over to say hi to some other folks. 9th couldn’t stop laughing at me, I was soo embarrassed! Lol!

Talib Kweli performing one of my faves, Get By! (Don't forget to pause the mp3 player to the top right before playing!)


After 9th and Jay brought Talib to the stage, it was time for us to go. It was Sunday and it was getting late. I was also taking into consideration that my sister came with me as a favor and she had to get up early. I quickly went to say bye to the boys first and grabbed Vince for a picture.

After we took it, I looked at the pic and was so happy that Vince had a big smile. I immediately bugged 9th about smiling because when we were hanging out outside, I complained that he didn’t smile in the picture we took the night before. I kept telling him, “See! Vince smiled! It isn’t that hard!” And 9th said Vince smiles all the time and that he hardly ever smiles in pics. I just pouted at him and we laughed. Then he said “FINE!”, grabbed me and posed as my sister snapped the picture. When I saw it, I couldn't help but laugh! It was the biggest smile I’ve ever seen!!

This wasn’t the first time I went to Manifesto but I definitely had the most fun this year. It was all thanks to Jay Clipp, Cuzzin B, Vince and of course, my Godbrutha, Mr. 9th Wonder . Thanks for the love, fellas! I hope you come back up for Manifesto next year but y’all should come back up sooner than that!

New Music , Video & Mentions

Just sharing a few things with you...
First, D-Brock released a brand new single!!!! It's called Here We Go Again and it's produced by Karma Fullmetal and Keno. It's from Darien's upcoming mixtape entitled The Cold Case Files. Although the song is not available to the public yet, I'm proud to have it streaming right here on my site! (Thanks, Monty!!) Also website is online....check it out!! http://www.dbrockmusic.com

Back in May, I posted an entry about how Darien went to Detroit to film a video for a song called Magnetic that he did with Yoshi. Well, the video was finally released to much praise! It was posted numerous places online and with it, I was mentioned as well! Some of the sites are (click to see the posts):
HoneySoul.com Much love & hugz to my girl, Honey aka V. The music blogging world won't be the same without you!
Music Addikts Thank you so much Brandi!!
The Real Frequency Shouts to Keezy!! Thanks homie!

And now, the video (be sure to pause the mp3 player to the top right before watching!):

What I'm Feelin...

I know I always have some reason as to why I’m not posting often and this time, I will be straight and blunt. I haven’t written much because I have been really low since the beginning of September, so low that I don’t have the desire to do anything. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not gonna do something drastic. I know what’s wrong, I’m trying to keep my spirits up but, it’s really hard at times.
I won’t go into too much detail but the main hardship I’m facing has to do with my mama. In the beginning of September, she went for a follow up CT scan and found out that the tumor in her chest has grown. She’s been undergoing chemotherapy for a few weeks now. While it’s going okay considering everything, it really has me shook and things have gotten a little more difficult at home. I have crying spells then I get pissed at myself for crying and cry again because I’m mad. Lol! I even laugh at that when I type it, it does seem silly but it is what it is.
I’m not one to reach out for help. The way I deal with it is to try and have fun, spend time with people I care about, whether it be on the phone because most of my friends are in the US or in person. Some people have really stepped up to really be there for me and for that, I am truly grateful.
I did have some fun times a couple weeks back that I will get into in my next entry which WILL be soon! Promise! I’m also looking forward to the NYC trip I booked. I’ll be there from Oct 21- 25. Hopefully that will lift my spirits to where they need to be!!

Birthday Greetings

On September 14th, two of my favorite people celebrate their birthdays: Darien Brockington and V AKA Honey from HoneySoul.com. Just wanted to write a lil’ blurb on them in honor of their special day.
These 2 people are the epitome of what I say all the time: It’s funny how people from far seem to be there for me more so than the people that live close.
Wishing the two of you the best on your special day and always. Love you both soooo much! xo


It’s hard to believe that it’s been 3 years since D first dazzled me on stage when he was opening for Fort Minor with Little Brother back in Feb 2006. Who would’ve thought that the dude I saw singing his ass off that night would become one of my most dearest friends. In fact, that night I was too shy to even say hi to him (even despite him walking by me a few times! Lol) so we didn’t even meet then. We eventually hooked up on myspace and got to know each other real well that way (back when myspace was THE place to be!). Sometimes I think back and wonder if I did say hi to him that night, would we be as close as we are now? I really think that it made the difference cuz if I did, he probably would’ve been just some fine singer dude from North Carolina to me and that’s about it! LoL!
Pictures Of Darien & I Over The Last Few Years

Darien’s also been there for me a lot, through some of my lowest and toughest times so I will be forever grateful for that. I can only hope that I am as great a friend to him as he is to me.



I got to know V about the same time I knew Darien and in fact, it was D that indirectly brought us together! I discovered her site, HoneySoul.com and was a regular visitor. It was and still is a great source for the latest in good music PERIOD! She had an interview with Darien that she posted in promotion of his 1st album and I commented on it. That’s what pretty much started it all. V is just a beautiful person inside and out. We are crazy with the jokes especially on Twitter and also at Darien’s expense. She and I make up a duo we call Double V and our mission is to sing background for D-Brock! She left me a singing voice mail not long ago and I swear if I still had it, I’d post it! LOL!! My only regret is that we have not met in person…yet! Hopefully that will change sometime soon.

Spread Love

“There’s no good music out there anymore” is a complaint I’ve heard many times before by folks who are dying to hear some good R&B/Soul and Hip Hop music. I beg to differ...I feel that it’s out there if you look for it. One major problem is the complainer is looking on the radio or God forbid BET! STOP!! The best place to discover new music/artists is the World Wide Web and word of mouth…at least that’s how I see it.
Back in the day especially in high school, I was a radio junkie. I listened to it all the time and I even remember sitting there with my tape recorder waiting for my favorite song to come on so I can tape it. Then I would listen to it over and over again on my walkman. (Remember Walkmans? I had one of those yellow Sony sports walkmans! LOL!) Now, I hardly ever listen to the radio unless one of my boys is DJing.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s age that makes us think that most of the music out there especially in the mainstream is shit? Cuz I’m sure my parents certainly didn’t like all the hip hop I used to blast in my room growing up.
All I do know is that once I started looking into it, I found out about loads of great artists and music from the net and through word of mouth. Some of the stuff I’ve stumbled upon may have been released a year or more ago but who cares? It’s still new to me and besides, no matter when you discover them, the artists appreciate you listening. There are tons of websites and blogs nowadays to make discoveries. HoneySoul.com was and always will be one of my favorite music sites. It’s not as popular as it was before but myspace.com opened my eyes and ears to new music and artists. I found myself interacting with like minded people with similar music tastes and would often talk about who to check out etc..on places like facebook, twitter and other blogs/message boards. I’ve even been lucky enough to meet some of the artists and can call a few of them friends as well, all of whom I’ve mentioned here plenty of times before.
This also brings me to my other point or frustration as I like to call it. As I see my friends and other artists I listen to, share their talent via mixtapes, albums, live shows and videos, I often listen/watch in awe and get irritated as to why more people don’t know about them. It really hits me when I go to a concert or see a video of a live performance. So much talent is out there going unnoticed! How can you and I help in this respect? I’ve learned that simple word of mouth works. That’s why I started facebook groups for certain artists; Darien Brockington’s being my most popular one. Whenever I talk music with friends or just people in general, I not only speak about the artists I’ve met or know personally but folks that I generally listen to. Artists like D-Brock, Yahzarah, Daru & Rena, Reggie B, Foreign Exchange, Carlitta Durand, Choklate, Eric Roberson, Dwele and Peter Hadar to name a few. It’s not all just about R&B/Soul either, there’s plenty of dope hip hop out there too: Supastition, Little Brother, Tanya Morgan, Murs, Jay Electronica and Tona etc. (I plan to post cllickable links to all the artists mentioned soon, in the meantime, Google them!!)
Some folks say that I’ve come a long way from being just a fan and I’m getting noticed, respected etc. While all that is great, I feel all I’m doing is spreading love and just happened to make some great connections with certain artists and well known soul/hip hop bloggers.
I’ve got some tentative plans in the works….things that I hope to do with regard to this blog and my love for music. If it all works out, everything will come early next year. Until then, I’ll keep on spreading the love…I hope y’all will too!

Happy September!!

Okay so I yet again disappeared from the blog and for that I apologize. So much crap went on in the month of August that if I actually wrote all about it, you’d think I’m making it up! A quick summary of it all:

• Emergencies at work where in one situation, we actually had to call the cops! A patient actually lunged at me and managed to grab my shirt!
  
• Trouble with my Blackberry then no home phone, cable and internet service at home for 4 days. Needless to say, I’ve been utterly pissed with Rogers!
• I was also really upset because of a situation that included someone using me to get to Darien, claiming he was a friend of mine when he’s only an acquaintance at best! Just thinking about it still makes me upset but unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do. It seems like the dude may fall on his face anyway so I suppose it doesn’t really matter…only time will tell.
• In my years of driving, I had never ever been pulled over by police. Believe it or not, in one weekend, I got stopped twice, two days in a row and got two tickets as well. I won’t go into details but no, it wasn’t for speeding. The other thing that killed me is that one of the times I was on my street! In fact, I could see my building from where I was pulled over! I’m fighting both tickets and I’m confident that they’ll be resolved.
• There seems to be a lot of people I know passing away lately. There are also a few friends that are terribly ill and won’t recover. We’ve had a death in the family very recently. I’ve also lost a patient who I was very close to and I’m having a hard time dealing with that too. Right now, there are 3 patients who I’m close to as well that are in the last stages of cancer. I try not to be sad but I can’t help but break down sometimes. I wish there was a way for people not to suffer.

With all that being said, I’m glad that the new month is upon us. Here’s hoping for happier times and bigger and brighter things for all of us!

Honorable Mention

I'm late in posting this but...
So I'm listening to my boy, Fave's weekly podcast called the Friday Favecast like I usually do once a week. This week in particular, he had my homie, Zo on for an interview. I'm here enjoying the music and hearing my two boys talk then suddenly I hear my name! What??? Did Fave say Lady Vee in Toronto??? I rewound it a bit and there it was...my jaw dropped. Yeah, it was just a mere mention of my name in conversation but STILL! The fact that 2 people whom I respect mentioned my name in an interview on the web is WOW to me!
Besides that, my favorite part in the interview was when Fave mentioned to Zo that he was dying to hear Darien Brockington and Carlitta Durand do a duet! Fave and I have talked about that a few times and I totally agree with him, he's got a GREAT idea!! So if either of you are reading this, D and Carlitta, MAKE IT HAPPEN!!! :)
Here's the direct link to where you can chose to listen to the podcast or download it and look at the tracklisting: http://www.fridayfavecast.com

Shoutout to Fave!!!!! Sending you much love! xoxo

Writing, Writing & More Writing/Updates

As you can see, I’ve been trying to keep on top of things lately. I’m now caught up with the blog and plan to post more regularly. I was also requested by Darien to create his Wikipedia profile which I just finished last week and I’m actually quite proud of it. I didn’t have any clue how difficult it would be to do it. The write up itself wasn’t difficult. The list of his collaborations took quite a bit of time simply because Darien’s done so much work and to list everything done with all the correct info was a challenge. I think the most trouble I had was actually putting it up. I thought it would be a simple cut and paste deal which would’ve have made things so much easier since I created a table for his collaboration list. Wikipedia uses a design language that I’m not familiar with and they basically just give you a blank page to create. It took a bunch of research to see how to implement certain things, plus I had to input all the data. The other thing was posting a photo. I have access to a bunch of professional photos but I needed certain permission/licenses to post a picture. They also require the name of the person who took the photo etc. It was such a pain! I decided to use one of my own concert shots to get around it. It was driving me up the wall but it’s all done! I’m so proud of it and received praise by Darien and everyone else who knew I was working on it. Wanna see the fruits of my labor? Click here
I also noticed that I haven’t written much of what’s been going on with me. My birthday came and went with no major events. I was still recovering from being sick for most of the month of May. June was fairly uneventful except for the Foreign Exchange show in Toronto which I already reported on here.
We got some good news about my parents. Papa’s cancer treatments are complete! He had been going back every 3 months for treatments for 3 years and recently finished. He now only has to follow up with his oncologist every 6 months. Mom went thru radiation treatments and her most recent tests showed that the cancer is responding to the treatments. The tumor has shrunk in size and the doctors felt there was no need to send her for chemotherapy! She will continue following up to make sure that it continues to respond. I can’t thank everyone enough for their support and prayers. Mom’s not totally clear of health problems but she’s doing okay considering. Now if I could just get her to have better control of her diabetes…
For the last month or so, I’ve become a bit of a hermit. Well, maybe not quite a hermit because I go out here and there. I guess the best way to put it is I’ve been quite anti-social. Not really wanting to go anywhere or do anything if it involves me being in a group of people etc. No clubs, parties or anything of the sort. I just don’t feel like I’d be good company and just stick to my fam which includes my cousin Jojo and of course, Amanda. Prior to this, I wanted to go out, party etc but the problem then was that I had no one to really go with. Perhaps, I’m just giving in to it? Who knows…all I do know is that I haven’t really been feeling myself lately. I’m in the midst of trying to plan 2 trips: 1 next month and 1 in October. We’ll see how that works. I hope I snap out of this soon.

YouTube Request Line

I’m a little late in posting this but Darien posted this up on his youtube channel. It’s in regards to the YouTube Request Line that we have in our FB group. Basically, members can request ANY song and Darien will record a video singing it to you! This is the first installment. He sings one of his original songs, Be Ya Lover and dedicates it to 2 members that requested it. ENJOY!