3 January 2017 - Dr. DRE - HIP HOP

Dr. DRE

- HIP HOP -

G'day folks,

Andre Romelle Young, better known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics.

Dr. Dre is the most important purveyor of Gangsta Rap and the key architect of its most musically compelling subgenre, West Coast G-Funk. At the height of Dre’s musical influence, gangsta was the defining oeuvre of a hip hop industry on its way from the underground to the top of the Billboard charts. In many ways, his contributions both as a rapper and a producer helped to usher hip hop into a new and bigger phase, pushing the genre from the spare beats and predictable R&B breaks of old school into a dense, laid-back style that draws from a far deeper well of funk, fusion, blaxploitation, and jazz samples. As a talent scout, impresario, and businessman, Dr. Dre’s influence over the music business is all encompassing today.

Andre Young was born in the black L.A. barrio called Compton. Young struggled in school and transferred several times to escape the permeating influence of gang violence. Following a brief tenure at the Chester Adult School, Andre dropped out and, joining with Ice Cube and Eazy-E in 1986, changed the face of popular music.

With N.W.A., Dre helped rap some of the starkest, frankest, and most frightening street poetry ever recorded. With their debut, Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A. opened a window into black life in the L.A. ghettos, detailing a violent world in ways that had never been outlined so bluntly, in music or elsewhere. So evocative was their message that their label, Ruthless Records, even earned itself a cautionary letter from the FBI.

At the height of its success, Dr. Dre departed N.W.A. to become the flagship artist at Death Row Records, subsequently releasing 1992’s The Chronic, which stands today as a strong contender for the greatest hip hop record ever pressed. Smoothing out N.W.A.’s rough edges, Dre innovated a slow, drawling, groove-heavy production style fueled by Funkadelic and Ohio Players samples. He also introduced a shy, lanky stoner named Snoop Dogg, who instantly emerged as rap’s most charismatic young talent.

With consequently inescapable MTV and radio smash hits “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,” and “Let Me Ride,” The Chronic went triple platinum, earned Dre a Grammy, and segued directly into Snoop’s ’93 debut, Doggystyle.

Over the course of the next decade, Dr. Dre had the Midas touch, launching some of the most successful careers in rap history through discovery, musical collaboration, and production, including Tupac Shakur, Eminem, 50 Cent, and—the current king of West Coast rap—Kendrick Lamaar. All this and Dr. Dre was ranked by Forbes in 2014 as the highest-paid musician alive. The six-time Grammy Winner recently completed a deal which sent his Beats by Dre line of audiophile headphones to Apple, Inc., for a reported $3 billion, making him hip hop’s top-ranking millionaire.

 

Clancy's comment: One hellova rich musician.

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29 November 2016 - HANK WILLIAMS

HANK WILLIAMS

G'day folks,

Hiram King "Hank" Williams, was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century. Hank Williams became one of America's first country music superstars, with hits like "Your Cheatin' Heart," before his early death at 29.

“I was a pretty good imitator of Roy Acuff, but then I found out they already had a Roy Acuff, so I started singin' like myself.”

—Hank Williams

Synopsis

Hank Williams was born September 17, 1923, in Mount Olive, Alabama. Considered one of the most popular American country music singer/songwriters with songs like "Cold, Cold Heart," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'" and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." He died of a heart attack at the age of 29 in 1953 in the backseat of his Cadillac.

Early Years

Widely considered country music's first superstar, Hiriam "Hank" Williams was born September 17, 1923, in Mount Olive, Alabama. Cut from rural stock, Williams, the third child of Lon and Lillie Williams, grew up in a household that never had much money. His father worked as a logger before entering the Veterans Administration hospital when young Hank was just six. Father and son rarely saw each other over the next decade, with Williams' mother, who ran rooming houses, moving the family to Greenville and later Montgomery, Alabama.

His childhood was also shaped by his spinal condition, spina bifida, which set him apart from other kids his age and fostered a sense of separateness from the world around him.

The world he seemed to identify most with was the musical sounds that poured out of the radio and emanated from church choirs. A quick study, Williams learned how to play folk, country and, from an African-American street musician named Rufus Payne, the blues.

By the time he'd moved with his mother to Montgomery in 1937, Williams' music career was already in motion. Picking up the guitar for the first time at the age of eight, Williams was just 13 when he made his radio debut. A year later he was entering talent shows and had his own band, Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys.

In full support of Williams' musical aspirations was his mother, Lillie. She drove her son and his band to shows throughout southern Alabama. By the early 1940s he'd caught the attention of music executives in Nashville.

But coupled with Williams' obvious talents as a singer and songwriter was an increasing dependence on alcohol, which he'd started abusing in order to relieve his sometimes excruciating back pain. As a result he was not considered a reliable performer.

Married Man

Williams' personal life took a major turn in 1943 when he met Audrey Mae Sheppard, who was the mother of a young daughter and had only recently left a messy marriage. Under Williams' guidance Sheppard started playing bass and began performing in his band.

Williams and Sheppard married in 1944. In 1949 they had a son together, Hank Williams Jr., on May 26, 1949.

Sheppard, it seems, was extremely eager to make a mark in show business and, despite her obviously limited talent, pushed her husband to let her sing. In addition, her relationship with Hank's mom proved complicated. The two were often rivals for Williams' time and attention.

Commercial Success

In 1946 Williams traveled to Nashville to meet with music publisher Fred Rose and the Acuff-Rose Publications company. What began with Williams writing material for singer Molly O'Day eventually gave way to a record contract with the recently created MGM label.

A year after first meeting with Rose, Williams had his first hit, "Move It On Over." In April 1948 he scored a second Billboard success with "Honky Tonkin.'"

But along with this early success came increased erratic behavior from Williams, who often showed up at live performances drunk. For a time his relationship with Fred Rose deteriorated, but the two were able to mend fences, paving the way for Williams to become a regular on the "Louisiana Hayride," a regular Saturday night performance hosted by a radio station in Shreveport.

The performances greatly increased Williams' name recognition, but he still lacked a number one hit. That all changed in 1949 with the release of "Lovesick Blues," a throwaway rendition of an old show tune he'd pushed to tape at the end of a recording session.

The song resonated with music fans, as well as executives at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, who invited Williams to perform.

In ways that must have seemed unimaginable to this poor country boy, Williams' life quickly changed. His stardom put money in his pocket and gave him the kind of creative freedom artists long for. Over the next several years he churned out a number of other big hits, including "Cold, Cold Heart," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey Good Lookin'," "Lost Highway," and I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." He also wrote a number of religious songs under the pseudonym Luke the Drifter.

  Troubled Times

As the titles of some of Williams' songs suggest, heartbreak and turmoil were never that far from his life. As his success deepened, so did Williams' dependence on alcohol and morphine. The Opry eventually fired him, and in 1952 he and Sheppard divorced.

His physical appearance diminished, too. His hair began falling out, and he put on 30 extra pounds. In late 1951 he suffered a minor heart attack while visiting his sister in Florida.

A little more than a year later, on December 30, 1952, Williams, newly married to a younger woman named Billie Jean, left his mother's home in Montgomery for Charlestown, West Virginia. Liquored up and abusing morphine, he collapsed in a hotel room in Knoxville, Tennessee. A doctor was called to examine him. Despite his physical failings, Williams was cleared for more travel.

On New Year's Day 1953, he took his seat in the back of his 1952 powder blue Cadillac. As his driver, college student Charles Carr, barreled toward a concert venue in Canton, Ohio, Williams' health took a turn for the worse. Finally, after not hearing from the singer for two solid hours, the driver pulled the car over in Oak Hill, West Virginia, at 5:30 in the morning. Williams was pronounced dead a short while later.

His passing did not bring about the end to his stardom, however. It could be argued, in fact, that his early death only enhanced his legend. If Williams had lived, it's not entirely certain that the Nashville music community, so eager to shed its hillbilly roots, would have continued to embrace Williams' music. In the years since his death, Williams' impact has only grown, with artists as varied as Perry Como, Dinah Washington, Norah Jones and Bob Dylan, all covering his work.

Today Hank Williams is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and in 2010 the Pulitzer Board awarded Williams a special citation for songwriting. His life and career was the subject of I Saw the Light, a 2015 biopic starring Tom Hiddleston as Williams and Elizabeth Oleson as his first wife Audrey.

Daughter Jett Williams

As if straight out of a country song, it was revealed decades later that Hank Williams had fathered a daughter, Jett, who was born shortly after his death. The identity of her famous father remained a mystery to her until her early twenties. Jett, whose legal name is Cathy Deupree Adkinson, was raised by Williams' mother for two years until she died. Jett was then legally adopted. Since the revelation of her famous father, she initiated legal claims to his estate and battled her half-brother who refused to acknowledge her for a long time. 

In 1989, the Alabama State Supreme Court ultimately ruled in her favor and found her to be an equal heir, after an old document was recovered that showed Williams and Jett's mother had signed a shared custody agreement. 

About her half-brother and where they stand today, Jett said: “As far as having a personal relationship, we don’t have like a brother-sister relationship, but we do get along; we do business and I think the world does realize that both of us have our dad’s best interest at heart.”

  

 

Clancy's comment: Wow. So many famous people died early. Hank Williams at 29!!

I'm ...

 

 

21 June 2016 - THE GREAT BOB MARLEY

THE GREAT 

BOB MARLEY

G'day folks,

Welcome to some background on a very interesting man from Jamaica. Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, musician, and guitarist who achieved international fame and acclaim.

Though Bob Marley died of melanoma on May 11, 1981, the singer's popularity remains alive as ever. His ongoing celebrity has helped Marley's estate continue to make money (according to Forbes magazine, Marley earned $21 million in 2015, making him the deceased star with the fourth-highest income; proceeds go to his 11 children and his widow). While some of these earnings were from music — more than 75 million of his albums have been sold — Marley's post-mortem income also reached the stratosphere because his name and image are now used in numerous business endeavors. Here are some of the most interesting products that are tied to the artist and his legacy.

Marley Natural

Even the most casual Bob Marley fan knows about the musician's appreciation for "the herb," so it makes perfect sense that the Marley family entered into a licensing agreement in order to bring Marley-branded marijuana to the legalized market. The product line debuted in 2016; one of Marley's children, Stephen, told Billboard, "If my father was here physically, he would be up front advocating for this plant, so we are very proud to put our Marley Natural brand out there."

Right now Marley Natural offers four varieties of cannabis that are tailored to meet needs from anti-inflammatory use to a "full-body experience" (they're only available in places where possession is legal). Other Marley Natural products include lotions and soaps made with hemp seed oil (anyone, even in locations without legalization, can purchase these items).

 Legalized marijuana is already a multi-billion dollar business, and it's going to get bigger as more places weaken or eliminate laws that restrict possession for personal and/or medical use. And Marley Natural is getting ready to welcome more customers as the market expands — as Rohan Marley, another one of Bob's sons, revealed in 2015, "We are absolutely preparing ourselves for when [marijuana] is completely legalized."

Marley Beverage Company

If cannabis in any form just isn't your thing, yet you're still interested in finding a way to de-stress your life, there's another Marley product for you: Marley's Mellow Mood beverages. These are decaffeinated teas and carbonated drinks whose ingredients — such as valerian root or lemon balm — are supposed to have calming and relaxing properties.

In 2012, Cedella Marley, Bob Marley's daughter, explained the impetus behind the product's launch the previous year: "I thought it was the perfect time, because everyone was Red Bulling it. There were too many hyper people running around in the world, ya know?" (Some stimulation is acceptable, however, as Marley Beverage Company also offers One Drop coffee drinks.)

 Should you decide to have a Mellow Mood drink, be careful not to share them with any kids (as the product label advises). When a middle school in New Jersey stocked the drinks in its cafeteria in 2012, some students who drank Mellow Mood ended up feeling lethargic, nauseous and lightheaded.

Marley Coffee

 Thanks to Rohan Marley, there's more Marley-affiliated caffeine out there. In 1999, Rohan bought some property in Jamaica and found that his new place was known for coffee. Inspired by the land, and by his father's unfulfilled dream of rural retirement — Rohan told The Splendid Table, "He would always say in his interviews that one day he was going to stop playing music and go back to the farm" — Rohan eventually went into the coffee business.

Marley Coffee's offerings now include "Get Up, Stand Up," "Smile, Jamaica," "Lively Up!" and "Mystic Morning." Yes, those names should sound familiar — in addition to being a great musician, it turns out that many of Bob Marley's song titles are perfect for coffee. Who knew?

Marley for Kids

If you'd like to inspire young Bob Marley fans in your life, there are products out there for them as well. For example, Cedella Marley used her father's lyrics as a starting point to write children's books. In an interview with the Huffington Post, she noted, "My father, he speaks to everyone. He can speak to a child and he can speak to an adult."

The books produced by Cedella (so far) are: One Love (based on the song of the same name) and Every Little Thing (from the song "Three Little Birds"). In addition, the young girl from the book One Love has appeared as a "One Love Doll."

 Cedella's writing also served as a starting point for her to create a children's musical featuring some of Bob Marley's songs (meaning that things had come full circle, as a song originally inspired the children's book the musical was based on). When she attended a performance of Three Little Birds in Washington, D.C., Cedella was delighted with the young audience's response, as she later told The Wall Street Journal: "To see the little children in the audience singing along — I thought maybe they would know 1-2 songs, but they knew so many."

The Future of Marley

Of course, there are many other Marley products out there: House of Marley adheres to Bob Marley's ethos of sustainability by producing eco-friendly speakers, headphones and more; and Marley Apparel has clothing that's inspired by Bob Marley's style. Plus there are numerous items — from T-shirts to posters to lava lamps — with Marley's face on them.

 However, there doesn't seem to be a saturation point for Marley — when asked by Philadelphia magazine in 2015 what it was like to see his father's face on so much merchandise, Stephen Marley responded, "I love seeing my dad’s face everywhere," adding, "It’s more than him being my dad, it’s what he stood for. He’s so strong. When I see the image, it does the same thing for me as if I wasn’t his son. He’s a leader and is like a book to guide us through life."

And by sharing products inspired by Bob Marley — and increasing his estate's value — the Marley family is following in his footsteps. As Rohan Marley told The New Yorker in 2014, "My father was the first entrepreneur in the family. He started his own record label, his own restaurant. He knew that, in order to give something back to the people, he had to create. You can’t be no philanthropist, no Warren Buffett, unless you make something first."

Clancy's comment:  I bet you didn't know all that. Go, Bob!

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