Single Review: Dirty Money, Nicki Minaj, Christina Aguilera

It’s heating up outside, but will the charts be heating up with some hot new music? Dirty Money, Christina Aguilera, and Nicki Minaj released their new singles. Check out the verdict Below.

Dirty Money ft. T.I. – “Hello, Good Morning” (Produced by Danja)

Diddy is prepping the release of his “Last Train To Paris” project with his newly formed group Dirty Money which consists of former Danity Kane member Dawn and songwriter Kalenna. The trio found success with their Biggie assisted “Angels” and their club anthem “Love Come Down”. This time around the group gets assistance from the King of the South T.I. on the Danja produced “Hello, Good Morning”. The track is a club banger and is definitely about to take over Pop and Urban charts.

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Nicki Minaj ft. Sean Garrett – “Massive Attack” (Produced by Alex Da Kidd/Sean Garrett)

It’s the moment Barbies everywhere have been waiting for…or maybe it isn’t. Nicki Minaj’s first single “Massive Attack” finally leaked and it’s a bit underwhelming if you ask me. There’s a few problems here with this track. The song is called “Massive Attack”, but there really isn’t anything Massive about it. The production is all over the place and the chorus is a bit lazy. It’s Nicki though so radio will most likely go crazy over it. I’m not even going to lie though, I am definitely looking for the Amber Rose assisted and Hype Williams directed video. It should be a good one! This one will probably grow on me.

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Christina Aguilera – “Not Myself Tonight” (Produced by Polow Da Don)

X-tina is back! No one was really sure what sound Christina would be going for this time around. Before her Greatest Hits package, Christina literally took us back to the big band days and now she’s hitting the clubs with her Dance track “Not Myself Tonight”. What makes the track good is that it’s not a typical Red One/David Guetta dance track which everyone seems to be doing these days. We are definitely looking forward to what else she have to offer on her new album, “Bionic” which is set to drop this June.

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Producer Jay Fenix Speaks From The Soul

Wassup Man?

Just trying to make it out here in this DC weather! (laughs)

It’s been crazy. Congrats on the success with Melanie Fiona’s “It Kills Me”! How does it feel?

Yeah, thanks a lot man. It feels great actually. Talk about a dream come true, you always think, “Man I want to have a number one song, I want to have a Grammy and all of that.” Even though she didn’t win, losing to Beyonce wasn’t a bad thing at all. You know what I Mean? (laughs) I’m very grateful and thankful to God that I can experience this in my life at this point. I’m very grateful.

I heard the record at the top of 2009 when I first found out about Melanie Fiona. It was my favorite track of hers and I was kind of apprehensive about it being a hit, because of the climate of the industry. Did you see this success coming for the record?

You know what, I feel as though if you look at the history of music…Music that truly came from the heart and when you capture that on record man people feel that. Those songs tend to become hits. That’s exactly what happened with that. As time went on, the label picked it up for Melody. I heard them talk about it being a single, but you never know, because anything can change. Plans change a lot in this industry. They came out with “Give It To Me Right” first and then “It Kills Me” was the second single. I’ll never forget when me and Mel had hooked up in DC. This was like when they were just releasing it. She said, “Man all the radio stations are going crazy over this”. I said “Are you serious?” When you hear that it’s so humbling. Men and women have come to me, black and white, young and old they have come to me and said that they love the song. It’s crazy to hear men say that, because the song is talking about what a man is doing to a girl. I’m just grateful for it all.

When was the first time that you heard the record on the radio?

People were calling me telling me that they heard the song on the radio before I even heard it. First time I heard it, me and my boy was going to one of our boy’s birthday party and we were talking actually. He’s a fellow producer so we were talking about music and the song. As I parked the car the song comes on the radio…(laughs).

Did you stay in the car to take in the moment?

Yeah I stayed in the car man! (laughs) It was crazy. In fact he heard it on the radio before I did. It was on XM at that. I’m constantly getting told they play that song all the time. Hey man, that’s a good thing. Thank God.

“It Kills Me” was a first taste for us for what you are doing. How would you describe the Jay Fenix sound?

I don’t know how I can describe the sound. I want to say my sound is hard. No matter if its a club track or not I just want you to feel it. I want it to touch every emotional fiber in your body. I want you to experience that in my music. As far as actual sounds, that’s only one dimension of me, because I am just a music lover. My sound as far as my influences goes all the way back to Quincy Jones producing “Off The Wall”, the old Motown era, the 60s, groups like Number 42, Genesis, Eurythmics, The Temptaitons, Four Tops, The Meters, all of those different oldie groups. Teddy Riley, New Jack Swing, the original Bad Boy era when he had the Hit-men. Bryan Alexander Morgan, Troy Taylor of course Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. I know that’s a lot and I forgot about Marvin Gaye and Donnie Hathaway but all of those people influenced my sound today.

You mentioned that you are from the DMV area. Do you tap into the Go-Go sound?

If it comes out that way, Yes. I can’t say that I am setting that agenda with bringing Go-Go to the forefront. That’s been done with the likes of Chuck Brown and EU when they did “Doin’ The Butt”. I know Wale is pushing his Go-Go agenda and of course Rich has had crazy success with what he’s done with “Crazy In Love”, Amerie, and he have Rich Girl now. I can’t say that bringing it to the front is my agenda. What I am doing is helping bring that real R&B back. I am not going to say we don’t have real R&B out today. I’m not going to say that. We don’t have many R&B artists. Most of it is a cross between R&B and Pop. That good music that makes you dance and cry…and music that stands the test of time. That’s where I can put it.

What do you think happened? Why can’t the people who are doing R&B survive in the industry today?

I feel as though there’s a space for everything. It also have to do with promotion and then you have to think that the labels and radio stations they are like the chefs. They feed the people what they want to give the people. In their buffet of music, figuratively, they have a lot of food to give, but are they doing that? No, they are sticking to the 1 or 2 maybe 3 or 4 different things out of 100 different acts. Somewhere the other 96 acts get lost in the sauce. I truly believe that R&B is still alive, because “It Kills Me” is quite evident that its still alive.

Monica is also doing her thing right now with her single, “Everything To Me”.

Monica! Exactly and I love that! I think that people want to hear that. Like I said,this world is big enough. There’s space for everything. I just don’t want it to be one sided. That’s good for today, but most of these songs…are we really going to listen and remember them like we do today with songs from the Motown era. What’s your honest opinion?

I agree. Most of the albums that have come out, especially in the early 2000s didn’t age really well. They were hot for the moment and don’t have the same effect when you listen to them now. There are some albums that are completely unlistenable now. Same effect. 2003 and can’t listen now. Albums such as “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” are still enjoyable today and you could release songs from that album and it wouldn’t even sound dated.

Exactly. It’s very few albums that you can think of that’s like that. Lauryn Hill? Classic. Maxwell the first one was a Classic! Biggie’s first album…Classic! That was R&B. They weren’t doing Pop. Everybody no matter if they were black, white, orange, or yellow..they loved it. I think that is why the industry is suffering, because we are still going in the same routine that we have been doing for the last decade. It’s 2010 and we’ve been doing this for the last ten years. Somewhere down the line it have to change. It’s crazy because I was at the SESAC brunch. Swizz Beatz was the honoree and he talked about that in his speech. He wants to bring back good music and hearing him say that, I know I am on the right path, because I have already been thinking that.

Where do you think it all went wrong?

When labels started focusing on singles. There was a point of time when labels were putting out singles on like the 45, you had an A single and you had a B single. It’s nothing new, but we started forgetting about the album. They forgot about the concept of albums. They forgot about hiving people a reason to go pay $10 or $15 to get an album. The albums are not good. There’s no cohesion, it’s just not good. Think about all the albums in the last 10 years that have been released..that’s a lot of albums. How many of them can we say are classic albums?

We can count them on our hands.

We can count them on our hands. Exactly! (laughs) That’s not good.

There’s no artist development either.

Barry Gordan to me was the greatest at artist development. That whole era that he created was based off of artist development. He strongly believed in that. That model succeeded during that time when they were also going through social issues. They were not able to perform at certain places, because of the color of their skin. Well…that’s a whole different conversation. I am not going to say we are totally eradicated of that, but it’s a slightly better time. Where as so he was able to succeed during that time with that model…Motown will forever sell and be played. Whether it is Karaoke or in the elevator, it’s going to be played. I think we need to start digging back in our history in how our music succeeded back then. Everybody thinks that YouTube is how you find out about the artist. Well OK, but its more than YouTube, twitter and those social sites.

You can’t even turn on your television to a music program on television anymore. I remember being excited to see Behind The Music and Fanatic.

Exactly! You know how Soul Train use to showcase talent…it’s crazy. If we were to have a show like that it probably wouldn’t be called Soul Train now, but we lost all of that man.

You’re right. All we have is 106 & Park which shows the New Joint of the Day. Takes us right back to the “Single” talk.

How do we change all of that?

How do you think we change all of that?

Wow man! Once I figure it out you will be the first person I call and we will sit down and talk about it man. (laughs) I’m not going to say I have the final solution, because this is years of stuff that we have to correct. I do think that apart of the equation is greed. Some people I’ve seen in some of the blogs, say that the greed of the execs in the older days, having these high salaries and bonuses is coming back on them. It’s kind of like you reap what you sow. That’s been said. I truly believe that Tower Records would not have closed and others have the labels or the powers that be have been realistic with selling records for $20 is ridiculous. You still eat. Why can’t the records be $10.

I definitely agree. Why not charge lower prices? It’s better than no profit at all. There are people who still enjoy opening up albums and checking out the booklet and stuff.

Yes I am one, because I did it last night (laughs).

Me too!

Yeah, people don’t think that their hard drives can crash. Then you have to buy it all over. I love CDs, I use to love going to the stores and they would have the listening stations, and the magazines, it was just a whole experience that you can’t get while you are on the Internet. Even though its full of great resources and information it is nothing like going to the store and bumping it. Some married couples probably met at the record store going to buy an album. You know what I mean? Now that’s kind of gone man.

It’s sad, because how many years will it be before that’s gone? Right now most purchases come from stores like Walmart.

Right Walmart and Best Buy. Come on Best Buy y’all want to do everything. Y’all want to have musical instruments, y’all want to sell CDs, y’all want to sell home appliances. Come on man. It’s crazy. There’s enough for everybody.

So what’s next for Jay Fenix? I am sure  that the labels hit you up after the success of the Melanie Fiona record.

Right now I am currently working on some stuff for Musiq Soulchild, Chrisette, and Fantasia. I am working on those projects and I am also working on some independent stuff, my own acts also. I have a surprise that I am working on too. It’s a surprise so I don’t want to speak too much on it.

What advice would you give to any aspiring producers who are trying to get in the game?

I’ll say what worked for me. Some people take it as advice or not-that was my strong belief in God. I keep him first in my life and stay committed to the dream and the vision that he gave me. I saw it coming I just didn’t know when. You are going to experience the pitfalls as well as the highs, but you have to stay consistent and dedicated to your dreams and goals.

How can people reach you?

I have a twitter @jayFenix and my facebook is Jay Fenix. Everyone hit me up!

Spankin’ New Video: Dondria – “You’re The One”

Here’s an artist that I’ve been following since the beginning of their career. Dondria literally went from YouTube videos to getting her own music video…and the single is doing pretty darn good. Check her out in her debut music video for her hit single “You’re The One”. My homie Brandon Hines also makes an appearance in the video. Check it out yall!

Spankin’ New Video: T-Pain – Reverse Cowgirl

T-Pain is back with the first single “Reverse Cowgirl” off his album “RevolveR”. He definitely went in a different direction than expected and the video is pretty hot. The effects and the take on reversing is really hot.

New Music: Robyn ft. Snoop Dogg – Fembots

It’s time to introduce Robyn to some and just debut her brand new single to others. Robyn is a Swedish Grammy-Nominated artist who has actually been around since the 90s. Check out her first single from her upcoming album “Body Talk”. The single “Fembots” features Snoop Dogg. Not bad at all!

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD: “Fembots”

Music Review: Raheem DeVaughn – The Love & War Masterpeace

Looking for some feel good music with a purpose of peace? Look no further, Raheem DeVaughn is delivering positive good music and so much more on his latest offering, “The Love & War Masterpeace”. The R&B hippie and Neo-Soul Rockstar really delivered a beyond solid piece of work and you should definitely hit up your local retailer and support the project! Check out the full review after the jump.

Track by Track Review.

01. “Dr. Cornel West Intro” – Yes! Dr. Cornel West himself is all over this project, so you already know it’s going to be a good journey from the beginning. Dr. Cornell West proclaims as Raheem DeVaughn as the future of great music.

02. “Bulletproof (ft. Ludacris)” – You have probably heard this single on your favorite radio station…if they play good music. You would never expect gun shots to sound so smooth and relaxing. Ludacris comes with his A game and states, “My future is ever clear/180 proof”…we couldn’t disagree. This is definitely a track to check out!

03. “The Greatness (ft. Wale)” – DeVaughn gets help from fellow DMV artist Wale on this track which praises the greatness of a woman. “Under the gloss of your lips is greatness/ Greatness underneath it all/ Beautiful inside out/ Love you inside out/ When you don’t feel beautiful at all…look at mirror on wall” The song contains really nice lyrics, but my favorite is the opening “Konichiwa Ladies”… if you know me you know that is a staple lol.

04. “I Don’t Care” – This is a good track and it gives off a really feel good feeling. The track kind of reminds me of Robin Thicke’s “Magic”. Am I the only who hear the resemblance?

05. “Black and Blue” – Here’s Raheem DeVaughn’s fight against domestic abuse. “Love ain’t knocking you on the ground/Calling you out of your name” Really nice track and definitely relevant to these days.

06. “Mr. Right” – When I hear this I get CCB’s “Phatty” in my head for some reason. Maybe I am just crazy…The title pretty much explains the message of this song, but it is one of my favorites on the album!

07. “Dr. Cornell West (Interlude)” – Just an interlude…don’t really mind it.

08. “Fragile (ft. Malik Yusef)” – Ladies, if your heart requires a little Tender Loving Care put all of your faith in Raheem. Nice track.

09. “My Wife” – This track has a nice message about not looking for a girlfriend, a married woman, and etc., but looking for that true wife. Nice message, but this is one of the weakest on the album.

10. “B.O.B.” – Raheem isn’t singing about Bombs over Baghdad on this track, but he’s speaking about something that can’t do it like him…a battery operated boyfriend. This track definitely caught me off guard, but it’s a good one!

11. “Bedroom” – An average track with an old school feel. Not bad.

12. “Microphone” – Another filler track…it’s alright.

13. “Garden Of Love” – Nice track!

14. “Dr. Cornell West P.S.A.” – Mr. West is back to close the album. Again, don’t really mind it. The interludes really kept the album flowing.

15.  ”Revelations 2010 (ft. Damian Marley)” – This is one of my favorites on the album. The only thing missing is the homie Nasir Jones.

Overall Album Rating:

4/5

Video Picks: BET Rip The Runway Performances

Check out these hot performances from this year’s BET Rip The Runway.

Estelle featuring Kardinall Offishall – “Freak”

New Music: Lloyd ft. Mystikal – Set Me Free

Lloyd, Bangladesh, and Mystikal…..yes, I said MYSTIKAL delivers some heat on the track “Set Me Free”. I had to really pause the track and say to myself, “Mystikal is back!” The track is definitely a hot one so make sure y’all check it out!

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD : “Set Me Free”

Breaking New First: J. Smith

Philly stand up! It’s time to break some new talent and this time around it is a friend of mine, J. Smith. This kid originally hit me up a while ago to check out his mixtape “Kid In Me” and I finally got around to listening to his material. Yesterday he released a new track, “Near Graduation”, a positive and catchy track! You can purchase his track “Smile Girl” on Itunes now! Follow him on twitter @airjsmith and tell him earStyle.net sent you! Check out his new single “Near Graduation” after the jump!

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Takin’ It Back: Notorious B.I.G. – “Hypnotize”

Today marks the 13th anniversary of Christopher Wallace’s death, so it would only be right to dedicate today’s throwback video to Mr. Biggie himself. Sit back, reminisce, and enjoy the “Hypnotize” video. I chose this track, because well it is just one of the best hip-hop club songs and the feeling is just nostalgic. Listening to the song and watching the video just take me back to good times and I am sure it will do the same for you on this sunny Tuesday morning. R.I.P. Biggie and let’s keep the peace America!

New Music: Travis McCoy ft. Bruno Mars- Billionaire

I didn’t even know Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes was working on a solo album. Today the first single, “Billionaire” leaked from his upcoming album “The Lazurus Project”. It’s a dope inspirational track and the hook is pretty fly. Bruno Mars can also be heard on B.o.B’s current Hot 100 hit “Nothin’ On U”. Make sure y’all head over to the Video section to see the video for the single…it’s hot! This will be his first solo project on Nappy Boy Entertainment. Stay posted for more info on the album.

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD: “Billionaire”

Spankin’ New Video: B.o.B ft. Bruno Mars – “Nothin’ On U”

What a perfect way to start a beautiful day in ATL! B.o.B released the debut video off his “The Adventures of Bobby Ray” album this morning on MTV and it’s definitely just as good as the song. This is kind of what we expected from Wale for “Pretty Girls”, but of course it would have been too right for him to have a decent video for the track. This video is full of eye candy, and is definitely on the creative side. Watch the video to see who B.o.B ultimately leaves with in this paper cut-out world of his.

New Music: Plies ft. Bei Maejor – “She Got It Made”

Spring and Summer is on the way and there’s nothing better than new bangers on the radio. “She Got It Made” will definitely be a staple on a radio station near you. This will be the third single off of his “Goon Affiliated” album which does not have a release date yet. The banger follows “Becky” and his current single with Keri Hilson “Medicine”. Check it out!

Listen/Download: “She Got It Made”

New Music: Drake – Over

Drake’s first single from his highly anticipated debut “Thank Me Later” finally hit the net! Drake is living life right now and that’s what he’s going to do until it’s “Over”, and according to him he won’t be stopping anytime soon. I am sure this will be a radio smash just because it’s Drake, and the track is definitely a hot one. From production to the lyrics, the song is really on point. Check it out for yourself!

Listen/Download: “Over”

Breaking New First: Meko McAfee

Just last week I found out about McAfee and his video “No One”. A Few days later he released the continuation to the video for the track with a record and video entitled “Loving You”. It’s pretty rare to find up & coming talent with quality visuals. Props go to the director of both clips, ERIC MINH SWENSON. Reppin’ for the West Coast, McAfee offers some dope singles! Check the videos after the jump and leave some feedback.

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New Music: Dondria ft. JD – You’re The One Remix

There’s nothing like a good old fashioned remix that’s actually a remix. Instead of just throwing a rapper on the remix to Dondria’s “You’re The One” she linked up with Jermaine Dupri and DJ Chuckie for an uptempo smash. New lyrics, new vocals, new everything and we love it! She is definitely on our radar for 2010. If you are not familiar with her, she was actually discovered on YouTube by Jermaine Dupri and he signed her to So So Def. They are currently wrapping up her debut, “Dondria vs. Phatfffat”. Check out our interview with Dondria from last year over in the Interview section.

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD: “You’re The One” Remix