Destiny’s Child member Michelle Williams performed at the Bombay Sapphire drinking party in Chicago this past Tuesday (July 17th). Williams sang Al Green’s classic ‘Let’s Stay Together’ – which she also covered for a GAP campaign in 2005. Aside from a few vocal snags, I enjoyed the performance. Michelle evidently has very little natural rhythm, but I like her voice – it’s different. This kind of music definitely suits her voice more than some of the Destiny’s Child material.

What do you think of the performance?

Singer R. Kelly is set to shoot a further 10 episodes of his ‘Trapped In The Closet’ saga after signing a new deal with US cable network IFC. With its storyline twists and turns, the ‘hip-hopera’ became a major success in 2006 – spurned a 12-episode DVD. As part of the deal Kelly inked with IFC, additional episodes will be shot as well as re-airings of the original 12 episodes.

I remember being hooked on the series a couple of summers back; marvelling at how great the concept was. Yet towards the end, it just got ridiculous – remember the midget, anyone? Still, I’m all for innovation (I don’t see anyone else doing anything remotely similar), so I’ll be checking it out when it debuts.

Will you be checking for the new episodes?

Mya recently performed at the WNBA All-Star Game this past Sunday. She performed a medley of some of her hits including ‘Case of the Ex’ as well new track ‘Still A Woman’. Aside from a few minor vocal mishaps, she did her thing – both the dancing and singing were on-point. Mya’s new CD ‘Liberation’ is due out later this year.

What do you think of the performance?

50 Cent is running his mouth again, this time about fellow rapper Nas. Speaking to XXL magazine, 50 had the following to say about the ‘Hip Hop Is Dead’ rapper:

You have different kinds of people. You have people that are extremely book smart that lack common sense so they don’t know what’s going to affect their audience. They have more information than me based on reading. For instance, Nas is a really smart guy. He reads books constantly. We were around him on the Nastradamus tour. He was almost weirder than me ’cause we would go to breakfast and he’d be there reading a book. Conceptually, I think that’s what made him drift away from what his initial audience enjoys from him and why he’s not hot right now.

Aside from the fact that Nas tops 50 in just about every way, shouldn’t the G-Unit leader be worrying about his own career? With the released material from 50’s upcoming ‘Curtis’ CD flopping all over the place, you’d think he’d look at himself first. I guess he thinks his tired routine of calling out other rappers to generate buzz will work this time. He doesn’t seem to get it – no one cares for his music anymore.

What do you think of 50’s comments?

Lil Wayne and Baby feature on the cover of XXL’s upcoming Anniversary issue. No words for this one….damn.

What do you think of the cover?