Over the years, That Grape Juice has established a distinguished voice that – whether loved or loathed – sparks discussion, debate, and on occasion drama!
Though comprised of seasoned writers who share a similar outlook on Urban Pop culture, the idiosyncrasies of the TGJ team members often lend for quite heated debates “behind the scenes” about the hottest topics.
Now, we give you a front row seat to the show. In a format similar to ‘The View’ or ‘The Real’, TGJ editors – Sam, David, Rashad, and Joe – get real in a very candid way.
Before Adele, Coldplay and Amy Winehouse, a young name from Southhampton was the one waving the British flag on a worldwide scale. His name’s Craig David and today we salute him on From The Vault.
This week’s pick is ‘Seven Days.’
Serviced as the second single from the singer’s debut ‘Born To Do It’, ‘Days’ was written and composed by Mark Hill alongside the David – like the large majority of the LP.
Thematically, the song retraced the week-long romancing of a newfound love interest. To this day, it’s Craig’s biggest hit and is considered his signature song.
Wildly successful on home soil, where it debuted at #1 with sales of 100,000 units, but was also a worldwide smash peaking at #10 in the US, #4 in Australia and #9 in Canada. Not bad at all for a R&B newbie in a Britney and N’Sync dominated landscape.
The music video, directed by Max and Dania, had a ‘Groundhog Day’ theme with Craig reliving the same day over and over until he finally gets with “the” girl he met on the street.
Popular the world over, the clip was nominated for Best Video at the 2001 BRIT Awards, but lost to Robbie Williams‘ ‘Rock DJ.’
Thereafter, David’s success was heavily concentrated in the UK — despite a marked effort to further break into the American market with his sophomore album.
Now, after a hiatus of sorts (which ironically saw him relocate to Miami), the gifted star is back. With new album ‘Following My Intuition’ due in stores on September 30th, the moral of the story is to never count out authentic talent.
Following the unveiling of three buzz singles, Rihanna’s ‘ANTI‘ was undoubtedly saved by the Reggae-kissed cut that is ‘Work.’
Today, its creator PARTYNEXTDOOR has revealed that things may have gone very differently for the project…as it was almost released by Rih‘s rival Alicia Keys!
The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards are drawing ever near.
Coming to New York’s Madison Square Garden on August 28th, many a major star will rendezvous under one roof in hopes of seeing their visual efforts recognised. Though attention remains on potential winners, many are curious as to who might take to the stage come VMA day. That Grape Juice included!
With performers for the night’s event yet to be announced, it got us wondering… who deserves a slot on the stage? Does Beyonce’s stellar year deserve a climatic live finish? Will Lady Gaga pick up the mic to introduce the start of a new era?
Readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past.
So, as our retrospective features ‘From the Vault’ and ‘TGJ Replay’allow us the chance to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday of one artist, our newest feature Chart Rewind – a variation of our current Retro Rewind assay – accedes salutes to an entire era of music history.
This week we tip our hats and raincoats to Rihanna Fenty‘s 2007 megahit ‘Umbrella.’ Originally written for (but later passed on by) pop princess Britney Spears, the tune found a home on Rih’s tertiary release, ‘Good Girl Gone Bad.’ A loss for Spears, but just the right move for Fenty as the Dream-produced cut and its accompanying music video came as a visual and sonic reintroduction of sorts for the Bajan beauty (who up to that point was known for her fairly safe radio offerings).
Calling to mentor/labelhead Jay-Z to assist with the percussion driven pop number, the song was an out-of-the-box success thanks for its catchy guitar riffs and, of course, that signature repetitious “ella ella ey ey.” Going on to be the best-performing single of 2007 (only behind Beyonce‘s ‘Irreplaceable’), ‘Umbrella’ would not only garner Grammys, global critical acclaim, an impressive reign at #1 on the Hot 100 and help its parent album to #1 on the Billboard 200, but most importantly – in the grand scheme – it successfully transitioned the star to the bad gal we know today.
Hop down below the jump to replay ‘Umbrella’ and see if any of your faves from today accompanied Rih on the Hot 100’s upper rankings this week 9 years ago:
Keen to replicate profit-swelling success stories of yesteryear record labels often use model their new artists on the artists who came before them.
Janet-Britney
Madonna- Lady Gaga
Anita Baker – Toni Braxton
Mary J. Blige – Keyshia Cole- K. Michelle
Beyonce- Rihanna
Gwen Stefani- Charli XCX.
For one reason or another, this practice isn’t always as obvious when the artists are men, perhaps because said labels rarely require male artists to look like the artists they are pulling from.
Unfortunately for Future, he has learned just how problematic this trend can be when a new musician succeeds in “borrowing” their sound.
For, after he was accused of “borrowing” his style from T-Pain, he has been forced to watch the rise of the charismatic and eerily identical Desiigner and his smash hit single ‘Panda.’
Why his thunder-stealing ascent is set to rub the Southern star the wrong way once more?
Prince fans who can’t exactly get into the groove with Queen of Pop Madonna tributing her fellow music royal at this year’s Billboard Music Awards will be sorely disappointed to learn she’s still being billed as the show’s most highly anticipated feature.
According to Mark Bracco, the ceremony’s executive producer, the show will continue as planned despite a viral petition calling for Madge’s removal from any tribute to the fallen icon. Their efforts, Bracco suggests, were noticed…but disregarded.
Tinashe strips off for the latest issue of Paper magazine.
Covering their new ‘Youth Issue,’ the ‘All Hands on Deck’ singer can be seen decked out in Moschino and other top designers a-front and inside the pop culture mag’s pages.
In addition to drawing comparisons to Britney Spears‘ infamous 1999 ‘Rolling Stone’ cover (via the pic seen above), Tinashe talks about her new album ‘Joyride,’ dealing with industry pressure, and so much more.
