Rihanna appears in the September issue of Essence magazine. Say what you will about her (which I sure do lol…), there’s no denying Ms. Fenty is looking on-point right here. Great shoot.

This weekend really has been a sad one; soul legend, Isaac Hayes passed away today at the age of 65:

(CNN) — Soul singer and arranger Isaac Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Oscar for the theme from the 1971 action film “Shaft,” has died, sheriff’s officials in Memphis, Tennessee, reported Sunday.

Relatives found Hayes, 65, unconscious in his home next to a still-running treadmill, said Steve Shular, a spokesman for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.

Paramedics attempted to revive him and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m., the sheriff’s department said.

No foul play is suspected, the agency said in a written statement.

Hayes won a third Grammy for pop instrumental performance with the title track to his 1972 “Black Moses” album.

From the late 1990s through 2006, Hayes provided the voice of “Chef” for Comedy Central’s raunchy animated series “South Park,” as well as numerous songs. {Source}

Our thoughts go out to his family.

Rest In Peace

This week’s From The Vault is Christina Aguilera’s 2002 ‘coming out’ (of sorts) ‘Dirrty’. Having long been labelled a teeny Pop star in the vein of the Britney’s and Nsync’s, Christina broke the mould with this edgy, heavily Urban and provocative song/video. Within the clip’s 4+minutes running time, Christina managed to forever dispel any notion of her being ‘just another Pop act’; ‘Dirrty’ saw the birth of the envelope pushing Christina of today:

In what is, no doubt, very sad news, comedian Bernie Mac passed away early this morning due to complications from pneumonia, his publicist has confirmed:

Bernie Mac’s publicist says the actor and comedian has died. The entertainer passed early Saturday morning at Northwestern Memorial hospital after recently being hospitalized for pneumonia.

Bernard McCullough or Bernie Mac as his fans knew him, was known for his edge and off-color comedy routines. Mac made many supporting appearances in films during the 90’s such as “Friday” and “Booty Call,” but it was his recent acting in blockbusters like the ‘Oceans Eleven’ franchise and ‘Transformers’ which rocketed the comedian to super stardom.

Mac had several movies coming out in the coming months including “Soul Men” with Isaac Hayes and Samuel L. Jackson and “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” starring Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer and Chris Rock. {Source}

Bernie has long stood as one of my favourite comedians; this is really really sad. Our sincerest condolences go out to his family.

With the Pussycat Dolls set to release their sophomore effort ‘Doll Domination’ on September 16th , the cover for the set has surfaced. The ladies look every inch the fierce five-some they are. Great cover.

As per the title of this post, feel free to drop anything and ‘errrrrthing’ in the comments section.

So, anything from your thoughts on the site, to random ramblings, particular views on any story (music, politcs, sports etc), share a story/new song, shameless promotion of your own site/material lol…not to be limited to music alone…a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g!

During his headlining set on the Glow In The Dark’s NYC tour stop, rapper Kanye West condemned homophobia, urging people to ‘open their minds’:

“Open your fucking minds. Open your minds. Be accepting of different people and let people be who they are. You know how many people came to me calling me gay cause I wear my jeans the fresh way? Or because I said hey, dude, how you gonna say ‘fag’ right in front of a gay dude’s face and act like that’s ok. That shit is disrespectful. Coming from Chicago, where if you saw somebody that was gay you were supppoed to stay ten feet away. It should be time to break out of the intuitions that I was sayin’, the steretypes, or the fear, the backlash that I would get if you don’t believe in what I believe in, acceptin’ people for who they are…they’re very talented and if they do something special in the world and they’re discriminated. I’ve flown across the world y’all, and I’ve come back here to tell you — open your minds and live a happier life…” {Source}

Your thoughts?

Despite the controversy that has ensued regarding Beyonce’s unrecognisable ad for L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant have denied altering the shot:

“We highly value our relationship with Ms. Knowles. It is categorically untrue that L’Oréal Paris altered Ms. Knowles’ features or skin-tone in the campaign for Feria’s hair color.”

A rep for the 27-year-old Knowles declined to comment beyond the L’Oréal statement.

The ad is appearing in this month’s Elle, Allure and Essence. So far the magazines have not said anything about possible Pantone issues. {Source}

As the press and public alike continue to speculate on the supposed ‘relationship’ between young stars Rihanna and Chris Brown, the pair are generating a buzz elsewhere – more specifically, on this week’s charts.

According to Nielsen Soundscan, Rihanna’s ‘Disturbia’ jumps #4-#3 on the Billboard Hot 100 (hitting the top spot on the Hot Digital chart, after selling through 140,000 digital downloads this week too). Meanwhile Brown inches one spot closer to the top of the Hot 100 with ‘Forever’ climbing #3-#2.

While this is undoubtedly a major achievement for both, especially when considering this being a relatively early stage of their career, I can’t help but be left with a salty taste in my mouth. Pardon my bluntness, but both ‘Forever’ and ‘Disturbia’ are absolute garbage IMO. Both artists are capable (one more than the other) of much better material. Yet the masses seem to be eating up the rubbish served up to them. Will ‘real’…or better yet, half-decent, music ever get a chance in the contemporary musical climate? I hope so, though my thinking may just be “dum, dum, dee dum dum dum dee dum dum”. SMH…