Last year the 107.5 WGCI Big Jam saw some awesome performances from Kendrick Lamar, Future, Vic Mensa and Twista just to name a few, and this year the Big Jam is returning to the United Center and with a lineup that even rivals last year’s huge artists.
Performing at this year’s Big Jam, which will take place on December 30th at the United Center, will be Chris Brown, Young Thug, Trey Songz, Lil Yachty, Desiigner, G Herbo and Lil Bibby! Needless to say, you will want to get your tickets ASAP, because they will surely go fast.
It’s a big day for Canadian singer/songwriter Alessia Cara. Not only has Alessia announced a huge Part II to her 2016 Know-It-All Tour, which will kick off this September with ‘Lost Boys’ singer Ruth B, but Cara has shared her beautiful new music video for her record ‘Scars To Your Beautiful’, one of the stand out tracks from her recent debut album. Do yourself a favor and check out Cara’s new empowering visuals, and if you still haven’t yet, download her debut album, Know-It-All, now.
Watch Alessia Cara’s music video for ‘Scars To Your Beautiful’ below.
Currently the world’s largest music festival, Milwaukee’s Summerfest, has announced all but one of its 11 headlining acts at its Marcus Amphitheatre stage. And while this year’s lineup so far is one of the best in recent years, it is still missing one big thing, a rap and hip/hop presence. Sure, Summerfest is known for its diverse lineup and never has really placed a large emphasis on rap when compared to other major music festivals, but consistently Summerfest always tends to deliver at least one huge rap headliner. Last year Kendrick Lamar blessed the stage, and brought along fellow TDE member, Schoolboy Q. In recent history the likes of Outkast and Kanye West have also all hit stage at Summerfest.
This year we are hoping for a big hip/hop act, and more then ever. A plethora of talented artists like Ryan Adams, Martin Garrix, Rise Against, Passion Pit, The Roots and more are all hitting the ground stages (with ticket prices starting at just $13), but when it comes to a rap presence you have only a couple options (Nelly and Jason DeRulo, the latter being a pop artist). Although artists can be added to the lineup at any time, rap fans in Wisconsin have their fingers crossed for the last Marcus Amphitheatre slot, on June 30th.
We have no idea whether or not the June 30th vacancy will be filled by a rap artist, but in hopes that it is, we have compiled a list of our five best predictions of who that may be!
Move over Miami, because Chicago may be the new premiere city for EDM, as today React Presents’ electronic mega-festival, Spring Awakening has just announced its 2016 lineup, and it’s epic. Performing at the Chicago festival this year, at its new location of Addams/Medill Park, will be deadmau5, The Chainsmokers, Dillon Francis, Steve Aoki, Kaskade, Zeds Dead, Jamie xx, RL Grime and many more. A festival lineup that EDM fans could only dream of.
This year the festival will take place from June 10th through the 12th and will host 5 stages total (with 6 branded stages, 2 each day). Tickets are on-sale for Spring Awakening now, so get them before it’s too late!
Check out Spring Awakening’s epic festival lineup below and get more ticket information at SpringAwakeningFestival.com.
I don’t really know if it’s possible to dislike certain groups. These are the groups that have set certain standards for what music sounds like or maybe simply created music that no one person can resist. Few songs have that effect the way putting “Waterfalls” on in a room full of people does. The drums and synthesized instruments sweep in, in full jazz mode and then are overtaking by some soothingly earnest R&B vocals. When the chorus hits, the trio takes all bets off the table and everyone joins in; it’s fantastic. Now, you know how people say it’s hard to shine on a team full of diamonds? Well, TLC came close to proving that theory right with their sophomore LP ‘CrazySexyCool’.
Just like their name symbolizes an acronym, covering each member of the trio, their album title covers the basis of what is going down on the project. The instrumentals stay precisely timed rhythms with the help of drums and electric pianos. The three members each adds their own vocal flavor to the batter. The real ability lies in how well they harmonize and play off their own strengths. From a more than capable rhyming potential and pitch perfect R&B that has never sounded more 90’s.
It’s important to note, the group was far from genre bending or breaking the rules of what had been set before them but, they did multiply expectation by three and combined skill sets that up until this point were mostly confined to features or collaborations. One of the project’s unique elements is its ability to reflect its title and the energy of its personalities so well. You hear “Creep” and realize that these women are not to be tested, then “Diggin’ On You” sets the light mood of taking in the beauty of a relationship. It’s made all the more interesting as it segways into the ode to backstabbers, “Case Of The Fake People”.
TLC made sure they were themselves. A lot like that group of girls we all knew in high school. Their personalities didn’t quite match but for some reason it worked so well that everyone took notice anytime they were around and together. Grounded yet occasionally funky, this project allows you to jam out to one of the best songs of the decade as soon as it imparts its little wisdoms about love and friendship on you. This album was the seductive stare into your eyes that everyone hopes to have from another person. The title of the LP signifies anything but boredom and therefore points in the direction of intrigue. There’s enough quality R&B material here from the trio that had every right to be the entire 1990’s population’s first crush(es).
A perfect album to look back on now that songs charting in the Top 100 are actually starting to sound different than the last. The ridiculously radio friendly production make every year that passes help Akon’s older work sound that much better. I’m not sure that it’s the fact that he’s made music that could hold its own in today’s market, but rather, it is as if he created music that will simply always have its own Akon-related appeal. It’s typically club music; but lyrically it’s aimed at entertaining thugs and convicts, all the more making them dance to it and not have the slightest bit of regret while doing it.
Konvicted is Akon’s own stamp of approval on himself, realising much like Fetty Wap recently did; he’s got what the world wants to hear. Just like no one can assign a term to Fetty Wap’s intoxicating appeal in 2016, no one could do it to Akon in the 2000’s, but it was definitely there. It can be made no more apparent than on the club anthem tracks like ‘Smack That’ and ‘I Wanna Love You’. The formula is strong with Akon; a catchy hook attached on either side of a verse about some sort of struggle endured or a lady sought after.
There are instances of deep personal insight on ‘The Rain’ and ‘Once In A While’, where we hear more from Akon than we’ve come to expect. A better range of vocals and much more reflective lyrics from our once locked up singer. Pianos pull away from the more harsh percussive elements of the rest of the work and Akon lets us know that he’s a changed man and he looks at the world differently now. In the same way the album moves forward, Akon moves from chasing money and respect to chasing love, ending fittingly on undoubtedly the most important love song of 2006 (in my very biased opinion), ‘Don’t Matter’. Each song sounds pretty great in its own right, but cohesively, not as much. We have four fifths of the album discussing Akon’s love of being a gangster and how he misses much of it, then we have his near condemnation of that life and the pain it has caused. It can be a bit jarring when put side by side, but when peeled apart, no track is outright bad.
All the features come within the first four tracks which can make the remaining two thirds of the tracklist seem daunting. Here though, is where Akon expresses his worth in the R&B community showing that he is capable of moving his own album to within arm’s reach of the number one best selling project of the entire year. He carries a single concept further than most artists can carry a handful, thanks in full to his unique authentic African vocal flavor and some simple choruses. Sure, he may have followed a formulaic process but he managed to keep it all his own. I don’t see any other artists making any of these twelve productions sound better than what Akon did with them. Really, Konvicted is Akon using all of his strengths to damn near their limits. His analogous descriptions of survival in the streets laid over some of the most rhythmic and infectious productions of last decade.
The Early Registration 