Out Of Business

Vibe magazine, the urban-music magazine founded in 1993 by Quincy Jones, is the latest victim of the media recession. Multiple sources both within and outside the magazine confirmed that it is shutting down.

Vibe enjoyed significant success in the late '90s and early part of this decade as hip hop and R&B became the nation's predominant forms of pop music. But in recent years the title has fallen on hard times under its new owner, the Wicks Group, which bought it in 2006. In February, it reduced its circulation and publishing frequency, cut salaries and moved employees to a four-day workweek to save money.

I grew up reading Vibe, sad to see it go.

Mr. Kanye West Get's Gagged

Clips from Kanye West's puppet-based Comedy Central variety show "Alligator Boots" have been surfacing online like crazy. In the latest leak, Ye's famously chatty lips are silenced by a ball gag and a sexy puppet with respiratory issues.

Kanye told Vibe magazine on their I AM Rap issue covered by Kanye that he isn't ruling out posing naked sometime in the near future. I'll definitely would love to see that art of his that he's not afraid to show off.

Kanye on posing nude:

"I want the freedom of having less fans. It's like the freedom of having less money. If you have less money, you have less responsibility. It's like Björk. If she wanted to pose naked, you'd be like, 'Oh, that's Björk.' But if I wanted to pose naked, people would draw all type of things into it. I definitely feel like, in the next however many years, if I work out for two months, that I'll pose naked. I break every rule and mentality of hip-hop, of black culture, of American culture."

R&B Is A Shadow Of Its Former Self

VIBE music editor Sean Fennessey recently posited that contemporary R&B music has gone soft. He's on to something: There are too many emasculated, blue-balled crooners on the radio right now with no true identity. But Fennessey overlooks a larger point: R&B isn't just ineffectual right now; it's pointless, derivative and boring. In terms of social relevance, innovation and pure originality, no one approaches titans of earlier generations like Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding or even Michael Jackson and Prince. R&B is missing a transformative star but seems unlikely to find one right now, because as a genre, it barely exists.

In truth, Ne-Yo and R&B's other reigning king, Usher, are little more than bland, well-dressed Michael Jackson wannabes with good choreographers. Neither has done as much to push the genre forward as R. Kelly, who's at least got a stack of undeniably addictive singles to his credit and is willing to take musical chances. (Unfortunately, Kels doesn't qualify as a respected R&B icon because he hasn't made strong albums and his legacy is tied up in his perversions.)

As for queens like Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé and Keyshia Cole, they offer little more than overproduced girl jams that only discerning fans can tell apart. None seems to take any pleasure in craft. While all three women have fascinating life stories — Cole's mother was a prostitute and drug addict — you'd never know it from their bland discographies, full of boilerplate love-lost laments and CVS-friendly stay-strong anthems. The music from second-tier soulstresses like Ciara and Ashanti, meanwhile, doesn't hold up without the benefit of gruff male voices to contrast their meek vocals. ( If you've heard Ashanti's latest album, The Declaration, you know this, but like most everybody else in the world, you haven't.)

The watering-down of the genre is one reason it's been disparaged as "Rap & Bullshit." Another is because it's artistically moribund. The vast majority of R&B lyrics are sappy, disingenuous, corny and cliched. Enough already with promises of everlasting fidelity sung by men sleeping with King models, and to female empowerment anthems written by women with multimillionaire husbands. The contrast with hip-hop is especially stark considering rap's creative breakthroughs of late. Lil Wayne wtf?, Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and plenty of others are challenging the status quo; for proof, look no further than 808s & Heartbreak, West's top-selling, experimental elegy.

None of these artists fills the bill, however, as a true R&B icon for the new millennium. In fact, no one from the genre has recently captured the public's imagination. It's obviously a lot to ask for another Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke, both of whom pushed for social change and helped revolutionize the role of the black singer-songwriter in the music industry. It may be too much to ask for another purple one or gloved one, both of whom affected everything from rock and pop to popular culture and marketing. But is it too much to expect a single, standout talent? I don't think so — and as a result, I suggest that we amend the "Rap & Bullshit" moniker to simply "Bullshit." Ben Westhoff

Click here to read the full article.

There's tons of flaws in this article. The headline is correct, but its topic was poorly assessed. I like how he throws out a slew of names, then only presents an argument to support the obvious mentions. Mary J. Blige has had her share of throwaway anthems recently, but her artistic importance far outstretched the 90's. Pseudo purists always make you shake your head. Besides the fact that they downplay and ignore the good stuff that's out, they love to attack the symptom rather than the disease, and do so poorly. Get to the root of the issue. Let's talk about the industry at large and the circumstances that actually led music down into the sewer. Nobody wants to talk about that, because those people still grease the wheels of what's left of the music industry.

I personally feel like not only is R&B unremarkable, but so is rap and pop. It's like everything lost its luster and everyone got into the business of making money and not making music that matters. There's no soul. We are dealing with complex matters, but our music is no longer. Music used to express the troubles of the soul. With the recession, there is so much more opportunity to discover the troubles of the soul. Blues music should be saturating the airwaves, but way too many of us are still caught up in material bullshit. The music industry needs to stop following formulas and numbers and start taking risks. The internet has the potential to launch more successful artists than the music industry in the coming months. If artists pay attention, they can sell their music over the internet. All they need is the proper marketing which is as easy as Youtube.

Kanye West I AM Rap Vibe Cover

My man Kanye West covers the February issue of Vibe magazine and speaks on 808's & Heartbreak being his best album to date and his run in with the paparazzi. Is it me or does Kanye looks a little lifeless, like he's depressed with no soul on the cover of the magazine? You can definitely see the sadness in his eyes. I so want to reach out to this brother and give him a hug. I know it's been over a year that he has lost his mother Donda West, losing someone you love can take toll on you and an ill minute to recover from the loss. I'm so glad he has music as an outlet to keep him sane. He's definitely a legend in the making.

Kanye on 808’s being his best album:
“I do think it’s my best album to date. No, I actually know this is my best album to date. Do I think it will be my best album ever? No, Ill improve. Do I think there are mistakes in it? Yes. There has to be. I’m a human being. But I think it surpasses Graduation. These 12 tracks are going to resonate more than any 12 tracks of any album this year.”

I always admire Kanye because of his confidence and how he's always not afraid to push the envelope. Do I agree with 808's being his best album to date? Absolutely!