Sorry Solange, but you’re guilty by association! Read the rest of this entry »

First and foremost, I would like to send a groovy Happy 4th of July shout to all my faithful SoundOff readers. Yea, I know I should be out celebrating and watching the fireworks light up my local local park, but I got he sudden urge to get some work done….sue me! Anyway, the first day of the Essence Music Festival, which is obviously presented by Coca Cola, has come to an end and it looked like a load of fun.

Though I wasn’t in attendance, I did manage to score some EXCLUSIVE pics courtesy of Skip Bolen and Johnny Nunez. If you happen to be at home tonight, let me know how you spent your 4th in the comments section below. And if you choose not to do so, scroll down……a couple comments about the photos from day one at Essence Music Festival will suffice…..for now lol!

Sincerely

Low “Happy 4th of July to EVERYONE” Key  

Chris Brown showing his fans some love at the Essence Music Festival

Good lord, Chilli STILL gives me the chills….SHEESH!  

MC Lyte was definitely in the house… 

Solange was all smiles during the first day of the Essence Music Festival...

You know when DJ S&S is on the 1’s and 2’s, the party never ends!

New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin, gives a speech at the Tyler Perry & Friends seminar.

BET’s very own, Rocsi and Terrence J…. 

Lynn Whitfield made sure her lip gloss was poppin before attending the Essence Music Festival!

I Think their conversation went something like this…

Ray(in gray): LowKey’s working on the Fourth of July?

Tyler (in white): Yea, man! Next to me, he’s one of the hardest working individuals in this business!

Ray: Yea, next year we definitely have to fly him out here….

Tyler: True, true!  

Essence Editor-In-Chief, Angela Burt-Murray, welcomes everyone to the 2008 Essence Music Festival @ the Tyler Perry & Friends seminar.

New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin, presents Tyler Perry with a Key to the City of New Orleans at the 2008 Essence Music Festival.

Didn’t I tell you I would be back with MORE LowKey excursions??? Though this journey wasn’t as festive as my first entry, I did have a couple of high points that are indeed worth sharing. The day started extremely early with me arriving at the plantation around 930. I got busy on a couple SoundOff posts and I was so into ‘em, I missed my 1030am briefing with the Vp of Content (apologies Nick). When I finally realized what time it was I wailed out an obnoxiously loud “SH*T” and emailed NC to let him know what happened.

After chopping it up with RC for a good 20 minutes, my 1230 interview had arrived; 12:22 to be exact (I have to stop leaving my crackberry in my office). Avant, who’s been obsolete from the R&B realm since 2006 is prepping his new project, Avant, for a September release, but wanted to get a couple words in and I happily accepted the offer. Judging by Avant’s demeanor, you could tell he was ready to return to the game.

We talked politics, downloading, his past musical experiences, his new project, who he’d’ collaborate with on a project if it had to be him and another rapper and who exactly in the R&B world has his attention. At the conclusion of our pow wow, he gave me major propers on the interview which actually made me ecstatic. It gives me a mini rush when the interviewee compliments my craft. And to think, I did that interview off the top of my head. Yeah I know, I should be more prepared, but at times I feel it takes away from the true ambiance of a genuine conversation. Some people prefer real talk, others prefer strictly business, but from my POV, Avant appreciated the real talk.

I headed back to my domain and began to do some work. A couple hours passed by and it was time for my next journey, but before I get into that, let me point out how INCREDIBLY gorgeous Solange looked yesterday. Even in a leg cast, shorty is STILL bad. Siiiighhs! Ok, back to business, me and the homey Eric aka Edaki headed down to Fight Klub for the G-Unit listening session for their new group project, Terminate On Sight, which is slated to drop July 1st. When he hit the venue, it was already 8:00, but we allllllll know these type of events NEVER start or finish when they’re supposed to, so I wasn’t worried. We entered the building, but saw no one which kind of worried me, but I figured everyone was upstairs.

Thinking the elevator was out of commission; we took to the steps (6 flights to be exact) and attempted to gain some back door entrance only to be turned away by a pesky voice that blurted out “Sorry” every time we hit the door. Hearing “Get Down” blaring through the speakers, which is track 13 on the album, I thought to myself we were for SURE catching the end, but that definitely wasn’t the case. We trotted back down the steps, with Edaki yelling “you should be filming this sh*t”. The building looked like a straight drug house. “Project buildings look better than this” E blurted out.

We made it to the bottom and what do you know, the elevator actually does work. E looked at me, balled his fist and quipped, “Why didn’t you just do that before”. I laughed and hopped in the elevator before responding. Finally, we made it. After being harassed by the elevator operator for 10 minutes about the venue being full, we got in without any problems. As soon as I hit the door, I was greeted by Lloyd Banks (1/3 of G-Unit) who either remembered me from an earlier interview I did with them or he was just being extremely cordial with everyone in his vicinity. Either way, it was a good look!

I said whad up to Kendra G and got to work. I hoisted my recording apparatus above my head to get some footage of the Yayo and Banks mouthing the current tune being played only to be denied by one of the G-Unit goons. “Yo, you can’t record in here son”. Dude was short, but probably possessing something that could paralyze me from the neck down lol. I still snagged about 45 seconds of footage before he noticed what I was doing; Mission: Accomplished.

The album sounded pretty solid, at least from what we heard. Surprisingly, the material that features former member, Young Buck, were the ones that sounded the best to me (”Piano Man” and “Party Aint Over”).

Alright, that’s it for this week. Next week, I believe it’s going to be even more festive because we’re counting down to the 8th Annual Bet Awards so you already know how that goes. Hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, I’ll have this new video blog feature added to the site. With that, I’ll be scurrying around the BET corridors video taping BET employees for this new segment I thought of this morning called “True Story”. It’s all based around the BET Awards, so I KNOW you’ll enjoy it!

Sincerely

Low “Who knows where I’ll pop up next” Key

G-Unit members, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo having fun at the listening session!

Lloyd Banks Tony Yayo browse through the playlist for the next selection…

Lloyd Banks and LowKey pose for the flashing lights…

I have no idea WHAT the hell he’s drinking but it looks all nice and shiny lol…