Top 25 All-Time Favourite Artists (14-11)

Without purposely ranking them like this, this next seems to be a celebration of of artists who were a major part of a incredible groups, but also were able to emerge and have incredible solo careers as well.

11. No Doubt & Gwen Stefani

In the late 90's No Doubt had their big breakthrough in the now classic album "Tragic Kingdom". The Orange County based ska/pop/rock group exploded on MTV and have since stayed a constant staple on U.S. Pop radio. Their big hits like "Underneath it All" "Just a Girl" "Spiderwebs" and their timeless classic "Don't Speak" can be heard daily on Pop, Alternative and Rock stations. The bands work was incredible, but it wasn't just the music that made America fall in love with the group. Their front woman Gwen Stefani can take a lot of the credit for making the group so marketable, a gorgeous, smart, fun and stylish blonde. And much respect for Stefani who decided to make a fun Pop Dance album in 2004 while the group was on hiatus which became a huge success, leading to a second album and two national solo tours. She has now said she is done with the solo thing and the group is back in the studio hoping to deliver some incredible new music (crossing our fingers) together in 2010.

myTop 3 Favourite Gwen Stefani/No Doubt albums: 1. Rock Steady (2001), 2. Tragic Kingdom (1995), 3. Love Angel Music Baby (2004)

12. Janet Jackson/ Michael Jackson & Jackson 5 (tie)

May he rest in peace, all of the various and never ending specials about Michael Jackson can't really describe the impact he had on the 80's. And I imagine the same can be said about the impact of the Jackson 5 in the 70's. I just remember seeing his concerts on TV and all the people who had to be wheeled out on stretchers because they were so overwhelmed with the guy. And I also remember how whenever Michael Jackson had a new video coming out... All the family would gather around and watch it like it was the Oscars or something. I remember all the 80's Douchebags with one glove or the "Beat It" jacket. And than I remember how quickly everybody turned on poor MJ when a scandal hit. However, before the possible pedophilia was exposed he already created a great catalogue of music for himself. And let's not forget the scandal can't erase the fact that he's still regarded as The best Music Video artist ever. And his death this past summer is somewhat bittersweet. We lost a legend, but now people appreciate his legacy a lot more and his groundbreaking music.

By the time that the scandal hit, it was already time for Miss Jackson to take over as the most popular Jackson. Janet, while sort of a puppet, is a performance artist point blank. And you can criticize her minimal vocal skills, or alleged Co-writing skills, or her plastic personality, or that she has a pattern of blatantly lying to the media. One thing you can't talk bad about is her on stage. Compared to concerts by her brother, I won't hesitate in saying she's a way better performer than he is. And probably one of the best performers of the past 30 years. It's no secret that she often lipsyncs, but she Attacks the stage like nobody's business. And (up until the last two albums) she was a very consistent album artist... you were almost guaranteed an excellent album if her name was attached.

myTop 3 Favourite Janet Jackson albums: 1. The Velvet Rope (1997), 2. Rhythm Nation (1989), 3. Control (1986)

myTop 3 Favourite Michael Jackson albums: 1. Off the Wall (1979), 2. Thriller (1982), 3. HIStory (1995)



13. Beyoncé & Destiny's Child

I'm not going to go on and on about Beyoncé (because I could... easily), what I will say is I didn't think an artist like her was possible anymore. So accustomed to having a female artist who could either Dance and entertain but couldn't sing and wouldn't sing live. Or the powerhouse singers whose performances consisted mainly of dramatic gowns and alot of standing. In comes Beyoncé and Destiny's Child. It wasn't until maybe 2001 where the true artist in Knowles truly started to emerge and on her debut solo album she easily shot to the top of the list in the industry. And incredibly gifted vocalist, who also is an incredible performer who sings Live (in stiletto heels no less) and engages the crowd. And she continually, in all areas, improves album after album. A True Legend in the making. Okay that's all I'm going to say =)

myTop 3 Beyoncé/Destiny's Child albums: 1. B'Day (2006), 2. The Writings on the Wall (1999), 3. Destiny Fulfilled (2004)

14. Raphael Saaqiq & Tony! Toni! Toné!

Saadiq is one of the most underrated Geniuses out there today. Beginning with the New-Jack swingers Tony! Toni! Toné! of the early 90's. They were never the majorly successful mainstream group, or flavor of the moment either. They did provide a consistent string of solid and truly soulful hit singles, creating new sounds all with clear influences from the 50's 60's and 70's and using live instrumentation. At the top of this decade Saadiq formed the short lived Lucy Pearl with En Vogue's Dawn Robinson and Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammed. Though they only had one album, it was as flawless earthy and soulful as previous Tony! Toni! Toné! albums. His first solo album "Instant Vintage" is one of my all time favorites and his productions for other artists (Badu, Joss Stone, Dangelo, Whitney, Total) include a lot of my all time favorite songs.

myTop 3 Favourite Raphael Saadiq/Tony! Toni! Toné! albums: 1. Instant Vintage (2002), 2. Lucy Pearl (2000), 3. Sons of Soul (1993)

Award Show Review: BET Awards 09

I'm like, really behind as you can tell. The BET Awards were on Sunday and it's now Tuesday morning. Not only haven't I blogged about the awards yet, but I have some work to do because I need to post a Classic Album Review for Michael Jackson, there are a few new albums I need to review and I have to give you the new set of 6 Artists on my Top 25 All Time Artists list. And I want to have it all done by Thursday night (when I leave for Atlanta for the weekend).

So here we go.

The BET Awards 09 was the first televised award ceremony since the unexpected death of Michael Jackson. And although I feel like it's more than appropriate for BET to celebrate him, being that a good 90% of the artists in the building owe so much to Jackson and the fact that BET have been long time supporters of all the Jacksons even when the other video networks betrayed him. And I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, they had less than three days to re-arrange the format of the show to make it a fitting and respectful tribute to the Legend.

For the most part, they did a great job. Jamie Foxx was the host and he did a pretty excellent job, his opening monologue included a hilariously funny attempt at Moonwalking and throughout the show he celebrated his love for Jackson and reminded the audience why he was so important.

There were a few performances of Jackson's hits by current artists. Ciara performed "Heal the World", Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo dueted at the end on "I'll Be There", but Ne-Yo provided the best performance (imo) with "Lady in my Life". Ne-Yo connected with the song on an emotional level, and his vocals were the best I ever heard them. Aside from those handful of performances, and testimonies from stars in the audience on how Michael influenced them, there wasn't much else as far as a tribute to MJ. Michael's sister Janet Jackson came out to a standing ovation toward the end to speak for the family and thank the fans for their support.

The rest of the show was pretty typical Award show stuff.

I'm pretty sure Beyoncé won the most with two awards, Ne-Yo won, Weezy won, T.I. and Rihanna won, Lebron James won, Taraji P. Henson won. But this was not an awards show where awards were actually important. In fact, because of the last minute changes the awards alot of the categories were combined and the nominations weren't announced. Just the winners.

Performance wise, it was pretty boring to tell you the truth.

Jamie Foxx did a terribly auto-tuned live rendition of his monster hit "Blame It". It's sad when T-Pain outsings you live, and you have no sense of stage presence or choreography. His performance was a bit of a mess, but still fun enough to appropriatley get the crowd on their feet.

Keri Hilson performed an uptempo medley of her two hits "Turnin Me On" and "Knock You Down" (without Ne-Yo or Kanye). She tried. She really tried. However seems like she missed a few rehearsals, or she was just super nervous. She looked awkward trying to sing live and do the little bit of choreography she was expected to do, though she still wasn't terrible. She pulled it together enough for me not to laugh at her.

Soulja Boy Tell Em (like is that his full name? I thought it was just Soulja Boy) got the crowd all singing along to his hit(?) "Turn my Swag On", which I hadn't heard before and is actually a pretty catchy tune. He, like most rappers, didn't do much performance wise. Just kind of walked back and forth on the stage. It was the crowd that made his performance a winner with Taraji, Keri and Lebron dancing and singing along.

Jay-Z introduced his new single "D.O.A. Death of Auto-Tune" to a live audience and pretty much slayed it. You could tell our boy Jigga was more than happy to be back on stage. Meanwhile his wife slowed it down (and put a bunch to sleep, I have to be honest) with her beautiful rendition of "Ave Maria" where she incorporated Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" and went opera on us with the original Spanish version of "Maria". She sounded amazing, but I think everybody was expecting Sasha Fierce to come out.

Speaking of sounding Excellent, Keyshia Cole sang her duet with Monica "Trust". They both looked great, and Keyshia made a vast improvement over her mess of a performance last year. However Monica stole ALL Ms. Cole's shine. She sounded excellent, and like Jigga, was so excited to be back on stage. She'd be smart to release an album real soon.

Maxwell came out and performed his new single "Pretty Wings", a beautiful song sung beautifully but just like Beyoncé Keyshia and Monica, great vocals don't always make for the most memorable performances.

Drake and Lil Wayne's performance was memorable for the wrong reasons. First of all Drake was sitting down the whole time. It wasn't until the after show that I realized he was injured and couldn't move around. So he gets a pass, although I didn't understand why he didn't Sing the sung parts of his hit "Best I Ever Had", but whatever. The most bothersome thing about the perfomance is when Lil Wayne came out with his crew to perform "We Like Her". With all the terribly disgusting and vile comments they made within the song about Women and Sex I was really bothered with the fact they brought out about 5 or 6 under age girls (like 10-12) to stand around and dance to the song. What was he thinking?

Ofcourse there was the annual tribute, this time to The O'Jays. I can't for the life of me figure out why they'd pull Tevin Campbell out to perform for them, but they did. Than Trey Songz, Tyrese and Johnny Gill came and sang a trio of the O'Jays hits as "The Young O'Jays". They sounded good, but I have to say Trey Songz impressed me the most. He has great vocal talent. With the right material he'd be bigger than Chris Brown without a doubt.

I can't think of anything else to say about the show. Masterfully MC'd by Jamie Foxx, and pretty solid performances. I think overall I may just be getting bored of Award shows. However this was a good effort overall for the network. And I think they succeeded in giving Michael a great tribute.