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Home > Atlanta Music Scene > Archives > 2008 > February > 10
Sunday, February 10, 2008
T-Pain Backstage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LOS ANGELES - In a tall spray-painted top hat, with a lining in his suit to match, Atlanta rapper-singer-producer T-Pain made his way backstage at the Grammys ready to celebrate his first statue, for best rap song, Kanye West’s “Good Life”.
“I canceled my red-eye [back to Atlanta],” he said. “I thought I was going to go winless. But I’m celebrating tonight! It’s going down in [the Los Angeles hotel] The Grafton.”
He also talked about why he’s the current go-to man for hooks and choruses: “I’m the only person that’s not afraid to tell the truth.”
And on West’s performance of “Stronger” and “Dear Mama” : “I cried a little bit. I had shades on, so people couldn’t see it.”
Who do you think stood out performance-wise at the Grammys? Was it obvious the writer’s strike isn’t quite over yet? And what about T-Pain, the writer; is that what his appeal is, his ability to tell the truth?
Concert review: Roth-led Van Halen returns to Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
David Lee Roth is like the ultimate in American processed cheese food.
There doesn’t seem to be an authentic bone in his body. He’s 120% showman, with that stupid grin plastered on his face. Sometimes he opens his mouth in mock surprise, like he’s imitating Carol Channing. I’ve seen him solo, and it can be pretty painful to watch. But somehow placing him in the company of Eddie and Alex Van Halen Sunday night at Philips Arena made this cheese tolerable. And amazingly, Eddie and David seemed to get along after more than two decades of avoiding each other.
Was it sincere or merely an act? It was hard to tell. At one point, Roth even hugged Eddie from behind and Eddie didn’t even flinch.
Sadly, the fourth original Van Halen member, fun-lovin’ bassist Michael Anthony (a Sammy Hagar loyalist) was booted before the tour. In a case of pure nepotism, Eddie replaced Anthony with his 16-year-old son Wolfgang, who is clearly very talented but not quite up to snuff in terms of stage presence. Still, it’s good to see the Van Halen skills have passed onto the next generation.
The 26-song set list, which has remained unchanged since the tour began, didn’t include a single tune from the Sammy Hagar era. (Hagar sang a couple of Roth tunes during his last visit with Van Halen at Philips around 2004 but obviously, Roth wasn’t going to return the favor.) But folks who loved those first six albums weren’t disappointed as the group sprinkled big radio hits (“Runnin’ With the Devil” “Jamie’s Cryin’ ” “Panama”) with deeper cuts (“I’m the One,” “Little Guitars”) “Hot For Teacher” is still a stupendously delightful goof, even if Diamond Dave is 54 years old. And it’s hard not to smile while singing along to “Everybody Wants Some.”
Not surprisingly, the crowd was packed with beer-swillin’ frat boy types in their 30s, 40s and 50s. Those Philips Arena concessions folks stayed busy all night. They swayed and sang along to songs celebrating beautiful girls and dancing the night away. And not a power ballad in sight, thank goodness.
With Roth, what you see is what you get: a middle-aged man in tight leather pants prancing around for much of the show in embroidered jackets that were probably stolen from the Sgt. Pepper. He twirled the mike stand like an oversized baton and attempted a few leg kicks — but not too many. He does look better than most rockers his age. (See Mike Reno of Loverboy.) His vocals served the songs just fine most of the time even if the sound mix meant you couldn’t understand him half the time. (And if you know the lyrics already and are singing along, who cares?)
Eddie was better during his last visit to Atlanta. To make matters worse, during his extended guitar solo, the sound went out partway through, diluting what is often a highlight of any Van Halen concert. Even after he got his sound back, the mix was confoundingly bad during the final pre-encore song “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love.” The guitar was too loud and Roth’s vocals were swallowed up. The crowd seemed deflated at that point when they should have been frothing into a frenzy.
The encore was brief, with Roth waving a big red flag to “1984,” then jumping into the band’s biggest hit “Jump.”
Overall, it was a good concert, just not a great one. Sound problems badly marred the proceedings.
Disclosure: I’ve seen Van Hagar twice and David Lee Roth doing his solo bit at HiFi Buys Amphitheatre with Sammy Hagar. This is the first time I’ve gotten to see the David Lee Roth/Eddie Van Halen combo.
And folks in the comments section have noted: why was Eddie on a corded guitar? Was that just the beginning of the technical problems plaguing the band the entire night? Having read other reviews in other cities, this sound issue doesn’t appear to be a chronic problem so you have to wonder what was happening behind the scenes this time around.
Here’s the set list:
1- You Really Got Me
2- I’m The One
3- Runnin’ With the Devil
4- Romeo Delight (a bit of Who’s “Magic Bus” sprinkled in)
5- Somebody Get Me a Doctor
6- Beautiful Girls
7- Dance the Night Away
8- Atomic Punk
9- Everybody Wants Some
10- So This is Love?
11- Mean Street
12- Pretty Woman
13- Alex Van Halen drum solo
14- Unchained
15- I’ll Wait
16- And the Cradle Will Rock
17- Hot For Teacher
18- Little Dreamer
19- Little Guitars
20- Jamie’s Cryin’
21- Ice Cream Man
22- Panama
23- Eddie Van Halen’s extended guitar solo including Spanish Fly, Cathedral and Eruption
24- Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love
Encore:
25- 1984/Jump
Chaka Khan Talks Amy Winehouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LOS ANGELES - The four songs Chaka Khan’s “Disrespectful” (with Mary J. Blige) was up against for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals, all featured Atlantans, but backstage the R&B legend only specifically discussed one artist - Amy Winehouse.
“Going through that chaos often leads to clarity,” said Khan, who won that category, as well as best R&B album. “She’s walking her walk.”
Khan, who’s battled her own substance abuse problems, acknowledged that as well. She called this 50th Grammy ceremony her best Grammy moment ever. “Today, I’m in present time - moreso than ever.”
As for more present-day R&B artists, “some of them I want to [tell] the post office is hiring, with really good benefits…I would like to educate some of them.”
Are you of Khan’s opinion, that Winehouse’s troubles will eventually be good for her? (“Rehab” - at the least, in song form - certainly has been.) Even better question: Do you think people would find her as interesting if she wasn’t such a tabloid magnet?
Morris Day on Remaining Cool
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LOS ANGELES - After ’80s funk band The Time’s first Grammy performance ever, the band fielded some wide-ranging questions:
On how lead singer (and Atlanta transplant) Morris Day remains so stylish and cool - “My elders. My grandfathers. And how do I remain so sexy? A good healthy sex life.”
On why someone who professes so cool would do a Toyota commercial - “They gave me a Toyota,” replied the Atlanta Toyota spokesman.
On teaching Rihanna how to dance like them: “She’s a quick learner,” Day said.
On the contemporary artist that seems most influenced by The Time: “Alicia Keys…because at the end of the day we’re musicians,” Jimmy Jam said.
On the possibility of all of them performing together again: “I thought it would happen in an intimate club the first time,” Jam remarked. “But we’ll take the Grammy stage.. and there’ll be more.”
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Nas talks N Word
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LOS ANGELES - Though he did not win the best rap performance by a duo or group Grammy for “Better Than I’ve Ever Been” (with Kanye West and KRS-ONE) in the pre-ceremony, the part-time Atlantan still made the rounds backstage, explaining the title of his April 22 CD, [The ‘N’ Word].
It was written across the T-shirt he wore, as well as the top his wife, recording artist Kelis, was wearing as she joined him.
The rapper born Nasir Jones said he hasn’t met with much resistance about the title. And to those who do have a problem: “They don’t really get where we’re coming from. They haven’t heard it yet.”
Nas hasn’t been one to back away from the provocative. His most recent CD, “Hip Hop Is Dead” is up for best rap album in the live telecast.
He added that he scrapped the reality show of he and his fiery bride. “It was boring”.
Would you have been interested in seeing how the two interact? What about his upcoming CD - curious as to how he justifies it?
Ne-Yo wins best contemporary R&B album
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LOS ANGELES - “Because of You” earned Atlanta R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo the best contemporary R&B album Grammy, and his first Grammy of his two-CD career.
Awarded at the pre-ceremony, presenter Robert Randolph remarked, “I know he’s not here (to accept) because he had a late party last night”.
He was up against fellow Atlantans Keyshia Cole’s “Just Like You” and Akon’s “Konvicted”; along with Fantasia’s “Fantasia” and Emily King’s “East Side Story”.
Would that have been your choice?
Georgia’s first Grammy winners of the evening
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LOS ANGELES - Rapper-singer-producer T-Pain (Faheem Najm) and longtime producer DJ Toomp (Aldrin Davis) won their first Grammys this evening - and the first Grammys for Georgia acts tonight - for best rap song, “Good Life,” by Kanye West featuring T-Pain.
They did not accept the statue at the pre-ceremony.
“I wrote the check, and I can’t get in?”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LOS ANGELES - It’s the business of champions, this partying on the west coast.
Patient, athletic, champions.
Curiously enough, even if it’s your own party.
Shortly after 1 a.m., Atlanta R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo’s all-black and tinted SUV pulled up alongside Hollywood’s Hollywood 86 for his Grammy’s-eve midnight brunch. A gaggle of well-dressed women with headphones on ran to the barricade just before the red carpet and each of them were repeating the same thing: “We have to get Ne-Yo in here. We have to get in Ne-Yo in here.”
1:22 a.m. PST. Ne-Yo still is not in. Instead, the somewhat diminuitive multi-Grammy nominee appeared swallowed up in the bigger, taller men around him. Security, perhaps. But security would not be pulled through the throngs by the arm onto the red carpet. Just Ne-Yo and a small trail of other well-dressed, headphone-less, women.
Minutes later his bigger manager makes his way to the same barricade and challenges the two security guards before they even suggest that he has to walk around to the back of the line: “Oh I can’t get into my own party?! Oh I can’t get in?!”
Of course, he does.
Part of the problem outside of what was billed as a low-key and intimate celebration of “The Carter Administration” - a nod to the recent head of Def Jam, hip-hop mogul Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter - was that the very important people on the list’s entrance was the same entrance of the very important people celebrity-watchers know, and the media was lined up to shoot. And not once in almost two hours was that list observed to be checked.
That’s because of the larger problem: The fire marshall had arrived some 30 minutes after this brunch’s start time, and the door was basically shut. Even apparently, for a time, to Ne-Yo.
So folks like George Gore of “My Wife & Kids” and “New York Undercover” were waved to the back of the line. Movie and video director Bille Woodruff - same thing. That “Hitz” guy that used to be on BET - him too.
Currently-popular actor-comedian Nick Cannon actually bent over the barricade behind the photographers - causing many of them to do a 360 and shoot him - before he was finally acknowledged and allowed in.
R&B legend Stevie Wonder and his lone guest didn’t have to perform any Cannon-like acrobatics. Nor did Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, or Marsha Ambrosius. But when Atlanta producer Polow Da Don and his burgeoning local talent Keri Hilson got to the barricade, they were held there as Missy Elliott and her guests were waved through.
Then two more all-black and tinted SUVs pull up alongside Hollywood 86 - Ne-Yo’s labelmate Rihanna in one, and teen R&B sensation Chris Brown in the other. Rihanna is, again, tugged in by her arm - with Brown right behind her. But instead of hitting the red carpet, Rihanna stands just beyond the barricade and makes sure her few guests get tugged in as well.
Brown had just left Atlanta rapper-singer’s T-Pain performance at the House of Blues; which, at least in the beginning, was an unfortunate exercise in hubris where the inescapable hitmaker of the moment made the poor decision of letting his Nappy Boy artists start off the show as he did things like change grills on stage. (Charge it, perhaps, to the near-empty bottle of cognac he walked into the venue with).
Meanwhile, back at Hollywood 86, a woman claiming to be from Microsoft - one of the sponsors of the party - had made her way to the front of the barricade; and was stopped. “I wrote the check, and I can’t get in?” she protested.
Immediately, at least, she did not.
Has there ever been a party - on either coast - that you’ve had to fight to get into? And is it ever worth it once you get inside?
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