JumpinJack AJ

I love it. When I saw that picture posted and he said where he was, I was wondering if he did any performing. It's crazy seeing go for it in a completely Hip-Hop-free environment.

MARKY MARK + THE FUNKY BUNCH - Good Vibrations Music For The People (1991) REST IN PEACE DJ T :(

If I were to respond to the writer of the blog, I'd simply say "who cares?" To me, acting has always been the "side chick" to the music. Yeah, I like it when he makes movies I like, but I kind of don't care what he does with this acting. I'm a fan of the man and emcee...that's about as deep as it gets. Most of his movies, I don't even get excited about until a day or two before they come out. Has anyone noticed how little I post on the Will Smith Movie forum? It was cool when he was pumping out blockbusters, but at the same time, those movies were often so catered to him that when I look back, they seem a bit processed. Additionally, I love the movies that most people tear apart in articles like this. West Wild West is a fun, popcorn action comedy. I've never disliked that movie. The Legend of Bagger Vance is one of my favorite films. Seven Pounds is an amazing, emotional piece of art on screen. After Earth is a great fantasy film. Everyone has different opinions, but I feel that with these films, the ignorant public was simply lead by critics, and in some cases, box office sales. They decided that they didn't like the movie before seeing it...if they ever saw it. I would easily watch any of those movies before watching that choppy hot mess named Hancock. Looking forward, I like the variety of what is coming out. Focus was a dope movie. Men In Black was a fitting end to the trilogy, if that's as far as they want it to go. FP being a part of an ensemble is something I'm excited to see with Suicide Squad. Concussion has my interest too. I've recently made a goal for myself to watch all of his movies between this fall an next Summer, and to be honest, I'm excited to see them all...even Hancock...kinda.

Sometimes videos like this are fun, but this one is lame. The mistakes weren't interesting enough for the video to be this long. Another thing that annoys me about videos like this when the narrator is arrogant. This narrator isn't the worst, but he acts like the mistakes are so much more interesting than they actually are. Did anyone here him say "How is that impossible?" when he meant to say "How is that even possible?" lol

Awesome interview. I especially liked the reading responses to the questions he normally doesn't get asked. For those of you who hate to click on links (like me), here's the interview Ale posted... DJ Jazzy Jeff InterviewMark Dale caught up with him for a chat about the musical heritage of his family, his home town, hip hop and those Will Smith rumours. Date published: 19th Oct 2015 Jeff Townes aka Jazzy Jeff's career has seen him comfortably juggle having a high profile within the most popular aspects of hip hop, while being permanently respected and active in the music's underground. Very few people have ever managed that. A son of the the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, which in Jeff's youth was known worldwide for the soul music it produced from its Sound Of Philadelphia record label, Jeff would follow in the city's musical traditions. Inspired by his family's love of and involvement in music, he became a DJ. Jeff was one of the early DJs in the city that would be influenced by the emerging hip hop culture of the 1980s and he incorporated this style of DJing into his sets, going on to later explore turntablist techniques. Along with DJ Cash Money, Jeff is credited with making the transform scratch famous. When his regular MC couldn't make a party he'd been invited to play at, one night in the mid 80s, another regular figure seen on the Philadelphia party circuit stepped in. That MC was Will Smith and on that night their partnership as Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince began. In 1989 the duo received the first ever Grammy awarded in hip hop music, for Best Rap Performance, with their 'Parents Just Don't Understand' single (above), although the category was at the time deemed so unimportant that their award was not televised. Their biggest single was 1992's evergreen 'Summertime' which earned them a second Grammy. Will Smith's popularity was about to hit the big time when he entered the world of acting in the hugely popular, comedy sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air and Jeff followed him to the show, playing Smith's best friend Jazz. Will Smith's acting career has since seen him become one of Hollywood's biggest stars, although in recent months he's returned to music, prompting rumours of a reunion with Jazzy Jeff. While Smith followed a path in acting, Jazzy Jeff founded A Touch Of Jazz productions and became known as a sought after producer of soul and hip hop, helming music by the likes of Musiq Soul Child, Eminem, Talib Kweli and Floetry, on the landmark, debut album by Jill Scott and with The Roots, who he has worked with frequently (watch below). Jeff produced the highly lauded solo albums The Magnificent (2002) and The Return Of The Magnificent (2007) for BBE Records, after which he took a break from music production before returning in 2014 with work for Philadelphia MC Dayne Jordan. In his time away from producing, he maintained his primary career as a DJ, which sees him travel the globe constantly, journeys which are now documented by a video magazine series called Vinyl Destination. Equally at home playing a party set that incorporates a wide variety of music as he is performing alongside the world's best turntablists, Jazzy Jeff is respected throughout hip hop circles and further still as a true master of the art of DJing. We chatted to him ahead of his upcoming London gig. Your father was an MC for jazz bandleader Count Basie. Was his style more Biz Markie or Busta Rhymes? [Laughs] Probably more Biz Markie. No, back in those days an MC was a master of ceremonies, so you would just introduce the band and you got everybody ready. It was MC in the true sense of MC. Your brother played bass for one of the founding acts of the Philadelphia soul sound, The Intruders. How else has the label they were best known for, the famed Philadelphia International, impacted on your own life? Oh my gosh! Well, Kenny Gamble has always been a big brother figure to me. It was a blessing just to be in the same city and have a mentor like that. He basically opened up a world of knowledge to me early on in my career. Periodically I'd go and have sit downs with him and when I was honoured by the Philadelphia Walk Of Fame he presented me with my star. That kind of thing is invaluable to me. That's like growing up in Detroit and having Berry Gordy as a mentor. What do you think characterised the music of acts like The Intruders, Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes and The O'Jays as being classically Philadelphian? I think (Philadelphia International label owners and producers) Gamble and Huff produced the sound of the city. You can tell the sound of Philadelphia just like you can tell the sound of Motown. And I kinda miss those days when certain areas, certain cities or certain parts of the world had a very distinct sound. Philadelphia International's sound was less pop orientated than Motown but less blues and raw funk influenced as Stax, would you agree? I think Gamble and Huff relied heavily on the orchestration. Their arrangments were more intricate than Motown. I think their approach, the way they did stuff, was different. That orchestration you mention was mostly played by the in house Philadelphia musicians who were collectively known as MFSB (and later renamed Salsoul Orchestra). Can you tell me the connection between musicians like ?uestlove from The Roots and producer/keyboard player James Poyser and your own A Touch Of Jazz productions? Are they part of your own MFSB Orchestra? Well, you know what it is? Philadelphia, in our generation, we established a very big music community. ?uestlove, The Roots, James Poyser and all those guys are a part of a very big, extended musical family. You would call on these guys to play on records. Like, we have a plethora of bass players, guitar players, keyboard players that, when you made records, you could call on them to play. That's created a really big musical family. Aside from the mixtapes you've produced and a couple of remixes, until 2014/2015's work with Dayne Jordan (below) you've not issued any original Jazzy Jeff produced material since about 2007. Why did you take that break? Well I've been touring very heavily. That took up a lot of my time, more than anything and you just want the right project. After I did The Magnificent and The Return Of The Magnificent I released a project by a young lady from Toronto called Ayah and then I just took a little bit of time out, away from production, away from the studio. It wasn't really until Dayne Jordan piqued my interest and pushed me to open the floodgates back up that I was ready to release any more music. Why was it this particular artist that made you want to get back in the studio? I never left the studio completely for any real length of time. I would go in and work, I just didn't want to release anything. I was very disheartened with the state of the music industry. My love of music has never gone anywhere, I just didn't really like the way the business structure was. I don't think my interest in putting out music again came until I saw how flourishing the independent side of music was, people just putting stuff out. It kinda turned into everything I've always wanted. I've always wanted the creative control of making the music that you've wanted to do, of putting it out when you wanted to put it out. I love the fact that now you can not only create your own music, but you can do your own artwork and album covers, your liner notes and you can shoot your own videos. It basically gives that creative independence back to the artists. I think that was the thing that really won me over, because that was something that I've always wanted. Over recent years, many rappers and other artists have gone back to the format of releasing mixtapes over actual albums. Can you tell me why you think that's happened? Well, you know what's funny? Personally I can't really understand the difference between mixtapes and albums in the current market. I grew up when mixtapes were something that were done by DJs who actually mixed on the tape. It's almost like the term mixtape has been taken for use on what is basically a free album. I think people have started to put out mixtapes as free projects in an effort to increase their fanbase. I think a lot of acts fanbases started to waver and it had a lot to do with the business structure. I think in order to have your fanbase believe in what you do, sometimes you have to do something for them to let them know you care. It's like a musical gift. You were asked to do the scratch overdubs for the recent film Straight Outta Compton. Was it a challenge to remember what advances had been made at that time, in terms of technique, in order to make the music historically accurate? Ha! Not at all. Not at all. Being there at that time and knowing what we were able to do, I was prepared. It was funny because, the first take of scratches that I did, I sent to Dr Dre and Dre asked me if I could modernise it a little bit. He was like, "hey man, make me look good". So, in the end I was a little more advanced than the actual time period of the movie, but not too advanced so as it would make it sound unbelievable. Strange to think that 25 years ago the first Grammy was awarded to a hip hop artist, yourself, but at that time it was deemed not important enough a segment to warrant televising, yet here we are in 2015 with a hugely popular, major Hollywood movie having been made about part of the hip hop story. Yes. Do you think hip hop and Hollywood make comfortable bedfellows? Well I think it's a little bit different now because, when you think about it, the new generation of people in Hollywood, everyone including the CEOs, are our generation. They were hip hop fans. They grew up with NWA, Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, Kid n Play, Salt N Pepa. That's why I think that when you turn on TV you see so many commercials using classic hip hop records. The demographic they are aimed at can now relate to it. There was a period starting in the 1990s when gang culture became entwined with hip hop culture, specifically rap music, both within the lyrics of the music and with some quite heavy figures becoming active within the music industry. Those are themes that are raised in Straight Outta Compton and they are evident in a lot of the music that came from the east and west coasts of the US in that period. Being based in Philadelphia, were you somewhat removed from that culture entering into the music? [Laughs] Not at all. Not at all. We just chose not to talk about it. But it was the exact same thing in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Atlanta. There was no difference. Any of the music that came from the inner city, from the urban side, had all of those things impacting on it, the gang culture, the crime, the violence. A lot of it was just people expressing what was going on. It was almost like being a newscaster and what you're doing is talking about some of the things that you see in everyday life. Schooly D discussed it, Steady B too. There were just some artists who did and some who didn't. Kid N Play from New York didn't discuss it, 2 Live Crew from Miami also didn't. It was almost like you had some people who would talk about the serious side and others who would talk about the fun side. But even the guys who talked the fun side did not escape living it. Just because you lived it you didn't necessarily have to talk about it. Although there are four disciplines to hip hop (rap, turntablism, b-boying and graffiti), at the beginning it was the DJ who was the focal point of the movement. At what point do you think the MC started to steal the limelight and why do you think that happened? The four cornerstones of hip hop all changed when the financial side of things got in the way, when people realised that hip hop was this huge, money generating art-form. I think a lot of MCs were the first ones to think, hey, we don't actually need these dancers. And then it turned into 'you know what? If I have this instant replay machine and I can just play my instrumentals, I don't necessarily need a DJ' and you started seeing everything change. The DJ used to be the backbone, you needed the DJ to play the music, to make the show. It all got a bit weird for a time when you started missing the DJ on stage at some hip hop shows, like Jay Z didn't necessarily have a DJ, but Linkin Park did! You now document all your travels with the Vinyl Destination series. Travel can be really exhausting. Are you always in the mood to have a camera pointed in your face? Well no. But that was a decision we had to make when we started shooting Vinyl Destination, that we'd have to take the good, the bad and the ugly. Not every show is great, not every hotel is good, not every meal is good, not every travel experience is good. So, we've got to show it all. There are times when I really want to say 'Get the camera out of my face', but I made the decision to show all the aspects of it in the beginning, to keep it real. The people that approached us who wanted to take it to a bigger platform wanted to script it and it was like, you know what, this is one thing that I just wanted to keep pure, let this be exactly what it is, instead of let's make believe that we are fighting, let's make believe that we lost the bag. Everything on Vinyl Destination is the 100% truth. Can you tell me any of the ideas you have for the third part of The Magnificent, which I believe is in the pipeline to be released next year? You know, I don't really come up with the ideas until I start. I have tonnes of musical ideas, things that I want to do, but I have like a light switch in my brain that I don't really turn on until it's the official time to start, because I kinda want it to just flow naturally. I know I have it in the back of my mind that I want to do it and I'm always writing down ideas and artists that I want to work with. It's just a case of looking at the calendar and deciding this is the day that I'm gonna turn the switch on. That's hopefully when the floodgates open. You worked with J-Live and Raheem DeVaughn on both and with CL Smooth, Biz Markie, Method Man and Big Daddy Kane on the last one. Are there any artists you have decided you definitely want to work with on it? No. What I've done over the past two albums is I've recorded a lot of stuff, then I just pick and choose. Can you tell me a bit about what the school equality project you've been involved in is about and what are its aims? Over here in America, unfortunately the neighbourhood that you live in dictates the kind of education you get. If you're in a poor or underprivileged neighbourhood, the schools don't have the same resources and I don't think that's fair. I think you should be able to get the same standard of education no matter what race you are, what financial background you come from or what area you are from. That's just something that, having kids and caring about your kid's education, does to you. I really don't think it's fair that one kid should have a radically different education from another kid who maybe lives just two miles away. The movement pushes for more equality and that's important because that's all of our futures, that's everyone's future. In 2016 it's the 30th anniversary of Rock The House, your debut with Will Smith. Will you be doing anything to mark the anniversary? I don't know, we haven't really talked about anything definite. It's funny, when you said that, that was the first time I realised that it's the 30th anniversary. I think it's a little bit different now, we're the first generation who has grown older with hip hop. And I think because we don't have any plans of stopping, I don't think we count the milestones. This is just something that you do. I've always felt that if you have a career in the arts, you never really retire. You may not do it professionally on the same level forever, but I don't think you ever retire. I don't think someone like Count Basie ever retired from playing the piano. I think you just count yourself as being blessed to have longevity. As long as you can keep doing it, you keep doing it. There have been quite a few stories in the press recently saying there might be a tour for next year of Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. Is there any truth in that? We've been talking about it. I think the only thing that has really stopped it from happening in the past is just scheduling. I'm touring 100 and odd days the year and he's one of the biggest movie stars in the world. So, it's just a case of us saying, ok man, let's allow this time to do it. We're drawing very close to a time when we can say, it's good, let's do it now. He's very excited. Will's back in the studio making music for the first time in many years at the moment. Has he approached you to do any of the production on that music? Oh yeah, we just haven't gone in. He's in the studio knocking some of the dust and rust off, getting some of the ideas out. A lot of it is just understanding the differences in how things are now as opposed to how things were when we recorded. We always laugh and joke at the fact that we would have these million dollar studios that we'd go in and work on albums and now you can just take out a laptop and a microphone anywhere and record. We try and imagine the level of music that we could have done, had we had those kinds of resources available to us. So, I think it's really interesting time for us to do something, having those kinds of resources now available. He's getting comfortable using them now, because a lot of times, if you're used to doing something one way, it can be hard to change. I've had a humungous studio forever and the idea that the music I can make with my laptop on a plane is just as good as the music I can make in the studio, took a very long time to sink in. The age of the classic hip hop duo - one DJ working with one MC - is kinda something from the past, these days. If you had your time over again, aside from your partnership with Will Smith, is there any other MC you would have liked to have paired up with? No. You know what it is? I love my wife, my wife is the best thing that ever happened to me. I don't think about being married to anyone else. When you're married, that's it. And I've been married to Will for 30 years! So I don't think about another one. As much as I've made music, as much as I've worked with other MCs, like Dayne Jordan, who tours with me and who I make records with, that's not Will. You can catch DJ Jazzy Jeff at The Doctors Orders 10th Birthday at Scala on Friday 23rd October.

My man Rich Cronin (LFO) on the show Mission Man Band with Bryan Abrams (Color Me Badd), Jeff Timmons (98 Degrees), and Chris Kirkpatrick (NSYNC).

Yeah, they are greatly missing the mark by not having it on YouTube. It's the first place I went to watch it.

I loved reading that. I haven't seen JJ+FP since 2002, so I'm anxious to see them some form or fashion. Whether it's Jeff's set or a their tour, I'm anxious to attend something.

I saw this article and thought it was a little off. I swore a few of these albums sold more than they have listed. Of course, I could be wrong, but I felt Big Willie Style was closer to 10 million.

The video is really cool and stylized, though I didn't go crazy over it. FP's entrance is a little drawn out, but once he gets started, it's dope. We haven't seen him in a video with kind of look again. The video didn't get me more hype about the song like I expected, but it has me warmed up for his next video. I hope this continues to blow up!

RUN-DMC and A TRIBE CALLED QUEST Freestyle on Tim Westwood. This is dope. It has to be from 1990 to 1992.

I agree with Schnazz about it being a Fall/Autumn album. Sure, it can be played any time of year, but the tone and sound of many of the songs lean towards a somber, honest, simplistic vibe that fit well with that time of year. "Ain't No Place" is the ultimate song for that time of year...not to mention that's when it dropped. It was a time when New Jack Swing was fading and songs were less polished. Hip-Hop's sound was generally getting away from the mainstream feel that exploded in the late 80's. Listen to Salt-N-Pepa's Very Necessary, LL Cool J's 14 Shots To The Dome, Queen Latifah's Black Reign, MC Hammer's Funky Headhunter, MC Lyte's Ain't No Other, Heavy D + The Boyz' Blue Funk, Young MC's What's The Flavor, and Kid N' Play's songs on the House Party 3 soundtrack. Every classic Hip-Hop group at the time was taking on this formula in their style. It was a time of progression. No one was selling out, but shift from mainstream, dance, and political Hip-Hop was shifting to G-Funk and West Coast Hip-Hop. I feel the reason the album didn't do as well as the others was because everyone was so focused on Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Ice Cube, and many other West coast artists at the time. You HAD to have an explicit lyrics sticker on your album and follow their formula to have huge success. It's similar to And In This Corner..., when hardcore and political Hip-Hop took attention away from JJ+FP's work. JJ+FP's promotion of the album was start and stop for this album due to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Six Degrees of Separation, and Bad Boys. Jive wasn't supporting them fully anymore. It was also the first album where their formula for making albums changed. This album allowed a greater amount of outside producers to take the boards. The separation of Jazzy on the East Coast and FP on the West Coast didn't help the album. I'm not saying the album is bad in any way though. It's probably the JJ+FP album that I've listened to the most. I can see why Dance or Die, From Da South, Get Hyped , and Don't Fight The Feeling weren't included on the album. I like all of those songs, but they don't gel with the rest of the songs on the album as well. Dance or Die has that bouncy sound and creative writing approach. It sounds like a song they recorded before they knew the direction and sound of the album. While much more interesting and better executed, I feel the same about Get Hyped. I think the sound of From Da South fits in well, but lyrically I don't think it mixes well with the other songs. Don't Fight The Feeling sounds like it's not a demo, but not quite ready for an album.

2Pac Reveals Plot Against Him In Previously-Unheard Phone ConversationWe’ve got a pretty crazy news story for you, fam. A previously-unheard phone conversation between 2Pac and Sanyika Shakur (AKA Monster) has just surfaced, and it contains new information about an alleged plot against Pac. According to the man himself, the woman who accused him of rape in 1993 had connections with the people who attacked and shot him in 1994 at the Quad Recording Studio in New York (not the attack that killed him, that was in 1996). As Shakur originally accused Puff Daddy and his associates of orchestrating the attack, this is pretty big news.First, some background info. In November 1993, a woman accused Pac and his entourage of raping her in a hotel room, and took the rapper to trial on charges of first-degree sexual abuse, to which he pleaded not guilty. The day before the verdict was announced, November 30, 1994, Pac was shot five times by three men in the lobby of the Manhattan recording studio. Despite that connection (coincidental or not), the rapper initially accused Puff Daddy, The Notorious B.I.G. and their associates of putting a hit out on him.But now, in this phone conversation, Pac is clearly heard saying, “The girl that did this rape ****, she hooked up with the niggas that shot me. It was all connected; it was a big plan. I just caught it at the end, and that’s why they shot me.” With the alleged sexual assault occurring before the attack, and the attack coming hours before a judge gave Pac a shortened sentence, it definitely seems like someone was trying to get him locked up for a long time, and when they realized that was unlikely to happen, resorted to more violent methods of silencing the star. As this topic only pops up briefly in this lengthy phone conversation, we don’t get much else in the way of helpful information (or identification of the assailants’ names or motives), but the reveal of this “big plan” against 2Pac is certainly shocking coming 18 years after his death. Apart from that portion of the conversation (which is around the 12 minute mark), Pac’s phone call with Sanyika Shakur also shows how much the rapper cared about supporting communities. Revealing plans for community centers, children’s sporting events, registering voters and asking drug dealers to have the streets clean from 6 AM to 11 PM “for the kids,” it’s clear to see Pac’s investment in making the world a better place. About himself and other rappers, he says, “we got the juice, we just ain’t doing nothing with it.” Also speaking on his actions taken against a gang that executed a child, Pac was a very rare breed in the rap game. We need more artists to take up his mission to give back to communities and work with gangs to keep children safe. R.I.P. Pac. Listen to the full conversation below. http://livehiphop.org/2pac-reveals-plot-against-him-in-previously-unheard-phone-conversation/

"Lovely Daze" was from the Homebase era. Code Red era B-sides/additional tracks that were released were "Dance or Die" (from the Made In America soundtrack), From Da South (from various Boom! Shake The Room singles), Get Hyped (from various I'm Looking For The One To Be With Me singles), and Don't Fight The Feeling (released in 1998 on the Japanese version of JJ+FP's Greatest Hits).

Code Red was the first JJ+FP album I bought on CD. All the previously ones I had bought on cassette. My brother bought it on cassette, and a handful of my friends got it on CD. It was a great album and perfectly represented the time. Most of the songs timeless and don't sound dated at all. Jive was on fire and hadn't gotten into pop music yet. Even though the album didn't do overly well, they still pumped out the music videos. "Boom! Shake The Room" was the only single that got decent air play and video play, but they performed the other singles at award shows and events. I remember "Boom! Shake The Room" premiering at the end of a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode I also remember them promoting on MTV at the MTV Beach House. Code Red is a fan favorite for many, but He's The DJ, I'm the Rappers is definitely their best work when it comes to a full album. I'd argue that Homebase is a better album two, though its sound caters to the 1990-1992 era in Hip-Hop. I played this album regularly for YEARS since they didn't put out additional albums. I was heart broken in 1995 when I read in Rap Pages that FP was hanging up the mic. Excellent album that takes me back to an awesome time in life.

JOSS STONE - Love Me Water For Your Soul (2015)

Freaking day light saving...

Share videos, stories, and memes that you find funny or amusing. This is a feel good thread, so steer clear of topics like politics and religion.

I'm pretty that the video will amplify the song perfectly. Many people, just like some of us, are foreign to the sound and formula of the song. Sure, it's grown on most of us who initially didn't know what to think, but the visual and energy of the video will likely win over those who are on the fence about it.

I forgot about this verse as well. I prefer hearing it over the Clipse beat and with his verse alone. I think "Clique" is one of the worst songs ever and really wanna hear a hot verse next to a weak hook and over a garbage beat.

Sony, Michael Jackson Estate in Talks for Transfer of Massive CatalogTech giant will "either become 100 percent owner or divest," says one source By Steve Knopper October 9, 2015 Sony and Michael Jackson's estate are in talks for a massive transfer of the catalog to one of the parties Kevin Mazur/WireImage/GettySony ATV, the famous music-publishing catalog that Michael Jackson bought in 1985 and used for decades as a financial lifeline, will soon be sold in full to the late singer's estate — or the estate may sell its own half back to Sony Corp. The technology giant will "either become 100 percent owner or divest," a source close to the deal tells Rolling Stone, adding that Sony reps will soon meet with Jackson's estate reps to work out the terms. The company has begun what is known as a "buy-sell process," with one source saying that "this is just the first step" for the company. The catalog, which owns publishing rights for 750,000 songs, including tracks by the Beatles, Taylor Swift, the Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye and many others, is worth an estimated $2 billion. It has been a 50-50 venture between Sony and Jackson since 1995, when the King of Pop agreed to merge his share with Sony's music-publishing catalog. In 2007, an auditor said Jackson's half of the catalog was worth $390 million — providing crucial assets for the big-spending superstar during a period when he was releasing almost no new music or making money off concert tours.Reps for Jackson's estate declined to comment. Jackson had been deeply in debt in 2006 when he agreed to give Sony an option to buy his half of the catalog at some later date. Sony exercised that option sometime last month. "The structure of a joint venture is sometimes difficult to manage," the source says. Company reps would not comment, but leaked Sony documents last year suggest execs were dubious of its potential in a time of low digital-music revenues. Kenichro Yoshida, Sony's chief financial officer, said in a statement last year that Sony ATV "has a rather complex capital and governance structure and is impacted by the market shift to streaming." The Beatles lost control of much of their publishing in the Sixties after a series of complicated business deals. When Jackson bought the catalog, for $47.5 million, Paul McCartney unsuccessfully bid against him. "The key thing to remember today is don't sell your catalogue," Marshall Gelfand, Jackson's accountant, told the Los Angeles Times at the time. "The whole explosion of music videos and the trend toward using more music in movies is going to make copyrights even more valuable. If you are an established artist today, you should only consider selling your catalogue as a last resort to raise cash." http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/sony-michael-jackson-estate-in-talks-for-transfer-of-massive-catalog-20151009

Great interview. It solidifies the way FP's brain works when it comes to music. The thing about the article that's confusing is if the new album is a JJ+FP album (even though they haven't made any new music yet), or a solo album for Will. I'd be happy with both; just sayin.' p.s. Am I the only one that had to look up the definition of "ostensibly"?

I just saw it too. Can't wait to see the finished product.

I feel that the progress of the album during the tour will also impact. If the album is done in the next 5 months or so, there's the chance we can get a "Will Smith & Friends" project that may or may not meet our high expectations. If he's still working things while they tour, that would greatly impact the album. You can't come down on an artist for wanting to do things their way...it just sucks when they don't do things the way you'd really want. Like there's nothing more I want than a JJ+FP album, but I can't be mad if wants to make something else. Regardless, we need to back the project in hopes of not having such a large gap in between albums.

I'm sure there's some other Motown fans on this board. I love me some Tammi Terrell. Her work with Marvin Gaye is some of my favorite music of all time. I love that her story is being told. With her sister involved, it doesn't seem likely that it'll turn into one of those weak bio pics that are becoming so common.Pass The Popcorn: A Biopic Treatment Based On The Life Of Late Soul Legend Tammi Terrell Is In Development It appears that the late legend of soul music Tammi Terrell will finally have her story told on the big screen. After years of teasing and tempting, a biopic treatment of the singer’s life and legacy has apparently been granted the support from her estate and will begin production next year. The yet to be named film will be based on the book My Sister Tammie written by (you guessed it) Terrell’s sister Ludie Montgomery, who is also behind the production. Though I’m sure many of you were hoping Taraji P. Henson may finally be landing the role she was destined to play as an actress with perhaps the most uncanny physical resemblance to Terrell, a leading lady has yet to be named. For those to young to remember, Terrell was a darling of r&b, born in Philadelphia and signed by Motown in the mid-60s where she enjoyed a string of hits alongside the marvelous Marvin Gaye, many of which are considered standards today and are as cherished as anything in the American music canon. Tammi Terrell died tragically of a brain tumor at just 24 years of age, cutting short a career that in just a few years put her in league with some of the best to ever do it. We”ll certainly be keeping our eyes on the matter, so be sure to check back for updates. http://www.okayplayer.com/news/tammi-terrell-biopic-in-the-works.html