Nu-Soul Magazine Presents Art & Soul

A Night Full Of Artistry and Soul Music at The Mezz

On a beautiful night in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, the scene was set as some of LA's most talented artists gathered to display their artwork and music. The Art + Soul event presented by Nu-Soul Magazine gave people a chance to come out and discover the underground art movement sweeping the streets of LA.

Nu-Soul Magazine founded by Norman Mayers in 2006, bridges the gap between the world of R&B/soul and the underground vibes of electronica. Nu-Soul showcases artists and events in Greater Los Angeles updating the Neo-Soul community about the latest trends in soul and urban culture.

Art +Soul featured artists Teresa Bone, City Mindfunk, Otha Davis, Christine Miyahari, Kyoko Cole, Daniel Felechner, Lola, Gigi, and Keenan Chapman. Painting, clothes and multiple forms of art were curated on the second floor of The Mezz located on South Spring Street. 

   
Vendors included fashion and jewelry from Thot Creations, Boho Funk, Litered Nation, JWNY, Sluts and Diamonds, and Polish by Ash.

The soundtrack for the night was provided by Seven57 and guest DJ Kronika (Soulection) that had the vibe feeling just right mixing old school soul, R&B, Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul and electronica.

The night was topped off by featured act Nikki Grier providing her soulfully and sexy performance with covers such as "Sugarfree" and songs from her most recent release "Soulgasm Vol. 9 - The Dreamy Water Sign" with grooves such as "Everyday"and "Love For Your Love."

For more information on the artists and future events check out the following links:

http://nu-soulmag.com

http://www.reverbnation.com/nikkigrier

http://soundcloud.com/kronika-selekta

http://soundcloud.com/thisjaylouis

http://citymindfunk.com/

www.facebook.com/kyokocole

https://www.facebook.com/TeresaBoneArt

http://bohofunkjewelry.com/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LitteredNation

Who's Next? Ms. Drama Ganza

The Girl Next Door Female Emcee Making A Name For Herself In Los Angeles 

After stops in Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Atlanta, the city of Inglewood is now housing the next female game changer, Ms. Drama Ganza. With her traditional Blues sensibility and solid hip hop rhythms, Drama Ganza gives you a taste of her southern and midwest swag with her witty rhymes, singing and metaphor skills on songs like "Wave'm 4 Me," "Gift of Gab" and "Girl Next Door."

Currently, Drama Ganza is being featured on one of LA's top radio stations, Power 106 FM in the "Who's Next @ 2pm" contest. Click here to cast your vote!

André DePriest Spreads A Little Bit Of Soul At The Fresh Network

A Night Of Networking and Building A Small Business Community

On a night where some of LA's young and upcoming business entrepreneurs gathered to give elevator pitches and share business practices, soul singer and recording artist André DePriest hit the stage to give the crowd a taste of his new upcoming soulful  EP "Temptations," at The Fresh Network Event located at Skinny's Lounge in North Hollywood. 

Los Angeles is known for birthing some of the most successful businesses, artists and entertainers in the world. For those who "Take a Leap of Faith" to start their own business, quickly find out that it is not an easy process. If starting a successful business was easy, then everyone would start one.

Gimel "Brutha Gimel" Hooper, a spoken word artist, DJ and business man in the Los Angeles area, hosted The Fresh Network with the intent of bringing young business men and women together to network, collaborate and to build a small business community and family. There were varieties of industries that were represented from financial services, fashion, jewel, photography, music, web design, playwrights and a host of others.

At the end of the networking festivities, a special performance was given by the amazing and talented André DePriest, who performed "If You're Ready," "In This Life" and "Let's Get Down Tonight" from his new project "Temptations," which touches on love and the realistic ups and downs in relationships for the intimate and anticipating crowd.

It was just a great night of positivity, support and building of a small business networking community for tomorrow's successful entrepreneurs.

For more information and upcoming events for Gimel Hooper and André DePriest, you can find them at the following links:

Gimel Hooper

https://www.facebook.com/gimel.hooper?fref=ts

André DePriest:

https://twitter.com/Soulmusak

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Richplanet/

http://www.youtube.com/user/AndreDePriestMusic

Emcees Giving Back Toy Drive in Leimert Park

Talented L.A. Lyricists Spreading The Holiday Spirit

In the month of December, most of us are getting into the holiday spirit, trimming the tree, listening to our favorite Christmas songs and trying to find that special gift that our loved ones wants for Christmas. Many of us work extra hours just so that we can afford to have a Christmas in our households and to see the smiles and excitement on our family's and especially our children's faces.


Unfortunately, due to a variety of circumstances, there are many families that cannot afford to buy gifts and struggle just to get by day to day or there are kids that don't have families to enjoy Christmas with.

Kaos Network, located right in the heart of Los Angeles in Leimert Park, hosted a Hip-Hop showcase and toy drive event, where the cover was $5.00 dollars or bring a toy for entry. The proceeds and toys will be used for the upcoming Toy & Clothes Giveaway Winter Block Party, hosted by Project Blowed at 4343 West Leimert Park Boulevard on December 16th.

The Hip-Hop showcase featured some of the hottest upcoming young emcees in the Greater Los Angeles area representing Inglewood, Leimert Park, Compton, Pasadena and more.

The showcase started off with emcees Black Diamond "Soul Power" and J-Ann from Compton "Get Motivated," songs that promote positivity and how the power of music has saved their lives.

Drama Ganza from Cincinnati, Ohio, currently residing in Inglewood, stole the show, bring a lot of energy with her stage presence and boss chick lyrics with her song "The Girl Next Door."

Next, Nu Nu Young Hot Celeb from California and Chicago  representing L.O.U.D. Pact  continued to hold it down for the ladies with her song "Dreams."

Another emcee to look out for is a brother that goes by the name Russian Roulette. Representing Inglewood to the fullest with his song "Inglewood Salute" and acapella freestyle. His metaphors  and similes remind you of a young Ghostface Killa from the Wu Tang Clan.

Presidential Smoke and Radisrad rocked the mic as well with their underground sound, rhyming about relationships they have been through with women.

There were many more emcees that were doing their thing and made the night a great success. Los Angeles definitely has talent across the city with different styles and swag holding down the west coast and the future of Hip-hop. It was great to attend a positive movement and see how Hip-Hop can make a difference in the community in a positive way.

To donate or for more information on the upcoming Toy & Clothes Giveaway, you can contact DVS/Miaisha at (323) 352-4677 or EMCEESGIVEBACK@hotmail.com

The Art of DJing With A Girl Called Selectra

One of LA's Hottest Female DJs Guaranteed To Keep You Groovin' On The Dance Floor

If you're in Los Angeles looking to go somewhere you can just unbutton your shirt or let your hair down, have a few drinks and just dance, then you have to find out where DJ Selectra is going to be.

Wendy Le AKA DJ Selectra is one of L.A's hottest upcoming DJs that is sure to keep a party going, mixing Hip-Hop, 90's R&B, Old School Mixes and Reggae.

A regular at "The Room" in Hollywood, "The Whaler" in Marina Del Ray, and many other venues throughout L.A. and Culver City, Selectra considers herself an artist that specializes in the art of DJing, which consist of perfecting blends, mixes and feeling the vibe of the crowd.

A regular party goer  at "The Whaler" said, "She's dope! The music is not normally that good here, it's a good change, I'm feeling her vibe."

To get more information on DJ Selectra, future events and where you can upload some of her mixes, you can check out the following links:

http://www.djselectra.com

http://twitter.com/Miss_Wendyle

http://www.mixcrate.com/selectra

Los Angeles Jams With President Obama at L.A. Live

Campaign Concert A Success for President Barrack Obama 

October 7, 2012 was not a typical Sunday afternoon in Downtown Los Angeles as people of all races, social classes, religious beliefs and sexual orientation all gathered to attend this once in a lifetime experience and support President Barrack Obama's "30 Days to Victory" concert as he runs for re-election for a second term in office.

You could feel the excitement in the air as people were waiting in a super long line that started at the Nokia L.A. Live venue and curved all the way around to the Olympic Blvd and Figueroa Street intersection to see the likes of Earth, Wind and Fire, Jennifer Hudson, Jon Bon Jovi, Katy Perry and Stevie Wonder.

Stars and celebrities such as George Clooney, Lynn Whitfield and more came out to show their support for Obama and his "Forward" movement.

Earth, Wind and Fire kicked the concert off with hits such as "Shining Star," "Fantasy" and "September. "

Next, Jennifer Hudson took the crowd to church with her power presence and voice singing the old civil rights anthem "Change Gonna Come."

Then Jon Bon Jovi hit the stage and wowed the crowd with the acoustic version of his hit "Livin' On A Prayer."

Fourthly, Katy Perry along with The Silverlake Children's Choir energized the crowd with a cute performance of her hit "Firework."

Last but not least, the legendary Stevie Wonder stole the show with hits "Master Blaster (Jammin')," "My Cherie Amour" "Superstition" and performed a new song he wrote called "Song of Love." Stevie really got the crowd going as everyone was yelling Barrack Obama, 4 more years!

Finally, after all of the performances, President Barrack Obama came out and addressed the people discussing topics such as healthcare and making college affordable for the youth. He was very excited about how the unemployment has lowed to 7.8%, the lowest since he was been in office. But the one thing that he stressed is that there is still work to do and with the people's help, we can move America forward.

Rather you agree with Obama or not, as people of this great nation, we the people can change the world and we have a voice, so on November 6, make sure you get out and vote!

Andre´ DePriest Hits The Room of Hollywood With Some Cherry Poppin' Soul

Andre´DePriest's Listening Party Review 

The scene was set as people started filing into "The Room of Hollywood" on a late Wednesday night for the reversed happy hour and Cherry Poppin' event.

Cherry Poppin' Wednesdays at "The Room" features 90s and early 2000s R&B and Hip-Hop music that is sure to keep you movin' and groovin' all night long.

Around 10:30PM, DJ Selectra, a well known DJ in Southern California, stopped her set and introduced Andre´DePriest to the crowd as an upcoming Neo-Soul artist and started to play some tracks from his new project "Temptations," which will be available in early November 2012.

DePriest, originally from Chicago, Illinois, has hit the L.A. music scene by storm with his soulful midwestern sounds and "RichPlanet" movement, which promotes a positive message through music, and living a positive lifestyle.

As the first track, "If You're Ready" was playing, there were people, especially the ladies, bobbling their heads to the track's smooth instrumentation and voice of DePriest.

By the time the middle tracks "Get Over You" and "Stuck on You" started playing, most of the crowd was dancing and very receptive to the Neo-Soul/Hip-hop flava from DePriest.

The overall reaction to DePriest's project was very positive as he continues to gain fans and increase the anticipation for "Temptations" throughout the Los Angeles indie music scene.

Be sure to check out the video for "If You're Ready" and you can subscribe and get updates about Andre´DePriest's music, news and upcoming events from the following links:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Richplanet/

http://www.youtube.com/user/AndreDePriestMusic?feature=watch

https://twitter.com/Soulmusak

Where is The Love?

Romance in Music, Does it Still Exist? 

Today as I was on my way home after running a few errands, I just so happen to turn on the radio to listen to one of the local urban music stations here in Los Angeles just to see what was playing.

Usually, when I'm riding by myself, I am just riding in silence thinking about what is the next thing I need to accomplish for the day or swearing at someone to get out of the way because they don't  know how to drive, but every now and then I like to turn on some music and bob my head and just vibe out.

So when I turned on the radio, the first song I heard was "I'll Beat The Pussy up" by Loverance. The next song was "Make it Nasty" by Tyga and the third song before I decided to change the station was "Drank in My Cup" by Kirko Bangz.

Now I've heard these songs plenty of times and I'm not knocking these artists for what they say or do but for some reason today it made me think; what has happen to mainstream urban music that talks about love, relationships or actually romancing a woman instead of just "beating it up" and having sex?

I can't even front, when I was these young men's age and "sowing my wild oats," I wasn't thinking about love or romancing a woman either, so it may just be a maturity thing and in time as I have, they will mature. But let's be honest here, though most women like to be romanced, not all women want to be romanced all the time. At times they like to get "down and dirty" just like men and I get that, so to each its own.

But I was raised old school and sometimes I would like to hear more of these New Generation artists be more creative and rap or sing about love and real relationships. What happen to songs like "I Got So Much To Give" by Barry White, "Honey Love" by R.Kelly, and "Beauty" by Dru Hill? Today romance is missing from urban music and there are less and less love songs being played on mainstream radio and it's a problem. Love songs are good for the soul, the subconscious mind and in the right setting, can really turn a woman on.

I understand that times are different and the goals of artists/record labels are to sell records. But is the problem that major record labels do not think "Love Songs" will sell anymore or is it that young artists and the new generation really have no clue what true love or romancing is?

All I'm really saying is that there needs to be a better mixture of what Hip-Hop and R&B artists are putting out to be heard and what is being played on mainstream urban radio. There are still people in the world that want to be put in a mellow mood or make love during a quiet storm.

Image: Promise by Hulis Mavruk, courtesy of blackartdepot.com