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Jan 09, 2012 Comments

Adele

Adele. Do I need to say anything more? I'm not going to go in great depth about this music artist because if you don't know who she is and what she has done - then you are dumb. However I do want to tell the story of how Adele was found because that's always the most interesting aspect to any great story.

As you might have suspected her amazement with music started at the tender age of 4. Her most influential musical idles growing up were the Spice Girls and the artist Pink, and that really shows her age. Fast forwarding to high school she graduated from the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon in May 2006 (same place as Leona Lewis). While at school she recorded a three-song demo for a class project and gave it to a friend. This friend took the liberty of posting it on the social networking site MySpace.

MySpace gained her so much attention that she eventually got a call from music label XL Recordings. Now Adele was a bit skeptical of "XL Recordings" because the only music label she had ever heard of was Virgin Records. So the skeptical Adele dragged along a friend, met with XL Recordings (2006) and her first real release happened in 2007. From this point on she gains fame, awards, extreme wealth and well... the rest is history.

Now if you can't get enough Adel, and no one can blame you, you can visit her official website, follow her Facebook updates, tweet with her and even go back to where it all started: MySpace.

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Oct 21, 2011 Comments

Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino, also known as Donald Glover, is a very accomplished actor, writer, comedian, and musician all by the age of 28 (born September 25, 1983). At a young age Donald Glover attended the DeKalb School of the Arts and graduated from New York University with a degree in Dramatic Writing in 2006. Before even graduating college Glover had already been a writer for The Daily Show in 2005. Shortly there after his career transitioned to writing for 30 Rock from 2008 to 2009 where he also made the occasional onscreen appearance. Donald was presented with the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Series at the February 2009 ceremony for his work on the third season of 30 Rock.

His acting / comedy / persona resume became quite padded in 2010 and 2011. His stand-up special aired on Comedy Central on March 19, 2010, Glover received the Rising Comedy Star award at the Just for Laughs festival in July 2010 and was then featured in Gap's holiday campaign. On March 16, 2011 Donald hosted the mtvU Woodie Awards, the 1 hour special WEIRDO for Comedy Central was taped on March 24 and he was still rocking the music scene under the name of Childish Gambino.

Donald Glover DJs and produces his own music under the name of mcDJ. His style is electronic/remix and is often made available for free download via his official site and other media channels. He raps under the name of Childish Gambino and has released the albums Sick Boi on June 5, 2008, Poindexter on September 17, 2009, and mixtapes entitled I Am Just A Rapper and I Am Just A Rapper 2 were released onto the public in 2010. Glovers third official album Culdesac was released on July 3, 2010. On March 8, 2011 Donald (officially) released his newest EP via his official website but many tracks were made available before hand. In fact much of his musical mainstream attention was had when Adidas used a track in a commercial featuring Dwight Howard. Now Donald Glover has announced that his latest album, Camp, will be released November 15, 2011 and many of the tracks are already on fire with music critics.

I would suggest checking out his various websites and links (provided below) and you will quickly fall in love with the Childish Gambino style.

You can follow his Blogspot, check out the Donald Glover official website or get socially connected via his very active Twitter or Facebook pages. The best part about Childish Gambino / Donald Glover is that you can listen to all his tracks and remixes on Soundcloud.com.

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Oct 12, 2011 Comments

Grieves

Grieves, born Benjamin Laub, is the self-proclaimed "new generation of hip hop artist" signed to Rhymesayers Entertainment and based out of Seattle. This young rapper has been touring the music scene since 2003 and has released the albums Irreversible (independently) in 2007, 88 Keys & Counting in 2008 and Together/Apart in 2011. He is currently part of Warped Tour 2011 and is gaining mainstream spotlight with the track "Bloody Poetry".

So what kind of music / artist is Grieves? His website claims:

You won’t find any of the typical hip hop stereotypes, either underground or mainstream. Instead, you’ll discover a musical mastermind, confronting you with his poignant voice and original beats. With disarming charisma, Grieves is able to engage the entire audience in his music. Weather you discover him in the venue or over the radio, you’re going to wish the experience lasted longer. A mostly positive message combines with his self incriminating and brutally honest lyrics to make the perfect hip hop cocktail. You’ll think it’s delicious, but when you wake up the next morning with a headache and a sore throat you’ll need to put the record on for another spin to discover why. Topics range all over the board: romance, family, addiction, God, it’s all thawed out and presented with Grieves’ contagious style.

I wasn't able to locate an official website for Grieves but you can check out his official Facebook page or Twitter account. Check him out on YouTube and add him to your iPod/iPhone/MP3 player - you'll be quickly hooked.

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Sep 20, 2011 Comments

Foster the People

Foster the People is the new up-and-coming indie band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in 2009. In just two short years Mark Foster, Mark Pontius and Cubbie Fink gained notoriety by getting play on The Hype Machine and through some badass performances at South by Southwest. Foster the People is best known for the catchy song "Pumped Up Kicks" which has reached 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Despite the quick rise to fame Foster the People have remained quite grounded. They have teamed up with The Do Good Bus. The Do Good Bus will travel with Foster The People on their 22 city North American tour from September 13th to October 20th, 2011 stopping in each city to fill the bus with local do-gooders. Their goal: "Do-gooders will volunteer and promote community by helping local causes and experience a fun filled trip with surprises -- all while doing good. Good causes include helping at-risk youth, music education, gardening, soup kitchens, creating community."

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Sep 13, 2011 Comments

Machine Gun Kelly

Richard Colson Baker was born in the great state of Texas in 1990 to missionary parents who frequently traveled around the world. Due to this he lived his first 4 years of his life in Egypt and actually spoke Arabic before English. At the tender age of 4 he started listening to rap and at the age of 14 he finally moved to what he considers his home town - Cleveland.

Machine Gun Kelly , also known as MGK, launched his career by winning back-to-back victories at Harlem's Apollo Theater in March 2009. Continuing with the momentum he was featured on MTV2's Sucker Freestyle and eventually released two mix tapes. One of the mix tapes featured his song "Cleveland" that was played at Cleveland Cavaliers home games. 2011 has been his most successful year with the signing to Young and Reckless (clothing line) and joining P. Diddy to Interscope and Bad Boy Records on August 3, 2011. MGK's debut album is titled "Lace Up" and that is due the first quarter of 2012. On September 2, 2011, Kelly's first single, "Wild Boy", was released and is already making quite the buzz in the music industry.

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