Naturally we've got to kick-off our Grammy '09 re-cap with a big CONGRATULATIONS Al Green, along with his entire production team, ?uestlove, James Poyser, Rich Nichols and Jon Smeltz, for 2 Grammy wins last night! Props to Al Green for stepping in last minute to perform "Let's Stay Together" with Justin Timberlake, Keith Urban, and Boyz II Men on back-up vocals, in place of Rihanna (errr yeah, we'll leave that one alone). ?uesto kept us up-to-date with a running commentary of live Tweets throughout the night, as did Diplo (@qoolquest yo quest if u dont give me after partee instructions im gonna bury u in cheesesteaks). In fact, the tweets even beat out the ever-so-anticlimatic "big win" of the night in terms of entertainment value- Album of the Year to Robert Plant and Alison Kraus?? Wah-wah-wah. I'm sure it's a good record, but c'mon, we all know who's album was the winner for '08. At least Lil Wayne got to take home 4 other Grammys for the night, including Best Rap Album. We also need to shout out our girl Estelle who won Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "American Boy" with Kanye West. A few other winners who weren't so prominently featured on the show, but who we feel deserve some dap, were Mars Volta for Best Hard Rock Performance, Cassandra Wilson for Best Jazz Vocal Album, The Blind Boys of Alabama for Best Traditional Gospel Album, B.B. King for Best Traditional Blues Album, Burning Spear for Best Reggae Album, Justice (remixed by MGMT) for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical, and Rick Rubin for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical. Check grammy.com for a full listing of Grammy winners and nominees. Below, we've got a few more choice vids from the night, including the performance of "Swagga Like Us" with T.I., Kanye West, Jay Z, Lil Wayne, and a 9-month pregos M.I.A., along with Estelle performing "American Boy" with Kanye West, and Coldplay performing "Lost+" with Jay-Z and "Viva La Vida."

Tags: T.I., M.I.A., Kanye West, Justice, JayZ, Estelle, Diplo, Al Green, ?uestlove Comment (21) Read More...

Tonight, 8pm ET/PT, tune into CBS for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards or get news as it happens on the official Grammy twitter feed!  Although it's definitely a bummer that The Roots' Rising Down didn't garner any Grammy love this year, ?uestlove, James Poyser, and Richard Nichols will be happy with the three nods to Al Green's latest offering, Lay It Down, which they produced (and big up to our main man Jon Smeltz, award-winning engineer, who is up again this year for Lay It Down).  Nominations of OkayInterest include:

Lil Wayne who leads the pack with 8 nominations for Tha Carter III,  M.I.A. is up for "Paper Planes" in the Record of the Year category, Estelle's "American Boy" for Song of the Year, and Jazmine Sullivan for Best New Artist.  Miss Jazmine is also up for "Need U Bad" under Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Gnarls Barkley's "Going On" is up for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals, and also for The Odd Couple in the category Best Alternative Music Album.  Under Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals we got "Word" by Anthony David feat. India.Aire, "Stay With Me (By The Sea)" by Al Green with John Legend, and "Never Give You Up" by Raphael Saadiq feat. Stevie Wonder.  Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance nominated "You've Got The Love I Need" by Al Green feat. Anthony Hamilton, "Love That Girl" by Raphael Saadiq, and "In Love With Another Man" by Jazmine Sullivan.  Under Best Urban/Alternative Performance we got "Say Goodbye To Love" by Kenna, "Wanna Be" by Maiysha, and "Many Moons" by Janelle Monae.  For Best R&B Song there was "Bust Your Windows" by Jazmine Sullivan and Salaam Remi, and "Customer" by Raheem DeVaughn.  Best R&B Album nominated Lay It Down by Al Green, and The Way I See It by Raphael Saadiq.  YES, MORE Jazmine Sullivan as she gets another nod for Fearless under the Best Contemporary R&B Album category.  Best Rap Solo Performance nominated Lupe Fiasco for "Paris, Tokyo," and Nas for "N.i.*.*.e.r. (The Slave and the Master)."  Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group nominated Big Boi feat. Raekwon and Andre 3000 for "Royal Flush."  "American Boy" by Estelle feat. Kanye West is up again under Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, as is "Green Light" by John Legend & Andre 3000, and "Superstar" by Lupe Fiasco feat. Matthew Santos, which is also up again under Best Rap Song.  Best Rap Album features The Cool by Lupe Fiasco, alongside Jay-Z's American Gangster, Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, Nas by Nas, and Paper Trail by T.I. Finally, Erykah Badu is also up under the category Best Short Form Music Video, where she and fellow director Mr. Roboto, along with producer Megan Gutman, could all win together.  Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne will perform along side T.I. for "Swagger Like Us." Good luck to everyone!

Tags: Raphael Saadiq, Nas, M.I.A., Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, John Legend, Jazmine Sullivan, Janelle Monáe, James Poyser, India.Arie, Gnarls Barkley, Estelle, Erykah Badu, Anthony Hamilton, Al Green, ?uestlove Comment (2) Read More...

Last night the 51st Annual Grammy Awards Nominations were announced with Lil Wayne leading the pack with 8 nominations for Tha Carter III.  Although it's definitely a bummer that The Roots' Rising Down didn't garner any Grammy love this year, ?uestlove, James Poyser, and Richard Nichols will be happy with the three nods to Al Green's latest offering, Lay It Down, which they produced (and big up to our main man Jon Smeltz, award-winning engineer, who is up again this year for Lay It Down).  Other noteworthy noms went to M.I.A. for "Paper Planes" in the Record of the Year category, Estelle's "American Boy" for Song of the Year, and Jazmine Sullivan for Best New Artist.  Grammy nods also went to Erykah Badu, Gnarls Barkley, Raphael Saadiq, Lupe Fiasco, Nas, Janelle Monae, and many more.  Of course Jay-Z and Kanye West also got mad love, with a number of nominations each. Congratulations to everyone!  For our short-list of OKP-notable Grammy nominations, follow me after the jump.

Tags: Raphael Saadiq, Nas, M.I.A., Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Jazmine Sullivan, JayZ, Janelle Monáe, Grammys, Gnarls Barkley, Estelle, Al Green, ?uestlove Comment (17) Read More...

Last night at the BET Awards '08 some of urban music's best were honored, most notably (for us at OKP anyway) were winners Erykah Badu, UGK and Outkast, Kanye West, and Alicia Keys.  The most exciting aspect of the night for me, however, was the Lifetime Achievement Award which went to Al Green!  After he was honored by renditions of his songs from John Legend, Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, and Maxwell (??!! Yes, it's true.  Is he back?), Al took the stage and performed his smash hits "Let's Stay Together" and "Love And Happiness" to a joyfully geeked out audience who stood and danced and sang along throughout both songs.  Watch Al Green perform "Love and Happiness" below, followed by links to the other two performances.  For the full list of winners, see after the click.

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Tags: The Roots, Barack Obama, Al Green, ?uestlove Comment (1) Read More...

 

Appropriately timed, right on the heels of Al Green's new release Lay It Down, comes The Green Album put together by Omer Saar of UniverSOUL Productions. Using acapellas from MF Doom, Biggie, Jay Z, and De La Soul among others, Omer mashes up some of hip-hop's best with classic Al Green tracks. See after the click, where you can view the tracklisting before you download.

 

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Tags: John Legend, Corrine Bailey Rae, Anthony Hamilton, Al Green, ?uestlove Comment (2) Read More...