I’m not going to pretend to know much about Kiely Williams’ career. I know about 3LW and The Cheetah Girls, but I couldn’t name you any of their songs or tell you anything about them (aside from the fact that Cheetah Girls is a Disney concoction).

The only reason I even really know who she is, is because everyone was talking about the video for her single “Spectacular.” So being intrigued at the hot mess I was hearing about, I decided to watch.

I’m wondering if I should just have let this one go…because now I’m mad. Really mad.

Like a lot of pop music sung by female “singers”, “Spectacular” is a feminist’s nightmare. The song tells the story about one girl’s night on the town that turns into a sex romp she can barely remember. Perhaps she just drank way too much. Perhaps the man she met at the bar drugged her. It’s not really clear. However, the lyrics (which completely contradict themselves by talking about what she remembers then saying she blacked out) don’t really seem to see the gravity of the situation. Including whether or not her partner used a condom (“What he did to me last night felt so good. It must have been on drugs. I hope he used a rubber. Or I’ma be in trouble”). In the chorus, she sings “the sex was spectacular” about 100 times, (which doesn’t make any sense because if you were blacked out how would you know whether or not the sex was even that good?)

The video just adds to what is already an awful song. We see the pop singer getting ready to go out, then walking down the street in broad daylight, dressed in an outfit straight out of “Hookers R Us” (handcuffs included). She goes to a club (that is apparently open at noon), meets the guy, goes home with him and you can probably figure out the rest. This then jumps to her leaving his place in a hurry (while he lies bare assed in a way no man EVER would lie in a bed) after which she proceeds to do the “walk of shame” home. In between the storyline scenes, Miss Williams has a dance number that consists of her bumping and grinding a wall and a very large rock.

I want to also address Kiely Williams’ responses to criticism of her song and video. Somewhere there was mention of how she was just “acting” and that no one criticizes Lady Gaga or Beyonce for killing people in “Telephone.” In her little “Hey it’s me world” YouTube diary (called kielyTV), Kiely talks about how sometimes a song is just a song and it doesn’t always have a greater meaning. She also talks about how, while she still believes in girl power and following your dreams, she knows a lot of female 20-somethings who go out, get too drunk and go home with some guy whose name they don’t know or remember. In her coy, acting-school trained voice she says “It’s not my idea of a perfect Saturday night, no…but (head tilt) it does happen. A lot. Aaand maybe it’s something we all do need to talk about.” With a few more head tilts and small smirks, she finishes off by saying “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

There is so much here, I don’t even know where to begin.

Kiely Williams is a perfect example of how, while women may be able to vote, have a job and even (MAYBE) be openly sexually active, we have progressed very little. (Personally, I group most female pop singers into this category, so don’t feel bad Kiely). Why is it wrong that she was formerly a Cheetah Girl who is now acting like a “full grown woman”? Because, while she may have “grown up”, her audience has not. There will be pre-teen fans of her show who will be singing lyrics like “Last I remember I was face down. Ass up. Clothes off, broke off…” These girls will hear this song and, in dealing with their own budding sexualities, will think that not remembering sex means it must have been good. And it’s not just the women I’m concerned about.

A few months ago, when Beyonce and Lady Gaga’s video “Videophone” came out, I went on a Twitter rant. At some stage, I made the comment that, after this song, women couldn’t get mad at men for videotaping them dancing in a club, especially if the song was playing at the same time. Not saying that all men do this, but there are many who do. So with this video, my fear is that some men (especially young ones) will see this and think it’s OK to get a girl drunk and/or drug her till she blacks out. Just read some of the comments male fans have left on her response video.

Kiely’s lax and aloof response tells me that she either doesn’t know what this song means or more likely (since she knows so much about “girl power”), doesn’t care. However, I’m sure the victims of date rape do care. It’s hard enough to prove date rape, and with pop singers (purposefully or not) promoting it, it will make it harder for women to want to come forward. Also, the fact that in a time when abortion and HIV/AIDS are serious hot button issues, do you really want to be nonchalantly telling young people  that you can’t remember if the guy used a condom? What do you think that says?

Kiely Williams doesn’t want us to shoot the messenger. However, that proves problematic when the messenger is the face that we are seeing singing and acting out the lyrics. She is not relaying something between two parties. She is recreating something that, for many women who have gone through it, is a traumatic experience. And she is using it to make a career.

Criticizing that is not shooting the messenger. It is voicing an opinion on a serious problem.

(P.S. Go check out @ThroatChopU’s video rant on the subject. He says what I was thinking too.)

Just peeped this on a friend’s Facebook page. Apparently M.I.A. dropped it on Twitter. It’s a video for a new track called “Theres Space For Ol Dat I See”, though I’m not sure if it’s from an upcoming album or not. The visuals are pretty trippy and the song is slow…like “end of the night after a drug binge” slow. Also it sort of looks like M.I.A. is inside a Lite Brite, no?

Tinie Tempah had another single out that came out earlier last year and featured M.I.A. called “I’m Hot”. He’s definitely one to watch for 2010.

My girl Amelia over at Put Me On It just hipped me to a new artist (well for me at any rate) from London (of course) named Tinashe. The stylish singer/songwriter/producer is definitely an artist to watch for 2010. He has upcoming performances at some of London’s best venues and has already been featured on UK Channel 4′s program “4Intros” on which he performed two songs of his songs: “Mr Presumption” (amazing track that you can download for free here) and “The Feeling”.

His lyrics are about relationships, love and heartbreak, but his sound is so awesomely pop that it’s completely uplifting. Great music to listen to if you’re snowed in and want to dance around. Here’s his latest video, a home made recording, for his song “A-Liar”. (I’ve already watched it about five times).

After the jump, check out some photos from the show….

Art Basel is an art event to top all art events. Having started in Switzerland, the art fair came to it’s sister city of Miami to  It’s when all the biggest names in the art world come together to show off new (or not so new) talent, buy ridiculously priced pieces and just be all around art snobs. In other words, it’s a good time. Having never gone, I decided it would be a good way to end 2009 and kick off 2010. And I was right.

My first day, I didn’t go to any of the art fairs. Instead, I enjoyed the fact that it was December and I was wearing a sun dress. Of course, I took some photos which you can see after the jump:

After walking around Lincoln Road, one of Miami’s great shopping districts, I went back to my hotel, got dolled up and headed over to The Shore Club for Don’t Sleep, a party in collaboration with Primary Flight. Dr. Dre was supposed to be there, but wrote on Twitter that he wasn’t going. Peanut Butter Wolf was on the decks spinning music and videos, and later artist Shepard Fairey also spun a set. Russell Simmons was spotted walking around the crowd too (though I unfortunately did not see him).

The party featured live painting from some of Miami’s own favorite graffiti artists. I only had a little clutch purse, so I left my camera at home (besides, there were too many photographers anyway). Instead, I tested out my new little Flip cam and got some video footage. I’m still learning how to use a video camera, but the Flip sort of made it easy.

Suddenly I turned around and ran smack into Bmore/DC artist Brandon Hill who was there with DC’s own Art Whino crew. Art Whino had their own show going on (which I will blog about soon). Brandon and artist Taz Hicks were down to do a little random interview. (Keep in mind…there’s cursing and talk of Ramen noodles…so I wouldn’t play this too loud if you’re at work).

All and all, it was a good first night. Stay tuned for more photos, footage and updates….

Rifle Recoil – “Prototype” (Originally by Outkast)

I first heard about this cover of Outkast’s “Prototype” by Jeff Kessel aka Rifle Recoil over at Imageyenation. It’s a beautiful guitar rendition of the funky electro sounding original, and Kessel’s voice gives it a sort of a naivete. It reminds me of puppy love.

Jamie Cullum “Frontin” (Originally by Pharrell)

Brit Jamie Cullum is well known for his cover songs. But possibly one of his best known covers is the one he did of Pharrell’s “Frontin’”. Cullum’s version is one I could probably play for Mama Glock and she’d enjoy it as a great jazz tune. It’s very Micheal Buble

The Fray “Heartless” (Originally by Kanye West)

The Fray, a band whose music may or may not have Christian overtones, did a cover of Kanye West’s song “Heartless”. They also released a really beautiful video for it, which, like the original video, included some really cool animation.

Dynamite Hack – “Boyz In The Hood” (Originally by Eazy E (N.W.A))

To the best of my knowledge, this was the only popular song Dynamite Hack ever put out. Their cover of Eazy E’s “Boyz In The Hood” was actually on an album called Take a Bite Outta Rhyme: A Rock Tribute to Rap. For me, this song is the only negative cover I’ve listed…the video, while trying to be ironic, isn’t that funny and the fact that they are white singing the all the lyrics to a well known gangsta rap song is also problematic (be warned, they don’t censor themselves). It sort of seems like an really big excuse to use the N-word. Which also might explain why they’ve only had one single.

I’m pretty sure there are more Hip Hop tracks sung by white boys, but this is all I’m posting for now…If I left any out, please, leave notes in the comments.

It was an marketing campaign for the movie Armored (starring Colombus Short, Laurence Fishburne, Matt Dillan, and a slew of other well known actors…click on here to watch the trailer).  The truck was open and you could get in it to watch the trailer for the movie. You could also get a free poster. I’d already seen the trailer for the movie on Apple.com’s trailer page, so I didn’t really want to get in the truck. However, I did want to photograph it, because the art work on the sides was done by the great tattoo and street artist Mister Cartoon. If y’all don’t know his work, you better learn quick. He’s one of the best artists out of the West Coast right now.

The truck is in DC for the weekend and will be featured in the Howard Homecoming Parade. According to IMDB.com, the movie Armored will be released in movie theaters nationwide on December 4th.

Azari & III are a from Toronto, Ontario, and consist of Dinamo Azari and Alixander III. They just released a video for their single “Hungry For The Power”,  a ferocious  old school house inspired track that definitely reminds me of the New York club scene back in the late 80′s, early 90′s. The video itself is pretty intense, and while definitely NSFW, it is a must see. Just not when your boss/kids/95 year old grandmother is around. I don’t want to spoil it by telling you what to expect, but wait till the end…it’ll throw you off completely.

Check out their MySpace page to listen to more songs (Reckless (With Your Love) is a good one). These guys are definitely worth keeping an eye on…their album is gonna be fierce.

(Spotted via Different Kitchen)