It’s a really good thing to be able to look back at where you’re coming from. It gives you a sense of how far you’ve travelled as well as how far you’ve still got to go. You get this same sense of dja vu on watching Aretha Franklin on the “Cliff Richard Show” in 1970 some 40 years ago, in this video.

Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin (then around 28 being born March 25, 1942) is dolled up in heavy afro, baby doll dress and thigh high boots shaking her booty and everything else, baby! Austin Powers nyam your heart out.

Somehow, looking back at the 1960s/1970s make the present look so boring. This era just seemed to have much more of a fashion sense and style; today people just seem to just cover their bodies with clothes. It’s a crude generalisation but that’s just another thing…

The important thing is that the music of the day carried this fashion theme forward. When the music is a classic like “Say A Little Prayer” it becomes monumental.

I have BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms to thank for making me aware of this Anglo-Pakistani singer Rumer. At first I thought she was the Bruce Willis/Demi Moore offspring with a similar name but reality proved me wrong.

This is not typically a song I would love but its got such a hypnotic, peaceful, soulful vibe that I must have been pulled in by its allure and I found myself hooked on hearing it after the third hearing. And there’s more where this comes from apparently. “Slow” is from Rumer’s forthcoming debut album ‘Seasons of My Soul’.

If it is as well packaged as Rumer is easy on the eye, then it should make for one beautiful package. But don’t you just love it when a good song from whatever genre just come together well with the marketing and packaging concept?

Even in a place like Israel where conflict (or at the very least differences of religious opinion) have been raging for over 2,000 years, you’d hope there to be a pocket of peace resistance poking its head through the crack. Happily, there is.

Music, long been the vehicle which have motivated troops into war is actually at the forefront of a peace movement with a spate of artists lending their voices to songs calling for peace in the Middle East and expressing sentiments to that effect.

Sometimes these artists unfazed by boundaries of race, geography, sex and even politics, jump fences or join forces with their counterparts on the other side to register their unity on the theme.

One such pairing is the Israeli megastar Noa who linked with Algerian rai star Cheb Khaled to cover John Lennon’s Imagine. Apart from being an outstanding song the duo brought something extra to the project too. They wrote a new verse which specifically addressed the Israeli-Arab conflict:-

Imagine a world without fear
A world without hate
In which we can live together
A world of love
We’ll build a future for the two of us
In the same place.

Obviously the lyrics will upset those who prefer discord to reign in the region but for the majority of peace lovers it is a beacon to be lifted triumphantly wherever (peace and) love lives. Selah.

This video is hoisting that flag.

In the 1960s when this video was shot a version of apartheid existed in America. In some states a Black person could still be strung up hung by racist white groups calling themselves names like Ku Klux Klan.

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, the Vietnam War was in full swing but the youth movement, civil rights group and vocal majority were not silent to the issues of the day. The message to their government was simple: war is not the answer, only love can conquer…

And that is where this song came in to fill the gap and provide a bridge between love and hate while keeping the issues in the forefront without skipping a dance beat!

Simply wicked.

The chemistry between soul legend Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in this clip is so hot it might actually melt your computer screen. Don’t say we never did warn you.

The song, too, is delivered with enough conviction to sentence a dozen to a life sentence of singing melodious songs. Such is the joie de vivre of youth, style, sex and more in this vintage video.

Enjoy, you know you want to!

Tennis ace Roger Federer shows off his trickshot during an advertising shoot.

As you see in this clip Federer knocks a drinks can off the head of a television crew member, moments before setting it up for us, during a lull in the shooting of advert for Gillette/British Skin Foundation.

But, there is a but.

Is this amazing real or was it tampered with it in the editing? A good question, one which Federer has not since shed any more light on.

What do you think? Is it real or is it…Memorex?!

Some are leaves. Some are branches. Bushman, born in 1973 in the parish of St. Thomas, Jamaica, is strictly roots.

After the inevitable struggling years he met and linked up with producers Steely and Clevie in Kingston where they collaborated on singles such as “Grow Your Natty” and the hit “Call The Hearse”.

His debut album, “Nyah Man Chant”, later followed on Greensleeves, in 1997. But, that seems like ages now because Bushman has since released several albums including “Total Commitment” with the “Fire Bun a Weak Heart” hit and also “Higher Ground” in 2001, both on Greensleeves. And with several international tours now under his belt Bushman is spreading his roots reggae message to appreciative audiences globally.

Strictly roots Iyah. Knuh true?

This is one of the pivotal songs on the debut album of Buju Banton which cemented his sighting (realisation or walking in the faith) of rastafarianism during the early 1990s. Simple, haunting and even athemic, it lovingly contrasted with his business as usual hardcore dancehall stingers and offers salvation instead of relief. The lyrics are pretty special too. Check them out…

While I’m living
Thanks I’ll be giving
To the most high, you know

Chorus

I am living while I’m living to the father I will pray
Only He knows how we get through every day
With all the hike in the price
Arm and leg we have to pay
While our leaders play

All I see is people ripping and robbing and grabbing…
Thief never love to see a thief with a long bag,
No love for the people who are suffering real bad
Another toll to the poll may God help we soul
What is to stop the youths from getting out of control
Filled up with education yet don’t own a payroll
The clothes on my back has countless eye holes
Chorus
Could go on and on and full has never been told

Chorus

I say who can afford to run will run
But what about those who can’t…they will have to stay
Opportunity is a scarce commodity
In these times I say…when mama spend her last to send you to class…
Never you ever play
It’s a competitive world for low budget people
Spending a dime while earning a nickel
With no regards to who it may tickle
My cup is full to the brim

Chorus

Could go on and on the full has never been told
Through this life keep getting me down
Don’t give up now
Got to survive some way some how

Chorus

Untold Stories lyrics
Copyright M. Myrie/D. Germain/H. Tucker/G. Browne (c) 2010.

Many have already expressed their comments, editorials and opinions on Montana Fishburne, daughter of a Hollywood colossus, entering the porn industry. None of them have said it in verse as topical, twitteringly funny and tanacious as Ras Congo’s poem below. None of them. Tell them Yush.com tell yu that, seen! Awhoa…

This young woman has been born and raised in the Hollywood mind control center
and she now wants to live like a skanky renta…

I don’t watch porn
for I am no pawn
I am a King
and I would never do such a thing!
Montana feels that by letting
her fish burn
that plenty money she will earn,
fortune and fame
for being on the game
but it is all one and the same
so we don’t give her the blame,
we just want her to have a higher aim
and to stop trying to cash in on daddy’s name.

Behold all the secrets of Hollywood
are most definitely far from good
maybe we were better off in the old neighborhood?
Oh Larry, your little girl who you used to carry
is now taking Tom, DICK and harry
and we are all so very sarry.

The mind boggles to see her fall so far from grace
but my oh my, what a body and a face!!!
why not CSI or WITHOUT A TRACE
solving murders case after case
She wont even make it past first base,
I hope she don’t end up in rehab due the dragon chase
and freebase
or even end up in a more deadly place?

Daddy aint gonna chuckle
and probably wants to give her some knuckle
or his belt buckle
But she says “Daddy every mickle makes a muckle”
just like Fatty Arbuckle
who liked the sound of breaking glass
off a young gal’s nice round ass.
And so, they still sing “Hooray for Hollywood”
but we know that it’s not jolly good
For Molech says I will give you success,
just sacrifice your children for your careers progress
and many will still scream YES, YES, OH YES!!!.

Goodnight & God bless.
Copyright Ras Congo (c) 2010.

Can somebody please tell (former Fugees band member) Pras to shut the eff up?! Seriously, what the eff is wrong with him? Why is this so-called brother always putting negative heat under Wyclef’s arse every time the media push a mic in front of his big, fugly mouth? All I know he should shut his cake hole.

Take for instance Wyclef’s decision to run for the Presidency of his country, Haiti. Here comes Pras like a constant shadow offering his negative vibes while pretending that he’s being objective with his two cents. Clearly his twisted, allegedly former mental patient mind, is just hell bent on filling the kool aid with hatred. Perhaps when they were band mates in the Fugees, Wyclef short-changed his arse and didn’t bless him with enough hugs and love.

When did it become the norm to openly speak ill against your family members to the media no matter the cause.

This crazy fool needs a gag order put on his loose lips ASAP. Grab the brother when you see him and bless him with a hug for Clef or a slap on the head. He seems to have forgotten that “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Do you understand his reasons for supporting Wyclef’s opponent Michel Martelly in the race for President?