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.

Just who the blast is Tinie Tempah? If that’s the question you’re asking you’ve obviously been living under a rock for the past few years, right?!

This Plumstead in South London based rapper is blowing up so big if he’s not careful he will pop, just like a giant hot air balloon. Only he’s more hot than full of air.

Earlier in the year the socialite Paris Hilton flew him out to Cannes for a private party she was throwing, just so that he could perform his then hit song “Pass Out”. The fact that Hilton missed his set is neither here nor there; point is she footed the bill and flew him out there, man. Respect!

Born Patrick Chukwuem Okogwu Jr. on November 7, 1988, he is kicking up a storm up and down the UK music circuit. He’s already released two hit singles (the anthemic “Pass Out” and “Frisky”) with his next and forecast to hit third single “Written In The Stars”) set for release on Sepetember 15, 2010. But, before this he will release his debut album, called The Disc-Overy, later this month.

He’ll be kicking off his Disc-overy Tour with 14 venues already slated starting early October. Check the discography and schedule below.

Singles

2006 “Wifey”
2007 “Hood Economics”
2008 “Tears”
2009 “Pass Out”
2010 “Frisky”
2010 “Written In The Stars”

Albums

2010 “Disc-Overy”

Tinie Tempah Disc-overy Tour

10/10/10 Cardiff, Cardiff Solus
10/12/10 Loughborough, Loughborough University
10/13/10 Preston, 53 Degrees
10/14/10 Newcastle, 02 Academy Newcastle
10/15/10 Edingburgh, Edinburgh Potterow
10/18/10 Manchester, Manchester Academy 2
10/19/10 Birmingham, Birmingham Institute
10/21/10 Lincoln, Lincoln Engine Shed
10/23/10 Liverpool, Liverpool O2 Academy
10/24/10 Sheffield, The Plug
10/25/10 Norwich, UEA
10/26/10 Brighton, Brighton Concorde 2
10/27/10 London, London Koko
10/28/10 Bournemouth, Bournemouth University Fire Station
10/29/10 Bristol, Bristol O2 Academy
10/31/10 Oxford, Oxford O2 Academy

Gilberto Gil is an artist whose music has expanded from the centre of his Brazilian roots to the centre of the universe – and that’s not just a cute turn of phrase! From his humble beginnings in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil) in 1942, Gil, like the sentiment of Star Trek, has boldly taken his music into other worlds and civilisation where few others have gone before.

One of those cultures was reggae having been influenced by Jamaica’s primary legend: Bob Marley of course. But, making connections seem to be a Gilberto Gil imperative and he made the biggest connection when his virtuoso music dropped him into the bosom of politics and he was elected Minister of Culture in 2003.

Just imagine Bob Marley as Jamaica’s official Minister of Culture and you get some idea of what I’m talking about. That this would never happen in Jamaica is another story altogether…

The appointment of the Don of Brazilian music was one of the biggest surprises of the new cabinet. And also the most controversial, because the artists and intellectuals of the Workers’ Party (PT), including its head and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, strongly opposed to such a precious position in the hands of anyone outside the party.

But Gilberto Gil, who ran for the opposition Green Party, had publicly supported the PT and had ceded some of his music for Lula’s election campaign and its people.

Political consciousness is not new to Gil, of course, and his cover of Bob Marley’s deep political and sociological look at the love of a mother for her son could just as well be speaking to a situation in Bahia, Brazil as it was in Kingston, Jamaica.

Do you feel the vibe?!