Oh La La Bebe

Does the name Jordy Lemoine ring a bell?

At first, I didn't remember it...but I definitely remembered his song "Dur Dur D'etre Bebe" (It's Tough To Be A Baby).

Fact: Jordy is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest chart topper.


I just checked out his current Myspace page...And it's not only tough being a baby it seems...

No Government

Nicolette is a strange bird.
And I mean that in the most complimentary way.
Bjork is a strange bird. So is Nina Simone.

Born is Glasgow of Nigerian parents, she put out one of the defining albums of 1992 Now is Early on the brilliant English label Shut Up and Dance.

I was heavily and almost exclusively into hip hop at the time so I did not at all pay attention to it when it was originally released...I in fact had never even heard of Nicolette until Massive Attack's fantastic Sly...she did the vocals on it and her voice had SUCH a phenomenally ethereal quality to it that I felt compelled to investigate her a little further...which led me back to Now is Early...

Many artists strive hard to earn the term defies categorization but there could not be a more accurate qualification for that specific album : the juxtaposition of some of the HARDEST beats possible...I mean PJ/Smiley -- who made up Shut Up and Dance and produced the album -- programmed some of the absolute TUF-FEST drums and basslines you will ever hear in any genre...even to this day...

Nicolette's languid and almost child-like vocals dare i say...should not work in the musical context the Shut Up and Dance guys created but oh do they...they work fantastically well in fact...the tension within every track is seriously intense...I usually break out into a sweat as i listen to this album...

it's not drum & bass..its not jungle...its not hardcore...it's not jazz...it's just...rhythm...

The Dove Song in particular is one of the most frenetic and beautiful tracks on the record...from the first second your ears are utterly pummeled by a relentless cascade of drums...then the massive sub-bass comes in...and then the vocals and it's all over...a lethally funky tune...a bare knuckle brawl of a tune...

Sadly I have never found the appropriate time drop any of songs on that album in any DJ set -- they're mostly just too hard -- nor have I heard any of her songs played out on properly loud club system...perhaps that's for the better actually...I don't think most people today could handle this record. But it's one of my big faves.

Not the Golden Arches...The Golden Arcs

I like Eddie Murphy. I might be in the minority today. but I do.
I think when he's on. Really firing. I can't think of any other person alive who is funnier.
And there was never a funnier Eddie Murphy moment than in Coming To America.
There were a lot of movies that came out in 1988...many of them really fantastically good and some even so singular as to become part of the American cultural lore: Rain Man, Roger Rabbit, Big, Die Hard and The Naked Gun just to name a few...
But Coming to America was the absolute apotheosis.
Its that rare kind of movie that gets better and better every time you watch it.
Its the kind of movie that -- no matter when or where I am -- if I catch it on TV...I will stop whatever it is I'm doing and watch it until the end (and I'm notorious for rarely ever watching a movie twice)
I've seen this movie close to 100 times over the last 20 years and know every word. Literally.
I can from memory recite entire scenes while portraying the different characters.
Yeah Trading Places, 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop were comprehensively brilliant movies but Eddie Murphy's performance(s) in Coming to America was a tour-de-force...just colossal...
And that unbelievable ensemble cast?
The expert way director John Landis handled the stereotypical portrayal of Africans?
The millimeter perfect depiction of life in Queens?
Forget it...
Coming to America is easily...and I mean with the greatest of ease in my top ten all-time.
Sexual Chocolate!

Oh, holy sequin

So, after purchasing my first pair of sequined leggings (thank you to TopShop for opening an NYC flagship!), I decided to research from whence sequins originated. It's actually an interesting story. 

The word sequin originates from the Arabic "sikka" meaning coin, and then traveled up through Europe, where the Republic of Venice called their mint "La Zecca" and ultimately to France, where the French altered the word to sequin. According to the all-knowing Wiki, "coins were known as sequins for centuries throughout the Mediterranean," and in those cultures began the custom of stitching the coins to women's clothing as a way to display and store a family's wealth. My leggings are so money they don't even know it.