30 Interesting facts about the Grammys!

1. The first Grammy awards were held on May 4, 1959, incredibly, as a way to keep the newly emerging Rock & Roll threat at bay.

2. Perry Como and Ella Fitzgerald one best male and female artists at the first Grammys.

3. The first year, there were only 22 awards. These days, there are more than one hundred every show.

4. That didn’t last long, as a Best Rock & Roll award was added in 1962. In 1974, a Latin music category was added to the Grammys.

5. The most prestigious honor in music is to win the Big Four Grammy awards: album of the year, recording of the year, song of the year, and best new artist.

6. Only two artists have done it: Christopher cross in 1981, and Norah Jones in 2003.

7. The first rap music award was given in 1989, which Dj Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince won.

8.  Michael Jackson won the most Grammys in one night with eight awards in 1983, followed by Santana in 1999.

9. Sinead O’Conner won best alternative album but refused the award and boycotted the Grammys because of their  ‘extreme commercialism.’

10. Believe it or not, Elvis Presley never won a rock & roll Grammy. He was nominated and won three in the Gospel genre.

11. The Beatles, for all of their decades of success and hit songs, only won eight Grammys total.

A category for heavy metal was added in 1989, with the first award going to Jethro Tull.

12. Classical conductor Sir George Solti has the most lifetime Grammys, with 74 nominations and 31 awards.

13. Quincy Jones holds the record for the most nominations with 79.

14. Billy Gillman was the youngest to ever win a Grammy at 12 years old, followed by LeAnn Rimes at 14.

15. Snoop Dogg has never won a Grammy, despite his career longevity and popularity. He has, however, been nominated for 12.

16. That’s not the record for futility; Brian McKnight has been nominated 16 times and never won.

17. U2 is the only band to win 22 Grammy awards.

18. Stevie Wonder has the most ever Grammys for an artist with 28.

19. 1971 was the first year the Grammys were broadcast live with musical performances.

20. The name ‘Grammy’ was actually chosen from entries in a contest. A normal music fan named 

21. Jay Danna was the winner, and he received 25 LP’s for his contribution.

22. Before that, it was called the Gramaphone Awards.

23. Those little Grammy statues weigh 5 lbs., 2 ounces each!

24. Can you believe that Led Zeppelin, The Who, the Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, and Chuck Berry never won a Grammy?!

25. The awards are chosen through a voting system conducted by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

26. The Academy passes out 20,000 ballots to musicians and music professionals every year. 

27. On average, they get about 7,000 ballots back to determine the winners.

28. Milli Vanilli is the only Grammy winner to have their award revoked.

29. Kanye west went on stage TWICE to interrupt awards to other artist he though weren't deserving; first with Taylor Swift, and now with Beck.

30. He's now the first artist to our knowledge to be banned from all future award shows! 

In defense of Kanye West, that a-hole.

Kanye West is not a good guy. In fact, he seems to be a megalomaniac asshole who holds himself in such high regard, he's the self-appointed rap reincarnation of Jesus. However, for all of his faults and foibles, there is one thing that Kanye did NOT do that he’s widely accused; Mr. West did NOT score 106 points in a wheelchair basketball game.

Despite a story claiming just that is spreading like wildfire on the nefarious new invention called the “Internet,” the event or any facsimile just didn’t happen.

The Daily Current, a satirical website similar to the uproarious Onion, originally posted the fake news story about Kanye West that was so bad, it was good. In it, they described how West and his entourage appeared to play in a wheelchair basketball at a middle school as a PR move on the heels of his in-concert fumble in Australia (more on that later.) They went on to report that Kanye and company didn’t actually compete while sitting in wheelchairs as any reasonable person would assume, but ran up and down the court, dunked unmercilessly on the wheelchair-regulation 6-foot rims, fouled the disabled kids with reckless abandon, and even tipped them over in unison at the end of the game. In total, Kanye allegedly scored 106 points, a milestone important to him because it beat Wilt Chamberlain’s NBA record scoring performance.

The article described stunned parents and broken hearted, crying wheelchair bound children, to which Kanye laughed and gloated and said unimaginably insensitive things like, “The disabled have it too easy in this country, can’t they rap? Or dance, or something?,” and the disabled should ‘Work and play like the rest of us. Regardless of their handicap. Folks with diseases and crap like that should ‘man-up’ and act right.”

The Daily Current reported that the final score was Kanye’s Madmen 129, Paralympic Basketball Wheelchair Foundation team, 32. The game was an olive branch extended by Kanye’s people, in conjunction with the Disabled People of America program, gone horribly wrong.

While the rapper does have a song called “Monster,” to be fair – he is not one. Or at least not in this case. What is factual is that West did piss off a good portion of the planet during a concert in Sydney, Australia when he demanded the whole crowd stand up for him, and paused the whole affair and humiliated two in the audience that didn’t, though one was in a wheelchair and one had a prosthetic leg. He did show up at a gym in that same country and hoop with 70- year old women. Kanye may be an A-hole, and his biggest contribution as a human being may be toward the perpetuation of his own ego, but dunking over kids in wheelchairs? That’s a notion so patently false and horrible, that it could only exist in the realm of satire – and our vicious and eager public perception.

Rantings from OutsideLands, Day 1.

Day 1 Notes:

The weather couldn't have been better for the first day of OutsideLands, the 7th annual music festival in San Francisco.  Clear blue skies and plenty of sunshine are a rare site in Golden Gate Park, with no fog rolling in and only a refreshing chill that had concert goers reaching for their sweatshirts after dusk.  Coincidentally, that's the same time everyone takes their sunglasses off at the same time after a day of drinking, partying, and jumping around having fun - a shocking sight!

Here are the bands I caught Day 1 and some favorite photos:

Run the Jewels with El-P and Killer Mike:
They sounded great and we're having a lot of fun, really playing off the crowd.  An energetic rap show is the perfect way to kick off the afternoon.

Phosphorescent:
Backstage for this one and they put on a cool show.  Loved the congas the percussionist incorporated.

WarPaint:
I loved 'em - the all-girl band was like the Bengals mixed with Mazzy Star with more than a little harder, punk influences.  Hot stuff and I'll definitely seek them out to listen more.

Interlude: Creepy carnie time:
Around this time, it got really weird.  We stumbled on a grove with a stage and kiosks all with a bizarre dark carnie sort of thing going on.  Random people wandered around in kilts and high socks, their faces painted like circus clowns or serial killers.  There were booths where you could hug a carnie for $1 (no thanks) and they had a life-like carnie doll crucified high up on a pine tree.  This place weirded me the hell out!  But they did have logs you could sit on to rest the tired bones, and a band called El Radio Fantastique (if I remember correctly, because I can't find them on the lineup) who had an interesting sound.  Among a violin, cello, and stand up base, the lead man sang through a bullhorn for a carnival barker sound and flopped around like a zombie.  If you're in to the carnie thing, I suggest checking them out because they're were tight musically.  However, if you're into the carnie thing, I also suggest checking yourself in to a place with white walls to get some help.

GroupFun:
This electric native San Francisco band was one of the highlights of day one for me.  Their passion and fun was contagious but they weren't pop at all.  The male lead guitarist/vocalist and the gyrating and free-spirited female lead had musical chemistry like Jack and Meg White. Smart lyrics and oozing of talent.  Another new favorite band I'll have to check out.

Chromeo:
Unfortunately, they scheduled GroupFun and Chromeo at the same time, two of the best kept secrets of Day 1.  Our group split up with most of them watching Chromeo, and said they were amazing.

Disclosure:
Caught the tail end of them and I was doing more crowd watching and backstage gawking.  Decent act but not particularly memorable.

Kanye West:
It's really hard for one rapper to command a presence with a huge empty stage and 50,000 people watching, and Kanye tried his best.  He came out with a interesting mask that was a mix of Jason and bee keeper, and the lighting and effects were great.  He sounded pretty clean except on the hardest rocking numbers like Power - another difficult feat for a live rap act - but lost us when he started his long rambles, musical fillers that went nowhere, and collaboration songs where he only sang his part.  Makes me think, where are the Roots???

Arctic Monkeys:
Very mellow for an after dark show.  The Mike Ness-look alike front man tried to push his Rock God ego on the crowd, but it didn't quite work for me.  But they were tight musically and sang some damn good songs.

After hours:
Death Cab for Cutie:
After the OutsideLands festivities ended, we headed to the Independent - a fantastic, intimate venue to a see a band, where we watched Death Cab for Cuties. They put on a great show and are obviously talented musicians, though the singing was a little monotone and pop-ish for me at that time of the night.

Best Food Choice:
Just say "No" to the Korean tacos.  There was a dessert area with every kind of guilty pleasure you can imagine, including humungous somores, homemade peanut butter cups, and liquid chocolate.  Yummmmm…..

Parking and Transportation:
Hahahaha, you're kidding, right?!

Über was running at a level 5 pricing designation, meaning it was a $75 minimum and about a 40 minute wait.  But there were plenty of public buses lined up.  Use the bathroom before you leave the park and expect at least an hour to get out of there.

Day two thoughts:
Throwing an old blanket into my backpack so we can chill on the lawn at some point.  Excited to see Tom Petty for the first time but they lined them up against Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, one of my favorite acts of all time, so it's going to be a hard choice.  Praying someone brings me some strong coffee this morning and hoping for sun today!

The Rise Of The Rap Nerd.

Granted, it’s a strange marriage – the bedfellows of hip hop music and nerds.  Coke-bottle glasses, bow ties, and awkward, toothy laughter that repels all females within 500 yards are the last things we think of when it comes to rap, which we more commonly associate with clothes, bankrolls, and hoes.  But why not, considering real rap music has its real origins in counter culture, the self-sculptured anti-identity for those who the System neglected to count, a musical form springing like a crooked flower from cracks in the sidewalk where nothing else would grow?

Now, two or even three generations into rap as an art form, it needs little help from us to permeate its legitimacy.  And nerds?  Those geeks who just don’t quite fit in?  Somehow, inexplicably, hip hop has come so full circle that to be thoroughly uncool is the coolest thing you could do.  Wearing tight high-water pants, bright colors, and singing about your own feelings and shortcomings has become refreshingly original among a pantheon of generic thugs, tiring braggarts, and ultra-masculine boasters.  The lesson is this: Be real, above all else, and the audience will relate – and love you for it.

How far back can we trace nerdiness in rap?  All the way, if you look closely enough.  Didn’t Pharcyde talk about how she keeps on passing me by?  And didn’t De La Soul break the loquacious thug rap trend with their hippy consciousness, wearing Africa medallions instead of gold chains?  Even Slick Rick spit fire with a British accent and outstanding enunciation when acts like Public Enemy and NWA were more Black Panther movement than hyperbolic entertainment.  As long as there has been artistic expression, there have been those who don’t fit in so wandered off to create on their own.  But it’s not just about fashion, what you flow, or even your audience – it’s about refusing to be typecast, rejecting inauthenticity, taking risks to push the art of musical expression where it’s never been before.  And we can’t help but to sing along, and love ‘em for it.

Here are some rap nerds we love:

?uestlove

He’s the ultra-stoic other front man of the Roots who actually sits behind the band, letting his beats and drunk licks do the talking.  His funky nerdiness was so cool it landed him a gig as the musical straight man for Late Night and The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon.  But an even greater accomplishment, we all accept his unspoken tenure as rap music’s librarian and erstwhile protector, keeping the unruly kids from completely taking over study hall.

Lupe Fiasco

Wasalu Muhammad Jaco originally was turned off by hip hop because of its use of vulgarity and misogyny, but then came along to love the art form – if not the typical rapper banter.  So he changed the game with his own music as Lupe Fiasco, proudly confessing to having merged nerd and hood in songs like “I’m Beamin’” where he says: "Hood's where the heart is; nerd's where the words from." He’s actually got a mixtape project called “Farenheit 1/15: Revenge of the Nerds," where he raps about Jedi mind tricks.  He's also the front man of a rock band called, “Japanese Cartoon,” and runs charitable benefits and  

Kid Cudi

Scott Mescudi, the kid from Cleveland, Ohio who moved to Brooklyn, arrived in the music world when fellow rap nerd Kanye West signed him.  He branched out to form his own rock band, start his own record label, and act in HBO’s How To Make It In America and other projects.  High schoolers, college kids, and stoners love him – as well as fellow nerds.

Childish Gambino

If your parents were a Jehovas Witness postal worker and daycare provider, a career in rap is the last thing you might think of.  But Donald McKinley Glover took an even stranger route to emerging hip hop iconoclast, first to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in dramatic writing and then as a writer for 30 Rock, and an actor on Community.  But he exploded on the scene with his 2011 album, Camp, and 2013's critically acclaimed follow up, Because the Internet, proving once and for all that nerds can really friggin rap. 

Tyler the Creator

The LA skateboarder is more Goth than gangsta, more dark horror movie than hyper dance track. He pushes his individuality far away from the typical rap archetype, sometimes to a fault, but no one’s ever accused him of being a conformist.

Kendrick Lamar

I posted something on Facebook about rap nerds and mentioned Kendrick. A good friend of mine, Chivaughn, commented that he was more gangster rap, not nerd.  She’s probably right, as he comes from Compton and grew up among on gang, drug, and violence-infested streets.  But in his songs, Kendrick tells stories of coping with those circumstances, not embracing them or becoming a product of their influence, so we can’t help laud him for his maturity and consciousness so we’ll call him a nerd (in a good way.)

Pharrel Williams

Raised in middle class and racially mixed Virginia Beach, the member of the Neptunes once signed with a record label called Star Trak and got into drinking or doing drugs.  If the fact that he actually was in a hop hop band called N.E.R.D. doesn’t convince you of his awesome geekiness, consider that he’s now a fashion designer and environmental activist.

Del the Funky Homosapien

Del was the kind of rapper who would probably stay home and chill (and smoke) on a Saturday night instead of party, never seeking out the limelight like his Oaktown cohorts – or fully comfortable in it.  His songs were about sunny meadows and how he missed his cousin, not conquering the world, money, and hoes.  His innovation and creative journeys into alternative genres and audiences has served him well over a 20+ year career, including becoming the rapper-of-choice on skateboarding videos and video games.

Kanye West

Kanye was one of the first rappers in the mainstream to bring the ethos of insecurity and rejection to mainstream modern rap, especially with his 2004 album, The College Dropout. He was so bad he was good, dressed so preppy it was like he was questioning his own masculinity – but offering the answer at the same time, and surprised us by rapping about his vulnerability and broken heart.  His wavering confidence about his place in this world has always been in direct contrast to his ultra-hubris about his own MC skills.  It worked perfectly, and is still working a decade later.

Yung God

Colby McCartney, aka Yung God, isn’t anywhere near on the level of the other folks in the rap game we’re listing, but the Dallas native has such a perfectly nerdy message, we just had to give him a shout out.  Consider these lyrics:

“Word around town I'm the smartest in the city

Hoes on my dick cause I make my own theories

Hoes on my dick cause I'm finna be the mayor

World of Warcraft, I'm the number one player

Run up in class strapped with a calculator

Give me one hour, write a five page paper

Hoes on my dick cause I pack my own lunch

Swag on my dick cause I live in the suburban

Young ass nerd, and I'm proud to be a virgin

Check my outfit, more colors than circus

Beat your ass at chess, then I beat your ass at checkers

Fall off on the campus, and I'm still rockin' Sketchers.”

***

There are plenty of others we missed who deserve credit, like Mos Def, his BlackStar partner, Talib Kweli, Common, and Shock G from Digital Underground.  So hit us up or comment to give your favorite rap nerd some props!   

The 10 craziest celebrity baby names.

I was talking to my sister today about the usual stuff – you know, what we’re doing for 4^th of July weekend, exchanging vacation photos, Bruce Jenner sex change rumors, and other completely normal things like that.  Of course with Hollywood’s Degrees of Separation game rewritten with the name ‘Kardashian’ instead of Kevin Bacon these days, we got to chatting about Kanye and Kim’s daughter, North.  As in North West.  So it got me to thinking of other celebrities who give their children bizarre and whacky names, as if to say “I don’t get enough attention as a SUPER star so let me name my child something outlandish to squeeze out that last ounce of media hype,” thereby cursing the child for the length of their existence on earth as a casualty of that narcissistic war.

Here are 10 names that only a rich, famous superstar (on drugs) would give their child.

1. Coco

Courtney Cox and David Arquette basically named their child after a monkey. 

2. Kal-El

Nicolas Cage named his child Kal-El after Superman.  Cage is such a big comic book fan that he changed his own last name from Coppala to Cage in honor of Marvel character, Luke Cage. 

3. Destry

Steven Spielberg named his daughter Destry, though speculation is that he was only trying to protect her from the paparazzi.  How so?  Try Googling Destry without having to retype it 7 times because the search engine thinks you really want to research, “Destiny” or “Destroy.”

4. Fifi Trixibelle

I’m not making this up.  But in their defense, Bog Geldof and Paula Yates named their daughter Fifi after his aunt.  But Trixibelle?  They destined the poor girl to be a figure skater or porn star later in life.

5. Jermajesty

It's a fact of the world we live in that Jermain Jackson named his child, Jermajesty.  Are you sure he wasn't just trying to say, "Her Majesty," with a fat lip and a lisp?  

6. Moxy Crimefighter

Famed Vegas magician, Penn Jillette, cursed his child with the lovely (horrible) name Moxy, but decided to go the extra mile in soon-to-be-paternal-hatred with the middle name, Crimefighter.

7. Prince Michael and Prince Michael II, aka Blanket

Of course we don’t expect Michael Jackson the King of Weird (and Pop) to name his kids Bob and Ruth, but he went down a strange path, even for him.  His first son was named Prince Michael Jackson.  Ok, we’ve digested that.  Next up is Prince Michael Jackson II.  Huh?  That’s a George Foreman-esque naming!  Just so we can differentiate them, MJ elder nicknamed the II, “Blanket.”  So he has a kid who is called Blanket.  I suggest private school.  Very private.  

8. Tu Morrow

Rob Murrow, star of the popular TV show, Number3rs, even shocked the normally un-shockable celebrity world when he named his baby Tu.  What a dick.

9. Pilot Inspektor

Jason Lee, star of My Name is Earl, named his kid Pilot Inspektor after a song by the band Graddaddy.  He could have just name him Pilot and left it at that, but somehow Inspektor (with a K, not a C, dammit!) was deemed necessary. That’s just plain cruel.  You suck, JASON!

10. Moon Unit and Diva Thin Muffin

Ummmmm….Frank Zappa must have been on some serious drugs when he named two of his children Moon Unit, and then Diva Thin Muffin.  In comparison, his other two kids, Dweezil and Ahmet, have super conservative names - probably born while he was in rehab.

Here are some of the crazy celebrity names I actually like:

Ocean Whitaker (Forest Whitaker)

Rocket Rodriguez (Robert Rodriguez)

Maddox (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt)

Memphis (Bono)