SONG FOR THE MOMENT: PHARRELL WILLIAMS-ENTREPRENEUR Feat. JAY-Z

4/5

Black Power Matters.

TyAnthony Davis. Sounds like the 'brow of the Los Angeles Lakers Basketball player. Actually it's a teacher who reversed the fortunes of 20 schools in his district performing in the bottom 5%. Founding his own school like NBA LAL legend LeBron James with the promise of Vox Collegiate Junior High. "Your voice is power". Write that on the board like lines ten times. Pharrell said 'You Can Do It Too' on the Neptune's debut solo set 'In My Mind' complete with animated avatar. Can you have it like that? Let's do it. Tyler the Creator could. Doing it and creating his future that's still happening to this day. His honor list longer than a mixtape track one. Founding Honey's Kettle 20 years ago, Vincent and Arlene Williams expanded their family business with their children during this cruel COVID pandemic. Iddris Sandu at 23 has already wrote algorithms for apps like Snapchat, Uber and Instagram...now he's doing several for himself. Despite backlash Beatrice Dixon attribute the success of her feminine product line Honey Pot's to the success of other black women...but that backlash is the only thing that's toxic there. Here in Tokyo, Japan, brothers Arthell and Darnell Isom created the first black owned anime studio. Read that again. 'Insecure' actress Issa Rae began her Hollywood career filming a low budget web series in South L.A. Now on that same block she's building her own empire that's looking for the next star to shine in the city of them and angels.

It's only right now at this point too we take a moment of silence for Nipsey Hussle. And for Kobe Bryant. And for Chadwick Boseman.

Like Skateboard P with no skateboard shops in the hood, Neighbors Skateshop kicked and pushed like Lupe Fiasco. Now they cooooast. Running the city like Diddy, Alrick Augustine has followers like when Tom Hanks just felt like running as 'Forres Gump'. Designer. Rapper. Community activist. What more can you say like Jay-Z (he's here too)? Make sure you put some respect on Six Sev's name. And Chance Infinite. Who took the surname amount of money he earned in the music industry and brought Harun Coffee Shop to his community. Denise Woodward could have given up when 86 investors wouldn't Partake in her cookies of the same name,  but the 87th didn't. His name? Shawn Carter AKA Jay-Z. And if you want My Two Cents, check out Chef Alisa's vegan food that's good for the soul, the planet...and our four legged friends. Don't believe us? Why don't you ask one of their regular customers? His name is Barack. Working from home is the norm now, but Angela Richardson took some homemade cleaning supplies and turned them into a product line. Now sadly for something sobering. Black women are 3 to 4 times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy related complications. What can we do about this? Debbie Allen is looking into it and out for us after her own childbirth experience. Creating a safe space to give birth outside the hospital in the comfort of mother's own homes. As the CEO of Tribe Midwifery. Like the CEO of Miss Bennett Fitness. The CEO's of Black and Mobile. The CEO of Trill Paws Dog Accessories. The CEO of Third Vault Yarns back in London. The first black Valedictorian of Princeton. Now tap your temple to this. Can't make another meme when you're too smart for all that. Broadway star Robert Hartwell dances in front of a plantation were his ancestors were enslaved. It recently went up for sale. 400K, cash. He just bought it. Talk about taking the power back.

Compton Cowboys of California. Hugh Augustine's of Los Angeles. The Simply Wholesome Health Food Markets, dot com. The Soul Food House of Tokyo, Japan. The Nail XPerience of Paris, France. M.I.O. prints of Dublin, Ireland. Caked and Baked of Tel-Aviv, Israel. Umoga Production in Dublin, Ireland. Avila Diana Art of London, England. The Artisan Grower in Aberdeenshire, Scotland (YES!). The Maison Chateau Rouge of Paris, France. All these black businesses owned by all these black entrepreneurs are honoured in the video for Pharrell Williams new single, 'Entrepreneur', whose video means so much more like Childish Gambino's, 'This Is America', but today for a much more positive way. In the same day South Korean pop juggernaut BTS' explosive, 'Dynamite' single broke YouTube records, Pharrell and Jay-Z weren't 'Frontin''. Last week the pair who have changed clothes on more tracks than catwalks released the most beautiful and best the same day we got new albums from King of New York, Nas ('King's Disease') and the Las Vegas heartland strip of The Killers ('Imploding The Mirage') straight out of Sin City. But as the two most famous faces in urban music didn't even appear in their blockbuster collaboration video we all knew it meant more. They let their words and the work of their subjects do the talking. And boy do they sing like a Pharrell's falsetto. The 'Happy' go lucky hit maker who sang for 'Freedom' now leads a chorus in a time we're we need it now more than ever. The worst year of our lives in the new decade of 2020 that began with the tragic loss of Kobe and GiGi and has only yesterday seen the loss of the Black Panther, Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Thurgood Marshall in the amazing actor himself, Chadwick Boseman. A symbol we need right now raising a fist like what should be an Olympic podium and forming a cross like Wakanda Forever, or another King in number 23, taking a knee and paying tribute. Because Black Lives Matter and in a year were COVID-19 is taking even more lives we will keep saying it like all the names the evil disease of racism has took. All until they arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor and people like George Floyd no longer have to die using their last words to say, 'I can't breathe'. Singing for 'Hidden Figures' again like all the 'Marilyn Monroe' and 'Lost Queen's' this 'G I R L' record makers has before. Pharrell gives everyone their moment in one that feels as epic and euphoric as that getting familiar time he showed me and you that he could rap along to OutKast's 'Elevators' for a 'Maybe' freestyle remix by Clinton Sparks before those guitars came back in. Now watch us all react like he and we the first time we were introduced to 'Alaska' and a young N.Y.U student by the name of Maggie. Turning all the pain into all our power, Pharrell sings, "I am black ambition/I am always whisperin'/They keep tellin' me I will not/But my will won't listen," reminding us to "let go" and "risk it all" in call and response chorus if we "want to fly". Chanting, "black man" again and again as Jay-Z adds his two cents and bars, "Serial entrepreneur, we on our own/Stop sittin' around waitin' for folks to throw you a bone/If you can't buy the building at least stock the shelf (Word)/Then keep on stackin' 'til you stockin' for yourself, uh/See, everything you place after black/Is too small a term to completely describe the act/Black nation, black builder, black entrepreneur/You in the presence of Black Excellence and I'm on the board/Lord." God knows you should heed these words and watch this work. If you've got an idea run with it. Because you can do it too and "mister entrepreneur", "you never know what's in store". This is black ambition. Witness...and testify. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

REVIEW: THE KILLERS-IMPLODING THE MIRAGE

4/5

Casino Royale.

Exploding back on the Las Vegas strip like the Flamingo of Sin City, The Killers are back like somebody told you. Even if the glistening heartland neon lost in the 'Miss Atomic Bomb' deserts looks like a mirage. Imploding and losing more members than Ryan Adams is fans, The Killers are staring down the barrel, like Brandon Flowers was going solo again for 'The Desired Effect'. But you know this roulette town only really wins when your backs against the wall and you're rolling with your last hand. And what an ace in the hole this band can still play as the wheel turns. "Have all the songs been written?/Have all the truths been told?/Has all the gas been siphoned?/Do the banks still carry gold?" Flowers asked on the last track of the last album, the wonderful, 'Wonderful, Wonderful'. I guess not. As with "back to back with Springsteen" hope that was born to run from the sand to the sin of Nevada, he Tyson knockout gets back off the canvas with lasting lines like, "When the train returns to the rails/When the ship is back in the harbor/I will make you happy again/I can see it, I believe it," like making one last play for the one that got away. And in 'Imploding' and its mirage magnificent album artwork. From the opening heartland hallmark 'My Own Soul's Warning' track that is as traditional Killer as a knife and gun as the jacking guitar and vivid vocals burst out the chamber. To the classic closing title track epic after the perfect dreams dry precursor, that sounds so beautifully and goose pimpling 80's it could end a John Hughes movie, word to the freeze frame John Candy still. This is no death of a discography dynasty. Be still, The Killers are back and the 'Battle Born' boys still have chips and clips at their disposal in the Springsteen season of their songbook shelving classic career.

Glastonbury gassed up last year with all their direct hits with a shot at the Great British countryside night, Flowers and his Killers in bloom refused to wilt in the midsummer heat for a night's dream that showed he really was 'The Man' ("come round"). In a 'Hot Fuss' the band showed exactly why they can brag their bravado with singles from their showstopping set. What band aside maybe The Beatles can boast five of their most famous and biggest hits to open one album (aside maybe the 'Summer Girl', 'Now I'm In It', 'Hallelujah', 'The Steps' and 'Don't Wanna' of Haim if they put those singles in that order for their 'Women In Music Pt. III' album of the year) other than this former fab four? 'Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine' (like this writers idol sister will always be), the meme inducing 'Mr. Brightside', 'Smile Like You Mean It', 'Somebody Told Me' and 'All The Things That I've Done' for you soul soldiers. And don't forget, 'Andy, You're A Star'. Still, it's not like The Killers haven't had hits since then. They're only 'Human' in this 'Day and Age' ("or are they dancer"). There's the 'Bones' that read your mind in Tokyo, Japan, or 'Sam's Town'. Their Bowie age or solo 'Crossfire's'. And of course the whole 'Battle' reborn in the pull of the slots. But 'Souls Warning' is really Killer like their always classic clips for the post MTV, music video generation once it kicks in. The first of two minus the band like their actual line-up is hallowed Hollywood and Americana ground with a famous actor filling out the roll for this mini movie. But cut, print and wrap the lyrics like, "If you could see through the banner of the sun/Into eternity's eyes, like a vision reaching down to you/Would you turn away?/What if it knew you by your name?/What kind of words would cut through the clutter of the whirlwind of these days?" As constellations of American eagles and all the pretty horses as clear as the snow on this desert night stand on top of a pick-up like a stetson, you can see the rousing of their reputation come on up like the rising.

Constant craving. At Glasto The Killers brought out the Pet Shop Boys, Johnny Marr big guns and now this band increase their legend by collaborating with 'Miss Chatelaine' herself, Canadian singer/songwriter K.D. Lang for the standout 'Lightning Fields' that sounding as 80's as her could bring thunder to this canyon like a nuclear test that left all those old Americans lining up on the strip with excitement to Geiger see how radioactive they were (ahh innocence. Ahh Americans). The coolest collaboration since they put Woody Harrelson at the start of a record reciting a Bible verse....cheers. Even former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham gets his chance to shine in the background, unlike he does on his SNL sketch starring the funniest man alive, Bill Hader. What's up with that? But it's OK. Whilst "puts out a cigarette and gets on the bus", 'Blowback' is one of the strongest second songs on any album you've heard in ages from a band that knows that you can't just get out the gates early, you have to maintain the run. Like for one example U2's 'Elevation' off 'All You Can't Leave Behind' being followed by 'Stuck In A Moment That You Can't Get Out Of' for late INXS, greatest frontman of all-time, Michael Hutchence. One these Las Vegas aces like the WNBA team have been honing for almost twenty years. Two decades later and they're still the one. The last of a 'Dying Breed' like the Black Keys-esque beginning track that got this band of brothers is all Killer, no filler. The strong single along with the 'Caution' ("let me introduce you to the featherweight queen.") warning first one and the brimstone beat of 'Fire In The Bone' that is just too funky, is the flesh and blood of this band. "It's the most romantic song I've ever written", Flowers says of the ode to his 'Dying Breed' wife. "if you're looking for strong and steady/Well, baby, you found it/We'll weather the coldest night/Baby, we're a dying breed/When everyone's compromising/I'll be your diehard/I'll be there when water's rising/I'll be your lifeguard/We're cut from a stained glass mountain/Baby, we're a dying breed." This one wins the race for a man who loves fast and furious American muscle as much as bandana born Bruce biopic. The pace picks up even more as we're 'Running Towards A Place' we don't know as Flowers religiously sings, "give me the eyes so I can see." Weyes Blood infuses 'My God' with even more holy spirit, "crawling back to your arms" for a lead singer and his leather clad and hair cream outfit like a Presley throwback that has never been afraid to storm the gates of Graceland with their hearts on their rolled up Billy Fury sleeves. There's a resonate power in vulnerability, that's not insecurity but strength. Even 'When The Dreams Run Dry' like 'Have All The Songs Been Written' in closing for the last note "beating the birds to Acapulco Bay". Take it from me for the record, I don't know who needs to hear this but The Killers are still one of the greatest bands of our generation, or all time...and that's no mirage. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'My Own Souls Warning', 'Lightning Fields (Feat. K. D. Lang)', 'Imploding The Mirage'. 

REVIEW: NAS-KING'S DISEASE

4/5

Kingmatic. 

COVID-19 has crippled 2020 as the coronavirus still has ahold of our year. With cinemas closed and NBA games bubbled in quarantine, many artists are taking it back to locking themselves down in the studio. And 'Illmatic' rap legend Nas who is 'Stillmatic' with it has a 'King's Disease' like Laker LeBron James watching the throne like former rival Jay-Z. The G.O.A.T. who used to, "take Summers off because (he) loves winter beef" is back in this scorching season like '10 Points', as he scores like Mike from the free throw line with everyone holding up double digit cards. "King/Michael Jordan gives back and you didn't know it/Like LeBron does but it's just seldom they show it." The man who "started saying "Peace King" on (his) song 'The Flyest'" is back to write a book on his life...and do you think anyone will read it?! No f###### doubt! Loved like the great Malik Sealy, the one the players hate dearly is here for us in a time where life really is a bitch...but they're AZ's lines right?! More on that later. Its been a minute since we got a long play from Nas. Two years back he released the classic 'Nasir' in a seven track album series produced by Kanye West in an album of its times that still resonate now like the call to arms protest of, 'Cops Shot The Kid'. All from the voice of a generation we need right now in the Black Lives Matter movement as much as we need to arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor. Last year Nas also reeled off his long awaited 'The Lost Tapes 2' sequel. But if we're talking full length like a 'Live At The BBQ' verse it's been a long time since 2012's, 'Life Is Good'.

New York, New York, 'The Don' Nastradamus returns like it was all written in a new decade no one could have seen coming. He pays rest in peace respect to a man he once dissed in the late Laker great Kobe, aswell as the Los Angeles rapper who followed his inspirational take on the hip-hop genre like Tupac in Nipsey Hussle on 'The Cure' of an album that has so much to unpack like it's religious album artwork for a man who used to portrait his streets and the shelves with pictures of himself as a kid or Tutankhamen. The 'Streets Disciple' and 'God Son' is needed more than ever right now like when hip hop was dead. Because this resurrection is the King and disease or not, that will never be untitled like the album he tried to call the N word with attitude to make a social statement that matters like the back of NBA players jerseys right now. The crown is his too even on a Friday were we get new music from the heartland Vegas city sinners of The Killers for the 'Imploding The Mirage' record. Not to mention a new YouTube record breaking 'Dynamite' single from South Korean pop juggernaut BTS and a groundbreaking music video from 'Entrepreneur' Pharrell celebrating Black excellence featuring the man who was making 'Dead Presidents' back in the day with Nasir, Mr. Shawn Carter. Cue the, "is that everybody", "you wanted more" Doctor Strange and Wong, 'Avengers: Endgame' meme. But once the big beat of the opening title track comes into play we know whose going to be on repeat all the way until the same next week he knocks his opponents into. "I made the fade famous, the chain famous/QB on my chest match the stainless/Amazing Grace, I'm gracefully aging/Without masonry, I made more paper to play with/No rap in my playlist, sold dimes on my day shift (King)/So, can I breathe? Can I walk? Can I speak? Can I talk?/Can I floss without you wanting me outlined in chalk?" Can I live? Police and racist white America take note. This is one raised fist you can't unclench.

Lucky 13 for Mr. Jones. The big hitting Hit Boy production keeps knocking like these guys were rolling dice with Brandon Flowers in Sam's Town this weekend. 'Blue Benz' will have you top down riding on repeat, circling the block, it's so hot. Whilst 'Car #85' with Snoop Dogg's go-to soul chorus legend like crushed velvet, Uncle Charlie Wilson washes as one of the freshest things Nas has ever recorded. Hit Boy even makes a feature for the record on 'Ultra Black', rapping "We goin' ultra black/Raiders, Oakland hat, I smoke to that/Pre-rolls and 'gnac, what's the results to that?/C-notes and bags (Uh)/She knows I'm classy like I'm Billy Dee Williams/(Smooth)", landing like Lando in this solo star like Gambino's millennium falcon. It gets even hotter on' 27 Summers' like Jay-Z writing a letter to that season in retirement on Memphis Bleek's '534' for a record that will hopefully make the Rocafella giant dust off his mic and it can all be Ali and Frazier, Lakers and Celtics again for these Black Republicans taking over the government. Big guns in the form of Big Sean and Don Toliver are brought out on 'Replace Me', Brucie B on 'The Definition' and the amazing Anderson Paak on 'All Bad' that is all good. Showing Nas has been keeping his ear to the street and the times a'changin' as raps Dylan worked on his great American book of rhymes. But it's the soulful sample of 'Til The War Is Won' featuring Lil Durk that is the most inspiring and influential streaming stroke from the iconic artist in calendars. As the 'Daughters' poet illustrates everything from his fallout with Kelis to the community as a whole saying, "Let's see where the black family at/We need each other, with bad tempers, we defeat each other/Single mothers, my heart's bleeding for you/These coward men, that were beating on you (Never me)/Let's silence them, with a silencer/For the violence of relationships/Hold your head up, don't take that shit, run away from it/I shoulda ran away myself, the amount of pain I was dealt/And I'm a man, my job is to help." Say no more. This says it all. Still on an album of big moves and collabos like the A$AP Rocky and Fivio Foreign, 'Spicy' bonus, our Firm favourite concerns the fiasco of another reunion we hope leads to another comeback album in collaboration...even if the good doctor says the first one was a flop. Once everything comes 'Full Circle' with what we said was coming in AZ and Cormega you really know what's on the way for a pivotal hip-hop moment. The second Foxy Brown breaths on the mic you know it's on like an old Lil' Kim beef for all you Nicki and Cardi's. And just wait until you hear who comes after. Moments like this are what make hip-hop and now Nas is coming we hope this one lasts forever. Tap your phones because the God M.C. has answered the call. King back, cutting a hell of a deal, this is one disease were we don't want the cure. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Blue Benz', 'Til The War Is Won (Feat. Lil' Durk), 'Full Circle (Feat. The Firm)'.