I can't be the only one who feels this way.

I ABSOLUTELY love Beyoncé. I defended her choice back in the day  to give Farrah, Latavia and Letoya the sparkly, animal- print Mama Tina boot. I supported her when she left DC and learned all the words to Dangerously in Love and still butcher it in the shower from time to time. She's everything I kinda want to be but I know that I would never try because I'd hate myself for it because no one can ever be her. That's without a doubt. And I thought I'd give a biased positive review of her latest album 4 because of it, but c'mon, son, I can't even deny how crappy it sounds!
To me, it's like her producer said "Hey Beyoncé, I got a whole bunch of beats for your album, you don't have to listen to them, trust me. They're good. Just write the songs, you know what,  Don't even write any songs, just sing what you feel when you get in the booth." This music lacks melody, and the lyrics sound under arranged.Take "Countdown" for example. It's a mess of horns  and then this snare just comes out of nowhere in the hook, at least I think the part where she is counting down is the hook. And then "End of Time," I think she ran out of lyrics and decided to just keep saying "Say you'll never let me go/Say you'll never let me go/Say you'll never let me go" Seriously? What inspired this album? It makes me sad. Especially since I am positive they will get major airplay and no one will even question the weakness of this album. As long as Beyoncé keeps making good videos and having great performances.
Honestly, I respect Beyoncé in all aspects; her image, her performance quality, her voice- everything but her weak lyrics and her continual decline in production choices. After B'day things have gone downhill. Sasha Fierce had decent beats and catchiness, so I enjoyed Sweet Dreams, Put a Ring on it, Diva, etc. (the I Am... part was another story. I hated it.) But 4 seriously needs help. I can't even name one song I like. There are lesser evils, like "Party" ft. Kanye West & Andre 3000, "Best Thing I Never Had"and "I Was Here". But that's all I can say. I probably wouldn't like those songs if they had better songs surrounding them. This album was subpar at best. What happened Beyoncé? Is it the new management? Mathew, for the love of pop music please come get your daughter!

This album gets 2 stars to Sasha Fierce's 3.5 and B'day's 5.

The Theophilus London Concert

Photo by Nathan Bajar

was pretty cool the other night. Brooklyn Museum however, is not the place for concerts. It was tight and hot, the acoustics were crap, and the level of the ground made seeing the low ass stage very difficult. Not to mention whoever was in charge of audio should have turned Theophilus's mic way up. There was a live band doing instrumentals for his songs, which made his performance of "Flying Overseas" sound amazing with the guitar. The bass sounded so dope for "Why Even Try"also. And when he performed "GIRLS, GIRLS $" the crowd went WILD turkey.

He gave out a bunch of free T-shirts and Hats, they even made it rain on the audience with real money. Theophilus came out in a sparkly hat and jacket looking like a smoother version of Flavor Flav. And one girl said "He is so sexy to me," The things a flashy suit and some swag can do for a man. I'm tellin' ya. And the audience seemed to share his level of style. All the boys were intermittently chanting "SWAG,SWAG,SWAG!"  Someone said every girl in there was a 10. He was right. The guys looked good, but the girls looked great. As a whole, Brooklyn sure knows how to do it.

***

Photo by Nathan Bajar

So my sister and I were in the audience trying to figure out how I could give him the "Lovers" bracelet I had made him. We were in the back of the room contemplating when these girls near us said, "just go up there, he's mad cool about it." We pushed our way to the front, along with a bunch of other girls rushing the stage,  and we finally made our way up and got to go on stage :). We were dancing and then I pulled the black bracelet out and yelled " I made this for you!" I shoved it in his hand and he put it in his pocket. Then I jumped off stage and ran back to the girls who encouraged me to go up there. They were on a platform dancing. I joined them and gave one of them the white "lovers" bracelet. 
The next day my sister tweeted Theophilus about the bracelet and he replied:

Feels good, man.