So my cohorts here at GFM are brave enough to give me the greenlight on a series that has been brewing under the surface for a while. Yes, I profess to be one of those folks Quincy Jones has described as a “hater” who just sits around in the basement with their pants down or something to that effect. You got me Q that’s what I do.
In this series I search high and low for those moments in music that shouldn’t make it out of the bathroom. Hell, sometimes the output just needs to be flushed on the for real(no, there’s not a Huggy Lowdown wait for it moment here). Sometimes it’s the performance, sometimes it’s the production you just never know what you might find in the bathroom, we just know that whoever is in there shouldn’t come out until it they are ready. They might need another 35-45 mins.
So it gives me great pleasure to inaugurate this series with one of my faves from this year “Champagne Life” by Ne-Yo. Like in the good old days of American Bandstand, “Champagne Life” has a good beat and I can dance to it. I actually like the arpegiatted strings in the track because it reminds me of another one of my faves from back in the day “The Boy Is Mine” no sarcasm I’m being serious here. So it’s not all hate today.
Ne-Yo is receiving our first TP award on the merits of his vocal performance. Quite honestly the key is so high, he sounds like he is going to hurt something and may need to medical attention. So congrats to Ne-Yo for being our inaugural “bathroom” artist! This square’s for you!
Who needs a Grammy when you can put on your bio that you won a TP?
Ivan Orr is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and writer. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia Ivan was involved with the forming and nascent days of The Music Resource Center as its first Program Director. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Music, Ivan currently resides in Richmond, VA where he maintains an active performance and production schedule while serving as the Music Editor for Grown Folks Music, a position he has held since 2010.
