First of December: Bryan's Journey…

This is at a dinner honoring L.A. Reid at the W Hotel Buckhead in Atlanta.

“Never Give You Up” Raphael Saadiq featuring Stevie Wonder & CJ [Columbia]

First of all I’d like to say that this is some of the most refreshing music I have heard in a long time. V-103 has been playing this joint for a minute. Everytime I hear this song it re-installs my faith in the fact that “real” music never dies. This is like a perfect mixture of Marvin Gaye, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Ray Parker, Jr. & the 60’s Motown sound! The artist that is featured on this album happens to be a great friend of mine, his name is CJ. The nigga is the truth, he has so much soul. He is gonna be next to blow & the dude is a tough musician/producer. And of course, the Legendary Stevie Wonder plays harmonica on this. Ray never fails when he makes albums. Been a big fan since the first Tony, Toni, Tone’ album and I am very grateful to call him a friend. This song moves me emotionally.

God. LOVE. Life. Music. [SOUL]
-BMC

Here is a random pic from the club about a week ago that someone took of us in the club. I thought it was kinda hot so, I wanted to post it. I want to give a big shout out to all of the “LIFERS” out there. Thank you for your support and MAKE SURE YOU COP THAT OCEAN’S MIXTAPE WHEN IT COMES OUT!!!!!!!

Ocean’s Baby,
Leon Phelps, The Texas Ranger!

Here is a new installment of “Living The Life” with Trey Songz performing at the BMI Showcase the other night. Hope yall enjoy.

Big shouts to my boy Eddie “Skeeter Rock” Weathers. Happy birthday doc. We had a blast on Wednsday at Door 44!!!!!!

“Slow Down” Loose Ends [Virgin/MCA Records]

This song reminds me of my Auntie Jacquie. She loved this group and turned everyone in the family on to them. This album Zagora came out in the states in 1986. Loose Ends is a british based band and Zagora was their second album [first album was crazy too].
Today Jay Cee played “Stay A Little While Child” [also from the Zagora album] in the mix and I instantly got emotional. It took me back to a time of innocence that I will never get back (LOL). But I think of my young mother and her sisters living life, growing up as adults, & rasing me and my cousins. And the hard but great times we had growing up. These songs take me back to that time. I love my family…

God. Love. Life. Music. [Contemplating...]
-BMC

If you love music like I do, you should definitely check out my homie DJ Jay Cee’s blog at eargasms.podomatic.com!! Here is the newest installment of Eargasm! Click here: DJ Jay Cee presents Eargasms Volume 2. I always happen to be in my car around 12 noon and I always catch his Afternoon Delight on V-103. Today was so impressive, I had to blog about it. For me, music evokes a certain emotion and everytime I hear his mix it takes me all the way down memory lane. I remember a lot of these songs because my Mom was an extreme music fan. Like I have always said, we had albums before we had groceries sometimes. This is where I get my love for the music from. The way Jay Cee merges the old school joints with more recent joints is dope too. This installment is about an hour long but the music is so dope, time will fly!

God. Love. Life. Music. [& I am bringing synthesizier solos back]
-BMC

The homies Day 26 came in #2 on the Hot 200 Billboard Album Chart and #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Album Chart by selling 115,209 copies of their sophmore album “Forever In A Day”! Big ups to Robert, Mike, Will, Que, & Brian much success!!!!

God. Love. Life. Music. [Bad Boy Baby, take that...]
-BMC

Big shouts to the homie Andre Harris. He did this artwork and sent it to me. I thought it was dope & I really appreciate the fact that he is a LIFER!!! Here is a little about the artist:

Andre is a graduate of The Art Institute of Atlanta and The American Intercontinental University, He has established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the art world. Born in Norfolk, Va., Andre’s creations center around the complexity of the human figure, while his unique sense of color and dramatic composition put his paintings in a class by themselves.

“Purple Rain” Prince & The Revolution [Warner Bros. Records]

Instead of me giving you facts about the recording of this album and movie, which is something that I could easily do from the purple notebook that Prince first started jotting down ideas for the movie to the infamous “Lake Minnetonka” scene being filmed in 20 below weather and how they had to film it two parts, her jumping in the lake in Minnesota and her coming out of the lake a couple of weeks later in Los Angeles. I could talk about how the song “Purple Rain” came about and how there was a homeless lady outside of the Revolution’s rehearsal warehouse who single handedly witnessed the birth of this phenomenal song. I could even talk about how Prince fired Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis from The Time during the filming but I am not gonna do that. I’ll just tell you my personal experience and attachment to this movie and soundtrack:

The year was 1984, I was 6 years old and had just come back from living with my grandparents for a year in Miami to Houston to be with my mother. My mom had a best friend at the time whom I called Auntie LJ. Auntie LJ had a son who was probably 10 years older than me. This particular night my mom and Auntie LJ went out and of course Tajee who was my Aunt’s son was left to handle the babysitting duties. So my mom and Auntie LJ dropped us off to the movies [Cinema 6, for all of my Missouri City, Tx. people!] to see Breakin’ [part 1]. Of course I thought that movie was incredible. Turbo & Ozone killed it in that joint. But I REALLY wanted to see Purple Rain, but there was no way my mom was going to let me see that movie at that age. BTW, at 6 I was completely obsessed with Prince & Michael Jackson! So after Breakin is over, we go outside to see if our parents had come back for us. We waited a little while and then Tajee turns to me and asks me the very question I had been hoping he would ask me all night, “Say little man, you wanna go see Purple Rain?” I couldn’t say yes fast enough. So we snuck back into the movies to watch Purple Rain. First of all, it was like being at concert! The theatre was packed and people were on their feet the entire time!!! Just imagine my second two movies in a movie theatre were Breakin’ & Purple Rain! [My very first movie was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan] Nevertheless, it was felt like my first concert. My first crush was in full effect [Appollonia]. And I knew right then and there that this was my destiny. Music. As an adult now I see all of the references he made to God, and of course now we know that this movie was really based closely to his life. Funny how certain things will always stay with you. My Purple Rain experience is one of those things!!!

God. Love. Life. Music. [& my Darling Nikki]
-BMC