Mayor Lovely Warren announced in a press conference Thursday that The Rochester MusicFest has been re-tooled, re-branded, and re-named The Rochester Summer Soul Festival. The newly named festival will be handled by Xperience Live Events, LLC., a promotions and events planning company based in Maryland and founded by Rochester native Varick Baiyina. The festival will make […]
Rochester MusicFest
Posted inMusic
Twenty-five years in the life of Arrested Development
Few bands have had a better start than Arrested Development did in 1992, when its debut album, “3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of…,” sold four million copies and earned the group two Grammy Awards. Rolling Stone named Arrested Development its band of the year, and film director Spike Lee asked […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Hip hop and hypocrisy
On Saturday, July 8, I stood in the Frontier Field outfield, one of the roughly 4,500 people making up the MusicFest crowd. The vibe was up; everyone was enthused. I was surrounded by children — little kids, 7 or 8 years old at best — having a great time, dancing and bobbing to the DJ […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Metro ink – 4.12.06
ON THE MARCH Immigrants and citizens, peace activists and Hispanic community leaders, city officials and members of the faith community: some 250 people walked from the FederalBuilding downtown to a rally at St. Michael’s Church at North Clinton and Clifford Avenues on Tuesday, protesting proposed federal legislation imposing harsh penalties on immigrants who have entered […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Soularized
I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty charged up for the weekend of July 16 and 17 to roll around. If you haven’t heard about it, you should’ve. I think it’s going to be pretty big. Huge, even. No, I don’t work for the promotions committee of Rochester MusicFest. No, Mayor Bill didn’t slide […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Soularized
slowFlow’s jaythreeoh helps us sift MusicFest’s crunk, r&b, and hip-hop
Posted inSpecial Sections
Line up
Nina Sky While we haven’t heard much from these twins since “Move Your Body” was one of 2004’s hottest summer jams, this pair knows how to keep heads bouncin’ and booties shakin’. Nina Sky is best at straight-up club tracks, and if the duo’s debut album was any indication, they love making them. Bring an […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Young soul
There’s a soul consistency to John Legend’s musical brew, but his lyrics run from family man to pimp, from doomed to saved. “I’m certain there’s someone who doesn’t approve of what I’m doing at my church,” he says. “Some want you to go one way or the other, all the way gospel or all the […]
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Common grounded
Music artist Common says he’s come a long way since “drinking 40 ounces, talking about getting girls — you know, raw hip-hop.” “But, when you go through these experiences as a man,” he says, “you evolve. It’s always new because we evolve everyday.” The Chi-Town native delivered his out-of-breath thoughts on evolution as he walked […]
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Everyday people
Just your regular superstar everyman: Lyfe Jennings is out of jail and on your radio.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Can you say adobe?
When you think of local suburban housing, and you think of Penfield, you probably imagine row upon row of subdivisions, one house not much different from the next, with a couple of barns tossed in here and there the farther out you drive. Just ask me, I live there. Post-1960s suburban housing design lacked a […]
