Keri Hilson tends to be a “watercooler” topic for me and my buddy Opaul to discuss at The Round Table. Basically, it boils down to both of us wanting more from Keri and for her not to fall into what we affectionately call the “Christina Milian trap.”
The Christina Milian trap is essentially being pigeon-holed into a songwriter who gives all her hot tracks to other female performers and blow up their status. Keri Hilson is definitely going down this track as of late — which is sad because I had such high hopes for her after catching her during Justin Timberlake’s FSLS tour. During the show’s intermission, Timbaland had Keri cover current hits of the moment, including Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You Been Gone” aka SUBG.
Now, SUBG was covered by everyone from Robyn, The Gossip, Ted Leo, and even The Aquabats, but what set Keri’s rendition apart was the subtle R&B touch. The beat is pretty generic, standard Timbaland fare, but it works. Peep Keri’s version below. In the meantime, I’ll take some solace in that Keri’s starting to release moderately good tunes in “Knock You Down” and “Turnin Me On” (remix), but I’m still waiting on her to full on SING a damn track vs. relying on catchy beats to do the talking.
I know I had some fun with the whole Rihanna/Chris Brown saga on my last post, but really that isn’t representative of how I really feel about the incident – truly it’s been weighing heavy on my heart. I was headed up to Boston for a work trip really early the other day and I had this sensation that I needed to write about it.
While waiting for my train to depart, I started penning a post at The Round Table entitled ” ‘Rehab:’ Foreshadowing of Rihanna’s Abuse?” At first, I wasn’t sure where it came from. I mean, I have been listening to a ton of Rihanna as of late – but couldn’t figure out why until after I had an exchange with my friend and fellow writer, AP, who put what I was feeling into perspective.
I started thinking about those robotic tendencies, a certain coldness I once bashed her for, and all of a sudden it clicked and made sense (or at least in my mind) that maybe this is much deeper than just an isolated event.. Again, all the facts aren’t out there yet, so I don’t want to speculate too much, but still I’m intrigued.
This morning I was on my favorite gossip site, ONTD, when I saw this vlog from IllDoctrine.com called “Beyond Chris and Rihanna,” where he sits down with VIBE writer, Elizabeth Mendez Berry, for persepctive on the situation. Mendez-Berry penned the piece called “Love Hurts – ‘Rap’s Black Eye’” which asks the question: How much is hip hop’s culture to blame for violence on women? She explored personal accounts of wives of hip hop stars, most notably the story of Liza Rios, the wife of the late Big Punisher.
Mendez-Berry was careful in choosing her words regarding Chris and Rihanna, like we all are, but still she brings to light a pretty alarming statistic “the number one cause of death for women ages 15-45 is intimate partner homicide by men.” She admits to not be so concerned with the Chris/Rihanna story vs. the story of millions of women nationwide who don’t receive the attention they should. It’s a pretty eye-opening look at the situation – you can check it out below.
