http://www.theboombox.com The Boombox Music Blog http://www.theboombox.com en-us Copyright 2012 Blogsmith, LLC. The contents of this headlines and excerpts feed are available for limited commercial distribution. You may repost this feed to your site provided you link back to the original story, do not edit the material, and do not remove this copyright notice. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.theboombox.com/2009/04/28/mike-jones-returns-with-a-new-number-and-voice/http://www.theboombox.com/2009/04/28/mike-jones-returns-with-a-new-number-and-voice/http://www.theboombox.com/2009/04/28/mike-jones-returns-with-a-new-number-and-voice/#comments
Don't look now but Houston repper/rapper/self-promoter extraordinaire Mike Jones is back with his long-awaited second release, 'The Voice.' It's been a while since Jones graced the masses with his double-platinum 2005 debut 'Who is Mike Jones?' and although his career never reached the heights he seemed destined to achieve between efforts, the number-whoring artist (he has a different cell number this time around) stuck to his considerable guns and proved to doubters in all corners of the hip-hop loving world that they haven't heard the last of the former Swishahouse staple. "Politics and bullshit kept me a way from yall, and kept me away from the game" he pronounces in the intro. "But now I'm back, and y'all able to hear the voice of who? Mike Jones..." ...

And that we do. But not without a little help.

The likes of T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Twista ('Cuddy Buddy'), Trey Songz ('I Know'), Hurricane Chris ('Drop & Gimme 50'), and Devin the Dude ('Give Me a Call') more than capably deputize for Jones on the mic booth, while Big E, Mike D, Jim Jonsin, Essay Potna, and Mr. Collipark set the tone with bouncy, bubbly beats that will keep heads nodding and bodies sweating on club and party dance floors all summer.

A significant step up from from his 2007 EP release, 'The American Dream,' 'Voice' hits high notes with 'Scandalous Hoes' -- an introspective T-Pain-laced creation -- and 'Swag Thru Da Roof,' featuring Swole, while Drop & Give Me 50 with Hurricane Chris marks summit, percolating like a caffeinated chihuahua to Mr. Collipark's irresistible production.

Jones had been gone for a while, due to label issues and the murky waters that sometimes characterize the music business, but he's emerged stronger from his trials to show, once again, his voice can never be silenced.]]>1513951mike jonesMikeJonesEthan DonaldsonTue, 28 Apr 2009 16:30:00 ESThttp://www.theboombox.com/2009/03/24/jim-jones-talks-frienemies-and-big-bucks-on-pray-iv-re/http://www.theboombox.com/2009/03/24/jim-jones-talks-frienemies-and-big-bucks-on-pray-iv-re/http://www.theboombox.com/2009/03/24/jim-jones-talks-frienemies-and-big-bucks-on-pray-iv-re/#comments
Pigeonholing Jim Jones is about as easy as nailing Jello to the wall. The Bronx-born, Harlem-raised exec/rapper/promoter/playwright/ whatever else he wants to be seamlessly transitions through a number of different titles and responsibilities with an ease and aplomb that would leave President Obama impressed. And if rapping, perhaps, isn't the best-fitting of his many and varied hats, Jones is astute enough to surround himself with plenty of capable mic help and some slick production when it comes time to create an album, and his latest release, 'Pray IV Reign,' proves no different. Partly constructed as the soundtrack to Jones' two-day off-Broadway play 'The Hip-Hop Monologues: Inside the Life and Mind of Jim Jones,' Reign tackles a myriad of topics from the loss of friend and Byrd Gang crew member Stack Bundles ('My My My'), stormy relationships with Cam'ron and Max B ('Frienemies'), to flaunting all the gloriousness and success 'Capo' has achieved in his remarkable career ('Na Na Nana Na Na'). ...

Recruited to help the musical cause in this, Jones' most ambitious and inspired album to date, are the likes of No I.D., Chink Santana, Ron Browz, and Ryan Leslie. While Ludacris, Juelz Santana, NOE, and Rell help with some of the heavy lifting in the booth in the follow-up to Jones' wildly successful 2006 release Hustler's P.O.M.E.

The album hits high notes with the 'How to be a Boss,' 'Rain,' 'This is the Life' and 'My My My,' where the Harlem jack-of-all-trades confidently asserts: "They shootin', so we must be on top" ... a familiar place for Jones, who continues to defiantly fly high, above and beyond all labels, classifications, and expectations.

Listen to Full CD

]]>2160800jim jonesJimJonesEthan DonaldsonTue, 24 Mar 2009 18:30:00 ESThttp://www.theboombox.com/2009/03/17/capone-n-noreaga-want-you-to-tune-in-to-channel-10/http://www.theboombox.com/2009/03/17/capone-n-noreaga-want-you-to-tune-in-to-channel-10/http://www.theboombox.com/2009/03/17/capone-n-noreaga-want-you-to-tune-in-to-channel-10/#comments
Nas confidently boasts in his now-classic intro, Queens Get the Money, "I'm over their heads, like a bulimic on a seesaw." And while you won't find hip-hop quotables quite on the level of the gifted Mr. Jones', fellow Queens natives and hip-hop vets Capone -N- Noreaga have forged their own successful path in the game with a decidedly more straightforward and thugged-out approach. First debuting in 1997 with the impressive and much-acclaimed 'The War Report,' and continuing with 2000's aptly titled 'The Reunion,' the duo from Queensbridge and LeFrak City, N.Y., respectively, have always stuck to their street-wise guns, and 'Channel 10' -- the oft-incarcerated group's latest effort named after the tenth track on 'Report' -- is more of the same. Enlisted to help with mic duties this time around are heavyweights such as Busta Rhymes ('Rotate'), Mobb Deep ('Wobble'), Clipse, and Tha Dogg Pound ('My Hood') to name a few, lending star power and different voices to an otherwise indistinguishable collection tracks. ...

'Follow the Dollar' is by far the most ambitious, sounding like a leftover production from Kool Keith's Automator-laced 'Lost in Space' album. But it works, and provides a welcome and creative deviation that stands out considering its company.

'Beef' bangs with all the intensity of a pull-no-punches prison flick and finds CNN at their grimy best, growling cautionary tales on the game and all its pitfalls. And "United We Stand" is a strangely-uplifting offering defiantly proclaiming neither Capone or Noreaga has retirement plans in sight for the future.

But the title track proves the most instructive. In case anyone harbored hopes that '10' would prove a change in course for the group after such a long layoff, the gangster-obsessed MCs set the record straight from the outset:

"I think the world wanna know, where CNN done been/ Still holding it down, still Channel 10."

Enough said.]]>1181726Capone -N- NoreagaCapone-n-NoreagaEthan DonaldsonTue, 17 Mar 2009 16:30:00 EST