Noughties via the 90's

I recently discovered Robin Thicke supported John Legend on the U.K leg of his tour. Gutted is my reaction after checking press details for the gig and deciding against purchasing tickets. I could have seen what Thicke is like live. After being encouraged by the incredibly catchy first single release Little Too Late which topped the AOL music charts (the embodiment of cutting edge music amongst young America) I gave Jojo's The High Road a listen. There is some good production and she has a good voice but most of the songs are samey. I decided to journey into the early 90's :

• Mary J. Blige- Real Love and Reminisce.


• Brandy- I wanna Be Down


• Dru Hill -In my Bed Remix featuring Jermaine Dupri and Da BRat is sick.


• Horace Brown- Things We Do For Love, One for the Money


• Mase feat. Total- Tell Me What You Want


• Boyz II Men


• Jade- Don't Walk Away


• Soul For Real- Candy Rain


• All -4-One- I Swear

I got goosebumps because the beautiful thing about music is it can define periods in our lives. For me it was getting into r'n'b and hip hop music. I remember my rap phase where I could recite the lyrics to the DMX albums and got the LOX album just to hear Jada Kiss rhyme. My taste has matured and expanded with age but I look back with amusement and embarrassment in some cases (3T?). A lot of modern r'n'b and hip hop is driven by sex, bling and empty arrogance. Neo-soul was supposed to be the saviour with Jaguar Wright, Jill Scott, Bilal et al doing much to write some wrongs. It seems the mainstream buying public like the superficial. I am visually blunted by most r'n'b videos- the club, the girls in the club, in the car, in the strip club, the pool etc.

After fighting my way through the hoards of shoppers I finished my Christmas shopping. Attention turns to new year's eve because last minute plans tend to be rubbish. Unless one of the boys (Hugh, Clive or any other hotties) invite me to be their plus one at some uber cool party I am fearful of the possibilities. Overpriced nights with drunk semi -comatose revellers bonded by the need to not spend new year alone.

I found myself reading my dad's December issue of Time magazine. The cover has a mirror reflecting the fact that the individual is the person of the year because we are responsible for the explosion in web 2.0-based web sites. The sites allow users to upload items on websites, a right previously exclusive to the web master. The growth of my space, youtube, friendster, hi5 and facebook are examples of the popularity of such sites. In the search for entertainment have we become consumers with nano attention spans, going to increasing lengths to amuse ourselves? Where will it stop? My Bum -hot or not? (R) trademark of jadefox05.blogspot.com and subsidiary companies.

A friend's dilemma reminded me that as women we want a guy in the middle who is not adverse to the possibility of meeting the parents at some point down the line (preferably before you elope) but not too eager. First date and there is talk of meeting the family=running as fast as your heels will take you. A sensible period of time is needed to establish you are a couple and get to know each other. Is this too much to ask?

I attended a friend's boyfriend's friend's girlfriend's house party. Past experience of people being incredibly nice to you despite your obvious gate crashing gave me confidence to do this. The desserts were amazing and the only thing that stopped my greed was the thought of being physically sick. A good time was had. Relatively early to bed and definitely not early to rise.

Photos: Robin Thicke , Jojo