According to EM, Music
connoisseurs who love a good underdog story can look no further than the soul
duo, Lady. Individually they are
known as Nicole Wray and Terri Walker.
Wray is a former protégé of Missy Elliott and scored a hit with “Make It Hot” in 1998 and then
quickly disappeared from the spotlight. Walker
has released four hit albums in the United Kingdom without much mainstream
success in the U.S. Looking back on her journey through industry challenges, Wray realizes that much of it was due
to naïveté.
“Out of
desperation I was hooking up with the wrong team that didn’t get what I could
do and that hindered me. This industry is fast paced and nobody has the
patience to nurture you. I was young and a fish out of water. I would have
listened to me more and voiced my opinion,” she says.
On their
self-titled debut album they are doing things their way by incorporating the
pop of Motown, grit of Stax and edge of hip-hop as they touch on themes such as
coming-of-age, perseverance, love and friendship. Now with critical acclaim and
a return to the spotlight some of those who passed on them before are reaching
out and the ladies hold no grudges. “Of course people will come back and maybe
at that time they couldn’t do anything but we won’t be mad,” says Walker. “We are very realistic but
people could have let us know the truth at the time so that we didn't have
disillusions. Now we want to do it our way. Everything has to come from a real
place for us.”
From soul
to pop we move on to the 17th Annual Pop Awards presented by
SESAC, the nation's fastest growing performing rights organization.
At the grand New York Public Library, celebrities including Michelle Williams, Swizz Beatz, Melanie Fiona and producer Rico Love came out to
celebrate all things pop. Williams, a
former Destiny’s Child member,
shared that despite working on a forthcoming gospel album she refuses to choose
between the pop and gospel world. “I feel like I love all types of music and to
me my responsibility is the message. So whether that’s me talking about what I
dealt with love, broken relationships, depression or whatever—you can call that
gospel, R&B or country. I just love music and never want to be in a box,”
she says.
Beatz had a busy week as following the SESAC awards he
partnered with the Bronx Charter School for the Arts to celebrate its tenth
anniversary at the posh venue, Marquee.
The
annual charity art auction event was a success as it raised over $200k for arts
and academic programming. The funding will support the school’s extended-day
learning and academic intervention programs, which assists students with
academic challenges that are too often underserved.
Raising
funds and awareness is the mission for award-winning filmmaker, Nicholle La Vann. Her documentary
project, which is in development, titled Living
Legendz explores the lives of icons such as controversial professor Dr. Leonard Jeffries, self-professed
“evolved” Black Panther member Jamal
Joseph and Abiodun Oyewole,
founding member of spoken word collective The Last Poets. To complete the project she has started a
fundraising campaign driven by her desire to share stories rarely heard in
mainstream media.
“As an artist and activist it's my responsibility to pay homage
to my elders by preserving our rich history,” she says. “It's my passion to
bring consciousness back and not allow our history to be a taboo subject. I
have learned thus far from my subjects how important their passion was to their
culture and community.”
And if you’re an unsung talent like Wray and Walker but instead want to shine as a
model and not a singer, then check out the Harlem Week modell call.
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