"The Show is Over"

Soul Session outro right here.  Classic debut from Evelyn 'Champagne' King.  She was discovered singing "A Change is Gonna Come" (Sam Cooke) while vacuum cleaning at Philly International Records. 

"You have to live life to know it..." -Champagne

Here's Champagne King in 82', the sounds of my first years:
| 'Love Come Down' | YOUTUBE*

Video has been removed.

"The Truth (Kansas Years)"

The 08' Championship for Pierce & the Celtics was unlike any other I'd ever seen.  They smashed the East in 2010.  Out of revenge for the Finals I was giving my best in NBA Live (PS3) vs. my younger brothers' Magic and Laker picks but lost in double elimination.  This afternoon ran a search on The Truth.  Above is a video from his alma mater.  As they do @ Slam Online 'For Old Time's Sake'. 

"From Darkness to Light"

A part of my interest in photography is inspired by the shots of family and friends (past and present).  The photograph above is courtesy of Jus aka B.Gravity (Hov) (shots taken cross country).       

"Peddlin' Music on the Side"

"Peddlin' music on the side

Trying to find a place in the Top 100

Peddlin' music on the side

Praying fortune

Will let me ride

I got a little job, don't earn much money

They said my future would be bright

But it looks far from sunny

I sing my songs in shady places

Trying to impress a crowd

with unimpressed faces

Working hard trying to build a name

Peddlin' music is a mighty tough game

Don't wanna be no prince of sound

Just wanna decent life for the love I found

(That's why I'm)

Peddlin' music on the side

Trying to find a place in the Top 100

Peddlin' music on the side

Praying fortune

Will let me ride

The woman I love and some day wanna marry

She deserves something better

Than just another load to carry

Love is beautiful but it needs support

Without security the trip is short

(That's why I'm)

Peddlin' music on the side

Trying to find a place in the Top 100

Peddlin' music on the side

Praying fortune

Will let me ride..."

-Lamont Dozier (1977)

Who's Still Listening to Vinyl?

CNN Report by Carly Costello: click here

"My Vinyl Weighs a Ton"

HipHopDX Interview w/ DJ Danny Dann the Beat Mann: click here

"More Than Words Can Say"

One of my all time favorite LP covers featuring WAR/The Lowrider Band harmonica musician, Lee Oskar. The Art Direction is credited to Ron Coro, illustration by Joe Garnett and concept by Lee Oskar. All seven tracks are 100%. Check out Jimmie Spheeris story on restoring one of Coro's cover designs (click here). I recall the landscape of a dream I had as a kid taking the form of Weather Report's Black Market LP cover art. Not too long ago, Waxpoetics released a text titled Cover Story, Album Cover Art and are soon to release Cover Story, Volume Two: Odd, Obscure, and Outrageous Album Art. More information is available at waxpoetics.com ..."Every album cover tells a story."

"Orangutan"

"Nick Moir's Story"

Sydney Morning Herald Post Photos 1440

Video: click here

"Shining Stars"

I've been around records since my born day through my mother and father and been a collector on my own for almost a decade now. I dug for records more so when I was doing radio in between 2000 and 2008, but lately, I've had the chance to get away on a lunch break or annual leave to shuffle through crates, cardboard boxes and the shelves of Goodwills, the Salvation Army, Thrift Stores, garage/estate sales, and what's become one of my favorite stops, All That Music in EP, TX. It's where I found the Manhattans record above, the cover catching my eye with all the flying LPs. I'm not much about collecting for value or rarity and with a taste for various genres, its opened up the chance to collect just about anything wherever I go including LPS, .45s, cassettes, & used CDs. In my opinion there is no documentation like the soul of music. As a collector, listener & fan of many of these artist, the process never gets old. Walking into a store, flipping through the top lining of unique LP covers, stopping at that one record you've never seen before, studying the details of the cover, the credits, and your imagination running with the titles of songs, some you're familiar with, others you know you've never heard.

From time to time, I like to post album covers. Just cause.

"S200EXR (2010)"

A new era of photography. Upgraded my digital camera after five years with S5200. Posts will include shots from the new Fuji lens.

"Basketball in the Barrio (2010)"

"Boxing"

"Trek Life, Oddisee & a Fuji-Cam"

2010's Open Stage headline at NMSU. Been a fan of Oddisee's music since hearing DJ Jazzy Jeff's The Magnificent in 02'. Caught a listen of Trek Life's album during my time at KRUX 91.5 fm. Talked to them both for a sec before the show and Oddisee asked what kind of camera I was holding. Turns out he also works a Fuji-Cam. Props to two great MCs. Below are clips of more video, photography and a soulVerse gallery.

YouTube & Photos: click here

"...giving the sense that the lenses were only part of a clever disguise, that the eyes need no help, that they suddenly see everything." -Robert Penn Warren


From Malcolm X; As They Knew Him
Section Titled: 'Chickens, Snakes & Duck Eggs' (p. 149)*
by David Gallen

Robert Haggins
(Malcolm's Photographer)

"When the black Muslim leaders, increasingly jealous of Malcolm's exposure in the press, wrested the NOI newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, from Malcolm's control and moved it out of the basement of his house in Queens to their national headquarters in Chicago, they also demanded the negatives of all the photographs the paper had printed. "So Malcolm had to come to me and ask me for all my negatives," Robert Haggins recalls. "It hurt him, it really hurt, to do that. He looked at me and said, 'I hate to ask you, because I know photographers don't like to surrender their negatives.' I gave up all of them. He never forgot that, and every chance he got to pay me back for that he did. When he went to Florida and that famous photograph of his family was taken there, he mailed the undeveloped film to me, so I could claim the photographs. I wasn't even there, but I own the negatives. I have a right to sell those pictures only because of what Malcolm did for me."

"And then," Haggins continues, "when he came back from Mecca, he gave me the bag that he had carried all the way into Mecca. I've got that bag here. And he gave me his camera, I have that camera here. So I have his camera, I have his bag. I'm going to give his camera to his daughter Attallah, I told her I would give it to her, and I want her to have it. But the bag I'm going to keep. That bag went all the way to Mecca. It's up in that closet, and he gave it to me and it's been up in that closet for twenty-five years. It's an old green bag, and it's something that he wanted me to have. So, Malcolm was a good friend of mine, and I tried to serve him with the best means possible..."

"He was quite a man, believe me. He taught me how to live. For me Malcolm was the tallest tree in the forest." (p. 96-97)

-Robert Haggins


From Malcolm X; As They Knew Him
by David Gallen

"Coach Rus & Nolan Richardson"

"Records"

"Chargers"

"Jamel Shabazz"

One of my photography influences.