Ty-DMusic.com: Musicscene 34

Fans say final 'farewell' to the late Singer /Actress Aaliyah Sept 7th

Fans the world over paid their last respects Friday (Aug 31tst) to the late singer/Actress Aaliyah who along with eight members of her entourage died in a plane crash in the Bahamas last Saturday (Aug 25th)

A private funeral was held for the fallen angel, with about 1,200 invitees in attendance at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan. A daylong memorial event was open to the public where her music and videos was played continuously from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Cipriani's 42nd Street on East 42nd St. in Manhattan,

Kevin Mack the funeral home's general manager said "The private funeral followed a procession of a glass-encased, horse-drawn carriage carrying Aaliyah's body from the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home on upper Madison Avenue to the church, Aaliyah (whose given name is Aaliyah Dana Haughton) had gone to the Bahamas to shoot her latest music video "Rock the Boat" the 2nd single from her self titled album now available on Blackground records.

An expert reports state the plane crashed due to it being over weight mostly due to video and camera equipment and that the total amount of passengers should of been 8 instead of 9. Aaliyah was just 22 years old.

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Billboard 1st Annual R&B Awards: the winner are...

The awards ceremony seems to be the theme recently, last week we had the 3rd Annual HipHop Source Awards and now this time around its Billboard's Magazine 1st Annual R&B/HipHop Awards that was held last Thursday (Aug 30th) in New York. The ceremony (the first of it's kind for the magazine) was based on actual performance on Billboard's weekly R&B/Hip-Hop and Rap charts since the start of the current chart year, utilizing sales data from SoundScan and radio information compiled by Broadcast Data Systems.

The biggest winner on the night was Musiq Soulchild who snagged 4 awards including Top Artist and Singles Artist. Picking up three honors was R. Kelly, who won for top album ("TP2.com"), Albums Artist (whatever that means), and songwriter. My girl Jill Scott was named Top Female Artist, while Outkast was named Top Duo or Group. Joe's track "Stutter" featuring Mystikal took top single

Here's the list of winner at the 1st Annual Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Awards:

Top R&B/hip-hop album: "TP-2.com," R. Kelly
Top R&B/hip-hop single: "Stutter," Joe featuring Mystikal
Top R&B/hip-hop artist: Musiq Soulchild
Top R&B/hip-hop artist - male: Musiq Soulchild
Top R&B/hip-hop artist - female: Jill Scott
Top R&B/hip-hop artist - duo or group: Outkast
Top R&B/hip-hop artist - new: Musiq Soulchild
Top R&B/hip-hop singles artist: Musiq Soulchild
Top R&B/hip-hop albums artist: R. Kelly
Top R&B/hip-hop single -sales: "Could It Be," Jaheim
Top R&B/hip-hop single - airplay: "Promise," Jagged Edge
Top rap album: "Hotshot, " Shaggy
Top rap single - sales: "What Would You Do?," City High
Top songwriter: R. Kelly
Top producers: The Neptunes
Top major label: Island Def Jam Music Group
Top independent label: Loud

(Source: Billboard.com)

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Q-Tip to release his own self-titled set.

We all know him as Q-Tip the former front man to the rap tribe we all know as A Tribe called Quest. A few years back he ventured out on his own with his debut set 'Amplified' on Arista, now he returns with his sophomore set for the label in 'Kamaal The Abstract' a 9 track piece that is close to the rappers' heart in the gender it was conceived.

The combination of jazz and rap has always intrigued Q-Tip (aka Kamaal) to bring to the table songs that move and groove you and this self titled set takes you in that direction. With jazz musicians Kenny Garrett (saxophone), Gary Thomas (sax, flute), and Kirk Rosenwinkle (guitar) on board in guest supporting roles 'Kamaal' is sure to please the loyalist of his fans (both young and old).

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Blaque is back with 'Can't get it back'

The trio known as Blaque returns to reep havoc on on the male gender once again. Blaque (which stands for Believe, Life, Achieving, Quest, Unity and Everything) features the singing talents of Shamari, Natina and Brandi who was discovered by TLC's Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes. Their latest effort 'Can't get it back' is not a bad R&B track that borrows from Evelyn King's 'We going to a party'

Taken from their forthcoming sophomore set 'Blaque Out' (Trackmasters/Columbia) this should get radio play across the boards and please their fans worldwide with the end result. No date for the album yet but its scheduled for an Oct/Nov release.