http://youtu.be/9EQ256YNyYU

JMG Interview’s Mr. Vegas-Part l

Your new album is it dedicated to the 50^th anniversary of Jamaica’s Independence?

Mr. Vegas: My album is not only dedicated to the 50^th anniversary, it is also dedicated to those who have paved the way in the music Myself and Mike Bennet started out doing a few songs that he thought suited my voice and my style, songs like ‘’Tek it easy’’, ‘’Sweet and Dandy’’, just a few songs that he could hear Mr. Vegas singing and a way for me to step away from the everyday dancehall songs. It went so well that I decided to do a full album and of course we knew about the 50^th anniversary of our independence was coming up so we started doing songs with that concept . Most of the songs that we did like ‘’Cherry O baby’’ in which we used back the beat and Jimmy Cliff ‘’you can get it if you really want’’, songs that we grew up on, songs that helped to create the foundation of the music and of course still able to relate to our independence

Is Mr. Vegas the same person on twitter as in person?

Mr. Vegas: Yes, I am the same person I am not the type of person to say something and then hide when you see me. I am the same person all the time, it’s just that when I am working it’s just work time, when I am focusing on a show or in the studio recording  it is not time to mess around. Sometimes I may say things on twitter that seem bold but it is the truth. Not everyone can get away with speaking the truth sometimes I myself speak the truth and run into problems you know but it is something that I always do. Before I would say things around my people and get away with it, but now they have created twitter which is a medium for us to say stuff, we do get carried away with it sometimes and that is how I get myself into trouble sometimes because I do get carried away.

Artists have come before and after you and they have not had (and this is because I see on your twitter that you are constantly travelling). What has kept your career in that kind of shape, because you seem to be very consistent, what has caused that?

Mr. Vegas: I think its discipline and I do not try to stay in Jamaica and continue to dominate the Jamaican market. I had my run in 97/98 and 99 where I had songs like; Heads high, Nike Air, Hands up, Jacket and those tunes. I had my run, I did what had to be done in Jamaica so I won’t be staying in Jamaica and competing against Popcaan, Mavado and Vybz Kartel because they are getting their time. What I do is release other songs overseas like ; Pullup and Tamale that are sometimes not played in Jamaica. These songs are played in France, Morocco and all over the world so I will be able to get away from the base market. When I do return to the base market and do a song, it does stand out. If I were to record every day on a beat and then be at every staged show, that is when people get tired because you end up sounding monotonous . I have good people around me like; Frenchie, Leslie and Junior also who will tell me the truth about something I record. They will not tell me it’s good when it is bad and for that I am always going back to the drawing board so you will find that sixty percent of the time I produce a song that is worth listening to. The other forty percent comes in when I am stubborn and think that I know it all-

Do you think most artists before and after you are guilty of trying to dominate the Jamaican market instead of accepting that they have had their time and try to push their music in a different direction agreed?

Mr. Vegas: Yes of course, there are artist and I don’t wish to call names but there are artist who had a great career going, they had a great legacy going and if they had just stepped away for a minute and allow the Jamaican market to miss them. They could have been the biggest force in the music. For instance if you don’t see them on two or three years and then see them on a state show it would be as if they would bring all the good memories and remember the songs that you grew up listening to and love . It is good to step away, if you try to dominate the market in Jamaica; which is very small, you see the same set of people every-day, perform for them every-day, you go to the same Sum fest, the same Magnum party or even Follow di Arrow where they same people attend every year. I believe that people will get tired of you and in doing that it will destroy your legacy.

I won’t go into Kartel to deep but now I feel like a lot of artists who took themselves away from the music are trying to come back, a lot of them are trying to put their heads back on the market. Do you think they were intimidated by Kartel’s influence on the Jamaican market and now that he is not controlling the market as much they are trying to come back, do you see that happening?

Mr. Vegas: No I think there are influences that come around and people get drawn into that influence. It has to do with the media, the people who cover the music, those who play and write the music. They buy into the craziness so sometimes artists may feel like they have to do the same thing and others may feel is not worth it to do anything because of what goes on in the media. They may also feel like if they do songs they will not be mentioned or get covered because the media is feeding into one particular thing that is going on, because it is a craze going on. People buy into it whether good or bad. The media only covers what is popular, the artists that you are hearing now, they were always recording but now there is nothing to write about certain influences, so it is as if they are actually doing something now  when they were recording all along. It’s just that the media was focusing on a different craze that was going on. There is nothing negative to focus on now, so they have to focus now on what they have now.

Do you think the system that they have in Jamaica, in regards to payola, do you think it is fair because it is one thing to pay a selector to play your music but in Jamaica, it seems as if you have to pay them, then radio then you have to pay people to keep on paying them to play the music, do you think this is a fair system and do you think that artists should come together and correct this if you also think it is unfair?

Mr. Vegas: Well, payola has been going on for ages now but the difference with payola now, than then is that you can pay to get a song that is not good to be played. Back in the days when you had payola they paid to have songs that were worthy of being played, the difference now is that you can tell that a song is being paid to play because it is not good. Payola has been always going around, it is just that then, you used to have great artist with great songs who used to still give selectors some money but now it has become a different business, because so much music is coming out and there are no longer five or six producers. Now , there are hundreds of producers in the market place and some of these people find ways of making money, making it a way to ‘’eat their food’’ by making some money. It is no longer about the quality of the music anymore. As far as artists coming together against payola, that is never going to happen. The first one that goes out and takes a stand will become a victim and will end up not getting played because the same artists you will take a stand with and for will go back and pay them so the person who will take a stand will be standing alone on the battle field. A lot of people are willing to take that chance, I am not. This is not something that I would do best; I try to do good music. I also believe that if you go overseas and make $8000.00 on a show it is nothing if you return to Jamaica and give $1000.00. It should be nothing for you to give a selector a twenty pack, after all , he is in the dance screaming out his throat , night after night or even if you see a radio personality and say ‘’I love the way you are handling my career,  take this and buy yourself  a drink’’ there is nothing wrong about that. What I do not like is the part where songs are forced upon people because of monetary gain. That is the part I do not like.

Do you think that things will get so bad with payola that the artist would have no choice but to come together and create and organization in which the music would be monitored and if payola was paid out it would be paid like before where it was only paid on good music that is played, and not ones that as you say ‘’don’t count. Because back in the days if payola existed the way you said. Most of the people who got a chance back then to be heard would not be heard if payola existed as you said because they were poor. So what would happen to a musician who was good at his music but did not have the money to pay because his music would be lost in this payola system do you think artist in Jamaica would be able to come together to say enough is enough , yes or no?

Mr. Vegas: Well, back in the days when payola existed as my research has shown it used to be about substance. For example, if Dave Kelly put out a beat in my era or in the 90ties you could guarantee that the seven people on that beat would be worth promoting so if a producer pays his money to promote those seven songs it would be worth it because they would be seven hit songs but the difference now is that you have songs that will be played now and songs that are going to be left in an abyss because there is no money. The music has gotten to a point where everyone is also playing radio and the type of people that are playing on the radio are not qualified to play or judge a good song. Some of them are working just for the hype. Check this out; It is easier now for someone to put out a song that is not good because now, all you have to do is get a microphone and hook it up to your computer, record it and put it on the internet or burn a cd. You can even give it to a radio man or a sound man, and give him forty or fifty thousand dollars to play your music. Back in the days you would have to buy a twenty four track, after buying the twenty four track, then you would have to book the studio time, after booking the studio time, you would have to get an engineer, then after that you would have to make the beat and after making the beat you also had to get someone to mix the beat and still after that you would have to go to Dynamic sound or Sam’s sound to cut something called ‘’ a sampan’’, after that you get the after tape and after that you would have to pay someone to cut the record . Doing all of that back then, there used to be fewer producers. There were a selected few who could dominate the business at that time because they had the money and capability to do that. Now it is a whole different ball game. All the money that is spent in all of that that I just said, right now anyone can use a half or a quarter of that money and burn his song on his computer after recording in his bathroom and give it to a sound system operator to play and it would get played. The music doesn’t have to be mixed properly, or sound good. All they have to do is put some auto-tune on it and it’s good to go. Back in the days no one would be go through the trouble of doing what I said before just to pay for someone to play a song.

Do you think it will ever get back to the old days where it was about quality music or do you see it getting worst?

Mr. Vegas: Well, quality music will always stand out in a certain market because of the influences on that market place quality music will always stand out. You may go to Europe and that song may be the biggest song there. Artist just have to keep on doing what they are doing because at the end of the day, good music will stand up and the tunes that you may pay to play for two or three weeks, you will not hear about them after six months.

In terms of singers/sing jays, who do you see as having good talent now on the market that is not getting enough exposure or the respect that they should be getting?

  Mr. Vegas: I think Romaine Virgo is a very good artist, I think Chris Martin is a good artist I see a lot of talent. I think Tarrus Riley and a lot of other artists are good artists but it depends on what the media is going to sell when they write their articles or how many views they will get. That is how things are based right now because there is the internet and it’s all about comments and views, like who is getting the most views on YouTube and who is getting the most comments on websites that’s where things are now, so a lot of these artist are not going to get the promotion or the media hype that controversial artists are going to get.

Okay, because they are not considered controversial, is that what you think?

Mr. Vegas:  Yes, based on the whole internet or I should say cyber world right now, it’s all about creating a hype or creating something controversial.

Who do you think is responsible for that?

Mr. Vegas: I think the whole media is responsible for that and what people think they have to do in order to be seen or heard

You do not have to name names but do you know any artists who create fake controversies?

Mr. Vegas: No, it’s not just one special artist, there are a lot of artists who thrive off that, there are a lot of artists who if they are not in the limelight they go crazy. There are a lot of artists who have to stand in the dance every night to make sure that their music is played because they can’t live without one week or two or even a month without anyone speaking about them. If you want to see artists go crazy around here, just let no one talk about them for six months. They have to find something to do for people to talk about them. They just get caught up in the media hype and some artists thrive on that.

To me, none of this started before Kartel and because he did this a lot of other artist tried to do  the same, do you agree?

STAY TUNED FOR HIS RESPONSE + MR VEGAS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL, ABOUT HIS CHILDREN, MARRIAGE, WOMEN, ROMANCE AND HIS MEDICAL MIRACLE..NEXT WEEK 2/22/2012 OR JAMAICA DATE 22/2/2012 .. DON’T MISS

A WHA HIM A TELL HAR INA HAR HAZE SWEET SUH?

Police: Mom cut baby girl’s throat

Posted: Feb 08, 2012 4:48 AM CST
Updated: Feb 09, 2012 11:52 AM CST
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Mom arrested for cutting daughter’s throat
2:20

Deputies in Camden, MO, arrested Bradie Simpson for cutting her baby girl’s throat. (Source: KYTV/CNN)

CAMDENTON, MO (KYTV/CNN) – A baby in Missouri is in critical condition after her throat was slit by her mother.

Deputies in Camden County responded to the 911 call from Bradie Simpson’s adult son, saying his mother and 9-month-old sister were missing. When deputies arrived at Simpson’s home, they found blood on a bed and a bloodied knife in the bedroom.

“They immediately went outside and started searching for the baby and the mother,” Sheriff Dwight Franklin said.

Three and half hours later and after searching several acres of woods, officers found the mother and baby lying on the ground. The baby girl was covered in her own blood.

“The baby raised its head, indicating it was still alive,” Franklin said. “A deputy immediately snatched it up, applied pressure to it, covered it up and ran back to the ambulance with it.”

The little girl went through emergency surgery and is still in critical condition.

“It’s a miracle it’s alive,” Franklin said. “I think God had something to do with that.”

Simpson is charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action.

In the probable cause statement, deputies learned that Simpson told First Baptist Church of Camdenton pastor, Rev. Bob Aubuchon, last October to hold her daughter because “she was possessed and feared she might kill her.”

“She more or less just tossed her baby into my arms and said, ‘Tie me down, tie me up’ and said ‘Possession, possession,'” Aubuchon said.

Aubuchon said Simpson then threw herself against the wall, yelled for a priest and finally explained what she meant.

“Then she kind of hit her chest a couple times and said, ‘I’m being possessed; I’m being demon possessed,’ and about that time, she put her hand over her mouth and wouldn’t say anything else,” Aubuchon said.

Aubuchon recalls Simpson actually wrote on a piece of paper saying do not let me harm the baby. He prayed with her and quoted scriptures. But when she snatched the baby back and tried to leave, the church called 911.

Simpson’s baby was then taken by the Division of Family Services, but had since been returned.

Copyright 2012 KYTV via CNN. All rights reserved.

MEMPHIS, TN –
(WMC-TV) – Jemar Lambert is a cemetery owner at the center of a criminal investigation after he allegedly buried bodies on land that he didn’t own.

Lambert is charged with two counts of theft of property.

The Action News 5 Investigators discovered that Voner Matlock was buried in the wrong grave at Galilee Memorial Gardens, a cemetery Lambert owns.

Action News 5 first met Lambert in July 2011 when Voner Matlock’s grave site was not immediately marked and her mother couldn’t find her on a later visit.

A subsequent exhumation located the body which is not related to his Friday arrest on a theft charge.

Lambert has been involved in an ongoing civil dispute with cemetery neighbors since October 2001 when a surveyor testified in a sworn deposition that he found at least 75 graves on the neighbors’ property.

“Because some of the ground is sunken and/or bare dirt, more graves may be on N.I.M’s property than appears on the survey plat,” the surveyor testified. “The cemetery uses low, flat headstones and does not appear to always place a headstone out at the same time a person is buried.”

On October 26, 2004, a chancery court judge ordered Galilee to stop burying people on the neighbor’s property.

But according to court records, Lambert admitted to between 20 and 25 recent burials in the “paradise” section of the cemetery on the neighbor’s property at a minimum cost of $995 apiece.

“These efforts on behalf of Jemar Lambert who knowingly sold property to decedent’s families, not belonging to himself, for the use of burial plots constitutes theft of property,” investigators wrote in their report.

But defense attorney Coleman Garrett disagrees.

“I was under the impression that’s going to be cleared up in civil court,” he said. “So why we’re here, I’ve yet to figure that out myself.”

If convicted, Lambert faces between three and fifteen years in prison.

Copyright 2012 WMC-TV. All rights reserved.

Enlarge Star-Ledger Staff
Newark Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson Jr. presents singer Whitney Houston with the key to the city at a press conference held at City Hall in this 1986 file photo. (Steve Andrascik/The Star-Ledger)
Whitney Houston memories from The Star-Ledger gallery (24 photos)

NEWARK — Grammy Award winner and longtime family friend Marvin Winans will deliver the eulogy for Whitney Houston during her funeral Saturday at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, the church pastor said Tuesday night.
Houston’s family rejected a public spectacle for a final farewell to the pop icon, choosing instead to hold a private, invitation-only funeral at New Hope, the singer’s childhood church, which seats about 1,500. The Rev. Joe A. Carter, pastor at New Hope Baptist Church, said he will officiate the service, which is scheduled to begin at noon. Houston was born in Newark and raised in East Orange.
Winans, who also serves as the lead pastor at Detroit’s Perfecting Church, told the Detroit Free Press that Houston was like a sister to him, and it felt like he had lost a sibling when he learned the 48-year-old singer had died Saturday in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Houston’s mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, her cousin, Dionne Warwick, and other family members gathered at Whigham Funeral Home in Newark well into the early morning hours Tuesday to shape plans for the service, funeral director Carolyn Whigham said.

Video: Owner of funeral home explains to media the plan for Whitney Houston funeral
Carolyn Whigham, owner of Whigham Funeral Home in Newark, explains to the media on Tuesday afternoon that Whitney Houston’s funeral will be held on Saturday at noon at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark. She also talked about knowing the family and their loss. (Video by Noah K. Murray/The Star-Ledger)
Watch video
Although a local community leader with ties to the family told The Star-Ledger Monday that there would be a public wake and funeral at the Prudential Center on Thursday and Friday, the Houston family never confirmed it, Carter said.
“We view it as nothing more than a rumor,” he said.
The family has been split over where to bury Houston, with Cissy Houston and Warwick lobbying for Atlanta, where they believe Houston was happiest, the website TMZ reported.
However, two people familiar with the family’s plans told The Star-Ledger Tuesday night family is considering burying her in a Westfield cemetery at least one day after the funeral. The people asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly for the family.
Meanwhile, Newark police have begun making plans for Saturday’s service, which is expected to draw thousands of fans and a crush of media.

Michael Nash, of Newark, leaves flowers at a make-shift memorial outside the New Hope Baptist Church following an early morning prayer service in honor of Whitney Houston, who died Saturday at age 48.

“Obviously Whitney Houston was one of the greatest performers of our time, and certainly we expect a huge presence of other performers, actors and we’re preparing for all that,” Police Director Samuel DeMaio said Tuesday.
DeMaio said police have begun closing streets near the church and that officials are working on a security plan for the funeral, which is expected to draw some of the biggest names in the music industry.
He also raised the possibility of erecting a video monitor outside the church to accommodate fans and residents not invited in.
Outside the funeral home on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Tuesday, Whigham, who has known the family for decades, urged the dozens of reporters — some from as far away as Brazil and Russia — to let the family mourn in private.
“A mother has lost her child,” Whigham said. “It’s not planned that way.”
But fans, who waited outside the funeral home late Monday night to watch a gold hearse return New Jersey’s pop princess to her hometown and who continued to pay their respects at a makeshift memorial outside the church Tuesday, mourned their missed chance to say farewell.

Houston school principal calls Whitney Houston a role model
Henry Hamilton, principal of the Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts in East Orange calls Houston a role model for his students. Houston attended the school when it was called the Franklin School, the school was later renamed to honor Houston.
“The public should have an opportunity to give a last goodbye to one of the city’s most beloved daughters,” said Calvin Taylor of Newark, who skipped work Tuesday to spend time outside the funeral home. “She touched so many people, I think it’s terrible. She’s got a lot of love here.”
Sharon Bailey of Irvington was upset that no public memorial has been planned.
“They should have one. She’s the queen of pop,” she said. “Her death feels like a loss in my family.”
Jethro Townes, a Newark native whose son, Hassim Drinkard, is a distant cousin of Warwick’s, drove to Newark from Harrisburg, Pa., with his wife to visit the church memorial. Fans have left stuffed animals and signed their names to large goodbye posters hung on the church’s balloon-festooned fence near the corner of Sussex Avenue and Dey Street.

Townes said he hadn’t seen Houston in years, but said the family was not worried that she had relapsed into drug use in recent months, despite reports painkillers were found in the hotel room where Houston died: “I think she had overcome her obstacles in life.
“God allows a time for people to leave his earth,” Townes said, recalling the recent death of Etta James and the loss of Michael Jackson in 2009. “But if you look at what has happened over the past few years, God has a great choir now.”
Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her Beverly Hills Hilton hotel room Saturday night, hours before she was to perform at mentor Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy Awards party. Though a cause of death has not been released, law enforcement sources have told various media outlets Houston, who struggled with drug addiction in the past, died from mixing alcohol with prescription drugs.
At least one of Houston’s friends is starting to point fingers over the singer’s untimely death.

Fans pay homage outside Whitney Houston’s childhood church in Newark
A gathering of fans, local and out-of-state, adorn the fencing of the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark with flowers and memorials to the late pop icon, Whitney Houston. It was announced that the funeral for Houston will be held on Saturday at twelve none by invitation only
“I stand on, whoever flew her out to perform at that party, should have provided someone to be there,” Chaka Khan told CNN’s Piers Morgan. “To somehow, keep the riff-raff out of the situation. To keep the dangerous people away.
“I mean, I’ve cried for her, a lot over the years, so many times,” Khan continued. “In a way I’ve mourned her, because I felt something was gonna happen because she was so close to the wire.”
Calling Houston’s accomplishments “a great source of pride for the people of the state,” Gov. Chris Christie will order all state buildings to fly flags at half-staff on Saturday. Christie routinely orders flags lowered to honor fallen New Jersey soldiers, but he also asked that flags be lowered when E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons died from a stroke last year.
By Barry Carter and James Queally/The Star-Ledger
Staff writers Richard Khavkine, Janelle Griffith, Vicki Hyman, Julia Terruso and Tom Wright-Piersanti contributed to this report.
Bobby Brown is “extremely disappointed” that several of Whitney Houston’s family members do not want him to attend her funeral, reports TMZ.

SEE ALSO: Did We Do Enough For Whitney?

Family members have allegedly told Brown to stay away from Houston’s funeral because they are not fond of him.

TMZ is quick to clarify that there has been no “official” word.

Brown is hoping to attend the funeral so that he can support his daughter Bobbi Kristina, 19, who was rushed to the hospital twice in the hours and days following her mother’s death at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 11, 2011. Allegedly the teen was struggling with depression and anxiety.

Brown and Houston were married for 14 years. It ended in 2007 just as tumultuously at it began, with both stars still struggling with drug abuse and their shared history of domestic violence. Though fans of Houst0n are quick to point the finger at Brown for her downward spiral, in his 2008 biography, The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But …. he made it clear that Whitney was far more in control than most people believed:

I mean, I’m guilty of getting upset and flying off the handle a little,” Brown said of the alleged domestic abuse incident for which he was arrested in 2003. “I was known to throw a bottle or two at a wall or something. Things that I’d regret, I would be responsible for cleaning up or having the wall repaired. What people fail to realize is that Whitney is no punk. She definitely knows how to handle and defend herself in situations that could have potentially been violent. Some of the stories in the media made me out to be like Ike Turner, when that wasn’t my character.”
And their famed co-dependent drug abuse?

I never used cocaine until after I met Whitney. Before then, I had experimented with other drugs, but marijuana was my drug of choice.”
Whitney seemed to confirm Bobby’s spin on their relationship in a 1993 Rolling Stone interview:

When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place. You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that’s their image. It’s part of them, it’s not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody’s angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy.”
Even with their bittersweet, unhealthy history, when Brown received word of Houston’s death while on tour with New Edition in Southhaven, Mississippi, he gave his ex-wife a spontaneous tribute before allegedly lapsing in and out of “uncontrollable crying fits”:

First of all, I want to tell you that I love you all. Second, I would like to say, I love you Whitney. The hardest thing for me to do is to come on this stage.”
Hopefully, an amicable resolution will be reached, at least for Bobbi Kristina’s sake.