When I started casually blogging here — 3 long years ago — I fully expected myself to be a little further along in terms of readership by now. That’s my fault because I really haven’t committed and I don’t publish posts regularly enough to gain loyal readers. Also, the blogging world changed a lot from when I used to run musician fansites. Twitter is a part of that. News is released and circulates extremely fast, even for the up-and-comers that I gravitate towards. It’s also increasingly more negative than it used to be.

But as I look around the music/celeb blogging landscape today, I see a lot of similar sites. Almost all of them post the same content, with the same angle, and a lot of the same voices. Controversy and negativity get the most page views, shares, and comments. I’ve been known to shade here and there, but not to the extent where my blogs get their come up off of it. That’s my voice about some things, but not all the time.

Two celeb stories really stuck out to me the past week. #1 Rita Ora. I was about to write a post on the handful of singles I heard of hers this week. I like Pop Music, so they were fun, light tracks that I could see myself getting into. That would have been my angle. A look around the blogosphere and all I saw blogs talking about was how Jay-Z was mad at Rihanna for the Chris Brown collaborations and was launching Rita to “replace” her. Really? Why’s it gotta be all that? Jay-Z is a business man and Roc Nation has quite a few artists. He can’t introduce someone new without a whole bunch of conspiracy theories? I’m not saying that the rumors don’t have legs (Honestly, I wouldn’t know), but why do we always have to assume the worst and project drama? And also, why does there only get to be one successful female popstar at a time? Can’t they all co-exist? Damn.

And speaking of Chris Brown, I get the hate. I really do. But does every single thing he does have to link back to his past? I know he’s a public figure and that’s part of being a celebrity, but people go too far, in my opinion, with the double standards. I’ve done some things I’m not too proud of. Lord help me if, for every thing I did after my screw-ups, people prefaced my triumphs and successes with the fact that I, at one time, fucked up or just took every opportunity to throw it back in my face. I can’t imagine.

So, Chris Brown went to the Police Department in Richmond, VA today. Pictures started to circulate and people almost hurt themselves jumping to the conclusion that he was obviously in trouble from that iPhone snatching case in Miami. (And speaking of that case, which happened damn near 2 weeks ago, funny how we haven’t heard a peep about it since then) He wasn’t. He was there to talk to some kids about goals and aspirations, as he shared on Twitter. A positive story? But what’s the fun in that? Where could the slander come from? Leave it to a fellow tweeter to show us the way.

See that’s the shit I’m talking about. It never ends. The internet is full of some super hatin-ass people who feel the need to not only follow people they don’t like, but also make rude comments to them day in and day out. I think that’s sad, but to each his/her own. And I have yet to see any of the popular blogs post anything positive about Chris’ visit to the RPD today. I bet I won’t. Because no one wants to see anything positive about him. They only write slander inducing posts. PAGE VIEWS MOFO’S! PAGE VIEWS! I’ve grown tired of that world.

You know who’s site I really admire? Just Jared. You will not find any slander on Jared Eng’s website and there is little to no gossip either. He is up-to-date with all the celeb news including a ton of exclusives. He got his success the positive way and I salute him. I’d aspire to be JJ, not TMZ.

My background in blogging is from a promotion/fan standpoint. I always tried to uplift the artist or athlete I was promoting, choosing to focus most of my efforts on the positive (without being completely delusional. I don’t do the “stan” thing) So, that’s why I wonder what I’ve been doing with JustMyFaves.

Life is short. I don’t want to focus on the negative aspects of anyone’s lives. What does that accomplish? I’m a happy person who wants to spend their time online reading and interacting with other positive people. I know they’re out there, they’re just outnumbered!

I know there’s no money in running a positive website. Luckily for me, that’s not why I blog. I understand I might need to completely re-brand, but what’s another $5 for a new domain name? I can turn this into my fanlisting collective, if need be.

Your thoughts are welcome! Word to positivity!

So, here is the cover for Chris Brown’s upcoming album, Fortune. I aint mad at it. It’s 234567345678 times better than the F.A.M.E. in my opinion. And the slander for using the Wingdings font for Fortune kept me entertained most of the night yesterday.

What I’m not too thrilled about is the release has been pushed back from this month (March) to May 8th. Breezy says it’s so fans can hear more music (another single is coming) and decide if they want the album. That’s all well and good, but “Turn Up The Music” has hit written all over it — if he promotes it — and would be a good song to lead into the album’s release. I wonder what next song he releases. It better not be something like “Strip” which didn’t do much at radio, did it? He’s gotta have a hit to sell that album. Hope he’s got some more magic up his sleeve!

Who am I kidding, though. His stans will go snatch up all of the copies week 1 anyway. He’ll grab that top spot, again, then fail to go platinum… again. No shade, though. I’m just saying. F.A.M.E. was released almost a year ago and has only sold a little over 800k. I’m sure Breezy would rather have a platinum album than debut at #1 and fall the f*ck off. Well, at least I know I would!

I better wrap this up before Team Breezy comes for me. Don’t hate me ya’ll! I bought F.A.M.E. and have already bought “Turn Up The Music”. I did my part!

Love Miss Fiona! Ever since my cousin put me on to “Give It To Me Right” in 2009, I’ve been a fan. And even though I can’t relate, there’s something about “4AM” that just owns me. It’s so haunting and real. I feel it and love it! WHY ISN’T THAT SONG A BIGGER HIT?!?!?!

Anyway, Melanie’s starting to promote her new album, The MF Life, due in stores March 20th, and performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live is a apart of it! (Of course I’d rather this promo occur during her album release week, but we don’t always get what we want!)

Anyway, check out her performance of “4AM”, from Monday, below…

Click here to view the embedded video.

And peep the full tracklist to The MF Life, while you’re still here:

1. This Time (feat. J. Cole)
2. 4 AM
3. Break Down These Walls
4. I Been That Girl
5. Wrong Side of The Love Song
6. Running Featuring Nas
7. Change The Record (feat. B.o.B.)
8. Gone and Never Coming Back
9. Bones
10. Watch Me Work
11. Can’t Say
12. L.O.V.E (feat. John Legend)
13. 6 AM Melanie Fiona & T Pain – Bonus

The MF Life

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No, it really is, in both senses of the phrase! While the lead single, “Disaster”, was more of a vintage JoJo (think “Leave” and “Too Little, Too Late”), “Sexy To Me” is new school and fresh as hell! It’s sexy — like the title suggests — and fun at the same time. I can feel this song doing well in the clubs; especially if it gets remixed (which it will).

But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the track below:

If you haven’t seen her new Clearasil commercial, this is the song used in that spot. And I’m mad I actually haven’t seen it on TV yet. Is it officially in rotation or what? Keep it cute, Clearasil!

So, what do you think? I think it’s the radio hit Jo’s been needing (deserving) for a few years now. Also, it’s out on iTunes now. GO GET IT!

And, by God, I did! I’m still turning up! When I first heard this, I was all “meh”. But I think that was mostly because the copy I had wasn’t very good and there was a freaking DJ yelling through the whole damn song. That messed up the flow.

But once I heard the finished product, through the headphones of my iPod, I was feelin’ it! Nicely done, Breezy! Listen below:

Now that I think about it, I didn’t care for “Forever”, “Beautiful People”, or “Yeah 3x” until weeks after they were released/leaked. Like, it took a LONG time. But this one only took about 24 hours. I’m hooked! I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of days before this song makes it to my Most Played playlist with another supposed fortune tune, Open Road (I Love Her) (Yup, I’m still wearing that sucka out). This album is setting up to be pretty dang good!

Song goes to iTunes on Valentine’s Day; 2 days after the Grammy’s.

Can’t wait for the video, because you know the choreography is gonna be poppin’!

Anyway, Pixie’s tackled another song in Chris Brown’s “Beautiful People”, in which she’s accompanied by a piano in an acoustic version.

Take a listen below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve loved Miss Jessie James since she treated me to a guilty pleasure song called “Wanted”. And after I wore that out, I discovered “Guilty” on the old Imeem music network (RIP, *glares at MySpace*). While the latter still resides in my iTunes 25 Most Played tracks, I’ve just added another song to my iPod, Jessie’s latest, “When You Say My Name”, which she recently performed at a Denver Broncos halftime show, and announced on her newly redesigned website.

Take a listen below:

I’ve struggled with the decision on whether or not I’d continue to follow Jessie’s career due to the fact that she decided to ditch the pop portion of her repertoire and focus soley on country music. (much like Josh Kelley) Now y’all know how I feel about country music. If not, let me break it down: I’m not really a fan. I can handle some, but it’s mostly the crossover stuff. If pop radio won’t play it, I’m probably not gonna enjoy it.

Due to how incredible I feel Jessie’s voice is, she has managed to keep me interested, so we’ll see how this goes when the single is released to iTunes on January 31st. I’ll need to hear it in HQ before really deciding how I feel. For now, I think it’s a cute track and it’s obvious Jessie is very much in love with her man, Denver Broncos Wide Receiver, Eric Decker.

Love, love, love when Pixie does choreography. You can tell she’s had some training.

Long story short, there have been some hackings on this account and I think the previous theme I was using was part of the problem. So, I changed to something new (it was a long time coming).

Now, I’m going to comb through the rest of site and see if I can find the malicious codes or backdoors.

In the meantime, hope everyone enjoys the new look!

I don’t know about anyone else, but as a fan since “I Wanna Be Bad”, I had almost given up hope that my Queen had put away the microphone for good.

Thankfully she just misplaced it for a while. I guess she was looking for it on various movie and tv sets. Not sure where she found it, but I’m glad she did!

Anyway, she has a new group, Willa and The Breaks, who did a show in LA last weekend at the historic Viper Room. (Where’s that teleportation device when you need it?) Take a listen to new song “Back, Back, Back” below:

I like the tone of Willa’s voice. It’s soft, but has depth, if that makes sense. In any case, you can tell she’s worked on her vocals, which is something I wish I could say about a lot of other “artists” releasing music these days. WORK ON YOUR CRAFT, PEOPLE!

Meanwhile, at the LA show, Willa performed a mash-up of “I Wanna Be Bad” and Led Zeppelin’s “Going To California”. Loved it!

Willa will also do a show, with The Breaks, in Dallas on Jan 14. Still too far away for me, but she’s getting closer!

Can’t wait to hear more, Mrs. Modano!