AKeys Kicks

I may be the only girl I know who likes Alicia Keys. Now, I didn't say I like her new song but I am a fan of Mrs Beatz. Speaking of Swizzy, you all know that he's been doing his thing in terms of trying to make Reebok cool again to the kids, right? So, it comes as no surprise, really, that Egypt's mommy is now also throwing around the word "designer" next to her name. And what's she designed? Well, Reebok Classics has brought the Freestyle Hi out for her to work on. She's added a piano keys image (obviously) to the sides and back and her beloved New York City landscape to the top. She's also put her name on a couple of new designs for the Princess, the Dubble Bubble and the Nylon Slim. Cool collection. I'm a huge fan of hi tops - if you've seen me then you know but I don't know if these tickle my fancy. Do you like them?

The Freestyle Hi

The Princess

The Nylon Slim

The Dubble Bubble

Here's the ad to help promote the sneakers. Why does it have to feature this song? Sigh.

Our Favourite Fembot

As you might have noticed by now, some of us are dreading being where we are so we're making the experience better by sharing the music we're playing in our heads. That's enough of me speaking in riddles. You all know how much The Ordinary Girl adores Robyn. Oh, you don't? Well sometimes it's hard to share the fembots I love with the world.

Anyway, one of my favourite joints from this striking Swede is Dancehall Queen. I love it so much I dream I am actually the singer and the real dancehall queen who gets another shout out on the mic and that Robyn will tell everyone the truth one day. Talk about OTT! Ok, so here's the video to that jam. How amazeballs is it?



And just because I like you all so much I found this video of Robyn and Diplo and another guy (excuse my ignorance) in studio. What they are saying is not always audible but it's not all that important as it's how they act that makes me all certified mushy inside. Check it out.



And one more thing just because I like AKeys and a lot of the people I speak to regularly generally don't, decide for yourself who performed Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart better.

Bone-chilling Style

By now you must have figured out that The Ordinary Girl likes googling shoes when she's meant to be 9to5ing. So I came across these gaw-jus DSquared2 heels. According to Sicka Than Average (which is where I jacked these babies from), the DSquared2 designers, Dean and Dan Caten's "Fall 2010 footwear offerings boast an anthropological bent, with curved heels that mimic the stacked vertebrae along a spinal column."



Tweets have also gone bananas over these shoes because apparantly AKeys wore them when she performed at the 2010 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony. We love Alicia and are glad we can agree on something seeing that her hair game has been sloppy lately. Blame it on the pregnancy, right?



These shoes retail for $1275 - $1650 so go online if you're not faint-hearted and if you have good credit.



In other Mrs Beats news (see how we do that? Give you two posts in one? Where they do that at?), have you guys seen this? What do you make of this "virtual instrument"?

Status Updates and Such

Soooooooooooooooooooooo....



theblagg la familia member Reason, known to you Facebookers as Reason Lebaka, joined the This Is The Remix brigade and remixed AKeys' Unthinkable. You know, the Drake penned joint. Anyway, last night Reason jumped on this joint and took a completely different twist. He figured the status update space couldn't accommodate over 3 minutes worth of his thoughts and you already know 140 characters would not do. This is why the song is titled LOL Smiley Face (Status Update). Hey, we didn't come up with that title, don't shoot theblaggers.

So theblagg did what any self-respecting blog team would do, we're giving it to you to listen to. Don't call it a leak. Yeah, we're going to bear the brunt of uploading unreleased material that may or may not be cleared with the artist but hey, this is hip hop baby, we're finna take it to the tip top baby.

This is a much needed and most welcome return to the world of music from the guy who brought us the WenzTheAlbumCuminOut? Mixtape. And because we hate the chorus of this song too - we grilled Reason about it.

He tried to explain himself by saying, "It's for the [upcoming] album but it's a rough recording. Basically I rap on beats that exist, and then Instro reproduces it. The Alicia is just a guide. What I do want to do is get him to mix this one proper, then put it as Work In Progress track by Reason, then put out the original. I’m tyina get Tumi or some other Rapper to sing the LOL’s." Eh, still not buying it.

But this is not about us so listen to Status Update aka LOL Smiley Face (didn't Trey Songz already have a song titled this?) and leave your comments. Yeah, just like on Facebook.

LOL! Smiley Face (Status Update) by theblagg

theblagg likes this

UPDATED:

STOP THE PARTY!

We didn't wanna rain on their parade but...
Apparently, Mashonda's ex and AKeys got their tribal dancing on in Durban when they were here for the World Cup. And, get this, Ms Cook (she's not married yet!) and their unborn child were given Zulu names too. Why?



According to the Bitchie:

Wearing tribal beads, Alicia and her baby were given Zulu names while standing under a fig tree known as the ‘healing tree’ by locals who believe it brings good fortune and health. ‘Two female priests who practice a mix of Christianity and tribal custom chose new names for her and the unborn child, as a mark of respect. The names were kept between them, but were chosen to reflect Alicia’s character.

‘Alicia had to do a special dance with drums banging in the background, and was embraced by abused children who she has helped. She was chosen for the ceremony as a thank-you, because she has done a lot to keep children’s lives afloat and for us to afford our support staff.

‘Her partner came too – he held her hand and helped her sit down when she needed rest.’

Abused children? Really? That's a novelty? Come on Keys! Only good thing about this? At least the very-uncomfortable-looking Swizz Beats was rocking some phly classic adidas.

Showtime indeed.

AKeys Makes Us Giddy

Ok, maybe it's just The Ordinary Girl who is obsessed over Superwoman and Swizzy's new baby mama, Alicia Keys. How dope was her 2010 FIFA World Cup Kick-Off Concert set? The best by far. Yes, even that last 5 seconds of her collab with Blk Jks on Brenda Fassie's Too Late For Mama that we got to peep. Thanks a lot SABC.

Before you start giving us the side-eye. We know Tumi was wack. We don't know why he got his collabo on with Shakira - who knew one was allowed to dry hump a monitor on stage? We don't know why he was dressed like a reject from Mashamplani. We don't know why he sounded more Pras than Wyclef and we don't know what's going to happen now that the Americans and Colombians have left. So many questions, not enough answers. Let's just hope a rap version of Waka Waka, featuring T From The V doesn't surface.

If we had that Karen Civil kinda money we'd spend our 9 - 5 time unpacking why we're not too thrilled about Tumi's stage antics. But we don't. So you'll have to settle for us being a day late and a Rand short if you want the full breakdown. In the meantime, smile at the mommy:


PS: Get at The Ordinary Girl if you know where (and more importantly, how much) the soon-to-be Mrs Beatz's top can be bought.

UPDATED TO SAY: WE'VE GOT VIDEO!!!! Giddynessoverload!

Embedding was disabled for the real high quality stuff. Sorry.

Love Letter to the Beat

"Love Letter to the Beat" started as an Alicia Keys record produced by Chad Hugo of The Neptunes and was supposed to be on Mrs. Beats 2007 album As I Am. Unfortunately it didn't make the final cut. Rapper Lupe Fiasco then got a hold of the joint and felt like he could do it justice and so he put his vocals alongside Alicia's and made this version of "Love Letter to the Beat".No word as yet if this will be on Lupe's Lazers album. What do you think of the joint?

Lupe Fiasco featuring featuring Alicia Keys -Love Letter To The BeatbyHypetrak