A new year brings new change and as the latest NFL Black Monday came and went, a total of 12 Coaches and General Managers found themselves standing when the music stopped. Necessary change, some might say, as all the teams including my Chicago Bears underachieved and failed to live up to lofty sized expectations. Something had to give.
Lovie Lee Smith spent 9 years as the Chicago Bears head coach before being dismissed on Black Monday, and had some huge successes and memorable let downs. When analyzing Lovie’s coaching career here in Chicago, I couldn’t help but think of LL Cool J, James Todd Smith, who is as synonymous with the Def Jam logo as, Rick and Russell. No other coach since Mike Ditka was as likeable and respected than Lovie, and no artist on the Def Jam roster has really developed the Grammy hosting iconic status as LL has.
Both sports and the record business operate on the same wavelength: it’s not what you did for me in the past, it’s what are you doing now? Both are results driven businesses that feed off results, regardless of your stature or popularity. If you’re not winning or selling, your time may be up.
LL burst out the gates with huge records, while Lovie in his second year as Coach went 11-5, and took the Bears to their first Super Bowl in 21 years. These types of accomplishments warrant everlasting loyalty, or so you would think. LL remained strong, piling up platinum albums, ending his pristine run with 1995′s Mr. Smith. Lovie on the other hand basked in the Super Bowl afterglow, despite losinng to the Indianapolis Colts and missing the playoffs the following 3 seasons. Unfortunely when you hit your peak, there’s only one way to go. Down.
Mr. Smith was quite possibly the last great album from the self-proclaimed G.O.A.T. Several lackluster albums followed that never quite equaled that album’s success. Lovie Smith never would bounce back from the loss to the Green Bay Packers that left the Bears one game short of their 2nd Super Bowl appearance in 4 years.
For both men, something had to give. Def Jam had to decide to reup for more years and albums with LL, and the Bears would need to find the heart and solace to keep Lovie around for one more year. LL is still good for the occasional hit, and Lovie Smith still produced top tier defenses in Chicago, but at this stage of theri prospective careers, it’s just not enough. Without a title, or consistent susccess Lovie had to move on, and so the Bears pulled the trigger on the team’s first Black head coach in its storied history. Will Lovie end up with another job? I, like many others, hope so. He did well, but this is Chicago, and doing well sometimes just isn’t enough.
LL also ran his course with Def Jam several years back after his last obligatory album, Exit 13 bricked harder than a Dwight Howard free throw. LL is said to be releasing a new album this year, Authentic Hip-Hop, but there’s no word on whether Def Jam will be backing the project from the 44 year old rapper. After a stellar year of releases including Nas, Rick Ross and Frank Ocean, and as unfair as it might be to say, LL doesn’t fit in to the scope of where the label is heading towards.
Gone are the pioneers that started Def Jam, and it may be time for LL to push on and go independent. His music is still wanted, but whether it’s on a minor or major league scale, well only Hot 97 can really tell you that. I hope Lovie and LL both end up in better positions, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s always better to have had a nice run and be unceremoniously dumped than to hold on in one place for way too long. Ask Andy Reid.
Looks like the NFL is pulling out all the stops for this years Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans as far as the entertainment is concerned. Alicia Keys has now been booked to perform this year’s national anthem according to the Associated Press. Keys is set to kick off the Super Bowl festivities with “The Star Spangled Banner” February 3rd. Alicia officially joins the club of her superstar peers such as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Beyoncé all of whom have had the most memorable renditions of the famous anthem.
As you know Beyoncé along with Destiny’s Child will serve as this year’s Super Bowl Halftime entertainment. Official confirmation of Alicia Keys Super Bowl performance will be announced within the coming days from now. Still praised as the best rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” check out the late great Whitney Houston below:
As February gets inches closer more and more information about Beyoncé’s return starts to popup. What you’re looking at above is the first image from Beyoncé’s multi-year campaign with Pepsi. Read more below fromNY Times:
“In an expansion of the recent marketing experiments that have brought PepsiCo ever closer to the music industry, the company has embarked on a hybrid project with Beyoncé that will include standard advertising like commercials as well as a multimillion-dollar fund to support the singer’s chosen creative projects.
“Pepsi embraces creativity and understands that artists evolve,” Beyoncé said in a statement. “As a businesswoman, this allows me to work with a lifestyle brand with no compromise and without sacrificing my creativity.”
The campaign will coincide with a blitz of promotion for her next album, which has no title or release date so far but is expected in 2013. Sometime after she performs at the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 3 (also sponsored by Pepsi), Beyoncé will appear in a new TV ad — her fifth for the soft drink since 2002 — and her face will be on a limited-edition line of soda cans.”
This deal is reportedly worth $50 million dollars yes $50 million dollars! Gotta love Beyoncé's work hustle because this deal is bomb! Check out Beyoncé’s special edition can available early next year. BTW The picture above will be used as a life-size cardboard cutout in stores, so if you should totally send it my way lol.
I seriously need to buy tickets to see the Brooklyn Nets play because your pretty much guaranteed to see the Carters their. Last night Beyoncé and Jay-Z watched the Brooklyn Nets smash the New York Knicks. In just four months Beyoncé will be returning to the music scene on February 3rd to preform during the halftime show at the Super Bowl. Then kick over to February 16th we can catch her HBO documentary airing.
Also rumor has it that Beyoncé will be debuting a new single during the Superbowl halftime show. I could see this being very much true since this would be one of the highest platforms any artist to debut a new single. Seriously do you know how many people watch the Super Bowl? Knowing Beyoncé she’s going to reap all the benefits from this launch into her next album.
I wonder what they were talking about here because the look Beyoncé is giving Jay-Z in this picture is priceless.
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson is the next athlete/rapper to keep a close eye on. Sure, it's never a shocker nowadays to hear about an athlete crossing over into the rap game, and while the instinct has become dismissive, it looks like DeSean has some real potential after watching this dope piece from Yahoo! Sports. He is prepping to be the first artist on legendary producer L.T. Hutton's Jaccpot label to drop an album and with over 120 tracks in the can from this past offseason, it sounds like he has quite the arsenal to formulate it from.
Jackson stresses that football is his #1 priority, but rap has been a passion since growing up in Compton during the height of the city's reign as a rap capital in the 90s. Also included in this examination of his forray into rap is a couple stories from Jackson's childhood, most notably catching the ice cream truck as a little kid. Hah! Watch the video above and watch and see if Jackson makes some noise in hip hop like he does in the endzone (which helps out the ole fantasy team, my Chicago Rillas :D).
Mariah Carey the diva, icon, legend, songwriter, actress, entrepreneur, hairweave killa, and vocal gymnast will be performing live at the NFL Kickoff 2012. The songstress will be providing all the entertainment for the kickoff, which will be airing live September 5th at 7:30 pm EST on NBC and NFL Network.
Mariah will be debuting her first live performance of her new single ‘Triumphant (Get Em)’ featuring Meek Mill and Rick Ross. The diva will be on a specially constructed stage for her greatness in front of 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City for her epic performance.
Mariah would also like to know:
Also if you're in the New York area you can win tickets to the show by following Mariah Alerts.
