AN EDITORIAL BY HANNIBAL ALEXANDER

This Summer season seems a little bleak so far. There does not seem to be any new music releases from any established acts in the pipeline. Hopefully, some new artist will emerge with a brand new sound and change music, as it seems like radio is forcing us to embrace the new comers (Drake, Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber) and ignoring some of the more established acts. It would be nice if the music industry could rewind itself to decade ago where you could count on certain artists to come with something new and heat up your summer barbeques and parties. We can now only beg some of our favorite artists who once dominated the Billboard charts to come out of hiding and deliver the ‘hotness’ before it’s too late! So here it goes…

DEAR:

Missy Elliot

Undoubtedly your last album The Cookbook, all the way back in 2005 more or less tanked! And truth be told, your albums had been steadily decline sales wise, but you were always there for us with a big summer hit. Cookbook at least gave us the dance hit ”Lose Control” featuring Ciara and Fatman Scoop; and that was after 2003-04’s party-starters “Gossip Folks” and the best summer single (even though it was released the previous Winter) “Work It”. And no one can forget your industry changing “Get Ur Freak On” that owned the summer of 2001. I know that there have been a few hurdles in releasing your 6th album which was supposed to be released sometime in Summer 2008 and never happened. The few “hype” singles released did not create much noise, and what was dubbed as the first single “Best Best” (from the than titled Block Party album) only managed to peak in the 90’s on R&B charts. Obviously you could smell trouble! If your nervous about coming back out and not commanding the charts like before, don’t be.  At this point what you can do is just pick the best eight to ten tracks you’ve got so far. The word is you have already worked with Neptunes, Swizz Beatz, Danja and some other hot names. And most importantly re-teaming with Timbaland. There’s got to be at least eight songs that have some summer fire that you can unleash, and you can either just call it an EP or you can pretend it’s a “Part One” in a series of albums (i.e. the Maxwell thing). Either way, we need you back! And a collaboration with Nicki Minaj – who you’ve obviously inspired in so many ways - would be hot. Maybe a passing of the torch thing? Think about it Missy, we miss you.

No Doubt

We know Gwen had been doing her solo thing, but you guys promised that was over back in 2008. And ever since than all we’ve gotten are vague messages about you “working on” music, with no release date in mind. You guys even went on tour in 2009 and released a bit of a teaser single “Stand and Deliver”. It gave us a taste of the old No Doubt, (more like a “Greatest Hits” era continuation, which brought us your superior rendition of “It’s My Life” in 2003) but we need the new No Doubt. Like when you came out with “Hey Baby” and flipped your style on us for summer of 2002. We need something new and fresh like that. The last we heard is that you entered the studio… AGAIN, in May of this year. So be quick even if you just have to put out a teaser single in July to tie us over until Fall. We’d be happy, we’re just dying to hear from you again.

OutKast

Are you together or not? Big Boi and Andre 3000’s reunion after 2006’s “Idlewild” is the biggest question mark in the music industry, but we hope that you guys can patch up any alleged differences you have and deliver a product before people stop caring. Big Boi - we know you’ve been struggling to release your solo album, which has been in the works for years. You’ve even released a few “promo” singles in the past couple of years that haven’t made any noise, so you’re obviously hungry. Three Stacks you’re a different story. There have also been reports that you’ve also been working on a solo album, but nothing concrete has ever developed. And the few guest appearances you’ve made show you’ve still got it, but you are doing sporadic movie roles instead… what’s the hold up? The rumor is you do have something for us, but are waiting for Big Boi’s solo to come out. So get on with it, we definitely need more summer anthems like “So Fresh So Clean”, “Miss Jackson” and “The Way You Move”. Come back already!

Justin Timberlake

There’s no question that whatever you release will be huge commercially. You are one of the only people in the music industry that basically has his own niche in the Pop market. However it looks like you’re more interested in making us laugh than making us want to dance. You’ve been dabbling in films (to not very great success), and guesting on Saturday Night Live way too much. Your new production team, The Y’s have done some pretty great work for other artists as of lately, so why can’t you just get in the booth and deliver something? It’s been four years since you scorched the charts with “SexyBack”, and a break like this is pretty critical at this point in your career. Hurry up and give the girls something to scream over. We miss you, but they miss you more.

The Strokes

Rockstars don’t seem to last long these days. Groups like you come and go - hot one minute and out the next. Of course you guys were always so much better than those other groups, and the industry needs your gritty yet fun Rock sound back on the charts. “Juicebox”, the lead single to your third album in 2005 showed that after so long people were still paying attention. And people will definitely pay attention to your sound now, since Modern Rock radio is crowded with soul-less pseudo rock anthems lately. And you might even get some Grammy gold for maintaining so long. January of next year is the alleged date of the fourth albums release, but can we get something to hold us over before than. A single or a leaked song sometime this summer will do. We want you back!