Ive seen alot of press over this lately, 19 year old singer Cassie gave a pretty bad "Live" performance on 106th and park and the whole world is in an uproar. Ok it was bad, but lets blame the girl, lets blame the real problem. The labels, industry people, Producers who are responsible for all of this and the lack of being able to get an artist that can actually perform and not just look good. A recent quote from Angie Stone summed up RB in a nutshell, "its all about Eye Candy and not about Ear Candy" so true, its acutally borderline "pimping" basically. Now whenever something like this happens there is always a scapegoat, now its Cassie, but lets be real i have seen tons of performances from the new breed of artists out there and they all have no clue what they are doing at all. I caught a few moments of Puffys Making the Band and i saw him bring in this guy "Pooh Bear" whos a Vocal Coach, this guy knew nothing about vocals and singing, he was having these girls sing notes they had no clue what they were doing. Like anything else people will always fixate on one person and blame them, but hey dont blame "Crack" blame the dealer, its the same in this matter too. Are we really surprised Cassie cant sing live, or Rihanna uses tons of backing tracks or really any other you want to insert herer. But just look at the facts, RB artists (mainly) cant sell concert tickets, rarely tour or play shows. Which is why when there is a current RB artist touring there are about 15 on the bill and still cant sell out, hopefully i am not the only one seeing the big drop off in the fact that someone can sell a million albums but not a concert ticket, there is a connection.

shit...that poor thing sounded like a...bad boy artist at their best?
lol

TheBoyfromtheBand said:

Well thats it in a nutshell people will focus on her for not having the talent to be able to perform live, but will still ignore the real problems, the people behind the scenes. (Mtv,BET,Clear CHannel, Radio,Producers, Labels, most of the buying public, take your pick of one to blame)

lastdecember said:

I agree with every word, but I missed the fiasco-when did she perform?

TheBoyfromtheBand said:

hey... Bad Boy used to have Faith Evans

lastdecember said:

Can we please blame the producers of American Idol too?

CinisterCee said:

....and Sean Combs (the business man/excutive producer) screw that up too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassie



From what I can tell, it's very clear that she got a record deal for looking like a woman that a lot of people would fornicate with.

TonyVanDam said:

For some reason that doesnt look like her???

heres a pic of her

"ladies and gentleman, the new scapegoat for the industry....Cassie"

Cassie's BET performance

http://www.youtube.com/wa...sIaRm2vqKg

They had her mic turned down so low that you could barely hear her, which I am sure was intentional.
[Edited 8/18/06 6:38am]

PurpleCharm said:

lol,you can barely hear her vocals but maybe that's a good thing?

lastdecember said:

Thanks! (Damn, I can't believe I got a very wrong pic).

PurpleCharm said:

I sorry, but I couldn't listen to this shyt anymore after the first 2 minutes of this song! If this is the future of what's to come in R&B, we rot!!!

And BTW, Tommy Mottola should get his ass fired from Universial from signing this child a recording contract (if he is responsible).

PurpleCharm said:

Truly sad, but thanks 4 the link.

TonyVanDam said:

doesn't P.Diddy have something to do with signing her?

lastdecember said:

I understand what you're saying and I agree. However, people like Cassie and others know full well they can't sing. Yet they let their heads get pumped up and go out there and then embarass themselves. I can't sympathize with that. If you can't sing live without backing tracks and vocal enhancers, etc., ... you can't sing. Period.

And yeah I know that makes me sound like a harsh old broad but tough tit and too damn bad. It's not like she's a 6 or 7 year-old child in a school Christmas pagent.


.
[Edited 8/18/06 6:44am]

Ifsixwuz9 said:

Well its not so much feeling bad for her as it is that we tend to blame "artists" for the state of RB when its people that do the signing, promoting and producing that are the real problem. People will just think "oh its just cassie" but i can easily name other RB/POP acts that cant sing live, cant sing without tracks behind them.

Cassie is in the same league with Ashanti,J-Lo and Ciara....ladies who have no real talent other than looking pretty.

Ifsixwuz9 said:

Exactly. These talentless "artist" need to share the blame.

Cassie has to know that she can't sing or dance, but probably figured that because she can hold a tune and is cute, she could be a singer.

If you read through the comments on the youtube link, every other person talks about how she can't sing and ends their comment with "but she's hot" "but she's cute." And that's exactly why she has a record deal. There are tons of females that actual blow that will never have the opportunity that she has been given because they don't have the kind of looks that will endear them to the public.

SoulAlive said:

At least JLo and Ciara can dance, which helps to offset the fact that they can't sing. Cassie is in the same league as Ashanti...good looks, can't sing or dance and has zero stage presence.
[Edited 8/18/06 7:05am]

lastdecember said:

Oh I totally agree it's the record companies, etc., trying to make a quick buck off these disposable r&b and pop acts. They know full well these people will more than likely not be around in 3 - 5 years and therefore won't have any reason to try and renegoitate their contracts for more money, etc.

PurpleCharm said:

I've never been a proponent of booing people off stage and whatnot. But people like Cassie, and Ciara (I don't care if the youngin' can dance) and the like need to get the old school Apollo Theater treatment--- Boo, boo, boo, boo, put the mic back on the stand and exit yo' ass stage left.

PurpleCharm said:

But there in lies the problem, look at who labels are trying to sell to, mostly the teen audience which honestly a very good percentage of could care less about an artists vocal ability or songwriting ability it is what they look like. Its like I said you cant blame "crack" you have to go after the dealers

This clip sums up all that is wrong with music today. The thing is, I don't see how her performance was any worse than most of the other "performances" by today's R&B artists. I mean Beyonce can sing and dance, but her BET Awards performance was very lame. She opted to dance more and let the track do most of the singing. Her all-female band was a joke, they weren't even playing. So if that is the standard that the Cassies of the music world have to aspire to, what do you expect?

When Amerie's "One Thing" was hot, I saw her perform on MTV and she was just as lame as Cassie IMO. A male friend remarked that she wasn't up there to sing. He said her job was to look good. So there you have it.

I did laugh at one point in the Cassie performance though. When the DJ said come on ya'll know the words to the audience, I thought to myself, does Cassie know the words?

There is one 2 blame. The CONSUMER who buys this crap.

Ifsixwuz9 said:

Not a bad idea at all...



...With assistance from The Sandman


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

the real problem isn't with cassie, diddy, or the record co.
the listener is the problem.the listener seems to be labotomized(sic)
didnt u hear the audience scream "go'head girl"?
gil scott heron described it best, we have went from producers 2 consumers.
and when the producer names the tune, the consumer has 2 dance.

i am 31 years old and my tastes are old-fashioned. i believe in talent. i believe in artistry.it will take a full-fledged musical revolution for that 2 happen. that's why i will never disrespect an artist trying 2 say something. i believe in the floodgate theory. let me xplain:

take a look back at any musical movement.let's use neo-soul as an example. think about all of the classic albums that came from that era. do u think maxwell's UHS would have came out if D's Brown Sugar wasn't successful? Nope
that album (UHS) was supposed 2 come out the same time as Brown but Sony didnt know what 2 do with it until they saw D making $$$ from Brown.

Now if we music geeks stop being snobs and support REAL artists like Van Hunt or Bilal (who has a classic sitting on the shelf right now), then the floodgates will open up. the record industry is all about the $$$ and when they see the listener (this time the producer)supporting real music, they have 2 dance. will this happen? sheeeeeit, i highly doubt it. but it CAN happen. as corny as it sounds, we need 2 come 2gether b4 the music dies.

hope this makes sense.i like 2 babble

lastdecember said:

I never watch "106 and Park" but I landed on this and OMG, what a fucking diaster. I assumed her mike was off (wasn't it or was she really trying to sing there).

You know, I read the strangest review in the Detroit Free Press on the Cassie album. It basically said she sounded very disinterested and had no idea how to sing real R&B, the album was extermely short and that it was a good thing that she was trying to be Aaliyah...but it gave the album 3 out of 4 stars! It was kind of postive, I guess. Maybe the reviewer is just that damned jaded.

revolution75 said:

It's easy to say support real artists like Bilal and Van Hunt but if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it...(or in this case, an artist never gets any exposure and nobody hears them anywhere). I think there is going to start being a real reaction to how lame testerial radio formats along with the exposure that MTV and other media outlets gives artists and the consumers will start gravating more and more to the net to hear new artists, along with satelite radio (with R&B stations that don't just play Lil' John, et al.).