New Release: Miguel - Waves



My plan for New Release this week was Tinie Tempah feat. Zara Larsson with "Girls Like", unfortunately, the music video for that song has yet to be released, and a quick look at the New Releases this week have turned up similar stories. Miguel seems to be one of the only New Releases that has a music video out this week. He has been chart hungry for years now, and just when he gets into the limelight, it soon disappears again, and with songs like this, it isn't surprising. Miguel drops himself in water to relate to the song, whilst performing in a club where he's obviously intoxicated. Slow, misguided and twisted, this music video is wavy at best.

Miguel, full name Miguel Pimentel, is probably best known for featuring on Mariah Carey's song "#Beautiful" which is his biggest hit here in the UK, his other top songs failed to make the UK Top 40. A quick look on the iTunes top 1000 and this song is no where to be seen, and considering iTunes has promoted the single by putting it on their homepage under the Singles tab, it just goes to show that what Miguel really needs is a hit song. The song was written by Miguel Pimentel, which surprised me since his performance clips in the video fails to portray much passion towards the song.

This choppy video isn't exciting and interesting, although finding a house party behind a fridge door is pretty intricate.

I just feel like this was a rushed music video, the song is about making love to a girl all night, and instead it portrays him singing the song at a club and getting the crowd going as well as some scenes of him in some water.

He is also shirtless throughout, which would be great if he didn't clearly have this arrogant side to him. He thinks he's all that in this music video, and that just makes the song and it's accompanying music video less appealing than it would've normally been. I can't find much else to comment on, just that if Miguel is looking for a hit, he better do something about it soon.
Buy on iTunes

Rihanna - Shut Up And Drive



I love looking at Rihanna's old videos, she's so different and yet still popular today. This was the time I loved Rihanna, although my favourite song is "Don't Stop The Music", which I've already reviewed. "Umbrella" has been reviewed also, so let's go with this one, one me and my brother used to sing a lot due to a character saying it on The Simpsons: Road Rage game. Rihanna looks sexy as she cleans, fixes and buffs cars up in a junkyard before starting a street race.

This was released nine years ago, how time flies and how people change. Nowadays Rihanna is banging out chart hits but it's far from these days when I became a fan of her. Rihanna, real name Robyn Rihanna Fenty, brings out her rocker chick in this song and music video, probably inspired slightly by Avril Lavigne. The song was written by Evan Rogers, Carl Sturken, Stephen Morris, Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner and Gillian Gilbert. It samples New Order's "Blue Monday".

The music video is directed by Anthony Mandler, it is a slight narrative built in to a relaxed performance piece, you can really tell Rihanna loves singing this song.

This isn't anything new, but it's nothing old either, it has been done plenty of times before and after... Inna's "Clubrocker" and Taio Cruz "Dynamite" easily come to mind.

The choreography is slight, but well thought out and done to precision. Exactly what we expect from Rihanna.

The street race could've been more interesting, and a narrative could've formed, making Rihanna the prize, since the song suggests she's looking for a driver who's qualified.

The performance is perfect, if there wasn't so many different scenes, some come out of nowhere, such as Rihanna performing with a band, this would be fine if it was the main focus, but Rihanna being gorgeous is the main focus so the inclusion of the scene felt unnecessary. Rihanna performs sultry, she obviously loves this song, and you can't blame her because it is catchy with a hidden meaning to the song, it sure ain't about driving cars. Yet there's too many different performance scenes, it would've looked better with two, maybe three different ones.

Overall, a great simple music video, yeah it's nothing we haven't seen before, and a narrative could've come out of it, and yes there was many different performance scenes, but looking at the video as a whole, it's sexy, it's sultry, it's relatable, it's daring, it's hot. This may have it's errors, but it is gorgeous nonetheless.
Buy on iTunes

Rita Ora - Poison



She's the name everyone is keeping an eye on since Kesha's court hearing. Rita Ora has recently filed a lawsuit to get out of her contract. To which her record company has counter sued. Apparently a mutual agreement outside of the court has took place and is currently finalising. But has this whole Kesha news made Rita Ora that little bit worried? Especially since her record label has a distribution deal with Sony Music. In this video, Rita Ora chooses her poison, is fame money and a hot guy really worth it all? She proves it can all just go to your head.

Rita Ora has featured on my blog many times before, I am a fan of her songs and her voice ever since she first hit the scene on DJ Fresh's song "Hot Right Now". Currently she won't be releasing any more music until the lawsuit is over. Apparently an agreement has been determined and so we probably won't have to wait too long for new music from her, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. The song was written by Kate Nash, Nolan Lambroza and Julia Michaels. Surprising to see Kate Nash, of Foundations fame, named as songwriter. Such a good personal song, I was expecting Rita Ora's name.

Directed by Cameron Duddy, this is a full narrative music video with snippets of a performance piece.

Based around a photographer who wants to make Rita Ora famous, he tempts her to get her photo taken by him, soon enough she becomes something big in a showcase of her modelling pictures, the art gallery is filled with people; she invites one of her old friends, who doesn't fit in with the crowd, but soon wants to show to her that he can too, and so he starts off being photographed as well. Which doesn't appeal to Rita Ora as she doesn't want people getting into the industry without knowing what is what.

There are many different ways people have interpreted the video, the meaning of the video isn't a clear one, the main other interpretation people are coming up with is that the two guys are fighting over Rita Ora, and when they decided they can get on (or are gay for each other, as many speculating people have thought), she decides she doesn't want any of them (let alone a threesome/ménage à trois), she burns her main canvas, and runs away from it all.

Her performance is just as theatrical, it's magical because she means every single word of this song, she wants to get across her message, as well as prove that she is a noteworthy singer, she can sing something much more slower than her upbeat tracks.

Overall the narrative is complete, although confusing to some people, it works perfectly with the song and is totally artistically beautiful. It's well thought out and directed brilliantly, it's something rarely shown, and the message is heard clearly. Rita Ora delivers as she always does, it's a side of Rita Ora we rarely get to see and she performed to the best she could, which made this video outstanding.
Buy on iTunes

The LOX Featuring DMX & Lil' Kim - Money, Power & Respect



This week is all about breaking free of contracts, what with Kesha being stuck in her contract with Dr. Luke and Sony Music; I've decided to do a Music Special called #FreeKesha And Other Stories. My main problem is that, besides JoJo, there isn't any other stories; other than artists applying for bankruptcy and therefore renegotiating contracts, or filing lawsuits to former and current labels over money that is owed to them. Many artists haven't sued due to the cost, and so are stuck in their contracts, which asks them to release albums through the record label, which shelves their albums for unknown reasons. It took a lot of research to come across The LOX, they wanted out of Bad Boy Records, founded by Sean Combs (Puff Daddy/Puffy/Diddy/P. Diddy). They tried to be legally released from their contract, but it wasn't until they created t-shirts and a wave of fans to show their support, that Bad Boy Records finally released them from the contract. This was the sort of route they wanted to go down, but Bad Boy Records had different ideas. This music video may have been done in the 90's, but it works; it's current, even now, and it's true, not only to itself, but to the artists involved.

The LOX are a three piece hip-hop group consisting of Jadakiss, Styles P and Sheek Louch. After finally parting ways with Bad Boy Records, they broke apart and worked on solo albums. Each member has practically made a name for themselves in the music industry, and it wasn't until 2012, that they started releasing music together again. Could The LOX make a worldwide comeback sometime soon? It's quite the question, as soloists they've made it to an extent. Together, they could become bigger, if they put the time and effort into this group, especially if a song like this one is promoted and marketed right. This song features DMX, real name Earl Simmons, who has had a top ten hit in the UK, his stage name is recognisable, and one that hasn't been heard of for a few years, will he be on top of his game once again? We'll have to wait and see. As for Lil' Kim, she is completely unrecognisable to me in this music video. I'm surprised how gorgeous she looks in this video. Real name Kimberly Jones, has had worldwide success too, she is one of those stars who could easily make the perfect comeback, much like Missy Elliott has. This single was written by Jadakiss, Sheek Louch and Styles P.

The song is the group's biggest hit. The accompanying music video is both narrative and performance based, centring around the latter more than the former.

I love the start with the kid throwing the newspapers. Lil' Kim outshines The LOX and DMX on the performance sides of things. However these rappers are doing the best they can with what they've been given.

The narrative is short, and practically shows what we're used to seeing. However it's more relatable than we can imagine. They manage to steal money from high profiled people and spread it out to the people who clearly need it more, after evading the police and changing the look of the car, so it's not identifiable.

The performance side of this video is on point, enough to make me feel the emotion each of the artists are getting across, they mean every word they are rapping and they believe it. It's unsurprising that this was a hit in America. The narrative scenes are too short, they're intercut with the performance scene much too often, leading a distorted video that complicates viewers to a certain extent; that said the narrative is interesting and engaging.
Buy on iTunes

Channillo: The Power Of Creatures: A Book Series You Do Not Want To Miss

Cover by Amy-Kate Brennan
Channillo and Me: Beginnings
For those of you who don't know, I recently released my book series, The Power Of Creatures, on Channillo.com. I first came across the website, thanks to Twitter. The founder contacted me on Twitter asking if I'd like to write a series for Channillo. After exploring the website, I knew this was my next step after graduating from university, so I applied, and my series officially debuted on 28th January 2016, the day before my birthday.



The only problem I've had is that my friends are unsure of how to subscribe, and so this blog post is to help anyone who is weary or unsure of Channillo. I love this website and I hope you will love it too.

What Is Channillo?
This is a website where people can subscribe to a book series, where weekly or biweekly or monthly a snippet will be released, either a full chapter or part of a chapter, a short story, a poem, an essay or a journal entry. It allows subscribers to read at their own pace, allows authors to keep readers interested in an ongoing series, and builds excitement for readers as they are able to openly discuss the series on social networks.

Channillo supports writers by distributing 80% of revenue to its writers, By subscribing to a seriers, you support that author directly.

Channillo Homepage
Membership
Once you've signed up, you can choose a membership. The three options you can choose from are: a bronze plan, a gold plan and a platinum plan, where you pay a monthly fee. Each one is different and allows you to subscribe to a limited amount of series. I can barely keep up with the four book series that I'm currently reading, so I'm glad I went with a bronze membership.

Channillo Memberships
There is another option if you don't fancy having a direct debit and that is to buy a gift code for yourself. This is a unique idea, where you pay a sum of money for a certain amount of time. Paying this way saves you money and is also split into the three categories Bronze, Gold and Platinum. It is further split into three months, six months, a year and two years. This works well allowing you to subscribe to a series as long as you need to, without being charged monthly. And you save money!
Channillo Gift Codes
NOTE: It may be displayed in American Dollars, but this website isn't exclusive to American readers. Anyone around the world can pay for the memberships or gift code.

Getting Started
Right, now you've signed up, and have a membership, Channillo is now available to you. Go and explore using the home page or the discover page. Find series that are interesting to you, something that you will enjoy. Each series comes with a Series Description, which should influence you into subscribing.

I highly recommend The Power Of Creatures by Jonathan Currinn, unsurprising since it is the series I've released on Channillo, myself.
Series Info for The Power Of Creatures
I'm subscribed to four series, and I'm far behind on all of them. My favourite has to be The Warlock Case Files by Juli Monroe; if I find spare time, I always log onto Channillo and read from this series first before any of the others I'm subscribed to. It never fails to make me laugh, The other series I'm subscribed to are Firewalkers by Taylor Eaton, With Teeth by Jessica (Sita) Sneeringer, and Bad Girls by Amanda Carney.

There is also a most popular feature, which includes Lockheed Elite by Tyler Wandschneider, which I plan to subscribe to when I find time to read more on Channillo. These are the popular series, so not only are they bound to be good, but they're also diverse, there isn't a common theme or genre within the most popular titles, which shows that there is something for everyone on this site.

The most popular series on Channillo, found on the homepage.
Your Channel
This is where you can follow your series updates. Have you caught up to a series and waiting for the next chapter, poem, essay, journal entry, short story? Well this is the place you have to keep checking to see if there has been a new one released.

Features
There's many features I love on Channillo. My favourite so far is the Completed button at the end of every chapter, poem, short story, etc. This allows you to keep track of where you are in the series, essentially like your own little bookmark. This allows me to know where I am when I have the time to read the next one from the series.

Profiles. There are profiles for both authors and readers, this is unique and interesting.

Discover, is another favourite feature of mine, when I've caught up with all the series I'm reading, I delve into here and see what series are available, and what I might want to read next. Sometimes I just get lost in the amazing series covers, they're all brilliant with different ideas.

FAQs are avilable on this website, they're clear and precise, allowing you to understand the website more if you're still apprehensive.

Channillo and Me: Future
I am planning to release the next short story in my series: The Power Of Creatures, within the week. My series is going to last six months. Each story is set in a different place and a different time zone. Read more about the series on Channillo.

I am currently writing a series that I'm hoping will be finished at the end of the year. I plan to submit it for Channillo, because I've fallen in love with the site and how it works. I love the idea behind it all, and this series I'm writing would be perfect for their website, it's just finding time in my life to write the series, since I'm stretched too thin over everything that I'm currently doing.

Channillo
This will be the website you'll be telling all you're friends about. This is the website you should be going on right now. Stop reading this blog post and click one of the links, or just type Channillo into Google. Subscribe to The Power Of Creatures. Go and do it now, you won't be disappointed.
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