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Life & Arts

Artist gives touching tribute

Music Notes 

Eli Jabbe

With the recent tragic events that occurred at Virginia Tech on April 16, which resulted in 32 victims losing their lives, musicians are coming together and sending their condolences to the victims' family members. 

Jin recently recorded a tribute to the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting. "Rain, Rain Go Away" features Jin's reaction to the news as he watched it live on television: "I turned on CNN just to catch up on news / my eyes couldn't digest images on the screen / the latest reports, live on the scene / I can't describe it: the words aren't quite there/something like a dream, more like a nightmare." 

The song ends with press conference audio interjected into its outro, but not before Jin ponders: "Victims paid the price at such a high cost / all those innocent lives lost / we're all God's seeds, sisters and brothers / what could make a man take the life of another?" 

In addition, Pusha T, a popular artist who is one half of Virginian duo Clipse, told www.AllHipHop.com: "We feel that the shooting at Virginia Tech was a terrible tragedy ... definitely a shock and totally unexpected. Random acts of violence can happen anywhere. We must come together as a community to be strong for students and families whose lives were lost."

On a more positive note, r&b singer Joe returns with a new album. Joe is an artist who has been one of the elite crooners in the r&b world for quite some time. 

He first emerged with his debut album All That I Am, which featured his first hit "Don't Wanna Be Player." 

He also appeared on the chorus of Big Pun's huge hit "Still Not a Player," which borrowed from Joe's original song. Among Joe's other classic-level songs are "Thank God I Found You" with Mariah Carey and Nas, and his hit ballad "I Wanna Know" from his 2000's sophomore album, My Name Is Joe. 

Joe has consistently released r&b hit after hit over the years, without performing the strange antics of singers like R. Kelly. His new album, Ain't Nothin' Like Me, drops Tuesday. This is Joe's first LP in four years. On the album, Joe once again teams with Nas on "Get To Know Me," which borrows the beat from Nas' classic song, "You're Da Man" from his 2001 album, Stillmatic. 

Joe told MTV recently: "I really went out and did everything on my part that I could do to make the best album that I can, I would say it's my best album so far. I expect it to do big things."
 

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