Herb Alpert’s “Rise” and The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hyp notize”

LOS ANGELES , CA – Shout! Factory, in partnership with music legend Herb Alpert, expands the label’s historic Herb Alpert Signature Series reissue program with the fully restored and remastered release of Alpert’s disco-infused 1979 masterpiece, RISE.


Alpert’s artistic comeback started with the release of “Rise,” a down-tempo dance single departing from Alpert’s signature Tijuana Brass sound. It climbed to number one on the Billboard charts and became the biggest hit of his career. Met with such success, Alpert and his recording team created an entire album around the new, laidback disco sounds of the single and RISE – the album – was born, topping the charts and revitalizing Alpert’s already decades-long career.

Every album in the Herb Alpert Signature Series has been meticulously remastered under Alpert’s personal supervision, and the expanded CD booklets include new liner notes with reflections from Alpert himself. The 11 previous releases in the series include Whipped Cream & Other Delights, The Lonely Bull, Going Places, rarities collection Lost Treasures and many more. RISE joins the Herb Alpert Signature Series on CD May 29, 2007 with two previously unreleased tracks, for the suggested list price of $13.98.

Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, co-founders of A&M Records, will be honored with the President’s Merit Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences for their contributions to popular music. The ceremony will take place at a post-Grammy® reception on February 11, 2006 at the Los Angeles Convention Center .

ABOUT HERB ALPERT
Herb Alpert’s celebrated career in music began over four decades ago, with early—and extraordinary–successes including his 1958 co-write, with Lou Adler and Sam Cooke, of the evergreen hit “Wonderful World.” Today, 75 million+ in record sales down the road, Alpert’s versatile talent is legendary. His myriad credits encompass triumphs as a superstar trumpeter and bandleader, label founder, producer, composer, arranger and vocalist…the latter, most notably for his 1968 #1 single with the now-classic track “This Guy’s In Love With You,” which was also the first #1 hit for the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Among Alpert’s many music awards garnered over the years are seven GRAMMYs®, including Record of the Year/Best Instrumental Performance (Non-Jazz) for the ’65 Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass smash “A Taste Of Honey,” as well as Best Pop Instrumental Performance wins for the 1966 TJB hit “What Now My Love” and Herb’s 1979 solo masterpiece “Rise.” Alpert has also been honored with the prized GRAMMY Trustees Award for Lifetime Achievement, which he and longtime music business partner Jerry Moss received jointly in 1997.

In 1962, Alpert and Moss co-founded A&M Records, long the world’s leading—and largest—independently owned record label. The company was revered internationally for its artist-driven agenda, and acts that over several decades included The Police, Sting, Janet Jackson, Joe Jackson, The Brothers Johnson, Joe Cocker, Bryan Adams, Soundgarden, Supertramp,, Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66, Cat Stevens, The Carpenters, Sheryl Crow, Barry White and Quincy Jones.

In many ways, though, in addition to being one of its founding fathers, Alpert was A&M’s signature artist. Immediately after forming the label, he introduced the Tijuana Brass phenomenon, which propelled him, and the A&M name, to global fame. By putting the trumpet out front, Alpert revolutionized the instrument as a pop radio staple with a trademark sound fusing Latin influences, Jazz instincts, and unerring pop sensibilities.

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Check Out David Banner’s New Cartoon “That Crook’d Sipp” on Cartoon Network

New York, NY May 11, 2007 David Banner is set to debut his thought provoking cartoon That Crook’d Sipp this Saturday Night (Sunday morning – May 13th) @ 12:15 AM on the Cartoon Network.

That Crook’d Sipp, loosely based on Banner’s life, is about a white family in Mississippi named The Beauregards who are living in Mississippi trapped in the 1800s but actually living in 2007. Virgil, a young progressive black man in Mississippi and the main character, played by Banner, tells the story of the Beauregards through his eyes. Virgil owns the hottest restaurants in the little town called Sweet Tea, Mississippi and has the most controversial group in the South called the Sweet Tea Monsters, who will really release an album as added bonus to the series.

Banner decided to use his home state as the setting of That Crook’d Sipp because “I actually think Mississippi is one of the best states as far as race relations is concerned, because Mississippi is more honest about how they feel about each other. If white folks like you, they really like you and will die for you. If they don’t like you, well that’s a different story.” That Crook’d Sipp deals societal issues of the day and allows me as a rapper to use another avenue to get the word out on issues that they may not have a chance to do through sound recordings,” states Banner.

Banner is currently in the studio working on a new album, The Greatest Story Ever Told due out late 2007. He recently had his debut as an actor in the feature film Black Snake Moan alongside Samuel Jackson and Christina Ricci and has been working on a few more movie roles over the past year.




Happy Birthday James!




Phat Kat Representing Motor City To the Fullest With New Album Entitled Carte Blanche

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Brooklyn, NY April 23, 2007) Detroit native Phat Kat, aka Ronnie Cash, is set to release his second solo album, Carte Blanche on May 8th on Look Records. Carte Blanche marks the first time Phat Kat was given total creative control to cherry-pick the best beats and the best emcees to work with. The result is an example of the finest in Hip-Hop Detroit has to offer.

In the early 90’s Phat Kat, the emcee also known as Ronnie Cash, was busy making his first album in the basement of his buddys’ mom’s house.� The group was called First Down and his partner was Jay Dee, now known as legendary DJ/producer J Dilla (R.I.P.). Since then, Phat Kat has become a permanent heavyweight on the Detroit scene. He appeared on the Representing The Streets compilation with the now-classic “Front Street,” contributed to albums by Dilla and Slum Village, and in 2004, after inking a deal with Barak, he released his first solo album The Undeniable LP.� Phat Kat is now set to release a new solo effort entitled Carte Blanche.

Phat Kat speaks of major players in the rise of Detroit such as Proof, Eminem, D12 and Dilla with the insight of a sibling. “We all knew Detroit hip-hop had some real lyricists, more than the drug dealing, violent types that everyone assumed Detroit would be full of, and whether it was in 5 or 15 years the songs we were putting down would get their due. Unfortunately for Dilla, he had to be gone for people to come out and say he was the greatest � I’ve always said that,” says Phat Kat.� In the wake of Dilla’s passing and with the national spotlight securely focused on Detroit Hip-Hop for more than a minute now, Phat Kat puts it on his shoulders “To give the world a crash course of Detroit Hip-Hop. This is what it is.” Almost everyone associated with Carte Blanche represents the D. Dilla contributes five tracks, but the work of up-and-coming producers Nick Speed, Young RJ, and Black Milk is just as impressive. Other guests include SV’s Elzhi and T3, Truth Hurts, Melanie Rutherford, Fat Ray, Loe Louis and Guilty Simpson. Rather than pursuing cameos and features from overexposed stars, Phat Kat chose instead to work with his peoples from the D, figuring “The people I got on my album is just as hot as people that’s out.”

Detroit Hip-Hop appears to be a mainstay on the mantle of Hip-Hop’s elite cities. Phat Kat has been in the mix before it was on anyone’s radar and associated with all the major players thereafter.� With Carte Blanche, Phat Kat delivers an album that gives us all we’ve come to appreciate about Detroit MCs: it is intricate but still intimate, hardcore but still lyrical.� Along the way, we are introduced to the up-and-coming torchbearers of Detroit Hip-Hop and we are also given another chance to vibe with a fallen legend.� Carte Blanche will be released on May 8th on San Francisco based Look Records.

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