Keri Hilson, ambitious young entrepreneur

Every heard of a song writer and singer named Keri Hilson?

Recently, I heard Timbaland’s single featuring Hilson called, “The Way I Are.” To an outsider not paying close attention, Keri looks like a typical overnight hip hop success. She has a great voice and is making music with big shot producer and rapper, Timbaland.

Check out the music video:

Reality is different from perception, the 25 year old “overnight success” has been writing music for A-List singers since she was 19 years old. According to her Wikipedia profile:

Keri Hilson has been writing music for individual artists since 2001. She has written music for Chris Brown, Britney Spears, Lil Wayne, Fat Joe, Toni Braxton, Mary J. Blige, Usher, Ciara, the Pussycat Dolls, Avant, Ruben Studdard, B5, Diddy, Chingy, LeToya, Ludacris, Rich Boy, Shawn Desman, Kelly Rowland, Nicole Scherzinger, Lloyd Banks, and Timbaland. With many of the songs Hilson takes part in writing she also does background vocals, such as in “Runaway Love” and “Wait A Minute”.

It’s great to see a talented singer and writer, as opposed to just another pretty face, rising to the top. Ever since I’ve been watching the show Entourage, the fast paced world of entertainment seems to have a lot of parallels to the tech start-up experience.

Origins of freak dancing

A friend sent me a link to the music video for a song called Lambada performed by a group called Kaoma. Apparently it was really popular in 1989:

According to a wikipedia article about Lambada:

Lambada (pronunciation (help·info)) is a dance which became internationally popular in the 1980’s. The exact origin of the dance is somewhat disputed but it is known to have begun in Brazil and has forerunners such as the forró, sayas, the maxixe, and the carimbó.

Lambada entered the global mainstream when the Brazilian pop group Kaoma recorded a number one worldwide summer hit “Lambada” which sold 5 million singles in 1989

This song made Lambada dancing mainstream which in turn made Freak Dancing (aka freaking) mainstream. Of course Lambada looks modest compared to Freaking. And by the look of it, Lambada actually requires skill.

Amazing to think that 10 years later we were freak dancing at middle school dances as a result of this one song.

UPDATED: The title of this post had the word ‘origins’ misspelled so I fixed at. For the record, I am not promoting freak dancing, I’m simply admiring the impact (for better or for worse) of music on our lives.

Ever played Mortal Kombat?

It was serious business for kids and teens in the 90’s. Absurdly seriously, in my circle of friends it was a big deal being the best at Mortal Kombat. Check out this YouTube video (with 9,000,000 views) which has a bunch of inside jokes that former Mortal Kombat players will totally get:

Here’s a list of stuff they make fun of which I’ve always found amusing:

1. The announcer, who the heck was that guy anyways?
2. Over the top sound effects
3. The characters
4. squatting punches (and jumping to avoid them)
5. Absurd fighting moves
6. Disco quality of the MK song

Noticed more funny stuff? Post it in a comment.

UPDATED: See first paragraph for the 2 letter strikethrough I made…tiny grammar issue.

Music feature

I just added a music widget by Sonific to this blog’s sidebar. In short, it’s a jukebox which I will change from time to time based on songs and genres I’m intrigued with. Don’t worry, it’s not obnoxious the way some sites are, music will not play unless you specifically click the play button.

Lately, I’ve been exploring my Jewish identity, which is why the music player is set to play a song called L’cha Dodi.