Back in the mid-90’s to early 2000, eye contacts allowed people to change their eye color. Browns were now gray, blue turned into hazel, and who were the main people to wear these contacts? Women. Stuffing the bra for bigger boobs dates back before contacts along with weave. Now there is surgery for all these enhancements. What was once a temporary fad is now becoming a permanent fixture on the beauty scene. Turn on the computer, go visit YouTube and watch a couple of videos of say Nicki Minaj. The famous female rapper, from head to toe is one plastic Barbie, as she puts it. The wigs with the multiple colors, the contacts, eyelashes, and her butt are all fake.

Butt implants emerged on the scene when famous women such as J. Lo, Beyonce, and Kim Kardashian showed off their butt. All of a sudden women wants bigger butts. There’s injections, butt pads, and even shoes to make it lift more. “I don’t understand why girls feel the need to have big butts, I prefer natural over fake any day,” Donnie Carter, a student at Georgia State University said. Donnie also said he doesn’t like weave on girls. “I go for the natural look, why change the way you were born,” he said.

On the contrary, Jerrod Williams, another student from Georgia State said he likes a girl with long hair and if it means putting a weave in he has no problem with that. He also doesn’t have a problem with a girl who wants bigger boobs or a bigger butt. “It’s her body, I don’t have a right to say what she shouldn’t do with it. As long as it looks good, I’m okay with that.”

Some women can pull off looking like they never went under the needle. Surgery is getting to the point where it’s difficult to tell whether or not someone had an enhancement or not. Shala Walker of Houston, TX said for a long time she wanted bigger boobs. She didn’t want them ridiculously bigger but big enough to her satisfaction. “I don’t want them to look fake,” she said. Walker plans on getting the surgery in the near future.

Fake is replacing real. There’s a way to avoid plastic surgery. You can get a new butt for $29.99 with Booty Pops that are commercialized on TV. For fuller lips, Loreal has you covered with there regeneralist. As long as there is a woman who wants to improve something on her, fake will be there.

Madonna. Lady GaGa. Jay-Z. What do these three names have in common? Well, they’re all famous musicians and they’ve all made controversial music videos. Madonna was voted Queen of Controversial Music Videos in a 2006 MTV poll. Her videos, “Like A Prayer”, “Vogue’, and “Like A Virgin” all caused quite a stir when they were released in the 1980s and 1990s. Madonna continued to push these buttons with her tours and performances such as the “Blonde Amibition” tour. On Madonna’s Wikipedia page, she is quoted saying, “I know that I’m not the best singer and I know that I’m not the best dancer. But, I can f***ing push people’s buttons and be as provocative as I want. The tour’s goal is to break useless taboos.”

In essence, I believe that Madonna is saying that during the Blonde Amibition tour, her goal was to push the limit and have people look at sex and sexuality in a way they previously hadn’t. In my humble opinion, that’s fine. Some of the imagery may be a bit much for some to watch but it’s supposed to be that way. Madonna’s videos seek to portray art, life, love, and sexuality. Those things can be very uncomfortable topics and they mean something different to us all.

Current pop icon, Lady GaGa, is often compared to Madonna. In fact, she has been dismissed as a Madonna copycat by many of her critics. Her most recent video, “Alejandro” caused quite a stir in the blogosphere, the internet, and the media. Sites like the Vigilant Citizen claimed that the video was full of occult symbols and meanings. For those who don’t know, the term “Occult” means secret. Recently, the word has been aligned with devil worship and several bloggers and media outlets have started accusing music stars of being members of a secret society of devil worshippers.

Rap star/Hip-hop legend, Jay-Z is no different. He has also been featured on the Vigilant Citizen, for his “Onto the Next One” video. The video featured images like the dark joker (some say a play on Heath Leger’s portrayal of the character), a dancer on luggage, and diamond studded skull (reportedly worth 100 million) with paint poured over it. In January, when the video was released, everyone was seeking to define the video’s meaning. Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz (the song’s producer) both denied the rumors of devil worship on MTV. The video’s director Sam Brown was interviewed by Vibe.com and during this interview, he stated that he was responsible for the video’s imagery, although, Jay-Z did brief him but Jay-Z simply stated that the video should be progressive. In this case, Jay-Z is not directly responsible for the videos images since its visual concepts are a product of Sam Brown.

So what do these videos mean? What messages are the artists trying to convey? That’s a question that can only be answered by the artists and their collaborators. Steven Klein, director of Lady GaGa’s “Alejandro” told MTV, “It’s about a woman’s desire to resurrect a dead love and who can not face the brutality of her present situation. The pain of living without your true love.”

In an interview with WWD.com, Beyonce is quoted as saying, “This was my first time starting from scratch, although I’ve worked with a few other fragrance projects,” said Knowles, who has also been the face of Tommy Hilfiger’s True Star and Giorgio Armani’s Diamonds. “Everything, from the bottle design to the name and the ideas for the commercials — that’s me. When I commit to something, I do it 100 percent, and I’ve never had [creative control over a fragrance] until this project. I learned a lot of great things from the past — but I always asked myself, ‘If I could have my own scent, what would it be?’ I wasn’t worried about deadlines. It could have taken me three, four, however many years — this was my first fragrance, and I wanted to make sure that it was something I would love forever.”

Source: Women’s Wear Daily

The Element of Boredom, that’s what Alicia Keys should have called her album. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of Alicia Keys. I was always the type to buy her album and listen to it once and never listen to it again.  However, when I was given this assignment, I knew I needed to give Alicia another try and come at her album with an open mind. But unfortunately, this album is by far Alicia’s worst, so for now, she will not be gaining me as a fan.

My first issue with this album and Alicia in general, is that she tries so hard to paint herself as this “deep” “piano-playing poet” and it just comes off as extra to me.  It seems that Alicia tried even harder to build this image of herself with this album. First off, the album starts with…surprise, surprise Alicia reciting a poem and playing the piano.  This is the intro track called, “The Element of Freedom” which is actually the title of the album. Next, Alicia moves onto “Love is Blind” which is a decent track, but, it’s repetitive nature can become tiresome. The third song is, “Doesn’t Mean Anything” which was the first single from the album. That song was one of the better ones. It reminded me of the old Alicia which I halfway liked.

The next three tracks,  ”Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”, “Wait Till You See My Smile”, “That’s How Strong My Love Is”, have not only ridiculously cheesy titles, but, they lack a central focal point. These songs simply all sound the same and if I never hear them again, I promise I will live to see another day.  Alicia then decides to further bore me with “Un-Thinkable”, “Love is My Disease” (again another silly title), and “Like the Sea”.  The next song, “Put It In A Love Song”, features my favorite artist, the Creole Goddess that is Beyonce` Knowles.  I love both Alicia & Beyonce on this track.  Alicia sounded excellent, because, she has a more alto/tenor voice so she sounds nice in the background. Beyonce` does somewhat takeover the song, but, that’s because she has a more powerful voice than Alicia (in my opinion).

I was hoping that the album would end soon, because, most albums are no more than twelve or thirteen tracks, but, Alicia insisted on droning on for another twelve songs. Where she got the energy to continue with this nonsense, I don’t know.  The last song I liked was, “Distance and Time”, this song had a nice mellow tempo & it actually featured some worthy lyrical content. “Empire State of Mind (Part II)” was useless. I loved the original track with her & Jay so I have no idea why she felt the need to re-do it. My problem with the fact that she re-did this song is that, she didn’t do anything different. I mean she literally re-sang Jay’s raps, it was pointless and adding nothing to anyone’s life.

Before I go, I would like to say this: I know that I have offended a lot of people with this review. I am well aware that Alicia has die-hard fans and I respect her as an artist, because, goodness knows I can’t sing or play the piano. However, this review was my opinion and nothing more. You don’t have to agree, but, please respect me and I promise to respect you. Also, don’t let my review be your sole reason for deciding not to purchase this album. Why do I say that? Because, you make like it, you may think it’s Alicia’s best album yet. I’m asking that you listen to the album for yourself and form your own opinion. Like my mumsy says, “Different strokes for different folks”.

Check out Alicia Keys Facebook Fan Page

The diva that never sleeps has sold 2.5 million copies of her 20008 “I Am…Sasha Fierce” according to SoundScan. My question is will Sasha Fierce return or was this a one time thing.

We’ll be on the lookout…

Source: Billboard.com