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beyonce August 28, 2017
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Hurricane Harvey is bringing the music world together to support Houston

Hurricane Harvey devastatingly touched down on the southern coast of Texas Friday at 9:45 am as a Category 4 storm. The storm’s destructive path left many with flooded out homes and no place to go.

At landfall, winds reached up to 130 mph before hitting the shore again at Copano Bay, this time as a Category 3 hurricane, according to the New York Times.

Louisiana, which was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago, might see flooding along with parts of Mississippi and southern Arkansas.

What was the driving force behind Harvey’s catastrophic destruction? Its heavy rainfall that stretched along the state’s Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi to Houston, and inland to Austin and San Antonio.

This is not a small storm. Harvey continues to rip through the southern shoreline of Texas. The storm is expected to dump more than 50 inches of rain in some areas.

As for casualties, five have been reported dead and more than a dozen injured. The numbers will continue to rise.

Houston, the fourth largest city in the U.S., has been hit the hardest. Magnolia City’s roads are impassable as millions of people are at risk trapped in their homes because of torrential rainfall and flooding.

#PrayforHouston

Although this might be one of the most historical hurricanes to hit the U.S., the city did not order evacuations before the storm. According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 water rescues have taken place in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Officials said about 56,000 911 calls have been made in the wake of the weekend storm. The emergency system is overwhelmed and officials are advising not to call unless it is a dire situation.

As Harvey continues to unleash its wrath our prayers here at Kulture Hub go out to those who are suffering. Artists and celebrities are also taking to social media to express their sympathies for the victims of the wind storm.

Plies sends his prayers and love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhVYZwV6cb8

Drake whose love for TX is well documented took to Instagram to send his prayers from London. He promises to lend a helping hand.

Drake also went on to post emergency hotline numbers

A post shared by champagnepapi (@champagnepapi) on

Houston native Beyonce sent her love as well…

A post shared by Beyoncé (@beyonce) on

Southern Boss Rick Ross also sends prayers

Demi Lovato said how heartbroken she is over the ruthless storm

Lady Gaga will be sending donations

LL Cool J encourages those affected by the storm to stay safe

And Common sends his love

The water is still rising and this is the worst case of flooding Texans have ever seen. If you’re interested in lending a helping hand, donate to one of the charity’s listed below.

Red Cross

All Hands

Global Giving

Foundation Beyond Belief

Airbnb

SBP

Greater Houston Community Fund

Houston Humane Society

Americares

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beyonce August 16, 2017
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8 hit songs that were low key ghostwritten by other famous artists

The topic of ghostwriting can be a sensitive one.

Everyone knows about the whole Drake/Meek Mill saga when Meek found out Quentin Miller wrote Drake’s verse on Meek’s song “R.I.C.O.” and lost his shit on social media.

A few years ago, Kendrick Lamar spoke to Rolling Stone about the idea of ghostwriting in rap, saying that ghostwriting is fine and all, but it really depends on the art form you’re trying to express.

Kendrick said of ghostwriting:

“It depends on what arena you’re putting yourself in. I called myself the best rapper. I cannot call myself the best rapper if I have a ghostwriter. If you’re saying you’re a different type of artist and you don’t really care about the art form of being the best rapper, then so be it. Make great music. But the title, it won’t be there.”

I think Kendrick is probably right in this case.

Rap is all about what you say, rappers are judged off the content and quality of their bars. Whereas other genres, like pop music, are mostly defined by who is singing and how they’re saying it.

Huge pop artists are not criticized when they have a song written for them, that’s just part of the business.

It is interesting to see which popular artists write for other artists as a sort of side hustle.

Artists like Ne-Yo, The-Dream, Frank Ocean, and PartyNextDoor just have a particular knack for writing hit songs and that can be one hell of a profitable skill.

Here’s a list of hit songs written by other artists.

PartyNextDoor wrote Rihanna’s “Work”

PND has his own catalog of fire R&B, most of which he produced himself. Dude is a talent.

But the Toronto crooner also has a solid list of songs penned for other artists. Not only did he write “Work,” he also wrote “Sex With Me” for Rihanna, as well as “Preach” and “With You” for Drake, and DJ Khaled’s Jay-Z and Beyonce duet “Shining.”

But as for “Work,” PartyNextDoor didn’t write it as a club song and despite his own moniker, he has trouble writing “party songs.”

PND told Rolling Stone about writing party songs, specifically “Work”:

“I tried this year to make the party songs. It wasn’t in me. People think [“Work” is] a party song. It’s a breakup song. It’s blues. I went from braggadocious to blues.”

Rihanna damn sure turned it into a party song. Peep the reference track for “Work” below, I don’t care what he says, dude knows how to pen a hit.

Kanye West wrote Alicia Keys’ “You Don’t Know My Name”

The lead single off Alicia Keys’ 2003 album The Diary of Alicia Keys was an absolute hit.

I’m sure many of you remember the music video, starring Mos Def as the love interest of Keys’ that doesn’t know her name.

Just goes to show Kanye’s ridiculous talent, spinning a sample of the song “Let Me Prove My Love To You” by The Main Ingredient and pairing it with Keys’ own piano skills.

The sample is vintage Kanye, but of course Alicia Keys was the exact right person for the track and her album would go on to win the Grammy for Best R&B Album.

Jay-Z wrote Dr. Dre’s verse on “Still D.R.E.”

For anyone that’s seen The Defiant Ones, Dr. Dre isn’t one to hide the fact that he has songs and verses written for him, his skills are suited to the production side.

So on “Still D.R.E.” Dre turned to Jay-Z to pen his verse.

When you listen to Dre’s verse, you can hear some Jay-Z trademarks laying out in plain sight.

We got an official Dre and Jay collaboration on “The Watcher 2” off The Blueprint 2.

Swae Lee wrote Beyonce’s “Formation”

As the story goes Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd was freestyling on the drive to Coachella and spit “O.K. ladies, now let’s get in formation,” and producer Mike Will stopped him. Mike Will told the New Yorker he knew they had something:

“I’m like, ‘Dog, we got to do that “get in formation” shit.’ That could be a hard song for the ladies. Some woman-empowerment shit. Like, ‘Ladies, let’s get in line, let’s not just fall for anything.’”

The song would become the lead single off Beyonce’s smash album Lemonade.

The-Dream wrote Rihanna’s “Umbrella”

The-Dream is one of those stars of the music world behind many of the hits of other artists.

One of the lead singles off Rihanna’s transformative 2007 album Good Girl Gone Bad, “Umbrella” was actually initially written for Britney Spears, but her label wasn’t down.

Shouts out to that label for causing Rihanna to take “Umbrella” instead.

Peep the reference track from The-Dream above.

Otis Redding wrote Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”

The great Otis Redding initially wrote and recorded “Respect” in 1965 with some pretty different instrumentation.

Redding’s version had a very different tone, almost of desperation. When Aretha got her hands on the track, she spun it into a feminist anthem and a much bigger hit.

Both versions have their merits, but Aretha’s takes the cake as one of the greatest soul songs of all time.

Ne-Yo wrote Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable”

Ne-Yo is one of the industry’s great pop writers. Ne-Yo gifted Beyonce with one of her biggest hits in “Irreplaceable.”

Just switch around some pronouns and you have a tailor-made hit.

Bruno Mars wrote Cee-Lo Green’s “F*ck You”

While this was a slightly collaborative effort, Mars wrote much of Cee-Lo Green’s 2010 smash-hit “F*ck You.”

Mars, while a massive star in his own right, also has quite the collection of songwriting credits including Adele’s “All I Ask,” Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire,” Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” and Flo Rida’s “Right Round.”

That’s quite the list.

beyonce August 2, 2017
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Beyonce reportedly interested in buying the Houston Rockets, everyone is hype

According to reports, pop superstar and supreme goddess Beyonce is interested in buying the Houston Rockets.

Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg broke the story. Two weeks ago, Rockets owner Leslie Alexander announced that he was going to sell the team in a rather surprising decision.

Alexander said in a news conference of his decision:

“It’s been my great joy and honor to own the Houston Rockets for the past 24 years. … I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the fans, partners, city officials and employees who care so deeply for this team. I’ve made this decision after much deliberation with my family and friends, and do so knowing the franchise is in great shape with the players, coaches and management team in place. CEO Tad Brown will oversee the sales process with the league office, supported by my management team.”

Alexander’s decision to sell the team came at an interesting time as the Rockets recently acquired All Star point guard Chris Paul from the Clippers and signed James Harden to the most lucrative contract extension in NBA history.

Teaming Paul up with MVP candidate, and infamous strip club attendee, James Harden is a mouth-watering prospect and positions the Rockets to be competitive for years.

These recent acquisitions see the Rockets in a prime position in the league from a basketball standpoint. But they also increase their valuation.

Patrick Rishe of Forbes posits that the Houston Rockets’ offseason could see the price of the team skyrocket (excuse the pun) to $2 billion, the same amount Steve Ballmer paid for the Clippers in 2014. Rishe writes,

“Given the current enthusiasm associated with the James Harden extension and the Chris Paul signing, the short-run earnings potential and continued long-run escalation of franchise values (though likely at a slower pace than what we’ve seen in the last 20 years), and with the Rockets unique ties to China, I have every expectation the Houston Rockets bidding process will be quite competitive, thereby driving the sales price to at least $2 billion.”

Leslie Alexander bought the Rockets for just $85 million in 1993 and now looks set to make $2 billion. Now that’s paper.

As for Beyonce’s prospects of buying the Rockets, no one expects her to put up the $2 billion price-tag herself, but she could bring some star power to a group of investors.

Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z was forced to sell his stake in the Brooklyn Nets when he became a certified agent to represent players.

The idea of Beyonce buying a sports team is definitely pretty exciting to music and sports fans alike.

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