For the love of music

Nothing much surprises me anymore, but I still get startled by people saying things like: “I don’t really listen to music” or “I don’t like music all that much.” It’s like saying air is not all that high on your list of priorities. To each his own, but if you’re one of those people, we’re probably not going to be best friends.

That being said, I appreciate companies that choose to support music and musicians. There are so many immensely talented people in the world that never get to be listened to because they are not given a chance and don’t have the financial support to make it in this business. And the music business it’s a really harsh world to be part of. People get rejected a lot, they get judged not only based on talent, but mainly on appeal, age and the way they look. These things happen to all of us, but not as much as they do to struggling musicians. The more different you are, the more the world harps on you.

And then there’s my passion for infographics – I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to them. We all know that’s the ultimate confirmation I’m into something! Infographics make things so much easier if they’re great. Just like with people, I like them smart and I’m biased towards those that don’t bore me to sleep.

I actually found a perfect example of a great infographic that just happens to combine my love for music and graphics. The subject is not something that could be labeled as being of mass interested - a company shows the touchable results of a great ongoing project through which they’re supporting indie music and artists. It has lots of information that would otherwise be super boring because it’s so particular, but it’s not.

The way all these numbers and graphs are presented is witty and entertaining. All the humor and puzzling comparisons make you read it from top to bottom. The fact that the design itself is simple, focused and easy to follow help as lot to. People making infographics for a living should take notes.

And I didn't even know the animal whit the the shortest life span on earth is the mayfly. Living just for procreation purposes is indeed very rock and roll. Also sad, but mostly rock and roll!

Presented By Scion

Do you find infographics useful? Do you collect them? Which types of infographics do you find helpful? 

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Pharrell Williams – a true renaissance man

Pharrell is 41! Yes, I typed that right and you read it correctly, he is in his early 40 and was born in 1975, on April 5th)!!! Can you believe this guy? How dare he look so good and make me think he is almost a decade younger? It’s shameful really! He obviously made a pact with the Devil to never get old! 

That and  the fact he is amazing at everything he does: he sings, writes songs, he is a drummer, rapper, fashion designer, record producer and philanthropist. There's really no other logical explanation for all this Pharrell magic!

He has his hands in everything. Pharrell and childhood friend, Chad Hugo, represent The Neptunes record production team. He is also the vocalist and drummer of the hip hop and R&B band N.E.R.D (Nobody Ever Really Dies) with whom he released four albums. Chad Hugo and Shay Haley are the other members of N.E.R.D. In 2003 they were responsible for 20 percent of songs played in the U.K and 43 percent of those played in the U.S. Crazy right?  

Before The Neptunes, he was in a band called Surrounded by Idiots with Chad and fellow Virginia Beach native, now renowned producer Timbaland.

 

 

In 2005 he co funded The Billionaire Boys Club (amazing name!), Billionaire Girls Club clothing labels and the Ice Cream Footwear and T-shirt brand. His designs are sold in his own boutique in New York City. He designed for other companies like Topshop, Gap, Timberland, etc.

He is also a partner in Bionic Yarn, a textile firm from New York that develops environmentally friendly fabrics using recycled plastic bottles.

He owns a media venture that includes elements of entertainment, music, fashion and art called i am OTHER and in 2011 he launched his own You Tube channel ) as part of YouTube's $100 million original channel initiative. On his i am OTHER dedicated website he says: "I serve and represent the OTHERS because I am one myself". The "others" are anyone who has ever felt different, noncompliant, hard to define and un-categorized.

He has his own record label named Star Trak. Can you tell he is a fan of Star Trek? If the name of his label doesn’t convince you, maybe the fact the he often uses the Vulcan salute will!

In 2008 he co-designed some jewelry and glasses for Louis Vuitton and worked on furniture with Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin and Domeau & Pérès. 

But it all started with The Neptunes and the numerous hit songs that they created for various artists. He met Hugo in seventh grade on a summer band camp. I guess it was bromance at first sight: back then Pharrell played the keyboards and drums, while Hugo played saxophone and they were both members in marching bands. It was truly a pair made in geek heaven!

They were snatched by producer/songwriter Teddy Riley after they entered a high school talent show that was held near Riley’s recording studio and after graduating from high school they were signed by Riley.

You can blame The Neptunes for songs like Britney Spears' "I'm a Slave 4 U" (after becoming a world-wide number one hit this song catapulted the group into the limelight), Nelly's "Hot in Here", Babyface’s "There She Goes, "Madonna`s "Hey You", Beyonce's version of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and Kelis first album - Kaleidoscope. He also worked on Justin Timberlake's hit album Justified and this are just a few of the many artists he collaborated with. 

And who can forget the feature that Pharrell made on Daft Punk's fourth album on songs like "Get Lucky" and "Lose Yourself to Dance". Let’s not forget about Pharrell’s collaboration with T.I. and Robin Thicke for the hit "Blurred Lines". “Both songs are for people who need a break. There's a lot of fucked-up travesty in the world. Sometimes you just need a Hallmark card. Sometimes you just need to shake your ass.” he confesses about writing these songs! This year has definitely been his year and the number one position that "Blurred Lines" held for weeks was only endangered by his other song "Get Lucky".

He is obviously one of the greatest artists and writers of this generation. He can deliver a song for every mood possible: from catchy songs, meaningful ones to dance all night kind of tunes. In his vision: “Music has been the skeleton key that's opened every door of every opportunity that I've had”. And along the way he ensured 17 top 10 hits, a No. 1 album and seven Grammy Awards.

He is also a philanthropist who built a $35 million after school center in his hometown, Virginia Beach. He also has a charity foundation called From One Hand To Another that helps youngsters between the ages of 7 and 20 from at risk communities.

 

As for his personal life, I’m sorry to report, girls, but this cutie pie is taken. He married his long-time girlfriend, model and designer Helen Lasichanh in 2013. They have a son together, Rocket Man Williams (the "Rocket's Theme" songs for Despicable Me were written in honor of his son). This guy has a thing for amazing names, doesn’t he? He is very private about his wife and child, even though he sometimes gushes about his son calling him his "greatest co-production".

Pharrell was voted the "Best Dressed Man in the World" in 2005 by Esquire. His sense of style is exquisite! I can honestly say that I have never seen a man who can pull off so well basically everything.

His unique outfits make him one of the most stylish men on the planet. He is so comfortable in his own skin and everything he wears and does exude that confidence: he got married in a tartan tux (while his wife to be wore a matching navy wedding dress), for God sakes! 

And jewelry never looked so good on a boy! He loves accessories a lot - he always accessorizes his outfits with long necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings or all of the above. He is particularly in love with a set of necklaces, you can see he is wearing them every chance he gets: the Chanel rosario type necklaces with green and white beads on a gold chain, they are indeed very pretty and work with almost everything.

He owns some fierce hats as you might have noticed: from bowler hats, to caps or even ranger hats, he wears them all! I mean who can’t forget the odd hat that he had on at the 56th Grammy Awards? After that countless GIFs, Twitter accounts and memes were made just because of that hat. Pharrell is possibly the only one that could pull of that hat, and by all accounts he did! 

At 41 he still looks like teenage ready to skate his way true Time Square. I guess that being a skateboarder himself and having a professional skateboarder as a brother (Cato Williams), as well as the fact that he built a half-pipe inside his home, is a true statement to why he loves this style.

His fashion choices are complex and fresh, he is not afraid to mix different styles and take dangerous risks that always seem to pay off. He is at his best when he wears his slick costumes paired with amazing accessories - a true style icon with an effortless and refined look. Pharrell knows how to shine in anything: from three piece costumes to a pair of shorts with socks.

Jewelry, crazy colors and prints, leather jackets, fur, funky hats and cool shoes and sunglasses, everything is allowed. You know that he is genuinely into fashion and that this side of his personality didn’t just come out as he got famous and got access to basically everything he wanted because he was sporting unique outfits, experimenting with different styles and pushing fashion boundaries since he first came into the game. 

He has fine tastes not only in clothes but also in cars: he drives a Ferrari Enzo and a Mercedes SLR McLaren. Pretty cool, right?

 

As hard as I tried, the only juicy news I could find about Pharrell was that he and Will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas were involved in a legal dispute over the phrase "I am other".

While Pharrell tried to trademark the name of his company I Am Other,  Will.i.am responded by suing him because he thought that people would confuse Pharrell`s company with his own I.Am.Symbolic.

Some nasty things were said, more from Will.i.am`s side who’s claiming that Pharrell has a history of not respecting intellectual property (bullshit if you ask me). As it happens, at the time of the trial, he was involved in another intellectual property lawsuits, namely the one he and Robin Thicke's had to face against the estate of Marvin Gaye be ( 'Blurred Lines' was called out for being too similar to Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up”). Will.i.am threw another low punch by referring to the name of Pharrell`s record label, Star Trak Entertainment for his obvious origins.

It seems though that they agreed to settle the battle. Pharrell later said this about the conflict: "I am someone who likes to talk things out and, in fact, I attempted to do just that on many occasions", and called the lawsuit ridiculous.

Great news for The Voice fans out there: it seems like Pharrell is set to take over a judge’s chair the next season! He will be joining Adam Levine and Blake Shelton and replacing Usher on the show (also Gwen Stefani will replace Shakira). I can’t wait to see him on The Voice. He is such a nice person and so talented - he is going to be a great addition to the show. 

Adam Levine sure seems excited to work alongside Pharrell, already saying that he can’t wait for Pharrell to join him ("He's so lovely - an unbelievable talent actually"), and has also warned him to "get ready for the rollercoaster". 

 

In 2014 Pharrell was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People. He was one of only three musicians who got included in the list, Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus being the other two.

Who can ever forget his recent and extremely emotional interview with Oprah, when he was brought to tears after seeing video montages that fans of his Happy single made. He started to cry happy tears the moment he saw the home made clips, he was very touched seeing how many people were affected by his song. How can you not love that? He had to say this about his “breakdown”: "Why am I crying on Oprah … It's overwhelming because I love what I do and I just appreciate the fact that people have believed in me for so long that I could make it to this point - to feel that."

It’s hard to believe that this song wasn’t an instant success. When the song was first released on the soundtrack for Despicable Me 2 in June 2013 people didn’t react to it in the same way they reacted when the track was released out as a single in November.

Pharrell himself admitted he has been overwhelmed by its success:”Zero airplay, nothing. And the next thing you know, we put out the video on November 21st. All of a sudden, boom! I mean, when I say 'boom', [I mean]…'boom'. And we were like, what's happening? Ok, first of all people are putting up their own videos. It was like, no longer my song."

And did you know that Happy was originally recorded by CeeLo? Unfortunately for CeeLo, his version was never released because it was voted out by his team. In Pharrell’s opinion CeeLoo`s version was even better than his: “He sounded amazing on it. I mean, he burns my version! But the... how do I say this diplomatically?... The powers that be, at the time, did not see it fit for him. Some folks on his team just felt that the priority should be on [Cee Lo's] album at the time ['Magic Moment' in 2012], so they elected not to do that song."

In other news Pharrell recently asked fans from all around the world to help him finish his new book called Inspiration. There is no word yet regarding the release date, but the book will be made available after fans have helped him fill in the gaps. The fans who help him will receive a credit in the final book once it is published. Some of the earnings from the sale of the book will go towards From One Hand to AnOTHER, Pharrell’s nonprofit charity founded to help at-risk youths in American communities. 

 Almost every artist that worked with him has only good words to say. Pharrell seems like a true charmer and a genuine nice person. You can even go as far as to say that he is the person that everyone wants to work with. He has made a name for himself in music, art and fashion and I’m sure he will continue to entertain with his many projects!

   Photos and gifs, : 1, 2, collages made by Sara

Has anybody make it till the end of this article? How do you feel about Pharrell?

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Iggy Azalea – a white girl's love story with hip hop

This past year has been an incredible, almost surreal year for Iggy Azalea. As she puts it - “It's the year I got legit”. If you didn’t know her already, you should remember her name because you're going to hear it a lot this year! 

Let's hope she's not just the flavor of the month in the rap world, but rather someone that's here to stay. She certainly has the image part locked down - I find her look fresh and original, especially compared with what's traditionally expected from a hip hop girl.

Her ascent into the music business was incredible, but it wasn't an overnight success - she’s been trying for a while now. The white girl from Australia has become one of the most recognized hip hop voices in the USA. That’s really something considering her upbringing and geographical “shortcomings”. It’s hard enough for an American born artist to succeed there, so imagine how difficult it must have been for her. But Iggy Azalea took a chance on making it happen in America and now her struggle is finally paying off.  

Sure, she’s a high school dropout with a bit of an accent, she’s a white girl rapping, but looking like a supermodel and having a booty that makes people wonder if it’s real or not and a whole lot of perseverance, have transformed her into an unlikely success.

She was born on June 7, 1990 in Sydney, Australia and then, when she was very young, moved to Mullumbimby, New South Wales into a house that her father (a comic artist and painter), built by hand. She really hated that town: "It's a two-street shithole, where I worked on the farm and looked after cows. Nobody wears high heels there."

Her real name is Amethyst Amelia Kelly. Her stage name, Iggy, was inspired by the name of her family dog. She started rapping when she was 14 and she tried to make it in a group that she formed with two other girls from her neighborhood before going solo. She later learned that she was better off alone as the other girls weren’t taking things seriously enough. 

She dropped out of school because she hated it (she said she was miserable, had no friends and was bullied in high school manly because of her homemade outfits), and started cleaning houses with her mom in order to raise enough money to move to America. 

When she was 16 she finally moved to Miami. She told her parents she was going on a short holiday trip with a friend, but had planned to escape Australia for good all along. "I was drawn to America because I felt like an outsider in my own country, I was in love with hip hop, and America is the birthplace of that, so I figured the closer I was to the music, the happier I'd be. I was right."

After a few years spent in Atlanta, she moved to Los Angeles and in 2011 she started uploading videos on YouTube. People started paying attention after her music video for her controversial songs "Pussy" went viral. She then released a mixtape entitled Ignorant Art, her first big project, that she created "with the intent to make people question and redefine old ideals".

In 2013 Iggy Azalea was signed to Mercury Records and she was also snatched by Wilhelmina Models, who started representing her as a model (later that year she became the "New Face of Levi Jeans"). After label conflicts she changed her record label and went on to sign a deal with Island Def Jam. 

Iggy Azalea was the first female, non-American rapper to be featured in XXL magazine's annual "Top 10 Freshman" in 2012. She was the fans voted pick. This nomination lead to a Twitter feud with Azealia Banks, because Banks didn't like Iggy being featured in the magazine and didn't hesitate to speak up. Iggy fired back and the conflict began. Or so I thought, because the rivalry is apparently older than this outburst on Twitter and it started at the CMJ Festival in 2011.

It was then that Banks first threw a dirty shot at Iggy over Twitter (which she does a lot): "It actually started at CMJ Music Festival back in September when she went on Twitter and said, 'I’m next level, I had a song about being a Barbie before Nicki Minaj had a song about being a Barbie. Here’s the link to my song. And fuck Iggy Azalea, I had a song called "Pussy" before she ever did. Here’s a link to my song. It’s better.”  Iggy doesn’t seem to care much about it nowadays and I give her props for that.

Iggy Azalea launched her second mixtape, TrapGold, in October. It was considered one of her best releases yet, with a more mature and confident sound: “I was so mad and frustrated and angry, that’s why it’s so aggressive. I felt mad at people who’d fucked me over, I was mad about people shitting on me for being on the XXL cover; I’d broken up in my relationship. After I did TrapGold I felt like I’d let it all out. My album will definitely be like that, because I liked the way that made me feel…” 

Her provocative songs and videos made her a controversial artist and most of her material makes a lot of eyebrows raise. Since her songs are hyper-sexualized and lyrically provocative, the controversy comes as no surprise. She knows she's gorgeous and as many other female artists uses it to her advantage and she's being pretty literal and sometimes extreme about it. Nothing wrong with that! If you have it, flaunted it! I personally love her choice of skimpy outfits in all her videos, especially Change your Life and Murda Bizness (both of them featuring T.I.).

Iggy Azalea’ debut studio album, The New Classic, is set to be released in March 2014. The initial idea was for the album to be release in October 2013, but she revealed that the delay was caused by other commitments: "The official date? Fucked if I know! It's done, it's so depressing to say this but it's the beginning of March, it's so far away but I just have to accept that." 

  

It’s quite impressive that, coming from a small town of only 3000 people, Iggy managed to rise as one of the most promising artists in the hip hop arena, gaining not only fan's respect, but also the approval of rap’s biggest names. And to think she was only 16 when she came to America and knew only one person there, a friend she met online while searching for rap music (a boy named Derek), a teenager from Bahamas, that let her stay with him at her arrival, and whom she is still friends with. 

You must be really brave and a little bit crazy to have the guts to take such a life changing decision: “You’re a kid, so you don’t have any idea how big things are. I was scared, but I was more scared of what would happen if I stayed where I was. It wasn’t just about going somewhere to be a rapper. It was about going somewhere to feel like I could fit in. I was more scared of being unhappy and stuck.”

 

As for her personal life, Iggy is currently dating LA Lakers basketball player, Nick Young. Their relationship started after a few flirty messages on Twitter. In September 2013 Nick named Iggy his Woman Crush Wednesday. Then Iggy went on to tweet her support for Nick who was signed to his new team in July following a 12-month stint. The rest is history. 

  This is Nick Young! Not bad, right?

Before that, Iggy was in a relationship with rapper A$AP Rocky. Her finger tattoos - Live. Love. A$AP- was dedicated to her then boyfriend, Live. Love. A$AP being the name of his breakout mixtape.

After breaking up in 2012 she crossed the "A$AP" part of the tattoo. There have been rumors about Iggy Azalea and Kanye West at one point, but I’m pretty sure those were pure fabrication. Hell, the press has linked her to her mentor - T.I. - as well so I guess everybody’s up for grabs.

This one is A$AP Rocky, in case you we're wondering! The girl has a type! :)

Iggy Azalea has several others tattoos on her body (she got all of them after moving to L.A). She has “Trust Your Struggle” on her right forearm. She got the tattoo about 20 minutes after passing a wall with those words written on it: “Every single one of my tattoos I got the day I thought of it,” she confessed. I love her intention behind this tattoo:” It just means that you’ve got to kind of have faith in all the roadblocks that you come up against while you’re trying to reach your goal because there’s so many, and sometimes it just feels like its never-ending, and that’s how I felt when I got that tattoo. I just felt like I wanted to pack it in and give up but you’ve just got to keep persevering and trust that all the little things are just going to make you better. And that’s what it’s for, just to remind me when I’m having a bad day, “Don’t give up!” 

She also has “Color me free” tattooed on her foot, “The New Classic” which is the title of her debut album on her right-hand fingers and she replaced her previous flower tattoo on her right arm with a drawing of the face of Venus, from the famous “Birth of Venus” painting. 

I’m not completely sold on her music yet, but man, she sure knows a thing or two about making a great video. You better watch out, Lana Del Rey, there’s some real competition in town!

Iggy Azalea "Work" video 

I’m also a fan of the way she dresses, her fashion sense is a bit crazy, without going overboard and so eclectic, it’s quite fascinating! And I can totally see all the people she cites as inspiration when it comes to her fashion sense: ”As far as people whose style interests me I'd say Grace Kelly, Gwen, Spice Girls, Victoria Beckham, and that nanny called Fran".

Her quirkiness and over-the-top personality reflect in the way she dresses, she borrows bits and pieces from all her icons and combines them in a fresh and unique way. I also love the fact that she is tall (5ft10 - approximately 1,78 m), but she’s not afraid to wear killer shoes with her outfits. She always looks polished but in an exciting way. She's actually the same height and age as Taylor Swift (whom I find supremely boring fashion wise).

Iggy Azalea loves to show her curvaceous figure in crop tops, hot pants, short shorts, knee-length boots, micro-skirts, bra tops, floral and colorful prints, impressive jewelry, perfect makeup with red, pink or violet lips - her look it's on of those FreshTrends I actually enjoy. 

She’s basically feeding the question: Is Iggy Azalea's butt fake or real? (she denies any surgical intervention to emphasis her behind) with all those shorts and tight pants she’s sporting. 

And what do you know? Iggy might actually be the person that we have to blame for the twerking nightmare that plagues the world right now: “I’ve been doing that onstage for two-and-a-half years. She probably fucking watched my videos online and decided to try it.” (Iggy about Miley Cyrus’ ass-grinding shenanigans via Paper Mag:)

And, of course there’s also that long, flawless hair that she often wears in her now signature platinum blonde ponytail. I'm not going to lie -  I'm obsessed with her hair, even if I'm sure it's not all hers (lots of hair extensions have been sacrificed to make that happen).

She always looks like a glamorized Amazon and everything about her is picture perfect. I guess that’s why Vogue named her one of the ten Rising Style Stars of 2014. I’m always excited to see what Iggy Azalea will wear in her next video, on the red carpet and even "real life". I love the fact that she always has something up her sleeve; she can do it all, going from sexy dominatrix to sweet, ladylike outfits in a heartbeat. 

So let’s see: she’s been named one of MTV’s Artists to watch, got a major record deal, toured with Beyoncé and she’s preparing to debut her first album - The New Classic - this year. It's safe to say we can  expect great thing from this girl in the near future.  

 Photos and gifs: 1, 2.

Let me know if any of you was familiar with Iggy Azalea before? If so, what do you think?

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