What’s Poppin’™

BOXIE

Behind the music, there is always a story to be told. Whether it"s triumph or tribulation, Queens-bred R&B singer Boxie (n Jason H. Dendy) is revealing his tale through his vocal skills. "This is the B side of the [music] industry, side Boxie," he explains, of using his talents to showcase the reality behind the music. "This is the side that you"re not gonna see. This is the grind, this is the struggle, this is the street for R&B." Hailing from New York City"s regal borough, the Southside Jamaica resident came up amid a violent and drug-infested neighborhood. Although the youngest of five children was never a fixture on the block, Boxie did fall victim to the troubles that tend to plague unsupervised youths hanging on the street. "It was a rough place," says Boxie. "[But] it was still a place that made me and it helped me become what I am, so it was good for me to grow up around that. It kept me real, it kept me smart and to stay on top of things." Music was certainly the "thing" he was on top of.

At the tender age of three, Boxie became aware of his ability to sing. But it wasn"t until the soul singer stepped foot inside Queens" Blanche Memorial Baptist Church that he allowed his talent to flourish. Belting out sounds of a man five times his age, Boxie blew audiences away with his words. "I made people cry before," he reveals. "It"s a great thing that I grew up in the church and in the streets because I take soul music and put it with street music to make my own vibe...I consider myself a street soul singer, like that person you heard on the corner doo-wopping in the "50s." Boxie"s mother, who witnessed her eldest son"s incarceration at a youthful 20 years old (the R&B singer pays homage to his jailed older brother by taking on his moniker), pushed the crooner to stay in church and stay away from the streets. By the time he was nine, the versatile talent was playing piano; by age 10, he was writing songs and recording his own material on karaoke machines and tape recorders. With nothing but music on his mind, Boxie let his studies fall to the wayside while he pursued opportunities that allowed his voice to be heard even without his parent"s approval"he"d forge his mother"s signature in order to participate in talent and fashion shows. His journey to stardom continued with the guidance of an elder neighbor while his mother was tending to others as a nurse and his father was making ends meet as a messenger.

In 2001, Boxie celebrated his first victory as a recognized superstar. "I won four times, three on TV and one off," he states, on his Apollo win for his aggressive yet soulful sound. "The greatest feeling I ever had being a kid is winning the Apollo." Although he walked away a winner, it wasn"t enough to deter the teen from finding trouble"Boxie dropped out of school at 16 and returned to the streets. "After the Apollo, I was back on the streets, just being a little knucklehead, singing when I could," he continues, "I never wanted to do bad things but when your moms is making powdered milk and you thirsty, you wanna bring mommy that whole milk. It"s called survival." The streets were calling Boxie"s name, but his neighborhood crew intercepted the call. Referred to as the "little brother on the block," the R&B singer"s elder friends knew his burgeoning talent was about to take him places. Fellow Southside resident and Murder Inc A&R BJ took notice of the fledgling singer"s skills and signed him to his company, Get Right, in 2005. Boxie was getting his feet wet with Murder INC. who launched the careers of Ja Rule and Ashanti. "[The Inc] are my big brothers in this music business; they keep me grounded and they help me," says Boxie, who also lists Frankie Lyman, Stevie Wonder, R. Kelly and Jamie Foxx as influences. Meeting BJ and Inc CEO Irv Gotti helped catapult Boxie"s career into overdrive.

In 2005, Boxie churned out his first mixtape, "Boxie The Mixtape, "which made its street debut up and down I-95"and graced the Memphis Bleek track, "Infatuated," with his stellar vocal skills. While working with BJ, the young talent began to lay down vocals in multi-million dollar recording studios. BJ then delivered Boxie"s professional recordings"one track being a mesmerizing rendition of the Jackson Five"s "Show You The Way To Go""to Bryan Leach, founder and President of Polo Grounds Music. Leach was overly impressed with the then 15-year-old"s musical abilities and signed the New York native to the PGM roster. "I courted Boxie for years because the kid"s a career artist. His talent, charm, maturity, coolness and humbleness is so rare nowadays that when you see it you have to recognize it and hope that you do it justice. We're fortunate to have him."

Now, at 18, with his new single "Let Me Show You" featuring Juelz Santana as well as recognition from his past work with label mate Hurricane Chris, on "Playas Rock" "Boxie is forging ahead as the face of street R&B. Boxie"s talent has not only secured himself a place in music but in fashion as well. He is the newest face of international apparel brand FILA, with features in both print and national television campaigns that run throughout 2008.

From recording in closets and cars to studio sessions with Bryan-Michael Cox, Ne-yo, Eric Hudson and many others, Boxie"s debut effort is a true-to-life listen. "I"m a kid who had nothing," he says. "Everybody needs to know that if you have a dream, go for it, no matter what your life situation. This is my dream."

Kenny Lattimore

TIMELESS - AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 9th Verve Records Website: http://www.kennylattimore.com/

Make sure to pre-order your own copy at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Kenny-Lattimore/dp/B001DZDTRC/ref=pd_bbs_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1219420902&sr=8-6

KENNY LATTIMORE BIO "Songs have so much power," states Kenny Lattimore. "Great songs are universal, and a great song can transcend time and speak to people all over the world. A great song can be interpreted in so many different ways and still communicate emotionally. That"s what we set out to achieve with the new album, Timeless."

Indeed, Kenny Lattimore's new album (and Verve debut) Timeless is a testament to the transcendent properties of classic songcraft, as well as a vehicle for the performing talents that have long made Lattimore one of the most popular and respected vocalists in contemporary rhythm and blues. Although he's known for his own songwriting skills, Timeless finds Lattimore reaching into the past to apply his interpretive abilities to a compelling set of familiar"and not-so-familiar"material drawn from a wide range of sources from the worlds of pop, R&B, rock and jazz.

The eleven songs that comprise Timeless cover a broad emotional palette, inspiring Lattimore to deliver some of the most sensitive and technically accomplished performances of his career. The Al Green-penned "Something", which is updated here with timely clips of news reports, combines gospel urgency with righteous outrage. Lattimore's remarkable ability to convey tenderness and intimacy is displayed on his deeply-felt recordings of the Beatles standard "And I Love Her", Jeff Buckley's "Everybody Here Wants You", and the Norman Connors/Michael Henderson '70s hit "You Are My Starship", which is the first single from the album. Lattimore is equally persuasive when channeling the raw intensity of Aretha Franklin's "Ain't No Way", Otis Redding's "I Love You More Than Words Can Say", and the Donny Hathaway/Van McCoy cult classic "Giving Up". With the artist delivering equally impassioned performances of songs by Marvin Gaye, Terence Trent D'Arby, Elton John and Stevie Wonder, Timeless is possibly the most personal musical statement Kenny Lattimore has ever made.

"I wasn't interested in covering the same songs that have already been covered a million times, and I wasn't interested in just doing remakes. In some cases, it could be a little intimidating, and it felt like I might be treading on sacred ground. But I just kept asking myself, 'OK, what can I bring to this?'

"Some of these are songs that I've loved since I was a kid," he adds, "but others I discovered in the course of doing this project. I wasn't familiar with Jeff Buckley before, for example, but I loved the song so much that I really got into his life and career and went back and discovered how amazing he was. So that aspect of it was educational for me, and I like the idea that I can pass that on to my audience."

According to Lattimore, the experience of recording Timeless with veteran producer/arranger/musician Barry Eastmond taught him some valuable new lessons. "It really pushed me to expand as a singer," he states. This album really pushed me to just be more free, to throw caution to the wind and just go for it, to express whatever I was feeling at that moment. Sometimes in the past I've over-thought things and tried to make them perfect. But this project forced me to realize that Otis Redding wasn't thinking about making it perfect; he just went in and hit it and expressed how he was feeling. That was a major realization for me. After that, it became more like singing in church, because when I sing in church I sing completely free. The whole situation was very organic and natural, because Barry and I would sit down at the piano and build up the arrangements from there. It was really liberating to work that way."

Growing up in a musical family in Washington, D.C. area, Kenny Lattimore began singing early in life, winning junior-high talent shows and singing everything from R&B to classical, during his high school years. After studying architecture and city planning at Howard University, he became lead singer of the R&B group Maniquin, which released an album on the Epic label. After leaving that act, he concentrated on developing his songwriting skills, resulting in his compositions being recorded by Glenn Jones and Jon Lucien.

After moving to New York, Lattimore was awarded a solo recording deal with Columbia Records and released his self-titled 1996 debut. That album went Gold and spawned the hit single "Never Too Busy" and the perennial wedding song "For You", winning Lattimore a reputation as a dynamic and charismatic performer, with an image as a strong but sensitive romantic. The album's success earned Lattimore an NAACP Image Award as Best New Artist. 1998's From the Soul of Man documented the maturation of Lattimore's songwriting talent, and yielded the hits "Days Like This" and "If I Lose My Woman", as well as Lattimore's visionary reworking of the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". He moved to Arista for 2001's Weekend, and in 2003 released Things That Lovers Do, a well-received album of duets with his wife and fellow R&B star Chante Moore. The couple released a second duets album, Uncovered/Covered, in 2006.

Despite his past successes, Timeless demonstrates that Kenny Lattimore is more interested in making expressive, enduring music than pandering to momentary musical trends. "I like that Verve is a label that cares about music," he asserts, adding, "They gave me the freedom to be myself and trusted me to follow my heart. I've been in so many situations where I'd finish an album and the record company comes back and says, "We need a radio hit", and they ask you to come up with a song that sounds exactly like what everyone else is doing. With this project, I felt like the label was more interested in getting the artistry right, and then presenting it to people and allowing them to decide if they like it."

ROI RAPX

Rules Over Impulse, a lesson Rapx (the x is silent, and represents something extra) had to learn the hard way. ROI hails from Port Nox, Looney Island (Freeport, Long Island New York). Born and raised the early part of his youth in Far Rockaway, Queens. ROI"s mother led the family"s move to Long Island to try and keep her children from the negative influences of Far Rockaway. ROI was drawn to the streets like many youth. He quickly adapted to his new surroundings, herein he adopted a style and developed a persona unfamiliar to many hip hop listeners and different from many of NY hip hop artist. With a style that"s braggadocios and cocky like many artists, especially NY talents, ROI has a little something x-tra. It"s that x-factor that makes the "great-ones" legends. "It"s important for a person to be remembered for anything they do"It"s a must for me." ROI swears to live and die by this premise when it comes to being successful.

Few artists hail from LI and sit amongst Hip Hop"s elite. Not since the days of Rakem and Public Enemy. ROI"s sound is sure to separate him from the rest of the young artists hailing from the territories of New York. As a child, like many of us, ROI"s role models were hip hop artists. A biological child of his parents, but a product of hip hop all the way. ROI studied the music played in his house as a child. Before runnin" the streets music was his outlet. No genre was off limit, and with those influences ROI developed a distinct style"that something extra. His style undoubtedly stands out, and at times defies the familiar New York style of delivery and content that was perfected by Biggie & Jay and copied by too many others. No diluted tracks with bars and bars of senseless punch lines. ROI"s lyrics, even when he"s just braggin," take you somewhere.

Still very early into his career, Rapx is motivated to bring back classic music. Classic because it transcends and lasts generations. Classic music like his forefathers in its honesty and relativity. "Music should have meaning. To each his own, but it should invoke emotion good, bad, happy or sad ..." ROI is a breath of fresh air in a genre that has taken major financial blows in albums sales in recent years. "All hip hop is a story, a documentary or an autobiography, exaggerated to make the story more enticing or unforgettable"" Too often an artist whole album is straight up pretend, acting, studio persona shit. ROI"s lyrics are ninety percent true and ten percent extra, a percentage that he can rightfully brag is better than ninety percent of the acts out now. ROI delivers lyrics and a flow that are true to his autobiography and at the same time a story that the listener can relate to.

At 23 ROI has already lived a life full of highs and lows that most will never witness. At his lowest point ROI learned the importance of "rules over impulse." Now he reveals his life in a more calculated and contagious delivery that will undoubtedly leave him amongst hip hop"s elite when it"s all said and done. He wouldn"t boast this future though. "I"m just telling my story the way I want to, doing what I love doing. I leave legends up to peoples opinions. That"s how I picked my legends. There"s no scale. It"s the fans""

ROI RAPX has featured on many mixtape as well as DVD"s. Such as DJ HPNOTIQ'S MIXTAPES: " I PUT IN WORK", "THE ALL EXCLUSIVE TOP TWENTY", "IF THEIR ARE CUSTOMERS SERVE THEM", "THE HOOD GONNA LOVE ME PART 1"(HOSTED BY ROI RAPX), "THE HOOD GONNA LOVE ME PART 2"(HOSTED BY ROI RAPX). DJ ONPOINT'S MIXTAPE: "GETTIN TO THE MONEY", and Long Island DJ MONEY MATT'S MIXTAPE: "WATCH MY MOVES PART 2" ROI RAPXis seen performing live on"ULTIMATE EXPOSURE DVD", and "SECRET SHOWCASE DVD". To find more music from ROI RAPX log in to xxlblocktalk.com, ourstage.com, and mp3.com.

RAPX is currently tearing up the clubs of New York performing his hit single "Stick Up". ROI RAPX has already blown down the stages of CLUB "VESTA", "SAPHIRE LOUNGE", "CLUB AURA", "THE PYRAMID", AND "CARMA". His demo "Live and Die in NY" is stunning promoters, A&Rs" and record labels in various states. His first album "Introduction and Occupation of ROI Rapx" though still well into production is promised to be a great one. Many of us know that Hip Hop can"t withstand a blow like Jay and Nas really retiring. Sure there are still other great ones out there, but ROI promises to lessen the blow and pick up where they left off. Its time for "the product" of hip hop to take his place in history. Its time for ROI Rapx.