Last night I attended an album release party to celebrate Lyfe Jennings new album..."Lyfe Change". The party was to be held at a club in Manhattan called Home. The party, sponsored by LifeBeat was scheduled to begin at 9:00pm and end at 11:00am....my invite was forwarded to me by my publicist and tempted by the following statement...
"Open bar, Sponsored by Magic Hat and Home"
Not that he'd wish it on anyone, but it was during his ten-year sentence in prison that Lyfe Jennings developed his honest sound, thanks to isolation and Erykah Badu. It was an arson charge that put the Toledo, OH, native in prison. His musical aspirations started in the church choir and grew in the Dotsons, a teenaged group that Lyfe formed with his brother and a couple cousins. Prison made his music deeper, according to Lyfe, and when a copy of Erykah Badu's Baduizm ended up in his cell in 1997, he was inspired and had the feeling that this introspective edge to his music was worth developing. Two days after his December 2002 release from prison, he was recording a four-song demo CD. The day after that, he was performing live in a club. He only had a month of freedom before he was on-stage at the famous Apollo. He was booed when he walked on-stage with an acoustic guitar, but when the Apollo audience heard his gritty falsetto and lyrical songwriting, they were swayed -- swayed to the tune of five amateur-night victories in a row. Lyfe figures he sold a thousand copies of his four-song demo CD during his Apollo "residency." That, along with a ton of calls from promoters and record label execs on his answering machine back in Ohio, influenced Lyfe to move to New York City and pursue a major-label deal. Columbia had the right offer and released his debut, Lyfe 268-192 (his inmate number), in August of 2004. A year after its original release, the album was reissued with a new version of "Hypothetically" featuring American Idol winner Fantasia added as a bonus track. The more hip-hop-oriented follow-up, The Phoenix, arrived in 2006 with Three 6 Mafia and Young Buck making guest appearances.
Lol...ya'll know I don't go out and do the "club" thing anymore but the prospect of an open bars will usually entice me enough to check out the event...
Usually, I would drag Jacqueline with me but she was out of town this week so my home girl Deb was happy to accompany. We jumped in a taxi at around 9:30pm (I hate being the first to anything!) and about 20 minutes later we were pulling up in front of the club. After checking in and receiving wrist bands (still don't know what those were for) we climbed the flight of stairs to the main room.
As we entered the dimly lit upstairs room...I found that the room was filled with 20-something's and I immediately began to feel like I was crashing one of my niece's parties....still undaunted we made our way to the bar as I stopped for a moment to greet a pretty juicy gal who was standing next to me.
We got to the bar to find that at 10pm, apparently the open bar was er.....closed.
Bummed we made our way over to the velvet roped section where Lyfe was seated in his full glory. As I reached the ropes I was told very politely that Lyfe had just arrived and they weren't allowing any people in the area....(as I watched people gain entry left and right) for a while. People began pushing and shoving for enough space to get photos and it was getting a little hectic for me. When I realized that not only would I NOT get my "photo-ops" but I wasn't even going to get meet him AND I was relegated to fight with the groupies and other admirers to catch a glimpse of him....I was immediately miffed and decided to leave and head back uptown.
I have never felt more ordinary in my life...
And that's all I have to say about that.
Lol.
On the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own rump.
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