Ever since I first saw Janelle Monae perform two years at the Dafur Now College Tour at Emory University in Atlanta, I was a blown away by the energy and passion of her performance. My jaw dropped to floor when Monae strutted up and down the small stage in front of a handful of people. She ignited so much positive energy - excuding the spirit of Elvis, Michael Jackson and Judy Garland rolled into one. Janelle Monae skillfully blends genres, and infuses her music and performance with a message of hope and empowerment. Growing up in poverty ...

Lesbian hip-hop artist, Feloni spent the better part of Saturday. January 2 sharing public tweets about her upcoming CD, Love Spent, and her plans for it to be the last project under that name, stating that she “has done what she needed to do” “As I’ve stated in the past, I’m not a rapper. I got in the game bc I had something 2 say, not bc I wantd 2b a “rap star”, I stepped in hip-hop & spoke my mind the way I wanted…not the way the media, industry or others may have liked. inspired a lot of ppl ...

MIKA recently hosted MTV Logo's Pop Lab show and chatted about his music, Lady Gaga, his inspirations and much more. He also describes his unique brand of "hyper pop" that he defines very well.  He talks about the sound on his new album "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" as a combination of a "euphoric pop sound" with hard-hitting and very personal lyrics. "I like to bring together quite dark lyrics with quite joyful, sometimes naive sounding music," the singer describes. "It is quite magic when I get it right." Very well ...

Here’s some music news in the community building department. The Alliance of LGBT Recording Artists & Performers is hosting their 2009 Out Music Awards in New York on December 10th, 2009. Many of these artists have Viacom’s MTV/LOGO to thank for some visibility, as well as bloggers and podcasters who keep their names and videos out there. I do wonder how our club music scene would be different if we kept the same pressure on our local gay clubs to support more of our out music artists of all genres (in the DJ booth and live) that we keep ...

Good day to all of you! Hope you're enjoying a great Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family wherever you are. I have a lot to be thankful for this year. Good health and great friends and family, but I wanted to particularly thank YOU for coming out to ArjanWrites.com so often to see what I have to say, blog and post. It really means the world to me. I started this blog more than six years ago because I wanted to share great new music with friends. Nothing has changed. It is still about sharing my passion for music with others.This ...

America, get ready for V.V. Brown! The British soul-pop artist is gearing up to release her debut LP, titled "Traveling Like The Light," in the the U.S. on February 9, 2010 on Capital Record. The album is filled with catchy tunes that hold a steady middle between throwback R&B and contemporary pop - an unexplored muscial territory that VV likes to refer to as "do wop indie."Watch my video interview with V.V. in which talks more about her music, album and coming to America.In anticipation of her full-length release, the MTV Logo Award nominee has digitally released "The Attic" ...

This was the best wake up call ever!Yesterday, I received news that Frankmusik (aka Vince Frank) had arrived in town to work on his new album for a few days. I hit him up to see if he wanted to grab a bite or get a drink. I was very curious to hear what he's up to now after he decided to leave his fantastic debut "Complete Me" for what it is and start work on something fresh.He pinged me back early this morning and invited me for breakfast at his hotel. Totally surreal. It's ...

V.V. Brown is one of the most exciting new pop acts to break out of the U.K. this year. The singer serves up a retro-styled brand of pop that is both soulful and incredibly hooky. I nominated V.V. earlier this year to win a MTV Logo NewNowNext Award for Best International Crossover Act.After just arriving in New York from Orlando where she had a flight connection, V.V. and I caught up on Sunday morning to talk about music and more. We chatted about her upcoming new music, being a fashion designer, being part of an exciting ...