#HIPHOSSIP5 CANADIAN EXCLUSIVE : MEET BRYAN FINLAY, BELL MEDIA'S EMERGING ARTIST OF JULY 2012.

I met Bryan Finlay online, he met me thru Toronto teen rap phenomenom L’il Jaxe’s website (formerly L’il JayZ). Finlay is a pop artist from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. His song “Good Times” was produced by Producer Hands Up, a member of another Canadian band. “Sentimental Fool” is a very good song I love which he recorded with Mike James and Troy Sampson who own a music group and were involved in the Bounce mall singing competition which produced some Juno winners including past winners like Quantesha Benjamin and Kreesha Turner. She called Kreesha Turner a “sweet girl” and loved her so much. I reminded him of the “Bounce with me” song Kreesha had on the radio back then calling it an ode to the station. Bryan won that talent competition too meaning that he’s gonna be famous, like it or not people! LOL.

He liked the Winnie the Pooh song and sang it all around the house performing it in front of his parents. He was in a talent show in grade 7. I asked him who he would love to work with in the music biz and he told me Joshua from Marianas Trench. He praised Josh as a song writer especially co-writing that monster hit “Call me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen. He chose Alyssa Reed as the female artist he would love to work with. We spoke about the award shows and he was nominated for the Edmonton Music awards as Best Male artist. I asked him about going to work in the USA in the music business. “Sentimental Fool” was picked up by a US clothing retailer to play in their stores. At the time of my interview in July, he had never been to the US and wanted to visit Texas. Texas will be the sister state to Alberta in my view, the cowboy stuff.

He loves Justin Bieber, wish Drake will drop a verse on his album and told me Simon Cowell and the X-Factor debate and other talent show. He thought Canadian Idol and X-Factor should be back in a Canadian form. He even suggested Michael Buble as a judge and we talked about Celine Dion and Jully Black laughing over the strictness of those singers as Judges. I asked him for his birthday wish to pick an artist to perform with on a tour, which was a tough decision. He picked Britney Spears! We talked about the autotune being overused in music. He said it’s “getting kinda old.” Looking at Jesse J and Adele, he praised their real voices. Jesse J is his fave artist and he sang that verse for me. WOW! His voice was off the chain!

We talked about touring with the young teen groups. He was about to turn 19 in August and I asked him on his everyday choices as fan always want to know. He uses a Samsung Galaxy, loves Subway as fave fast food, fave reality show was a tie between Jersey Shore and the Real world on MTV. I got to know Bryan very well. He is an everyday young man. He will be getting an album together in less than 1.5 years and has these 3 singles available on i-tunes via his website. As the Bell emerging Artist of the month of July 2012, he shouted out Connie Bernadi at Magic 100FM in Ottawa, Canada for promoting his Bell honour. I actually got that press release as well and was very impressed with Bryan. Bryan is incredible, fantastic and talented.

Finally, I asked Bryan to sing me a song. This was SICK!! He truly is talented!! He sang the chorus of one of his songs…“All I can wait is for you to discover me.” Though I am no longer in Canada, Bryan Finlay no doubt, I will meet somewhere, some day. Look how long it took for me to meet Drake, Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg and my lovely friend the late Whitney Houston. It took some traveling around the world and sheer luck. I have met Snoop in 3 countries, Canada, Nigeria and the USA.

Remember, this is about your fave singers as they are emerging. I love to interview them as they are emerging and thus, one day when Bryan blows up big, just like I sat next to Justin in 2009 at the MMVA’s when he was only a visiting 15-year-old backstage, Ciara when she had no album. Nicki Minaj when she was a model with no album and Young Jeezy when he was just selling CD’s out of the car outside the Hot 1079FM venue in Atlanta in 2003. Bryan Finlay will become so big and I said it today on this my July 2012 interview with him as Bell Media’s emerging artist of the month for July 2012. Congrats Bryan. It was worth the wait to show you to the world in my HipHossip anniversary special.—MsKemi Dec 18^th 2012 Nigeria.

BryanFinlay.com

Twitter @BryanFinlay

NEVER BEEN AIRED: MY NOVEMBER 2008 INTERVIEW WITH KANYE WEST.

Kanye West interview with Kemi of Hiphossip Nov 2008.mp3 - Kanye West

Sorry about all the delays. I have more exclusives coming. Even one with Rihanna. Parental discretion advised. (Yeezy's language) LOL!

OUR PAL ANDY ROSS OF GEL MEDIA INTERVIEWED CRYSTAL WATERS.

Crystal was here in Toronto last week. Great job Andy!!!

KJ THE KID REPORTER INTERVIEWS #1 CANADIAN RAPPER CLASSIFIED. STAY TUNED TO MY IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW AND THE PSA.

Classified's album "Self Explanatory" is in stores today April 7th 2009

CANADA, IT'S BOBBY VALENTINO FOR YOU!

I shall be interviewing the great Bobby Valentino Thursday the 13th of November via phone and it shall be one great experience. Better submit your questions NOW! My interview is in the PM so please DO NOT CALL between 2pm and 4pm. Those call waiting signals get in the way.

HIPHOSSIP'S AFTERNOON CHAT WITH THE DYNAMIC R&B ARTIST ESTELLE.

Like I said on Sunday's post, we really had fun at the sound check session at the Estelle, Gym Class Heroes and The Roots concert. I arrived with my pumpkin KJ, my PA Gilly and my intern Prince Young both upcoming local artists as well.

Ken Green from Warner Music welcomed us at the door and as we were waiting for our turn to meet Estelle, in comes Travis McCoy and then he runs out and all I could hear KJ saying was "mom, that's the guy from GCH." When Travis passed by again, KJ went to hi-five him and suddenly Travis grabbed KJ above his neck. See, KJ likes that neck thing. Rapper Kid Famous carried him on the neck too at the Flow 93.5FM breakfast birthday back in the Summer.....

Later, Estelle arrived and she was doing her different mini interviews with magazines and online publications but when she got to our area, KJ was so starstruck that he turned frozen and shy. Look at the difference in the video. He didn't believe his eyes! It was really Estelle. They both spoke softly and I had to amplify their voices to the best I could do.

KJ's questions were as follows

1. Estelle, am I the first kid in the world to interview you?--Estelle says YES you are!
   
2. Tell me about Boris Johnson, the London U.K Mayor who called black kids picaninnies!--Estelle told KJ that the Mayor was not very clever when he said that. Picaninnies is a derogatory term used for African children.
   
3. Will you wait outside if you see Mary J Blige go into a store?--Estelle laughed and told KJ that she met Mary J at a club already. KJ asked that as he read on Wikipedia that Estelle would love to work with Mary J and being that Estelle was discovered thru her persistence by waiting outside a restaurant that Kanye West just went into. Their paths crossed and the rest is history.

Later on I asked her about that Kanye path crossing experience and that you have to hear on the video. My interview format was very casual, KJ with me and a simple chat which I was content with along with our nice photo session which KJ stole all of the show with. He later presented Estelle with gifts. Two thank you cards, a key ring telling her they were the keys to Canada and of course a copy of our Canadian themed scarves since Estelle really loves scarves.

While we were there we bumped into the dynamic and wonderful President of UMAC, the Urban Music Association of Canada, Will Strickland above. Strickland even did a drop for HipHossip loving the site you know. That's like Russell Simmons or Kevin Lyles telling you they love HipHossip. Will's Canada's Hip-hop Godfather! LOL! Oh BTW, those drops are coming from the BET awards. Wait till you see what they said about HipHossip.

Above is Toronto SuperMedia guru Andrew Ross Geladaris of GelMedia.net Andy and Will were also doing a project with Estelle on a TV show. What a wonderful day! I wanna personally thank the man below Ken Green at Warner Music Canada and the lovely Joanna Dine at Warner's Media Relations and Publicity who both made this all possible for my HipHossip readers.

The $20 Canadian bill is KJ's paycheck in cash. He earns $20/hr as HipHossip Kid Reporter. He couldn't wait for the payroll office the next payday. Hey kid, better explain that cash to Canada Revenue (Our IRS) Looks like Ken's trying to compete on who's got the larger bill. He made KJ just feel good! BTW, Ken's was a $5 bill. We need to call Warner Music to give him a raise. He TRULY DESERVES IT! Hope you enjoyed the story. E-mail me at hiphossip@rogers.com

NOW LISTEN TO KJ'S ENTIRE INTERVIEW!!!

REMEMBER WHEN ESTELLE FIRST CAME TO TORONTO TO FLOW 93.5FM?

Enjoy JJ and Melanie's interview with them!

JADAKISS BOWS TO PRESSURE TO CHANGE ALBUM NAME....AND HE DID!!!

Rapper JADAKISS has been forced to change the name of his upcoming album KISS MY ASS after the title received negative feedback from retailers. The Lox star has now bowed to industry pressure and the LP will now be called The Last Kiss. He says, "I had to change the name of my album. Kiss My Ass wasn't testing well at retail. Not even with the exclamations or none of that. So we had to switch it to The Last Kiss." But the MC insists the title isn't hinting at his retirement - it's just the end of an era.
He adds,

"Some people asked me is it my last album. Nah, it's just ... the first album was Kiss The Game Goodbye, the second one was The Kiss of Death, so this one was The Last Kiss. It's the closing of a trilogy. "It's the last time I'm going to name one of my albums, it's the last time 'Kiss' is going to be in the album titles. This is why this is The Last Kiss."

I won't bow to pressure from ---of all people retailers? Sumit and I spoke to him shortly before this change of name thing!

T.I. Interview Speaks About Buying Machine Guns On Jimmy Kimmel.

Get your urban news at DimeWars.Com

CANADA LOVES BOBBY VALENTINO!---EXCLUSIVE HIPHOSSIP PHONE CHATS ARE BACK!

CANADA!

GET READY FOR MY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE ONE AND ONLY......................

BOBBY VALENTINO!

COMING SOON!

YOU KNOW YOU WANT BOBBY! SEND YOUR FAN QUESTIONS TO HIPHOSSIP@ROGERS.COM. ONE LUCKY FAN GETS TO SIT WITH ME IN MY OFFICE ON THE PHONE AND EVEN ASK BOBBY A QUESTION! OH YEAH BABY!

DYNAMIC RADIO PERSONALITY 680 MUSIC REPORTER RUDY BLAIR INTERVIEWS ROBIN THICKE IN TORONTO.

On the day dynamic Toronto Music Reporter Rudy Blair did this interview, I was at a sad event of a family friend's funeral for their son. I was the spokesperson for the family and had to give up some things. When Robin comes back, I will interview him but Rudy got us one good interview. Though the picture was dark, check out the audio here at 680 News' website.



There' s a naughty picture of Rihanna with NO SHOES on and Robin! LOL! We already know Robin likes black meat as he's married to one. Meanwhile I would love to ask him about that Miss USA pageant fall. His song Magic reminds me of that fall each time I hear it. In fact that's how I discovered the song!

E-40, Busta Rhymes & DJ Drama On Gangsta Grillz Radio.

Get your urban news at DimeWars.Com

You know HipHossip Correspondents the Lawrence twins hung out with E40 this past weekend at the BET Hip-Hop awards in ATL. Wonder what brand of lollipop that is?

As for Busta, I need to call him and do a phoner since he's been in so much trouble, the CIC may ground him at the border! As for Spliff, Busta's hype man, he was arrested on drug charges some place in Europe last May 2008. Man! I need to spank them all!

DYNAMIC CANADIAN RADIO PERSONALITY ARCEE INTERVIEWS Q-TIP.

Get your urban news at DimeWars.Com

Our own Arcee from Toronto's Real Frequency radio show interviews Tip and the above picture of him, I took at Rock the Bells this past summer. It was the worst media relations event this summer. Reporters were kicked out, denied interviews backstage and more. Let's not mention names of Managers and family groupies but I thank Live Nation for letting me cover the stage acts in the front row. Those videos have never been edited out of anger! I just want to say this--- Fock Method and Red's Manager and Erykah Badu's husband Jay Electronica! Good job Arcee. I enjoyed that chat with Tip.

OUR ONLINE PARTNER BET DOES A CLASSIC OBAMA INTERVIEW ON 106 AND PARK.

Get your urban news at DimeWars.Com

BILLBOARD INTERVIEWS MICHELLE WILLIAMS.

OUR SISTER BLOG THE HIP-HOP CHRONICLE CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF NAS!

Def Jam set up a conference call with Nasir Jones aka Nas. This is the 2nd time Sumit has spoken to Nas. If you remember he spoke to Nas a few months back when his ‘Untitled’ album was dropping. Click here to hear the latest.

CNN TALKS TO RAPPER YOUNG JEEZY ABOUT THE RECESSION......OR HIS NEW ALBUM?

Talk about the freaking recessions like the one that happened this week. Wall Street did hurt all week and closed with a bit of success.

AN OUTKAST CAN'T SAVE HIP-HOP?

YOUNG JEEZY IS INTERVIEWED BY RADIO PERSONALITY ANGIE MARTINEZ.

Thanks to Dime Wars, we get to hear everything Young Jeezy had to say to top rated hip-hop radio personality and rapper Angie Martinez of Hot 97FM in New York. Like I always rant, Jeezy is one of those ones that I met before they became famous. He used to hawk t-shirts and CD's out of the car trunk like this night I met him outside the Hot 107.9FM birthday bash in 2004. Now he's one of the headlining acts.

Congrats to Jeezy on his success and you bet I smoked my producer pal Janice at NBC in NYC for not having Jeezy perform alongside Michael Phelps on the season opener of SNL last week. Remember, Phelps said he listens to Jeezy's music before he hits the water.

THE TORONTO SUN PROFILES AWARD WINNING DYNAMIC NEW RAPPER JD ERA.

Reporter Nicholas Davis of the Toronto Sun features Canadian hip-hop artist JD Era in an article titled "JD Era jumps into full time." Joseph Dako is considered one of the premier young music artists in Canada. He goes by the stage name JD Era. For the past three years, he has been juggling his academics with his burgeoning music career, and he's found success in both. But this year, he's going to focus solely on his music career so he can learn all he needs to learn to become a successful recording artist.

"I want to be able to make music my career," says Dako, who also took business courses when he was at university. "I know if things don't work out I can always go back to university and finish off my degree, but I really feel now is the time to try to establish myself beyond Canada's hip hop community."

I met JD Era at the Toronto Independent Music Awards on July 31st where he won "Best Rap Artist" and he gave me a lovely interview below and shows you that anybody can be whatever they wanna be.

On August 24 2008 at The Mod Club JD Era was crowned the Toronto winner of TAG Records’ Survival of The Freshest Competition. Surviving all the head- to-head elimination style rounds, this emcee consistently wowed the crowd and fans voted finally voted him “The Freshest!”

Earning a cash prize of $5000.00 by skillfully beating out all of the other 63 competitors, JD Era’s clever lyrics secured him a spot in the finals where he could win a demo recording deal with TAG Records. JD Era will travel to the United States to verbally duke it out once again. This time he will face about 50 finalists from the United States with the hopes of coming out on top.

“Headed up by Jermaine Durpi, TAG Records is a collaboration between Def Jam Records and TAG Body Spray in an effort to give emerging hip-hop artists an opportunity to show their talents and make history. “ (www.tagrecords.com)

“Someone had to lose and I'm happy it wasn't me. It was dope; just another step closer to being the best!”

(JD Era on the Survival of the Freshest Competition - Toronto )

• Read the Toronto Sun article first.

• Be JD Era's friend on MySpace: www.myspace.com/jdera

• JD Era was interviewed in depth by The Hip-Hop Chronicle in the U.K

• Listen to JD Era's "Blame Me."

• Watch HipHossip's interview below.
  
  
  
  The Paper Chase Video
  
  
  

  

  Download his new mixtape Coming To America here.