Urban Reviews - Your Source for the Best in AA Fiction!

This is a section that I used to have in the 1990's when I had my own website of music reviews and had some special features. It's kind of like 20 Questions in Vibe, but better (at least that's what I believe!) So, here is my current list 'Is It Me?' questions....and if you have some, feel free to comment by clicking the small link in the bottom right of this post. I will post them in the next posting of the 'Is It Me?' section! 1. IS IT ME? ...or does Charlie Wilson have the biggest teeth you ever saw in your life (they're even bigger than Ron Isley's!) 2. IS IT ME? ...or does the relationship with Beyonce and Jay-Z need to go to the next level? 3. IS IT ME? ...or are you surprised that they gave Queen Latifah a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before Will Smith? 4. IS IT ME? ...or did Lou Rawls always look like a jive turkey when you saw him? 5. IS IT ME? ...or do you wish movie soundtracks were as good as they were in the early 90s (i.e. Menace ...

Wow....I can't believe we are in 2006, and 2005 is a just a memory. (Memorieeeeeeeees...I've had a fewwwwwwww!!!!!!) ~Sorry about that~ Anyways, Here is my list of best albums for 2005. I decided not to put them in any particular order so I would not put one album ahead of another one by mistake! BEST OF 2005 - HIP-HOP Common - Be Beanie Sigel - B. Coming Slim Thug - Already Platinum Paul Wall - The People's Champ Little Brother - The Minstrel Show Kanye West - Late Registration Slum Village - Slum Village Talib Kweli - Right About Now Cuban Link - Chain Reaction Bun B - Trill Miri Ben Ari - The Hip-Hop Violinist Lil Kim - Naked Truth David Banner - Certified Ludacris presents - Disturbing The Peace Big Boi presents - Got Purp, Vol 1 BEST OF 2005 - R&B John Legend - Get Lifted Raheem Devaughn - Love Experience Lyfe - 268-192 Eric Benet - Hurricane Kindred - In This Life Together 112 - Pleasure and Pain Mary J Blige - The Breakthrough Jamie Foxx - Unpredictable Anthony H...

In past year, I have read and heard a lot of opinions in regards to the African-American book industry. The main topic seems to have been the popularity of Urban-Street Fiction or "Hood" books. Some like it, some don't. Here's my take on it. As you've seen on my previous 2005 book list, I read a variety of books including urban fiction. I think that the urban fiction that I've read is wonderful. The books are entertaining and fast-paced. Now there are some that have numerous errors in it, but there are some errors that I've found in other genres of books so sometimes that happens. As long as it doesn't distract me from reading the book then I'm fine. I think the problem that people are having with it is that a lot of teens are reading these books and they feel that this isn't "good reading" or they're not reading the "classics". Well, at least they're reading something (I know I'm going to get hate email for this...

Hello Everyone. Happy New Year! I can't believe that it's already 2006. Time sure does fly. It seems like it was only yesterday that our website was launched. I want to thank everyone for their continued support of the website. As of right now, we have over 4200 visitors to the website and over 100 mailing list subscribers. Not bad for a website that launched in July 2005! Ok, now back to the matter at hand. In 2005, I had the wonderful opportunity to read some really great books. So here's my Best Books I've Read in 2005 List. These books are in no particular order, and some of them didn't actually come out in 2005. Best Books I've Read in 2005 1. Swingers by Torrian Ferguson 2. F.R.I.E.N.D.S & The Choices That We Make by Valerie A. Withers. 3. Friend or Foe by D.L. Moore 4. Brooklyn Jewelry Exchange by Meisha C. Holmes 5. A Dream Come True by Michael T. Owens 6. A Dollar Outta Fifteen Cent by Caroline McGill 7. Urban Affair by Tony Lindsay 8. Choose Me by ...

I guess you're wondering why I ask that question. Well, if you saw Dancing With The Stars tonight, you'd know exactly what I'm talking about. Trust me, I do not usually watch this, but as I was flipping the channels, I saw Master P doing the CHA CHA with some woman! And to make matters worst, the song the two of them were dancing to was a Jackson 5 song! WTF? Jackson 5 and doing the CHA CHA do not mix (and i'm not talking about that hideous Cha Cha Slide, people). I couldn't believe Jerry Rice (the former NFL player) was on there dancing the CHA CHA too! But at least his dancing was convincing. Master P looked like a stiff log! I mean, really...if Master P's son Romeo dropped out of the competition....that should tell you something! Did anybody else see this catastrophe? Luckily he got the worst score from the show's judges and probably won't be back next week after they get the votes from people who phone in their votes. But I don't even plan on ...

Well, it's 2am again.......but i'm finally done (for the most part) with the website. All the reviews are up and ready for reading! The newsletter is going out..... The contest information is in the newsletter. The only thing left to do is the Hip-Hop New Releases page....which I'll tackle tomorrow night. Now, I'm going to sleep. My wife had about a 3 hour headstart...... Oh well.....i'll get a whopping 5 hours tonight..... tomorrow should be better. Visit the site, post some comments, holla back! A 'fully-satified-yet-still-dawg-tired' Charles H. info@urban-reviews.com http://www.urban-reviews.com

Well, it's only 2am this time, but I finally have the Hip-Hop Reviews up on the site. Man, I can't believe the time it takes to explain some of these albums. I want to provide an honest review for each and not leave anything out that I feel is important enough to tell everybody about. For instance, I felt compelled to explain all the reasons why Chamillionaire's album is a 2.5 considering he used to be paired up with Paul Wall (who I recently gave a 4 out of 5). I left no stone unturned so that you could see the exact reason behind my rating. I do that for all my reviews. Sometimes I see short reviews on Amazon.com and I wonder how you could get any helpful information from four sentences. So I hope everyone appreciates the time and effort that goes into these reviews. Upcoming Updates In The Next 24 Hours: - Finish up the reviews for the R&B cds and post them by tomorrow night. - Send out the newsletter to the mailing list tomorrow night. - Get the ball rolling on our ...

Well, it's 3am...and the site is about 75% complete. Almost all the pages are complete. The only pages that still need to be completed are the Hip-Hop and R&B reviews. Everything else is up and ready! Check out all the cool new features we have: - A "flash" type introduction page - Media Center (which will expand tremendously in the weeks to come) - The Pinnacle (which you are reading now!) - Separate New Release pages for AA Fiction, Hip-Hop, and R&B. - Less clutter on the front page - Javascript Menu for easy navigating - User-friendly text links on the bottom of each page (just in case) - Separate page for Submission Guidelines - Events Calendar for all book and music related events across the nation - Separate Site Search page Look for the following updates in the next 24 hours: - Hip-Hop reviews uploaded - R&B reviews uploaded - Hip-Hop New Release page uploaded (somehow got messed up) - Send out the January 2006 Newsletter to our ever-growing mailing l...