James Ingram was the highlight of "We are the World" and more people need to recognize that!

In 1983, one of the greatest demonstrations of pure unadulterated vocal dexterity occurred, and one of the greatest musical injustices was waged soon after. In the studio that day,every major name in the music industry was on hand to perform the now classic tune, WE ARE THE WORLD. There's that infamous section of the song, where the key transposes from E to F. Quincy Jones, in his infinite wisdom, placed all of the more famous singers in that section, clearly to make sure the masses got to see their favorites improvise, and demonstrate their vocal prowess. The usual suspects were placed there, Stevie, Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan. But Quincy made a shrewd move that often goes overlooked, and to the worlds detriment in my opinion.

Quincy placed his artist at the time, James Ingram, in that F section, and James ripped the holy hell out of his part. From the time James came in with "WE ARRRRE THE WOOOORLD! WE ARE THE CHILDREEEEEEN!!" a gauntlet had been laid down that was not to be picked up. Sure, the great Legend, Ray Charles, came in with the response to the call, but minimally, and even he was forced to lay back, after he pronounced a flag waving "Good God!"- the song belonged to James at that point, and every one in the room knew it.

The only miscalculation made that day was the fact that James didn't come in until the 6:12 mark of the song-- not many people ever got that far along in the song, especially with radio's strict time limited formats, and Ingrams genius got lost to the world. This was a grave error on the part of Quincy, and the world paid for it. I mean, sure, the recording sold a million out of the gate, and countless millions since, but it could've done MOAR! There's lots of money still on the table as far as I'm concerned, and lots of Africans who didn't get fed because of it. Shame on you Q. Shame on you brother. If you are indeed a BROTHER. I'm being hard on ya Q, cuz you're supposed to know better.

Well, I've formed an organization to remedy just such an travesty. Please join JIRTSOWAT World, and fight to get James the recognition that he truly deserves. It's time to take a stand, and put James Ingram's part in that song where it deserves to be. Now I will admit, Stevie was kind of held back in his section, by Bruce Springsteen's sandpaper yelping, but that's neither here nor there, and The Boss needed to be there to bring in his crowd- another shrewd move by the Q, just to insure that James' would get his shine. If it wasn't for the damn late placement his plot would have been complete. Well dammit, as long as I have breath to breathe, Ingram will have his day!! Will you stand with me?

Military Mind ft. Erro- cuz we felt like it

Download it here:http://www.zshare.net/audio/61128785d44f772b/



here ya go:

SO, being on the road with Eric Roberson most of last year and this year, we both discovered that we are ridiculous hiphop heads. Most listeners of our music can probably tell the influence, and really, who aint in this generation, huh?

But no, we're really kind of anal about it. Most people who have checked out some of my shows, acoustic or not, have heard me spit something at some point or another, I keep a 16 on deck, not to mention the AOL sessions. As for Erro, he's sick with the freestyle, but he usually keeps it in song form, making it melodic as well as rhythmic, making it doubly hard. I actually think he can take most emcees out off the top, definitely upper echelon when it comes to that. I don't do that well, I have to sit my ass down and write LOL.

But I knew it was in us, and I had this beat laying around that my man Dana Johnson had cooked up, when he flipped this African tune called "make it fast, make it slow" by a guy named Rob. I gave it to him in this compilation I had called Africa 100-chock full of gems, that thing! Eric and I were arguing about the merits of one rapper to the next, and I said, "nah, this dude right here is killing all of em!", then I put on my verse. He kinda lost it and said he wanted to get on it with me (which was the desired effect LOL), and I sent it to him ASAP. One morning I woke up, and it was in my inbox! when I heard his verse, it made me want to go back in and add another verse, sheeit! So now we have what you hear here, which is simply put, a hell of a lot of fun!

SIDENOTE-I also have a verse from my Chitown representative 4eyes, who is a MONSTER! I just thought it would be a nice treat for those who are down with the movement Erro and I have been cooking up this past year or so- stay tuned, we'll release the 4eyes verse for you as well.


And yes, we promise, we will do one where we are singing too LOL, I suppose. Music's supposed to be fun, right?

P.S.S.-- That's really ME in that military pic- Ahhh, those were the days- I fought for YOUR FREEDOM SO PICK UP MY ALBUM- ACEY DUECEY IN STORES NOW- LOL