Pop Culture contains an abundance of queens. Queens of Soul, Queens of Rock, Queens of Pop, Queens of the Stone Age . . . but at ShotgunReviews.com, our Queen is Oseye. As noted in previous posts, Oseye worked with me and a number of other early Shotgun writers. She and Jonathan Birdsong put together the Lyrical Lounge section, and between themselves and the crew they built, they did terrific work covering hip-hop and related genres. Oseye went on to work elsewhere in journalism, and she's as regal today as she was in the day. Hail to the Queen as she hails another . . .
I’m Oseye, better known as The Queen, and I used to write hip hop music reviews in the Lyrical Lounge section of Shotgun Reviews. When Troy asked me to write something for this re-launch, I couldn't think of what I wanted to write about. Should I write about one of my favorite albums? The best album of the last decade? Or even the best new artist or groundbreaking artist? I couldn't decide. Eventually, it was decided for me. The untimely death of Whitney Houston could not be ignored. I had to write about her. She, like Michael Jackson, died way too soon. She, like Michael Jackson, was an 80s icon, her music touching the souls of many, often the backdrop of life’s most memorable moments. Her career, much like Michael Jackson’s, had seen better days. The new millennium hadn’t been good to either; their star power somewhat dimmed, but never totally extinguished. While she may have struggled in recent years, it can’t erase all that she accomplished.
My first introduction to Whitney Houston was the “You Give Good Love” video on Friday Night Videos. It was 1985 and I was 11 or 12, depending on the month the album was released. There wasn’t much to the video. A singer rehearsing in a club. That singer, Whitney, was on the microphone. A guy at the bar is messing his camera and then focuses in on Whitney. Pretty simple, concept, but it allowed the song and Whitney to shine. I remember my sister and I singing our hearts out to this song, and thinking the singer was so pretty. Who is Whitney Houston? We would soon find out.
