My hope for the future of R&B’s ladies fell to new lows when the Cassie and Rihanna pics dropped. Sure, it was cool to see them naked. I’m lying. It was GREAT to see ‘em naked (especially Ri-Ri). With that in mind, I like a chick sans smut as well.
Enter Ayah, a Palestinean songstress by the way of Toronto. I first heard of her last summer on the Problem Woman mixtape and kept an eye out. She closed the year with an appearance on eLZhi’s “The Leak” off of The Preface and she’s soon to follow it with the release of 4:15.
The lead single off the LP, “Might Not Be” tells the tale of a woman who doesn’t compromise her character to please others. Confidence isn’t mistaken for arrogance since she acknowledges her shortcomings. The lyrics are matched with some tight drums and background vocals that will make your head nod. It’s enough to consider giving 4:15 a shot and re-evaluate my anti-iTunes stance.
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Download — Ayah – “Might Not Be”
Download — Ayah – 4:15 Album Sampler
Three_6_Mafia_Presents_Choices_(The_Album)
Mcgruff-Before_We_Start_BW_Gruff_Express-(VLS)-1997
Eightball_Ft._DMX_Canibus_and_McGruff-Pure_Uncut_Remix-(Promo_VLS)-1998
Viktor_Vaughn-Saliva-Ltd.Ed._VLS-2003
Dead_Prez-Hip_Hop-VLS-1999
Dr._Dre_Ft._Obie_Trice_Eminem-Body_Guard_(Ja_Rule_Diss)-(VLS)-2003
Dr._Dre_ft_Knoc-Turnal-Bad_Intentions_CD_Single
Naughty_By_Nature-Hip_Hop_Hooray-(CDM)-1993
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^ Damn, I was just about to up that Busta but you beat me to it.
But seriously, between Busta, Meth & Red, Tanya Morgan, Green Day, and even Cam, May ’09 is the best month for music in a minute.
thank you very much for that Tanya Morgan…much appreciated
please believe, Biggga’s hard at work right now trying to hack into Ayah’s computer to see if there’s any naked flicks he can leak, lol
would that new Cam be worth downloading for someone who wasnt impressed with “Cookies & Apple Juice” or “I used to get it in Ohio”
never really been a big cam fan…i think dudes decent but never went out of my way to cop his shit (…)
Her mixtape was fire & “Might Not Be” is more of the same. Shorty is dope.
That Stat Quo is tight BTW.
Everything’s worth a dl when it’s free. I spent more time putting stuff on my iPod than I did packing for a weekend outta town, lol.
Anyone holidng 4:15?
Everything’s worth a dl when it’s free. I spent more time putting stuff on my iPod than I did packing for a weekend outta town, lol.
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hahah…im doing the same thing right now…gettin ready for this flight on Friday
…i guess a DL never hurts when you got 500GB of free space
I don’t know what the reasoning behind the album title is, but her and I ,
(and ghostdeini rich as well) all share the 4:15 bday (word to taxday babies!), so off the strength of I’ll have to check this out.
I’m ashamed to be from Toronto.
Judgin’ from her videos, Ayah’s got a rack that matches her voice—big, full and luscious.
Dear IDJ,
based on your dealings with Chrisette, T. Marie and other female artists, I humbly beg you to please leave Ayah alone. Short of Mary J, y’all done butchered many a sistah’s career. Give this child a shot by not tryin’ to sign her.
thank you.
^^^
LMAO
Damn…is it my B Day or sumthin’ ?
Didn’t Epiphany just debut at number one?
P.S. Mary J. Blige has never been on Def Jam.
AMP,
Epiphany sold a whopping 83K… More due to CM’s work than her label. I mean–how often have you heard her on radio/seen her in magz… Whatever’s being done on CM’s behalf, I have a hard time praising DJ for it.
And you’re right about Mary. my bad…
Def Jam’s had some female R&B artists bomb, but they’ve been successful with a couple too (Rihanna anyone?).
But I’m just fucking witcha lol. I sold my Def Jam stock years ago lol.
@El Rosado, the title of her album relates to Chapter 4, verse 15 within the Noble Quran.
Ayah (??? ??yatun, plural Ayat ???? ??y?tun) is the Arabic word for sign or miracle, cognate with Hebrew ot (???), means sign. The word usually refers to each one of the 6236 verses [1] found in the Qur’an (6348 ayat counting the bismillahs). Muslims regard each ayah of the Qur’an as a sign from Allah. The word Ayat is also used by Christian in countries with strong Arabic language influence, such as Indonesian Christian.
The verse number in a symbol is written at the end of each verse. This symbol is ?, end of Ayah. Its Unicode number is U+06DD and ???? also denotes the end of a sura.
There are two types of Ayah, 1- Ayah having order in it is (“Mohkumaat”) and 2-(“mutashabihaat”) meaning resembling ayats. [2]. The word mutashabeh means similar. [3].
I applaud the research Baby Paw’s done to answer El Rosado’s question. I just wish I understood what the fuck he’s talking about lol.
Try translating it from Pawspeak to English lol.
This chick is the truth! I been putting everyone I know on to her on the strength of her mixtape alone. co-sign Canseco, if her management’s smart they’ll know to keep her away from I Destroy Jawns
Ayah is not a bad singer, but the production on “Might not be” sucks IMO – someone should definitely hook her up with another producer.. Regarding that, and sorry to rant, but what’s up with the “hey-why-don’t-I-delay-the-kick-and-snare-100ms-and-then-it’s-gonna-sound-real-dope” approach? Even the hihat is delayed FFS.. Because the ear will automatically adjust its perception of the timing according to the vocals (and the rest), it just sounds like the drummer is high on crack or something… Whether or not you like the kick + snare’s actual 6/8 time signature underneath it all, is a matter of taste I guess. But why the f*** does it need to be delayed as well – that ruins it for me..
Sorry, I just realized that I wrote the opposite of what I wanted to say… :-) It’s of course everything BUT the kick + snare that’s delayed, leaving the overall impression that the beat (except the HH) is way ahead of everything else. The point being that the time gap is too big, so this track doesn’t bounce at all, IMO..
Sorry bout the confusion.
Sorry, I just realized that I wrote the opposite of what I wanted to say… :-) It’s of course everything BUT the kick + snare that’s delayed, leaving the overall impression that the beat (except the HH) is way ahead of everything else. The point being that the time gap is too big, so this track doesn’t bounce at all, IMO..
Sorry bout the confusion.
“The project was titled as such because Ayah openly admits that she feels at her creative peak during the late night hours when the rest of us are sleeping. So with that being said it was only logical for the songstress to release the physical copy of 4:15 on April 15th.”
^ press release
I’m feeling this. This is hot. Now More Nekkid Pictures.
lmao @ leegle.
The wifey and I gave this a listen last night while we were chilling out. Both of us agree with Dudeson. The girl can sing no doubt, she has a great voice, but her production needs to be stepped up serious. It takes away from the quality of her voice and makes her sound like every other r & b chick.
Goonise:
Great Posts
Teef:
Naw man I am a supporter of the AYAH movement. I just didn’t know they build em like that in Palestine!! She got some Black in her; too bad it isn’t me.LOL!!!!
I can’t believe dudes are hating on the production. This is that raw Detroit type feel, soulful boom-bap. I keep this in the same vein as Dwele, Eric Roberson, and Jill Scott. Those that appreciate good soul, will feel this. And i totally disagree with ‘sounding like every r&b singer’, are you people even listening? Get some Dilla in your lives!!!
Oh and for dudeson, clearly you don’t listen to any other music similar to this. if you listen to D’angelo’s Voodoo, you would know that ALL the percussion on that LP, were all off in timing. and that right there is one the greatest albums ever recorded. My city makes music like this, so i won’t take all this ‘rah rah’ engineer techy talk. Ask Wajeed, Riggins, Black Milk, etc. The D always brings that rawness!