Some People Think He's Bonkers, But I Just Think He's Clumsy

Dizzee Rascal loses his footing and falls off the stage whilst performing at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

Mission for the New Year

I hereby make it my mission to dedicate more time to the updating of Musical Mission in the New Year. Call it my New Year’s resolution if you will; Musical Mission will be facing many more updates in the New Year, and the idea is that the blog will soon be a far stronger source of music related madness.

I move into 2009 with a positive outlook on where my music blogging will take me. This blog knows no limits, and as we enter into a fresh new year I endeavour to add more quality content to this blog, attract a wider readership, and really establish Musical Mission in the worldwide blogosphere.

Musical Mission has never limited itself to any one particular genre or another, and in 2009 you will see the blog take on different musical forms with greater regularity. There’ll be more blog entries, more to watch out for, and plenty more to look forward to.

2009 is the year that Musical Mission will really get going, the year in which the blog will really start to spark. Keep up to date with Musical Mission in 2009 and I can guarantee you updates aplenty, and fresh content galore.

Have a very happy New Years Eve, and I very much look forward to seeing you back here in 2009.

Dizzee Rascal Arrested

Dizzee Rascal has been arrested regarding an alleged incident with a baseball bat. The incident is said to have taken place in Orpington, Kent yesterday afternoon (December 12th), and Dizzee has now been released on bail.

24 year old rapper Dizzee Rascal (real name Dylan Mills) is to return to a South London police station later this month reports Sky News. A police spokesperson confirmed that "He has been bailed until later this month."

50 Cent's 'Before I Self Destruct' Album Out in 2009

It had been expected that ‘Before I Self Destruct’ would be released at some stage before the end of 2008, that’s not going to happen now though and sadly fans of 50 Cent will have to wait until early 2009 to hear the new album from the rapper.

It’s always hugely frustrating when album release dates are put back, no one’s likely to be more frustrated than 50 Cent himself however and it’s likely to have cut deep with him that his new music won’t be out there now until later than was initially anticipated. 50 Cent is a hugely passionate recording artist, you can tell that from listening to his lyrics, it’ll have hurt him that the release date has been put back, but things aren’t always completely straight forward in life. Set backs are sometimes to be expected and fans will now have to wait a little longer to hear 50 Cent’s fourth studio album.

The good news now though is that when ‘Before I Self Destruct’ is released it’ll come complete with a bonus DVD. The DVD is entitled 'Two Turntables and a Microphone: The Life and Death of Jam Master Jay’, and is a documentary about Run DMC’s late, great, hip-hop DJ. It’s an excellent extra to be included, and although we’ll now have to wait a little longer to hear the album; the fact we’ll get such a special extra will make it well worth the wait.

No official release date for ‘Before I Self Destruct’ has yet been set, watch out for it in early 2009 however and prepare to be blown away by the fine flow and supreme talent of New York’s Curtis James Jackson.

Leon Fails to Fly

Last week I stated there to be a good chance that Leon’s ‘Right Now’ album would reach number one in the album charts, and that his new single ‘Don’t Call This Love’ may even hit the top spot in the singles chart also. Quite clearly I was wrong.

Having been number three in the Official UK Top 40 the week before; Sunday 26th October saw Leon slip away to a disappointing 11th in the singles chart, his album meanwhile making a debut at number 4. Leon Jackson’s ‘Right Now’ was the third biggest album release of last week; right behind AC/DCs ‘Black Ice’ in first, and Kaiser Chiefs ‘Off With Their Heads’ in second.

Leona’s ‘Spirit’ album took the world by storm last year; Leona Lewis had number one singles all over the world and her album performed excellently also. Leon Jackson has failed to repeat the success of Leona Lewis however, and despite having spent a whole year putting it all together; it still seems to have been a relative flop. Leon was never going to be as big as Leona, by the looks of things however; people are far more interested in this year’s X-Factor competition than they are in last year’s Michael Buble style singer Leon Jackson. Great Britain loved him at the time; the young Scottish clothes shop worker who loved his mum and came good with the life changing reward of winning the X-Factor. That was last year though; Britain has now moved on, and Leon Jackson is nothing more than a distant memory.

Whilst Leona Lewis is truly world class and therefore stunned us all upon her return with her incredibly strong vocal talent; Leon Jackson is far more subtly strong, his vocal talent quietly understated. He’s a good singer; not a world beater like Leona Lewis though, and after a 10 month absence there’s seemingly little interest in last year’s X-Factor winner.

There are shades of first time X-Factor winner Steve Brookstein here; he won the shows first series in 2004, had one number one single, one number one album, and then that was more or less it for him. Unless Leon Jackson’s ‘Right Now’ album can crawl its way up the charts then Steve Brookstein actually went one better than him in achieving a number one album; his second album only had sales of 7,000 however and this could now be the way that Leon Jackson’s career is headed.

Steve Brookstein is doing okay for himself; he currently has plans to tour with the Madness musical ‘Our House’ and is also writing and recording new material; nothing too spectacular however, and certainly not doing anything at the level he surely would have expected when he won the X-Factor competition in 2004.

Reality TV has provided a lot of momentary singing stars; very few are still with us today however, and aside from Girls Aloud, Leona Lewis, and to a lesser extent Will Young; I fail to think of any others that are still going strong. Shayne Ward is still doing okay for himself, hasn’t had a number one since his first X-Factor hit however, and if you discount the inevitable X-Factor UK Christmas number one; the only chart that Shayne Ward has topped since is the Irish singles chart.

Leon Jackson’s musical career is likely to go downhill from here, and it’s not particularly likely to come back up again either. I feel sorry for the young lad from Scotland, it would have been nice to have seen him stick around for a while; I don’t think Leon will be around in the public domain for too much longer however, and if he does release a second album it’ll probably be more of a sales rival to Steve Brookstein’s 7000 than it will to the UK Top 40 album chart.

All the best of luck to you Leon; I wish you all the best of luck in this wicked world of music, it’s not going to be easy, but keep the faith and I’m sure you’ll continue to sell records. Don’t expect the record label to stick with you if sales start to slip; with drive and determination you will however continue to release music and long may you continue to do so too.