Playlist

The A3C Hip-Hop Festival, held March 20-22 in Atlanta, hosted the reunion of the Juice Crew. For those of you who don't know, that would be (insert the word legendary in front of each name): Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Marley Marl, Craig G, MC Shan and Roxanne Shante. The Oscar-winning (it's still hard to believe) Three 6 Mafia, Del the Funky Homosapien, DJ Lord and one of my favorite Atlanta groups, Collective Efforts, were also at the festival, which celebrated its fourth year of revelry.

There were panels such as "Women in Hip-Hop III: Love & Money," b-boy competitions and a producer competition. Catch up to the fun with words, pictures and video.

Superstar country duo Kix Brooks & Ronnie Dunn take the Cowboys Red River stage sometime between 10:30 and 11 p.m. Saturday. The impromptu concert follows the pair's gig as one of Kenny Chesney's opening acts at Pizza Hut Park. Admission is the usual Saturday night cover charge of $8 for 21 and over, $20 for ages 18-20. Cowboys Red River is at 10310 Technology Blvd. The phone number is 214-352-1796.

Kenneth J. Metevier of Lewisville trekked out to see jazz flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione in concert last night at Bass Hall in Fort Worth. And boy was he disappointed. We'll let him say it best:

"Chuck Mangione is an icon as it relates to jazz music and performances. I was extremely excited to see him and was not overly concerned that the price of a ticket was $100.00 each. That said, the concert was a total mess. I think age has caught up with him and am not sure what the reason is for him to be touring the country, charging what he is, for the product he put on stage. ... Last night...he was nothing more than a back-up to his sax/flute/and piccolo player, his guitarist and other 2 members of his band. Most of the time he sat on a chair in front of his keyboard and moved around. ...There are times when people should just hang it up because they just don't have it anymore. This was most definitely the case for Chuck Mangione."

A bit of good news, though. Mr. Metevier was pleasantly surprised by Dianne Reeves, Mr. Mangione's opening act. "She has an incredible talent accompanied with a strong, bold and versatile voice," he writes. So true! Ms. Reeves was wonderful during her late March gig at McFarlin Auditorium. Her new CD, When You Know, is exquisite.

From The Associate Press:

Nick Cannon is cast as Mariah Carey's lover in her new video - but has the superstar diva given the young actor a considerably bigger role in real life? According to several published reports, Carey, 38, married Cannon, 27, on Wednesday. Neither Carey's publicist nor Cannon's manager returned requests from The Associated Press for comment.

Read more.

From Billboard.com:

The reunited New Kids On The Block will release their first new music since 1994 on May 13, when the single "Summertime" will be made available via all digital music services, according to a blog post May 1 on the group's official Web site. The track is the precursor to a new album the group hopes to release in the fall.

Kanye performed last night with Rihanna and Lupe Fiasco. Did you go? How was the show?