Red, Rauchy, Reloaded Rihanna

Rihanna turned into a superstar not so long ago thanks to hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, singing her to his label. This 22 year old fashion forward and now icon has been through the good and bad phases of fame and with that behind her she continues to make music.

With five albums under belt, its only fair to move with the strong Rhirhi wave and let her reinvent herself with every album she releases, effortlessly. 'Loud' is her recent project and its not what one would expect from her last album, 'Rated R'.

The latter was dark and was a perfect venting session for herself but not her fans. Rihanna decided to also jump on the bandwagon and follow the dance inspired sounds. She moved away from her reggae debut sound to sounding more like The Black Eyed Peas.

'Only Girl (In the World)' is the albums first single which is a club song and a cross over hit which is dominating chats and air waves. Followed by the more publicised collaboration 'Whats My Name ?' featuring former lover, Drake. 'Whats My Name ?' is a beautiful song, its even better that Drake didn't attempt to sing, but its another great collaboration done well in relation to Rihanna's career in 2010.

Another hit, 'Cheers (drink to That)' is another lazy summer song, perfect for the responsible party lifestyles we all have. The producers dumped Avril Lavigne sound which makes 'Cheers' a bit annoying. 'Loud' is not only composed with only potential club hits but also slow and sexual music.

'Skin' is a more 'raunchy' and slow also in that light is S&M which raises eyebrows with lyrics like ''Sticks and stones may break my back but chains and whips excite me''. Following her major hit of the year with Eminem with 'Love the way you lie' part 1 which is found in Shaddy's album, 'Recovery,' sees a more slow and more vocal part 2. Rihanna now features Eminem with a more mellow sound but a direct lyric approach like Love the way you lie part 1.

Nicki Minaj also makes an appearance on 'Raining Men' which join the Trinadadian Tobagan n Barbados to a coastal babes a wet collaboration. Another songs which i think should have been deleted are 'Man Down' and 'Fading' were a waste of material, although Rihanna did attempt a reggae comeback which now makes her sound ridiculous. The disappointment to this album is that she didn't include more of her ballads which she crafts then beautifully.

Most songs were penned by her and had full creative control of 'Loud.' Rihanna's image really reflects her music, from her lack of clothes and her 'too much sexy image' also draws a "loud" attention. This is album is loud is creative and smartly written with producers like StarGate, The Runners, Polow da Don, Tricky Stewart, Soundz and Alex da Kid.

Mr West and his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West needs no introduction in the music industry but his portfolio will include hits for the likes of Jay-Z, Foxxy Brown, Goodie Mob, Lil Kim, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and many more.

Kanye has proved that hip-hop has the potential to grow, creatively. Kanye helped to transcend hip-hop with his most critised album '808 & Heartbreak' to his most recent album, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.'

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a dark-introspective, funny and bold album. Despite the 'Good Friday specials' that Kanye committed to deliver to his fans, he still managed to pull through another amazing album. He basically committed to releasing a single that might be featured in this album every Friday. Although the album received mixed reviews its still an amazing album.

The albums first single 'Power' featuring vocals from a neo-soul artist Dwele is the albums first single. The single didn't receive so much radio love as expected but did do well on the charts. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sound moved away from his last release '808 & Heartbreaks' to what sounds like all of his album 'College Drop Out,' 'Late Registration' and Graduation combined. On production, Kanye seems untouchable especially working some of the best in that field.

'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' is composed of 13 tracks which make a 70 minute of Kanye's dark humor and a long list of collaborations. Kanye is always known to collaborate out of the hip-hop scene. 'The Blame Game' featuring John Legend which seems to be an open letter to his former lover, Amber Rose (model and socialite) which gets too graphic and raw with actor and comedian, Chris Rock at the end.

Followed by his somewhat an apology to his fans about his recent behaviour including his incident with Taylor Swift. 'Runaway' featuring Pusha T is an amazing song driven by the piano Kanye gets sincere and a bit emotional. Kanye does sing but not as much as he did on '808 & Heartbreaks'

'Monster' featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver is a brilliant song but the title did cause a major stir between MC Hammer, Jay - Z and Kanye. MC Hammer wanted to expose Jay-Z and Kanye as members of the Illuminati on Halloween of 2010 via the social network, Twitter. The title of the song is not pleasant but how the featured artists give their all to execute one of the best songs in this album.

'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' is well crafted, every song sounds like a hit including 'All Of the Lights' which sees a long star stared artists. Also something that Kayne hasn't done in a while is include a poem or poet in one of his songs. 'Who Will Survive In America?' is a beautiful but too raw poem on how Gil Scott-Heron sees America from what is was too how it has turned out.

Kanye is also known and credited for his smart sampling, his credits run form Manfred Mann's Earth Band (So Appalled produced by Swizz Beats), 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow' performed by Smokey Robinson (Devil in a New Dress), Black Sabbath with Iron Man (Hell of a Life produced by No I.D.), 'In High Places' by Mike Oldfield (Dark Fantasy) and many more sampled songs.

'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' is one of the most sold recodes of 2010 which overall makes this is an ingenious piece. The old Kanye West is back with a bang followed by his old friends, controversy and success.

From Writer to Hitmaker, say hi to Bruno Mars ....

Remember the name - you're going to be hearing a lot more of it.

Bruno Mars is the man behind the year's biggest hits: K'Naan's 'Wavin' Flag', Cee Lo Green's 'F**k You', Travie McCoy's 'Billionaire', B.O.B's 'Nothing On You', and Flo Rida's 'Right Round'.

Now, on his debut album, the prolific songwriter proves he can sing too.   

Born Peter Gene Hernandez and nicknamed after the famous chubby wrestler Bruno Sammartino, on 'Doo-Wops & Hooligans' he showcases the major influences he grew up listening to: mostly doo-wop music by the likes of The Temptation and Three Tops.

But, as is to be expected from the man whose songs ruled the charts in 2010, he also incorporates pop, reggae, and soul influences. Some old school R&B and rock 'n roll elements also come into place, reminding you of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and The Isley Brothers.

In fact, his songwriting skills can be compared to Raphael Saadiq's and his singing to Jason Mraz, but he balances the two with his fusion of sounds and instruments.

To help craft his sound, Bruno hooked up with ersatile producers such as The Smeezingtons, Claude Kelly, Needlz, and Dwayne 'Supa Dups' Chin-Quee. The guest roster is remarkably short though - Cee-Loo and B.O.B. show up on 'The Other Side', while Damian Marley appears on 'Liquor Store Blues' - but that's clearly to leave the focus on Mars himself.   

His falsetto voice blends in well with every one of the diverse songs, be it the catchy first single 'Just the Way You Are' or the dark-romantic 'Grenade', making 'Doo-Wops & Hooligans' a perfect album if you want to reminisce about old school R&B and pop-rock. 

The Last Analogue Nites with a Legend, Thandiswa Mazwai

When I heard Thandiswa Mazwai would be performing at the last Analogue Nites of 2010, I knew it would be a once in a lifetime experience to watch a legend perform.

The chilly Joburg night took off with DJ Kenzhero and his famous soul mix but there's always been something new and exciting with Kenzero over these past months. He's been including South African '80s bubblegum music in his mix, while the other resident DJ1D has never gone wrong with old school kwaito and new age hip-hop. How the two genres mix is beyond understanding but it sounds way too good.

The venue filled pretty fast with music fans and celebrities like Lupe (from Metro FM), Noni Gasa, Claire Mawisa, Shaka Sisulu, Anele, Kaos Matu, and Thapelo Mokeona. Eventually the doors had to be closed, which never happens, due to the sheer number of people wanting to catch the iconic singer Thandiswa.

But first, recent winners of etv 'Popstars', Nne-Vida, warmed the stage with songs that will be featured on their upcoming album. Although their first song sounded like a badly produced Afrikaans track, with the beats and vocals not synching in most parts, they followed it up with a good party starter, paving the way for the main event.

Thandiswa started her memorable performance with 'Nizalwa Ngobani?' from her debut 2004 album, 'Zabalaza', which provided most of the evening's material. While she was on stage, Simphiwe Dana joined her for an epic out of the blue collaboration that quashed all rumours of the two talented ladies' 'beef.'

Ending her performance with 'Ingoma', taken from her latest release, 'Ibokwe', she kept on saying goodbye before singing the song again with more jazz and just bass.

As soon as Thandiswa stepped off the stage, DJ1D got on the decks and took the early Friday morning of 2010 to 1996. He played the 'break-out' song from Thandiswa's first band, Jack Knife, moving to Boom Shaka's 'Thobela', 'Thebe', 'Ungwawa Kum' and many more hits from a decade ago.

You would think, with an hour-long set of old school jams, ladies in heels would be sitting down, but no. It was only later, when more commercial tracks were, played that slowly people finally decided to go home after what must have been the best Analogue Nites of 2010.