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A Star-Studded Thursday Night In Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Another Thursday night, another impressive showing on the Atlanta music scene.
No, Whitney and Ray J didn’t resurface, but enough celebrities to fill out a photo gallery did.
Things got started at Straits, Atlanta rapper-actor Ludacris’s new Midtown restaurant. (The old Spice to some). The artist born Christopher Bridges (above) used the occasion as a fundraiser, and for $100 a plate not only could guests have a three-course meal including chicken lollipops, wok fired mussels and roasted pineapple bread pudding, but B98.5’s Vikki Locke, 100 Black Men of Atlanta’s Thomas W. Dortch, Jr. and others contributed to AID Atlanta.
After about an hour at Straits, Ludacris and his managers/business partners at Atlanta’s Disturbing Tha Peace record label (Chaka Zulu, Jeff Dixon) loaded up the luxury vehicles and headed for the Ralph Lauren store in Lenox Square, where the fundraising continued, this time for the Ludacris Foundation.
There, the number of music notables went up exponentially, including Ciara, Fergie, India Arie, Dallas Austin, Q and Daron of 112, Polow Da Don, Bryan-Michael Cox, J Que and DJ Trauma. Not to mention the other radio (Hot-107.9’s Rashan Ali, 95.5 The Beat’s CJ, V-103’s Ramona DeBreaux); fashion (Pieces of Adrene’s Adrene, Dap Rugget’s Cedric King, Envy’s Jilene Coggins); music industry (Disturbing Tha Peace’s Aiyisha Mitchell, Block Entertainment’s Rico Brooks) and legal (Charles Mathis, Phaedra Parks, Donald Woodard) forces, there, and hopefully spending, as 15% of the purchases that night went to Ludacris’s children-focused organization.
After that, Ludacris was headed to the airport, for Dallas, to continue filming a movie. But his increasingly model-like guest at the Ralph Lauren store, Ciara, made her way to the Luckie Food Lounge, where she, Ali and Grammy-nominated Atlanta rapper Yung Joc co-hosted BMI’s Unsigned Urban Showcase. R&B superstar Usher (above) and wife Tameka; singers Lloyd, Joi, Bobby Valentino, Johnta Austin, Keri Hilson and Scar; rappers Lil Jon, Chingy, Gorilla Zoe, Diamond and Yelawolf; DJs Drama, Doc and Will; Hot-107.9’s Emperor Searcy and Beyonce (along with former radio personality Poon Daddy); and executives Jazze Pha, Shakir Stewart, Christopher Hicks, Ryan Glover, Ethiopia Habtemariam, Bernard Parks and Rico Wade were in attendance. Lil Wayne, Sean Garrett and Teyana Taylor performed. And rapper Trimm won the competition.
Were you at any of these events? And of the BMI showcase in particular, did you think Trimm stood out among the other three finalists? What about songwriter Sean Garrett’s first live performance - how do you think it went?
Comments
By Tina
April 27, 2008 12:13 AM | Link to this
I was there, so I can say that at least your research is better this time. I honestly thought Trimm was wack. I didn’t even think he was a consideration, really. Jarren Benton was the hottest performer. He was doing back flips and everything and his lyrics were hot. I was surprised by this outcome.
By DJ OZ
May 7, 2008 6:48 PM | Link to this
Jarren should have took It check out his promo cd