Vibe Magazine’s popular showcase series, VSessions premiered in Atlanta for the first time last night, and it was interesting — to say the least. The highly anticipated event, hosted by lifestyle specialist, Kenny Burns and deejayed by Don Cannon, brought out some of Atlanta’s most prominent music insiders, including promoters, J.Carter of Sol Fusion fame, Grand Hustle co-president, Jason Geter, Bem Joiner and Jabari Graham of Shameless Plug. While the night provided some great mingling opportunities, at times the volume of networking overshadowed the acts on stage.
The vibe ended up being a bit scattered at times due to the show’s curious line-up which included: crooner, Rudy Currence of Disturbing tha Peace; UK-reared soul veteran, Julie Dexter; ex-Jay-Z protégée Teairra Marie; and Grand Hustle’s swaggerific rapper, Yung LA.
Check out how each act measured up:
Rudy Currence- While Rudy has been on the scene for a few years now, touring and making rounds, fans weren’t too please with his Donny Hathaway cover. Still, he shows a lot of promise, and earned some fans from the crowd.
Grade: B
Julie Dexter- No rookie to the stage, Julie Dexter did her best to ignite a crowd full of too-cool-for-school industry heads with her rich vocals and great stage presence. You can’t help but wonder why she was even on the bill with a group of new artists.
Grade: A-
Teairra Marie- As Kenny Burns stated before she hit the stage, Teairra was signed at only 16 years-old, but immaturity definitely wasn’t an issue during her overtly sexual performance. Apparently time has transformed her into a sexpot, and the beauty explicitly performed songs from her forthcoming album including the overly suggestive, “Automatic.” While Teairra definitely has the chops to go far in the business, someone should definitely tell her that sometimes covering up the goodies is a good thing.
Grade: B
Yung LA- A lot is riding on this kid, who along with Grand Hustle labelmate, Bobby Ray (formerly B.O.B.), is being touted as the next big thing to emerge in rap music. However, Yung LA, who “headlined” the show, seemed a little uncomfortable being on a bill that consisted of only singers. At one point he wondered aloud if his music was “for this type of crowd.” The sound on his set was blaringly loud, but when he went into his smash “Ain’t I” the crowd loosened up a little (even if he didn’t) and rapped along with him.
Grade: B-
–jacinta howard
