Snoop Dogg Signs Block Starz Music Artist Lynda Sayyah

Block Starz Music LLC, www.blockstarzmusic.com, is proud to announce the signing of beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana recording artist Lynda Sayyah to rap icon Snoop Dogg's newly-formed Dogg Town Music Group.

Lynda, whose debut single "Tickin'" is featured on Block Starz Music's first all-female compilation, "She Got Next 2011" (June 21), is a trilingual (Spanish, Arabic, and English) singer with 5-octave range. Voted "Indy's Sexiest Musician" by Metromix Magazine, Lynda's sound is a fusion of Pop, Rock, R&B, and contemporary Middle Eastern melodies combined with lyrics that reflect her own life struggles.

"I come from a very strict Arab-Muslim family," says Lynda, who is of Palestinian and German descent. "I grew up feeling suffocated by double standards against women and just trying to be a normal kid. A lot of my music exudes these struggles and I think a lot of girls of every nationality can relate to me."

Lynda Sayyah's undeniable beauty and talent immediately caught the eyes and ears of Dogg Town Music Group, a new Los Angeles/Long Beach, California-based record company founded in 2010 by Jason "Cup" Brown, his cousin Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus, Charles "Beach Dogg" Howard II, and Shatto Brown, who promptly signed her to the upstart label.

"We are looking for one timers or one-in-a-million talent, meaning talent that can only exist once in a lifetime,” says Dogg Town COO Shatto Brown of the decision to sign Lynda as the First Lady Of DTMG. "There can only be one Michael Jackson, one Madonna, one Snoop Dogg, one Metallica -- we only want talent like that. Lynda is every bit of that. She is an amazing vocalist, beautiful, a great songwriter, and she deserves the opportunity to have the world know all of this."

In addition to Lynda Sayyah, the Dogg Town Music roster includes rap artists Poppa Heat, M-Dot, and the label is currently working on a merger with T-Pain's Nappy Boy Productions to release new music acts.

Lynda Sayyah's explosive dance single, "Tickin'", will be available for download on iTunes June 21 as part of Block Starz Music's anticipated "She Got Next 2011" compilation EP.

For more information and to read Lynda Sayyah's full story, visit www.shegotnext.com

For more information on Dogg Town Music, visit www.doggtownent.com

Friday's Rockin' Roundup - The New York Knicks Are Relevant Again Edition

For the regular readers that aren’t aware, your cousin Ryo is a huge sports fan. Baseball is my most beloved sport, but I will pretty much watch any sporting event, and I follow a team for each of the four majors (baseball, football, basketball, and hockey). If I’m not listening to (or writing about) music, then I am probably watching sports. Being a Knicks fan, basketball has taken a back seat to other sports for the last decade. It’s hard to follow a sport closely when your team is horrendous. Year after year after year I would hear about how the team was rebuilding and how much better they were going to be the following season.

Well, this season, they finally meant it and were able to put a valuable product on the court. By signing a key free agent in Amare Stoudemire and getting help around him, the Knicks have finally become relevant again. I can’t tell you the last time I was still closely following the team after the holidays, yet here we are in January and I know what place the team is in, who their upcoming opponents are, and what their record is both home and away. The Knicks have finally made me believe again. While I don’t expect them to win a championship this year, I am looking forward to watching playoff basketball with a team I can root for. I can only hope that the wheels don’t fall off and they disappoint me again.

Here’s what rocked this week:

Block Starz Music Announces Their She Got Next 2011 Compilation
German-American music company Block Starz Music LLC has released the official artwork and first three singles from its upcoming "She Got Next 2011" music compilation. "She Got Next 2011" will be available at Amazon and iTunes in the Spring and features some of the best new indie music from unsigned female recording artists around the globe. "She Got Next 2011" is the first installment of this all-female Pop, Rock, and Urban music series. Block Starz Music is also announcing the soft launch of the new compilation series' official website, http://www.shegotnext.com/, which will feature artist profiles, music videos, news updates, MP3 downloads, and submission guidelines for unsigned female talent. The mission of the "She Got Next" project is to enthuse careers, empower artists, and entertain responsibly. Block Starz Music will not accept explicit, obscene, and/or violent material. There is no charge for submitting material, but a signed release form is required. For more information about "She Got Next", please visit http://www.shegotnext.com/

World of Warcraft Sheet Music Is Now Available
If you’ve ever wanted to play along to the music from the hit online game, World of Warcraft, now’s your chance. Alfred Music Publishing, the leader in educational music publishing since 1922, is proud to present a line of officially licensed, collectible sheet music from the soundtrack of Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft®. The world’s most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft features an epic soundtrack that is now available in authentic arrangements for piano and voice, as well as simplified arrangements for piano, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, horn in F, trombone, violin, viola, and cello. Musicians and gamers will transport their audiences to a world of fantasy by playing rich arrangements of Blizzard Entertainment’s game music, including the epic main title “Wrath of the Lich King®” as well as favorites like “Lion’s Pride,” “The Shaping of the World,” “Pig and Whistle,” “Lament of the Highborne,” “Invincible,” “A Call to Arms,” “Gates of the Black Temple,” “Salty Sailor,” and “Garden of Life.” For the complete catalog of the available World of Warcraft sheet music, please visit http://alfred.com/worldofwarcraft

Is Rock And Roll Dead?
Over at Blogs N Roses, the question that arose is whether rock is dead. This is a great commentary piece about the state of rock and roll and it’s not what you think. I agree with Craig, rock and roll is a state of mind and a way of life. To me, rock and roll will never die.

For more news, reviews, odds, sods, and other things that rock, you should follow me on twitter. www.twitter.com/ryovie