Most Popular
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Barack Obama and Me
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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Mescaline on the Mexican Border
Texas is the only state in the country where peyote is sold legally. Really.
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Little Bitty Burger Barn
"It's okay to be little bitty in the big city" is an apt slogan for this new burger joint, where sliders rule
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Ghost Town CFS: Carriage House Cafe
Step back in time — to a spooky old carriage barn with a monster chicken-fried steak
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Barack Obama and Me (246)
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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Save Lobo: A Siberian Husky Mix is Sentenced to Die (28)
Why? Because he's big and intimidating and because one family complained about him over and over again
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita (13)
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge? (6)
All This Useless Beauty
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Rotten to the Corps: A Question of Justice at Texas A&M (140)
Thanks to A& M and a district attorney, two cadets escape punishment for beating in a student's face
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge?
All This Useless Beauty
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Tired of the Hype, But That's All There Is
Next month, Houston gets to be a cool kid. But only for a week.
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The improbable redemption of Ashlee Simpson
"La La" Love You
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Rap's Rapidly Vanishing Female MC
The Why Chromosome
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A New Official State Song for Texas?
A case for a new — or different, anyway — state song
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Geraldo Rivera Is Stupid: A Review of His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.
06:06AM 03/09/08 -
Weekend Music: Help Save the Houston Music Scene
03:54PM 03/07/08 -
To Do: Hockey and Roller Derby
04:12PM 03/07/08 -
Sausage Fest: Bangers and Mash at Red Lion Pub
11:40AM 03/08/08
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Recent Articles By Olivia Flores Alvarez
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“Face the Music: An Evening of Jazz Dedicated to Fighting AIDS in Africa”
Music for a good cause
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Downtown Houston Night Crawl
This is the “I didn’t know that!” tour
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“Richard Black: The Art of Cue”
HCCC presents works by craftsman Richard Black
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“Seeing Beneath Mount Everest: Probing a Breeding Ground of Destructive Earthquakes
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Madame de…
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National Features
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SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
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The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
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Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
It's a crowded field of pretty girl thugettas trying to make a mark on the hip-hop world, but Jeannie Ortega might actually have a shot. With her debut release, No Place Like Bklyn, Ortega proves she's no junior J. Lo; she's more than just a blow-up doll with a standard-issue big ass and perky tits, who some producer can tell, "Stand here, sing that." She actually has a voice. Deep, husky, smooth. She easily moves from ballads to up-tempo dance tunes, handling hip-hop, pop and R&B with equal ease. Ortega takes co-writer credit on ten of the 11 tracks, and it's noteworthy that the one tune she didn't co-write, "Can U," is the weakest in the lineup.
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No junior J. Lo, Jeannie Ortega might be the real deal.
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Subject(s): Jeannie Ortega
The video for her first single, "Crowded," shows all Ortega's strengths and weaknesses. She's strong, talented, beautiful and tough (admittedly, it's that cleaned-up tough, with $300 sweatshirts and $70 pink lipstick, but hey). While Ortega sings and dances well, she mugs for the camera a little too much, twisting her lush lips into an exaggerated sneer too easily. And there's a noticeable drop in quality when rapper Papoose takes over for a few bars. His only halfway decent contribution is the line "Since your name is Jeannie / Can I make a wish?" The CD suffers from the same afflictions: Ortega can oversing, adding unnecessary drama to an already effective line; it's especially noticeable on "What I Need." And every time a featured performer (there are five on No Place Like Bklyn) takes over, it brings everything down a notch.
Online downloads include a well-done Spanglish version of "So Done," set to be the CD's second single. Future releases will likely make the most of Ortega's ability to draw from both hip-hop and Latin audiences. She's on the road with the McDonald's Lo Maximo de la Musica tour with Frankie J and Luis Fonsi, and after her recent big-screen debut in Step Up, she's already signed up to do an indie flick. Ortega might be the real deal. (Let's just hope she sheds those pesky featured artists soon.)
