Ray J, Monica, Kandi & More Help UrbanBridgez.com Celebrate Anniversary

One thing UrbanBridgez.com (one of the leading urban entertainment websites online) has been known for throughout the years, is it’s websites exclusive interviews. With everyone from recording artists, songwriters/producers, actors and a range of other stars. Whether it was on tmhentertainment.com, tmhxone.com or urbanbridgez.com, the interviews on the sites have always been the biggest draw. To celebrate their 10th year online next month, UrbanBridgez.com will debut an interview series starting on November 2nd. Each day in the month of November, the site will debut a new interview with some of the hottest and most talented entertainers in music, film, television as well as songwriters & producers. The series is scheduled to kick off with a brand new interview with Ray J in support of his show “For The Love of Ray J 2” which will premiere on VH-1 November 2nd.

Some of the entertainers being interviewed for the series include; Monica, Gucci Mane, Kandi, Angie Stone, Pleasure P, Kevon Edmonds, Melanie Fiona, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Jagged Edge, Trey Songz, Kadis & Sean, Trin-i-tee 5:7, Tre’ Williams & Rell and more to be announced! From ‘Then to Now’ will return to the site next month, which features interviews with recording artists from the 80’s/90’s who speak on then up until now. Artists that will be interviewed include; Force MD’s, Digital Underground, Big Daddy Kane, Full Force, Sparky D & more!

Between the three e-zine sites that have been run by T M H Entertainment/Urban Bridgez Group, interviews have been done with some of the biggest names in entertainment. The list includes R. Kelly, Brandy, Nelly, Damon Dash, Katt Williams, New Edition, Jody Watley, Kelly Rowland, John Legend, Kirk Franklin, Ciara, Stephen Hill (BET), Macy Gray, Karen Clark Sheard, Ne-Yo, Kandi, T-Pain and T.I. just to name a few. The e-zine has also introduced new artists before they ever released an album with exclusive interviews, like with Ne-Yo, JoJo, Lloyd & Teedra Moses. Through the years many of the sites interviews have made the headlines on other sites & blogs, but no other did like the 2005 explosive interview with RL from the group NEXT! In the interview RL spoke with Aries (the two have know each other since their teens) and was very open about some of his issues within the music industry at that time. RL took jabs at J Records, Group member Tweety, Destiny’s Child, 112 and Jagged Edge to name a few. The interview was so heated that members of Jagged Edge did an interview with UrbanBridgez.com weeks later to respond to RL after reading the interview on the site with members of 112. All ended well, since then RL has made peace with all of the artists he mentioned in the interview.

The 2002 interview with Brandy, revealed what would become the focus and title of her 2008 release “Human.” “My fans should know that I’m still a human being, I should be able to grow and make mistakes like everyone else,” Brandy said in the interview. As with brother Ray J who called it, in the 2005 interview when asked does he get tired of being called Brandy’s little brother? “I mean she is the one that did it all for me, I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for her. I need my shine and crossover success and I think when that happens it will go away. Brandy is my mentor, my all.” Ray voiced in the interview. In 2007 the site spoke with T.I. and he explained why he had decided then to get into acting “I’ve always been the class clown. Just very theatrical even before I got into music. I got famous because of music, but I was always someone people would say, you should be on TV. Just a really silly person with a personality that made people interested in me. I would always go the extra mile to make people laugh.” Many of the sites interviews can be read on the archived site which is linked from the current site. Next month the top 10 interviews of the sites history will be posted on UrbanBridgez.com

The interviews have always been the sites main draw, however the site is also known for breaking news, releasing upcoming tracklistings and pre-released album covers. So much that last year the website was the first to post the cover of Ashanti’s “Declaration” album artwork, which ended up on MTV’s now defunct TRL with the UrbanBridgez.com logo on it. Earlier this month, the site was the first to post the tracklisting for Janet Jackson’s up-coming release “Number Ones,” a week before it was officially announced via the singers website. Just today the site released the official tracklisting for Snoop Dogg’s December 8th release “Malice N Wonderland,” as well as exclusive coverage of Monica’s parties held over the weekend & a brand new interview with the singer. Other exclusives this year included being the first media outlet to preview Ginuwine’s latest release “A Man’s Thought’s” which the site gave an excellent review. And after attending the 2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards the site treated visitors with an exclusive sneak peak with information and photos of the event, which airs Tomorrow on BET.

The CEO of Urban Bridgez Group Aries, started T M H Entertainment after graduating for Music Business at McNally & Smith College for Music in 1998. A message board was born and in 1999, a full fledged website launched. In 2005 the name of the business was changed to Urban Bridgez Group (UBG). In the ten years the e-zine has been online T M H/UBG has had their share of other success as well. Starting with launching & running the first official site for Grammy award winning singer/songwriter Faith Evans, through Pedigree MGI (Faith & her Husband Todd Russaw’s company) & Bad Boy and later Capitol/EMI. Running official fansites for recording artist Monica through J Records and R&B group 702 through Universal/Motown. Other projects through the years have included T M H/UBG doing online marketing & promotions for recording artists Brandy, Ray J and Shanice. Their work has been appreciated by the artists as seen in the thank yous in the liner notes of albums by Faith Evans & Ray J.

There was a time the site experienced a period of downtime with no real updates, while UBG concentrated on other projects. However a new team was put together specifically for the e-zine and it re-launched this March in a blog format. The e-zine almost didn’t return as Jason the President of UBG explains “We were thinking of just shutting it down, to focus on the other stuff we have going on. But that would of been crazy with the legacy the site has & honestly regardless of how many sites or blogs pop up — none of them are like ours! Everything they’ve done and are doing, we’ve already did it. How many urban e-zines can say they’ve been around ten years? We also have a message board that has been up 11 years and alot of those members have been there from the start. We’re just at a point where we’re rebuilding the site and we’ve hired a new PR team to help us do that”. Regardless of the swift in change with e-zines with the launch of gossip blogs, UrbanBridgez.com has stayed true to their mission, to provide infotainment and originality to their sites viewers. “I never wanted to do a gossip site or one of those sites that runs the same thing as all the others, we pride ourselves on being a spot online where urban music fans can come to and get accurate information on their favorite stars, listen to music, enter contests, etc. There’s so much negativity as it is, we’ve never wanted our site to contribute to that and we won’t! Says CEO of Urban Bridgez Group Aries. Being alot of those sites are currently more popular than ours that never makes me re-think it, because we’ve been blessed to be here 10 years and have accomplished so much, they still have alot to do to catch up and they won’t because we’re not stopping!”

Not stopping is an understatement! Along with the interview series next month, UrbanBridgez.com will also launch a series of exclusive video blogs. The first is for upcoming New York Hip-Hop artist Malachi Rivers. The video blog series will let viewers witness first-hand the process of recording a debut album, performing live for new audiences, business meetings to prepare for the release and of course candid personal moments with Malachi; a young man determined to make it in the music industry. Another video blog series that’s currently in the works are with the ladies of SWV who are currently in the studio recording their reunion album, expected in stores sometime next year. As with Malachi’s, the video blog will take viewers in the studio with the ladies as they record for their new album, candid moments and much more. Malachi’s is expected to start next month on the site, as SWV’s is planned for December. UrbanBridgez.com is also gearing up for UBG Honors in December. UBG honors allows the sites visitors to vote for the best of the year in music.

Hip-Hop Recording artist Poison IVY will drop her debut single in December, IVY is managed by Aries, CEO of Urban Bridgez Group. IVY’s debut album “Heelz-N-Hoodiez” will be released to retail and online April 2010. Poison IVY is already making noise in Atlanta and Minneapolis with the single “Hater Blockerz” with rapper AD. The single can be heard via IVY’s official MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/poisonivyubg. Urban Bridgez Group is also working with a new R&B group named Soul Rhythm which will debut in 2010. Other projects are in the works as well, that includes a special one with Sonja Norwood (Norwood & Norwood) and the launching of UBG’s business site www.ubgmedia.com on November 2nd! The new business site will be the main headquarters for UBG online. With information on UBG and their current and past projects, e-zine/client updates, services and much more!