I would really like BLACK OUT if lil wayne wasn't in it. unfortunately his terrible voice is not something I can ignore/get used to just because the rest of the song sounds good.

^same here, in this song he sounds horrible, but the song is really nice

The song is really AMAZING, VERBAL X Namie is genius

BLACK OUT is the most broing song eva, Namie's part doesn't go anywere in the song, it's only BLACK OUT BLACK OUT BLACK BLAK BLAK BLAK OUT... And that's all. I personally think it shouldn't be included in Checkmate! =-=
I love Namie's choice, her 4 new songs are all good!!!

I think [make it happen] is my favorite collab so far.

Thanks for uploading BLACK OUT.

I hope it's good! Gonna download right now :yatta

I love Black Out is awesome

the entire album is really really good. My favorite song is fall out.

^Fall out?? Oh you must've meant Black Out, I was like what?? lmao

I agree with this

^^What album?

visionair

No. I meant fall out.

^I'm soo confuzzled, you mean from Verbal's album?? :/

could someone upload BLACKOUT to youtube for me....? :eyes

who was even talking about his album?
lol you came out of left field with that one. the album is OK though, from what I've heard of it.

we're talking about black out, and I said I like it, along with fall out which are both on verbal's album. blackout is verbal's song technically.

Black out will probably be considered a Namie song in this thread. :)

Anyway, it was announced to be on Checkmate before Visionair. :P

anyways. visionair is a really good album. XD

love blackout but like most others cant really stand lil wayne's voice. Luckily he's not really in it that much.

I'm quite surprised that many people dont like BLACK OUT, I always thought it's as good as Luvotomy

Black Out is awesome

their voices go very well together
I really love the beginning

I love BLACK OUT.

Although I'm a bit annoyed by Lil' Wayne's voice but I can just ignore that part because the song is very awesome :yes

"Japanese singer Namie Amuro is said to have donated was speculated online to have donated 50 million Yen (about $785,000) to relief efforts"

thats crazy awesome
go namie

Amuro Namie donates 50 million yen to disaster relief

It was revealed on the 18th that Japanese singer Amuro Namie donated 50 million yen (~$615,000 USD) to the Japanese Red Cross Society. Amuro’s entertainment agency stated that the donation was “done by [Amuro] as a personal [activity]“.

According to an acquaintance of the singer, Amuro is devastated over the earthquake and has been constantly thinking of ways to help the disaster relief effort.

http://www.tokyohive.com/2011/03/amu...iaster-relief/

^ Is that in addition to the $70mil that she apparently donated a few days ago?

a lot of money, that's amazing

Wow that's a lot of money indeed.
so sweet of her!

Saw her and ayu in local TV about the donation today

Still love Wonder Woman and Make it Happen the most. :luv2

^Yup, me too~~ Those songs are just awesome.

My favs are #1 and Black Out! :heart
And Do What U Gotta Do and Rock U from her older ones.

I can´t reallly choose a fav...i love all the new tracks!!! (except BLACK OUT) Can´t wait to listen Fight Together!!

I'm going to listen to it when a real rip comes out

I never heard of her collab songs before except the new ones and the one with ravex
so this is like a new namie album for me ahahhah

Does anybody else think that the bass line in "Wet n Wild" during the verses sounds like "Dirrty" by Christina Aguilera?

I've listened to half of these collaborations before, overall Checkmate is a awesome album. I really enjoyed it. The only one which I dislike is BLACK OUT. I find it quite boring :/.
I remember a different version of Wet n Wild though, maybe it was sang just by Heartsdales only (a little OT, but gosh I miss them so much).
Must save money for this album :heart

Very american album...not sure how I feel about the new songs but whats good is GREAT.

talent < producing

Black out is seriously boring. And the more I listen to it, the more I start to like only Lil Waynes part in it. But still... oh my god. Nah, not her best song on the album.

I like wonder woman, then #1, then make it happen, then unusual, then black out.

And good for Namie! Japan can really use that money!

KOSE ESPRIQUE
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7524733_n.jpg
Namie fb

Didn't Namie also donate to the Boxing Day Tsunami Disaster in 2005?

Those KOSE piccas are pretty!

KOSEE pics are beautiful. So natural <3

:thumbsup :love

as usual, namie is looking gorgeous. :heart

Beautiful. I really like the last picture! :yes

I'm really impressed with Checkmate. I think the only song I flat-out dislike is After Party. There are only a couple of others that I feel lukewarm about, and all the rest are just dynamite. It's a very upbeat, dancey, clever album. I'd say that the first 4 songs are the best on the album. My only complaint is that a couple of the songs barely feature Namie at all.

Can someone explain the relationship between Black Out and Fall Out? Were the first set of lyrics sung by Lil Wayne actually written by Verbal? Because I was really impressed thinking that Lil Wayne had spun those Japanese and English lyrics together himself.

is the checkmate album thats up the real deal or just a transcode

No it's not real. :no

those kose pics are just, wow!

There's going to be two 15 second cm's for KOSE ESPRIQUE airing on the 26th... :)

(click on images)


http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_01.jpg


1st CM Screencaps

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_02.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_03.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_04.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_05.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_06.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_07.jpg


2nd CM Screencaps

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_08.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_09.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_10.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_11.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_12.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...IQUE/th_13.jpg


Source: http://www.kose.co.jp/jp/ja/ir/commo...s/20110324.pdf


EDIT


Source: http://www.kose.co.jp/jp/en/ir/news/20110324.html

it's funny that Namie back with KOSÉ...

Namie is so beautiful!

gosh she looks so tired. she looks like she hasn't slept in over a week or something :(
i'm looking forward to the preview of her new song!

I really wonder as well!
Black Out lyrics are an mazing mixture of English and Japanese and Lil Wayne is rapping them pretty perfectly. If he wrote them by himself I'd be deeply impressed! And surprised that he's able to speak or at least know some Japanese. :laugh

oooooooooh she looks so pretty in the cm caps

Ditto! :love

(click on images)

Brochure

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1121299061.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1121499823.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1121507269.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1121499848.jpg


Store Displays

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...E/th_4wejb.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a..._262685909.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a..._262690753.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1300960571.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...C01797_NEW.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...C01798_NEW.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1121206906.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1123005628.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1123742344.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1121024130.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1122816667.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1122816928.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1123316077.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1123316538.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1123827703.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1123827817.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1123190328.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1122890756.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1122891365.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1121165935.jpg


Products

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1122349546.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1123577607.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1123316793.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1122231430.jpg

so much namie! :luv2 so gorgeous!

*gaaaaaaaaaasp*

Wow, those pictures are stunning.

All I gotta say is wow!

I like to sing "black cow".

And those pics are awesome. Namie's face is actually on some of those products o_o I would buy something and then put it next to my Namie CD collection lol.

<3

:love :love :love :love

Kose , please hurry up & upload the CMs now , I wanna see xD

bahh I would totally buy those just because Namie is on them :love

she looks nice in those KOSE ads. :D

does anyone happen to know where i could get screen caps from Wonder Woman by chance?

KOSE ESPRIQUE site is now online, and u can view the cm's, the song is new!!... :thud But the song has no lyrics, just instrumental, and no mention of the title... :(

http://esprique.com/

She looks absolutely gorgeous in these KOSE ads! I used one of the screenshots as my desktop wallpaper, lol.

Well to me that certainly sounds like it could be a Namie song!

I sure hope it is! :)

I uploaded the CM on youtube. tbh imo these cm are so boring lol

^omg yeah I'm like kind of pointless cm but she looks gorgeous nonetheless

and the instrumental song sounds nice

I hope the song is one of hers.

So looks so beautiful, though. I wasn't expecting to be entertained by a CM.

i don't know if ive said this before but namie has a very high end fashion look. =D

I really hope it's a new song instrumental and not just random background music made for the CM.

Those pics are beautiful! :heart
But on two of them she looks so unusual for her, not like Namie.

She looks gorgeous :heart It's refreshing to see adds/cm's where women aren't airbrushed into oblivion XD

^You said it. Namie looks so natural. <3

^amen

i love that background music so much! please let it be a namie song!

but anyway, lovely CMs! simple but so pretty! :heart

gorgeous omg

(click on images)


http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a..._100118018.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a..._100118023.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a..._100118008.jpg

Source: http://www.biteki.com/article/article3_4103.html


Pic extracted from official ESPRIQUE site

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...2r4j6sljpg.png

Credit: souichi @ JPM


Scans

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1124625197.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1124625198.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1124625204.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1124625199.jpg

Ray May 2011 Preview

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...1125899007.jpg

*sigh* So pretty

the cm is simple, but she looks gorgeous

All the pictures are pretty but she looks really tired in 2 of them. Hmmm

any word on the black out pv?

It's the 27th in Japan, and they didn't air the new ONE PIECE opening, so next week we'll hear Fight Together on April 2nd... The reason it was delayed cuz of the earthquake in Japan...

Sources:
http://ameblo.jp/11010316/entry-10842613074.html
http://ameblo.jp/872519/entry-10842612259.html

aww, that's unfortunate. :( but i'm sure the song will be worth the wait!

I can wait another week (with namie i can wait 2 years for an album, so i can wait another week for the short version of the song ^o^)

Those ESPRIQUE CMs are boring tbh but she looks beautiful!
I really like the instrumental, I hope it will become a new song of Namie.

:laugh Pretty much.

HQ ESPRIQUE Pics

(click on images)

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a.../th_1jaz9t.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...th_2w7ihqo.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...th_34y8w8z.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a...th_289fmnp.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/a.../th_nyse2h.jpg

Credit: souichi @ JPM

Source: http://promotion.yahoo.co.jp/kose/

^ gorgeous!

The 4th one is amazing!

Wow soo pretty :yes

I love the 3rd picture :yes Thanks for sharing.

Has Namie set a new release date for the album?
All the pictures are so gorgeous!

Namie's official website says that the new ONE PIECE opening is airing on April 10th... :)

Source: http://avexnet.or.jp/amuro/info.html

^that's...Next Sunday! i need a Namie Album this year :|