While reading a back issue of Vibe magazine from 04' on Google Books, I found out the Queen of Funk Soul, Chaka Khan, did a cover of Michael Jackson's first solo record "Got to Be There." In this mini-feature, Chaka states that she never like the original song and only record this cover because long-time collaborator Arif Marden ("I'm Every Woman," "What Cha' Gonna Do For Me?," etc.) insisted she do so.
Nevertheless, this cover is amazing. On the original, Michael's vocal intonations aren't as clear as Chaka's here so you really get an apprecation for her a supreme vocal interpretation that still follows the melody.
15. "Same Mistakes" ("Fall for Your Type" demo) - Drake
16. "Her Room" - Teyana Taylor
17. "In the Morning" - Fabolous
18. "Dear Anne (Stan Part 2) - Lil' Wayne
19. "Late Nights and Early Mornings" - Marsha Ambrosius
20. "Break My Heart" - Estelle featuring Rick Ross
On this set I was really impressed with Big Sean's offerings. He's like Kanye West Jr. in my opinion so I will definitely be checking out his new album, coming soon.
And speaking of Mr. West, I cannot wait for a new album. Furthermore, I will be seeing him at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, July, 2, 2011. Expect a blog post about the festival. It shall be amazing!
Also, Estelle's new record is still on rotation. It amazing with its 70's groove and early 90's Lisa Stansfield vibe.
Wiz and Dirty Money offerings are nothing new. "On My Level" was one of my favorites straight off the bat when I first heard the album earlier this year and Dirty Money's "Shades" is a new favorite of mines. Every time, they release a single, I go back to the album and discover new pieces of it.
Last but not least, Drake is really coming with that fire. "Marvin's Room" is simply dope! And Teyana Taylor's take on the record is crack. She really impressed me with the vocals and her ode to Lauryn Hill at the end. Teyana truly has the making of a great artist but I've been saying this since Day 1. She has the vocal skills that are very reminiscent of Brandy and she can flow... Perfect combination, right? And in mentioning Brandy, where the hell is she at?
Finally Estelle is back with some music! I've been tweeting over the past two years asking her for some new music. She answered then, directly to me and now she's answered the world with a beyond-impressive first single that is destined to become a massive hit worldwide. Said track is "Break My Heart" featuring Rick Ross, lifted from Estelle's upcoming U.S. sophomore effort "All of Me."
I must say, I wasn't expecting this type of record from Estelle. With the failed promo track, "Freak," I thought Estelle would try her luck at another dance record, but this time tinged with euro-pop which would have been a huge mistake. However, she completely came out of nowhere with the heavily 70's soul influenced "Break My Heart." It has a cool vibe very reminiscent of Ross' "Aston Martin Music," which is bound to resonate well with both artists' fans.
No other word best describes Drake's music except brilliant. His new track "Dreams Money Can Buy" is a mellow, mood record set for inclusion on his upcoming sophomore effort, "Take Care," which will be in stores some time this fall. Check it out and leave your comments.
Anyone who knows me well, knows of my extreme admiration of Aretha Franklin's music. Over the past few years, I've made it a point to collect Aretha's older albums on vinyl for my music collection.
A few months ago, I stumbled upon Aretha's 1973 studio album "Hey Now Hey (The Other side of the Sky) and decided to give it a listen. Now, I've always known about this album so trust and believe I'm a true Aretha connoisseur but it had never struck me as a piece of her work that I needed to hear. Now that sounds crazy but any music critic will testify that not all of Aretha's work is good. She had a few misses here and there.
Nevertheless, "Hey Now Hey (The Other side of the Sky)" is unique because it contains some of Aretha's best material and some of her worse but I'm not going to dwell on the latter because of the musical highs found on the album certainly outweigh the lows. For starters, "Angel" is included on this album. Back in 73' it was a massive hit for Aretha signaling her further descent into a new soul territory that was less Memphis and Muscle Shoals and more Harlem.
With help from Quincy Jones on this album, Aretha expands her sound tremendously revisiting her vibe from the 1972 album "Young, Gifted, and Black." The songs are cool and mellow with heavy electrical piano instrumentation. And, although Aretha's vocals are spirited on this album, she sings with a cool and futuristic feeling, utilizing layered and echoed vocal effects.
Standout tracks include "That's the Way I Feel About Cha," "Angel," the Grammy award winning "Master of Eyes (The Deepness)," and "Mister Spain," a profound anti-drug protest song.
Below is a clip of Aretha performing "Mister Spain" on the Flip Wilson Show
Interesting enough, back in 1979 President Jimmy Carter declared June Black Music Month and ever since June represents a time for us to celebrate the accomplishments of Black music pioneers.
During this month, I plan on blogging everyday presenting editorials, classic album reviews, and playlists of the day as a means of expressing my gratitude to the musical geniuses that brought music to where it is today.
Also check out the Essence, TVOne, and Centric websites for information and archive footage celebrating Black Music Month.
Readers here's a new type of post that I decided to publish. Its a spin-off of 'Playlist of the Day,' except it features new music. Every month or so I typically compile a collection of new songs in the form of both album cuts and radio hits that I find impressive. So, feel free to try out this playlist in your own iTunes library, YouTube, or whatever else you use to satisfy your musical itch.
June 2011'
1. MMG featuring Rick Ross and Meek Mill - Tupac Back
2. Ace Hood - Hustle Hard (Remix)
3. Mary J. Blige - Someone to Love Me (Naked)
4. Fabolous - Ya'll Don't Hear Me Tho
5. Rick Ross - 9 Piece
6. Fabolous - Rollin (Remix)
7. Lil' Wayne - John (If I Die Tonight)
8. DJ Drama - Oh My
9. Nicki Minaj - Wave Ya Hand
10. Chris Brown - Look at Me Now
11. Diddy-Dirty Money featuring Usher - Looking for Love
12. Lloyd - Be the One
13. Ke$ha featuring B.o.b - Blow (Remix)
14. Diddy-Dirty Money featuring Trey Songz - Your Love
Readers I know its been a minute but I'm BACK! Now that I've graduated from college and am currently unemployed, I have all the time in the world to update this blog. Expect new posts and new concepts in addition to the same collection of posts that marry the worlds of old school soul and contemporary music. Stay tuned!
With the disappointment of the Prince tribute at the BET awards, I decided to dedicate my radio show playlist to the music of the artist Prince this week on WPTS FM in Pittsburgh. All of the songs were either Prince originals or remakes, or songs inspired or sampled by the musical genius. Here is a finalized playlist of the Prince tribute:
1. Kiss - Prince
2. Fast Car - The Dream
3. If I Was Your Girlfriend - TLC
4. International Playboi - Teedra Moses
5. I Wanna Be Your Lover - Prince
6. Nasty Girl - Vanity 6
7. Erotic City - Prince
8. Last Night - Diddy featuring Keyshia Cole
9. Make Love - Keri Hilson
10. Do Me Baby - Mel'issa Morgan
11. Promise - Ciara
12. Do It To Me - Usher
13. 9 to 5 - Electrik Red
14. Holla If You Need Me - Trey Songz
15. Girl Tonite - Twista featuring Trey Songz
16. Like You'll Never See Me Again - Alicia Keys
17. Adore - Prince
18. Mariah Carey featuring Dru Hill - The Beautiful Ones
I had plans of writing this posts sooner, but I figured I would get a fresh perspective on the tribute after discussing it on my radio show 'Love On Your Radio' on WPTS FM in Pittsburgh (stream live Tuesdays starting at 8 pm from ). Anyway, after varying points of views, I came to a conclusion about Chris Brown's tribute to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
All in all, I feel as though the tribute was done in bad taste on both BET and Chris Brown's part.
I feel as though Chris Brown's display of emotion at the awards was a publicity stunt. It was staged all too well with him crying during "Man in the Mirror" when he finally had to sing LIVE! (which is something he never does). His performances are like dance recitals more so than actually musical concerts if you ask me. Also, he decides cry during a song that has lyrical content related to the Rihanna situation? just too sketchy...
Don't get me wrong, the tribute visually was amazing... BET's creative department finally got something correct in terms of the visual. However, BET was wrong for trying to do a second tribute. In all honesty, the first tribute was not terrible in terms of the time BET had to prepare it. Nonetheless, I don't think it was appropriate to have a tribute with just one performer, just because that performer could not be apart of tributes last year.
Lastly, Janet should have been the last person to formally tribute her brother, and the entertainment community should have left it at that. Not only, the MJ tribute this year definitely affected the attention BET gave to Prince as the lifetime achievement winner. Therefore, If I were Stephen Hill I would have declined on a full blow MJ tribute.
I'm sure some will disagree, but that is just my take!
So twitter was off the chain last night. I even got put in twitter jail from too much tweeting, and it was all because of the 2010 BET Awards. This was the tenth anniversary of the Black Award show, and it was decent. Admist the Pre-Show, all I heard was talks of "this years coonery," but I must say the show was entertaining and better than the Grammys. There were performances from Kanye West, Drake, El DeBarge, Alicia Keys, Monica, Diddy-Dirty Money, Ludacris, Nicki Minaj, and tributes to Teddy Pendergrass, Michael Jackson, and Prince.
Queen Latifah served as the host of the show, and had several costume changes as she reprised some of her most famous roles like "Cleo" from "Set It Off." She did a decent job.
Kanye West opened the show, performing his new song "Power." The tapping of the performance was cool, but the song is just okay to me. At this point, West seems washed up to me.
T.I. also gave a lacluster performance, but his music has always been hit or miss to me.
Alicia Keys performed a medley of her hits as BET made a special recognition that she was crowned Billboards top R&B and Hip-Hop artist of the millennium thus far. However, I feel like Usher would have recieved that nod. He has sold more albums and has had just as many number one hits, if not more. Nonetheless, her performance was solid, and her new single "Unthinkable (I'm Ready)" was performed in full.
B.o.B, Keyshia Cole, and Eminem performed together. At that point, I wanted to change the channel.
Diddy-Dirty Money gave an amazing performance of "Hello Good Morning." They included a never before seen strobe light effect on television which was top notch. To me, that was the most interesting and artistic performance of the night in terms of special effects.
Monica performed her hit song "Everything to Me," and brought out Deniece Williams and she flipped the song into "Silly." It was brilliant.
Usher gave a legit performance of "There Goes My Baby."
Trey Songz performed "Yo Side of the Bed," and flipped it into "Purple Rain," during the segment preceding the Prince tribute. Prince did not seemed pleased.
Following, El DeBarge performed his forth song of the night. Then, the Prince tribute began with a foreward from Stevie Wonder. Janelle Monae gave the first performance followed by another up and coming singer. Then Alicia Keys took to the stage and wowed the audience and even Prince himself. Then Patti Labelle took to the stage to perform "Purple Rain," which had already been done by Trey Songz in his performance. It's stange that Stephen Hill would have a repeat occur, considering the Prince tribute was relatively short. Production wise, most contemporary artists have a Prince-esque song so there should have been more performances. I plan on discussing the Michael Jackson tribute 2.0 at the Award show in another post but i just feel like the night was not about Prince and BET should be ashamed. Lastly, Chaka Khan presented Prince with his Lifetime Achievement Award to Prince, and he gave a heart felt speech.
Here is the winners list from last night's award show:
Centric Award: Monica
Best Female R&B Artist: Alicia Keys
Best Female Hip-Hop Artist: Nicki Minaj
Best Hip-Hop Male: Drake
Best Collaboration: Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – ‘Empire State Of Mind’
Best Male R&B Artist: Trey Songz
Humanitarian Award: John Legend
Best Video: Beyonce & Lady Gaga – ‘Video Phone’
Lifetime Achievement Award: Prince
Viewers Choice Awards / Best Song: Rihanna – ‘Hard’
In the words of Rihanna "the wait is over." Arguably, the most celebrated rapper of 2009 finally dropped his debut studio album "Thank Me Later." A year ago, Drake's breakthrough single "Best I Ever Had" emerged onto radio and became a summer anthem, and by the Fall of 2009 he was featured on tracks from a majority of rap and R&B heavy-hitters.
Fast forward to June 2010, Drake's debut album does not fail to impress listeners. He manages to sell 447,000 copies of his album in the first week. Upon first listen, I was enamored with the project. Immediately I thought this was the album Kanye West should have made instead of "808 and Heartbreak." The album has a sound that is progressive but not too aggressive, and Drake does a great job of equally spitting rhymes and singing. The production style of this album has Jeff Bhasker written all over it, as some of the tracks would mesh perfectly with Alicia Key's "The Element of Freedom" album. Perhaps, the album's best gem is its opener "Fireworks," which features Ms. Keys on the hook. And the album's second single "Find Your Love" is a gem as well.
All in all, "Thank Me Later," is a solid, superb effort. It is contemporary and really shows Drake as a visionary. He waited patiently to release an album that was purely his sound and no one else. More than likely, Drake will win a Grammy for this release.
Marvin Isley of the Isley Brothers has died at the age of 56 in Chicago. He was not apart of the original Isley Brothers line-up who recorded back in the 1950's with hits like "Shout" or during the groups tenure at Motown records. He joined the group in 1973 with cousin Chris Jasper and brother Ernie during the Isley Brother's classic '3+3' era, where the group's first six member album was entitled "3+3."
There has been no word of a funeral date yet. Hopefully, Ron Isley, who is currently incarcerated because of tax issues, can attend the funeral.
Above is the video for Kelis' new single, "Acapella," produced by French DJ, David Guetta, who has worked extensively with Kelly Rowland on her new project. When it comes to interpreting "Acapella," I'm not gonna lie, the beat is kinda alright for a euro-pop song and the lyrics are sort of profound. However, most would probably say she's gone off the deep end with this offering. Although, Kelis' biggest songs have always been super left field, this record is not going to appear too original with GaGa mania going on.
With the release of the lead single and video "Ride," and the promo video "Basic Instinct (U Got Me)," Ciara is desperately trying to recapture her glory days, and make up for last year's flop album, "Fantasy Ride." Her newest track "Get It Girl," improves on its predecessor, with a sound very reminiscent of "Goodies," Ciara's 2004 chart-topping, debut single. The song goes hard, with a bombastic beat and strong vocals. Although the song does not convey much of a message, lyrically, it is evident that Ciara just wants her fans to dance. As of late, the urban market has been forced to put up with artists like Lady GaGa for their dance music fixes. The First Lady of Crunk and B is back, and ready to give the urban market a familiar style of dance music.
In theory, Dionne Warwick may be the 60's most influential female vocalist. Although, most people cite Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin for their approach to popular music, more fail to realize the significance of Dionne as a musical force. She never had the press office of Motown Records to boost her image or desire to become someone she was not, or portrayed a "pro-black" image in her music (i.e. Aretha Franklin) either. Of course Dionne was a house hold name, and she had many firsts, but it seems Diana and Aretha managed to take some of her thunder in terms of mass appeal, although Dionne served as a blueprint for them, by musical style and song selection. In other words, she possessed qualities they both lacked, which mattered most. Diana would try to emulate Dionne's cool, MOR facade, and Aretha would look to Dionne's songbook for several Bacharach/David records.
Dionne is often defined as sophisticated when critics or fans try to describe her music. She fused the generes of Pop and Soul like no other, while incorporating jazz, gospel, and R&B into her music as well. "She was the Queen of Easy," and critics were unable to categorized her music. She obviously had a three to four octave voice and drew from her gospel background to give soulful performances, yet she was able to keep them sweet and refined to appeal to a broad audiences. Her voice has been described as a fine wine, peculiar and able to straddle between difficult notes easily, since Dionne had to adapt quick to difficult chord and time changes often present in Burt Bacharach's music.
She was authentically Dionne, where as entertainers like Diana Ross were not. People say Diana wanted to be the "Black Streisand," but Diana really just wanted to be like another Dionne. Yes, Motown incorporated more show tunes into Diana's work than Dionne had ever done, but Dionne recorded and performed standards at the very beginning of her career. And her own hits were created to become standards not hits, which was very anti-Motown. Streisand clearly had to respect Warwick, but she did not respect Diana, and the music-goers alike had the same sentiments. Dionne was the "first" to cross-over with the help of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and be accepted as authentic because her approach was genuine and her songs just had mass appeal to music listeners across all genres.
Dionne's 7th studio album, "Here Where There Is Love," is a masterpiece. It encompassed the essence of her very sound. By this time, she was a bona fide Pop star, a legend of her time. She had several hit records on both the Pop and R&B Charts, bound to win Grammys, had Pop music's most esteemed writing duo producing songs tailored for her voice which would become Pop music classics, and artists clamoring to cover her songs before they were even released, which began early on in her career. Back in 1964, UK singer Cilla Black covered her classic record,"Anyone Who Had A Heart," and released it in Britain before Scepter Records could put the record out overseas. Black's version of "Anyone..." reached number one.
"Here Where There Is Love" boats multiple classics, and the album plays out like a true LP, where no track is undesirable to the ears. The album beings with a pop-soul fused track entitled "Go With Love," that features a waltz sound. The second track is the definitive offering of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David's career defining anthem, "What the World Needs Now Is Love." Although, Dionne was not the first female artist to release this song, which is a rarity, she claims she recorded the demo for the record, which was supposed to be released by a male artist. According to some accounts, claim that Dionne was officially offered the song in 1965, and turned it down, in which it was subsequently offered to Jackie DeShannon. Whatever the case may be, Dionne's rendition is the best. The vocal was clearly written for her voice and singing style. According to reports, DeShannon had extreme difficulty recording the song, and Bacharach made DeShannon record the song so many times her voice began to give out.
The third track "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself," was released as a single in 1966. Although, Dionne was not the first artist to release the song, she recorded the demo more than likely, and its certainly a gem. Her vocal performance is impeccable and uses falsetto and a strong head vocal. The title track of the album offers one of the team of Bacharach/David/Warwick's best records. The record is a waltz/bossa nova fusion and just impeccable. It's eclectic yet sophisticated, and Dionne offers a great vocal performance. The single "Trains, Boats, and Planes" is also featured on the album, its arguably one Dionne's most sophisticated records with a subtle social message.
The hit rendition of "Alfie," is featured on the record as well. Burt wanted Dionne to record the song, and arranged it with Dionne's voice in mind. However, record executives explained to Bacharach that he could not have Dionne record the record because she was not affiliated with the the film studio. So, the US version of the film featured Cher, and the UK version of the film featured Cilla Black, which Dionne became infuriated over. Burt wanted Dionne to record the song anyway. After 40 plus recordings from other artists, Dionne finally recorded the song, and it became a hit after Dionne performed it at the 1967 Academy Awards.
Other features on the album include a cool jazz soul record entitled "I Never Knew What You Were Up To," and and standards "As Long As He Needs Me," and "I Wish You Love," in addition to Dionne's take on the Bob Dylan classic "Blowin' In the Wind," which doesn't fit with the rest of the album, in sound, which is a characteristic motif with at least one or two songs on Dionne's previous two albums.
It's been forever and a day since I've updated my blog. I plan on updating it everyday from now on, especially for the month of June, being that June is Black Music Month. So stay tuned!
Best,
DJ Philly Soul.... P.S. I've started a radio show with a good friend of mine. The show is entitled "Love On Your Radio," and I can be heard playing the best mix of contemporary R&B and classic soul, quiet storm material.
You may listen at www.wptsradio.org (stream via iTunes for an optimal listening experience). If you're in Pittsburgh, you may tune in at 92.1 FM WPTS.
After a 4 year hiatus, several push-backs, and leaks, R&B veteran Monica is finally set to release her 5th studio album, Still Standing. Since 2008, there has been buzz about this new Monica record, and now J Records is finally pulling all the stops to secure a hit album. The new disc is officially scheduled for a March 23 release. However, a preview of the album is available here.
The set features 10 tracks and definitely sounds like a solid, knockout album. Mo's last set "The Makings of Me" was a solid effort; Interesting, she does not deviate too far from that sound on this new set. I have a strong feeling "Still Standing" will resonate much better with fans for two reasons. Mainly, her BET show definitely helped generate buzz for the album and her music, and her debut single "Everything to Me" is like a breath of fresh air on the airwaves. It's one of those Monica records that people expect to hear, and its really what people want to hear - showing Monica fully understands her fans and the music buying public now because honestly bubblegum infused R&B is only a success for some but when you're actually talented and vocally gifted, people want all that you have to give! Furthermore, bubblegum infused R&B is on its way out with the likes of Chris Brown and Rihanna produces commercial flops, and it would just be nice if R&B artist that don't necessarily perform neo-soul records would just put out strictly R&B records like they did back in the 90's. Maxwell and Sade's successes are only testaments that good music from artist that stay in their lane is still appreciated and commercially viable.
So last night, the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards were held in the Shire Auditorium out an L.A., and from what I watched, the broadcast was a snoozer and the the Recording Academy definitely gave away some bogus wins.
For the general award category, Taylor Swift was not deserving of the 'Album of the Year' Grammy at all. Even if she had good songwriting and innovative instrumentation and production on her album, she lacks vocally in technique and flare. I really don't understand why the record buying public likes the chick. Lady GaGa or the Black Eyed Peas should have been awarded the Grammy in this category hands down.
Lady GaGa was clearly snubbed for 'Record of the Year' with "Poker Face," because the track was innovative and fresh, and in terms of technical recording it was superb.
Beyonce did not deserve to win 'Song of the Year.' The award is not supposed to be given to the person with the catchiest song. The songwriting was basic and trite. A song calling out dereon jeans needs not to ever win a Grammy. A good song, that should be worthy of this award is lyrically pleasing, yet deep. Maxwell's "Pretty Wings" should have been the obvious winner.
Best New Artist did not go to Keri Hilson, which was not a surprise.
Beyonce won 'Best Female Pop Vocal Performance,' which is not too alarming, yet I thought voters would select Adele.
The Black Eyed Peas won a trophy in the Pop category which was no surprise. Lady GaGa won awards in the Dance category which was expected.
Beyonce won 'Best Female R&B Vocal Performance' for "Single Ladies," which was clearly awarded due to her popularity. Everyone else in the category from the likes of Melanie Fiona and Ledisi have better vocals than Beyonce on any day. "It Kills Me" by Melanie Fiona should have been the obvious winner for voters.
Maxwell and Beyonce dominated the rest of the R&B category with Maxwell taking home 'Best R&B Album' and 'Best Males R&B Vocal Performance.' And Beyonce wins 'Best Traditional R&B Performance' and 'Best Contemporary R&B Album,' which should have been awarded to Trey Songz for his album 'Ready,' which contains both party records and songs with a meaning that all contain impressive vocal performances.
Jay-Z was the big winner in the Hip-Hop category. Surprising he beat out Drake with his offerings from the Blueprint 3 single "D.O.A." in 'Best Rap Solo Performance.' He also won 'Best/Rap Sung Performance' for "Run This Town." Other wins were random in this section of the awards.
All in all, Grammy is really starting to lose its credibility. I'm not saying commercial artists should not win Grammys, but when they are not pairing their commercial appeal with artistic flare it is a problem. Grammys are supposed to award artistic merit not sales at all. Perhaps the Recoding Academy needs to reiterate what a Grammy is supposed to symbolize.
Hopefully, next years show is a lot better, and the nominations and wins are on par. It will be interesting to see if Whitney Houston gets nominated after all.
Here is a concrete winners list: Song of the Year: “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” – Beyoncé Record of the Year: “Use Somebody” – Kings of Leon Album of the Year:Fearless – Taylor Swift Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: “I Gotta Feeling” – Black Eyed Peas Best Pop Vocal Album:The E.N.D. – Black Eyed Peas Best Dance Recording: “Poker Face” – Lady Gaga Best Electronic/Dance Album:The Fame – Lady Gaga Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” – Beyoncé Best Male R&B Vocal Performance: “Pretty Wings” – Maxwell Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: “Blame It” – Jamie Foxx & T-Pain Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance: “At Last” – Beyoncé Best R&B Song: “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” – Beyoncé Best R&B Album:BLACKsummers’Night – Maxwell Best Contemporary R&B Album:I Am… Sasha Fierce – Beyoncé Best Rap Solo Performance: “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” – Jay-Z Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group: “Crack a Bottle” – Eminem, Dr. Dre, & 50 Cent Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: “Run This Town” – Jay-Z, Rihanna, & Kanye West Best Rap Song: “Run This Town” – Jay-Z, Rihanna, & Kanye West Best Rap Album:Relapse – Eminem
Posts
