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April 2, 2013
Artist: Georgia Reign
Title: Jackin’4 Beats
Genre(s): R&B, Soul, Hip-Hop
Released: April 2, 2013
Social: Facebook Twitter
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February 20, 2013
Artist: Kevin McCall
Title: Definition
Released: February 14, 2013
Producer: Kevin McCall, various
Genre: R&B, Rap
Hood: Watts, CA USA
Social: Facebook Twitter
Kevin McCall gave R&B and rap listeners a new mix-tape for Valentine’s Day 2013. Although Definition is a pretty decent collection, the mix-tape would have been pretty damn dope if McCall would have stuck to writing and allowed heavy hitters, such as Chris Brown, to lay down the vocals.
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February 20, 2013
Artist: Kevin McCall
Title: Definition
Released: February 14, 2013
Producer: Kevin McCall, various
Genre: R&B, Rap
Hood: Watts, CA USA
Social: Facebook Twitter
Check out this new mixtape from rising R&B singer, Kevin McCall.
December 11, 2012
Artist: Chrisette Michele
Title: Audrey Hepburn: An Audiovisual Presentation
Guests: Robert Glasper, Wale, 2Chainz, Nello Luchi, Kenneth Whalum, “Guitar Slayer” Lyons, Lem Payne & Fogo
Released: December 7, 2012
Hood: New York, New York USA
Produced by: Coast to Coast Mixtapes
Rating: A-
We are pleased to bring you this new mixtape from hot and rising R&B/Soul singer Chrisette Michele. For the past several years, this beautiful singer has been tearing up the charts with sensational ballads sung with passion and a voice eerily reminiscent of the late great Minnie Ripperton. Read more of this post
July 19, 2012
Artist: Luke James
Title: #Luke EP
Release Date: December 22, 2011
Produced By: Danja, Kadis & Sean
From: New Orleans, LA
July 19, 2012
Artist: MicahFonecheck
Title: August Rush EP
Release Date: May 2, 2012
Produced By: MicahFonecheck
From: Los Angeles, CA
Tracklist:
1. Remedy (Interlude) Feat. Treasure Davis
2. Between Sheets Feat. Omarion
3. Just A Year Ago Feat. Ty$
4. Broke Broke
5. Eff On You
6. Take Down Music Feat. Nikko Love
7. Get It Feat. Fki
8. LA Song Feat. Jhene Aiko & John Meyer
9. G.I.A. Feat Kendrick Lamar
10. Divin’
LA-based singer/songwriter MicahFonecheck is new to the game but has the sound of a 10-year veteran. This is his first mixtape and he has plenty of help from some of today’s new rising artists from SoCal including Kendrick Lamar, Jhene Aiko and Ty$.
Here is a in-studio video of his song Take Down Music.
July 17, 2012
Artist: Jake & Papa
Title: Somethin’ Soulful
Release Date: February 14, 2012
Produced By: Jake&Papa
From: Los Angeles, CA
Tracklist:
1. Intro (My Soul)
2. My Baby
3. Sex Education
4. Somethin’ Soulfut Feat. Dubb
5. Gets No Better (Sisi’s Interlude)
6. Kiss Em Off Feat. Dubb
7. Rain
8. Trill Love
9. Nasty
10. Bad Decisions
11. B.A.P.S.
12. In Love With Makin Love
13. Summer Beneath The Trees (Ashley’s Interlude)
14. Pretty Black Bird
15. Freedom
16. Ashes
Review Excerpt by Supastar Magazine
Back with their second project, is Californian R&B duo Jake&Papa. “Somethin’ Soulful”is appropriately titled because after just one listen, you’ll detect old fashioned soul layered with a new skool approach. Jake&Papa leave it up to us, if we want to call it an album or mixtape. I would go for album, because their work is supreme (once again). After the release of their mixtape, Destination Short Stay II last year, the singers have already convinced me they are a force to be reckoned with.
Jake&Papa have such talent, great work ethic and got the charm to make it big. The two men wrote all the songs themselves. Their vocals and delivery is supreme. Each song on“Somethin’ Soulful” is as powerful that it can stand on its own, which is an accomplishment. I know few artists who can do this.
“Somethin’ Soulful” delivers a slew of songs with this endeavor that are sure to catapult Jake&Papa into the same spotlight that’s occupied by the R&B artists that top the Billboard charts today.
April 4, 2012
Artist: Terry Dexter
Title: Disappointed
Web: Terry Dexter Official Site
Originally from: Detroit, Michigan
We are digging this new single from soulful singer Terry Dexter, who is set to release a new album this Summer. This beautiful and talented singer and actress, who is originally from Detroit, has been on the scene for sometime and we are happy she is returning so strong. While this single feels classic, we are skeptical about radio’s acceptance.
This tune feels like you have heard it before but not in that overly repetitive way like the radio. She lets the groove breathe but then fills in the silence with sexy vocals and compelling lyrics. In this song, she expresses a lot of the hurt feelings that many women have regarding relationships gone wrong. She ends the song with some good advice to me. In short, recognize when you have a good woman and appreciate her.
We really hope this is the one that puts this sister over the top. We’re on board and look forward to more.
Well done! Cop this one!
Bio of Terry Dexter from IAmTerryDexter.com:
Born in Detroit, Michigan, this vocal power house started singing in her uncle’s baptist church and at the age of 11 began recording behind various artists such as Simply Red.
Signed to Warner Bros. Records as a teenager, her self titled critically acclaimed debut album released in late 1999 spanned two “Billboard” singles. Terry was also featured on the remix version of Eric Benet’s “Spend My Life” record, helping it reach #1 on Billboard. She was also featured on the duet “Remarkable” with R&B sensation Jaheim on his double-platinum album “Ghetto Love.”
Terry has contributed songs featured in various films, TV and movie soundtracks. A few of note: “Bait,” “Rush Hour,” “Legally Blonde” (featured along side the Black Eye Peas), “Not Easily Broken,” “The L Word,” “Cheetah Girls 3,” ”Cover,” and “Deliver Us From Eva.” Terry made her screen debut in “Deliver Us From Eva” playing Valerie and performing a stirring rendition of “Amazing Grace,” and worked with Raphael Saadiq on a song that was featured in the film and on the aligning soundtrack. Most recently, Terry co-wrote and performed the theme song for the NBC show “The Playboy Club” and was featured on 2 songs featured in the series. Once again with Black Eye Peas frontman Will.i.am, Terry was featured on the international underground smash “Lay Me Down” from his “Lost Change” album.
Terry was also featured on the Hurricane Katrina benefit song “Heart Of America” along side Michael McDonald, Wyonna Judd, and Eric Benet. Full Bio.
Listen here:
Here are some of our favorite Terry Dexter tunes for those not up on her:
Terry Dexter – I’m Free
Terry Dexter – Better than Me
Jaheim featuring Terry Dexter
(Download help: Right Click – Save As for PC. Control-Click-Save Link As for Mac.)
February 23, 2012
In her memoir, African American activist and former Black Panther party member, Assata Shakur, recalls a Brooklyn night in the early 1960s when she attended a party hosted by the warlord of the Fort Greene Chaplins, a black gang that once ruled the Walt Whitman/Robert Ingersoll Housing Development (better known as the Fort Greene Project–once described in the New York Times as a place of cold urine stenched staircases, leaky walls, chipped plaster, and rusted elevators; a place where “nowhere this side of Moscow are you likely to find public housing so closely duplicating the squalor it was designed to supplant.”). In those days, it was typical to read in the tabloids that a youth had been “stabbed near the Navy Yard” or “stomped to death in an argument over a dime”. Gangs with sinister nom-de-guerres like the Chaplains, the Mau-Maus and the Fort Greene Stompers blinded each other with a mixture of Red Devil lye and Pepsi-Cola and hurled each other from rooftops. Still, Shakur recalls her evening of eating French fries, drinking Thunderbird and wine, smoking cigarettes in the hallway and dancing the night away, as “romantic”. “The music was playing and the lights were down low…” she writes, “and I was feeling gooooooood”. In other words, Fort Greene may have been bleak but it was also bliss; a place for style and street cred. Birds wore mile high bouffant hairdos, jet black eyeliner, and tiny stacked cuban-heeled Voodoo shoes and hep cats bopped in tight-crotch pants and stocking caps pressed down over close cropped waves. In an era of economic strain and unrest, the times were tough and the area was tougher. Brooklyn was also THE destination for great black music. All kinds of music.
Fort Greene projects would give birth to doo-wop singer Little Anthony Gourdine (of Little Anthony and the Imperials), rapper Dana Dane, MCs Just-Ice and ODB, R&B singer/songwriter Lisa Fischer and Grammy award winning gospel music artist Hezekiah Walker. My own memories extend back to the new jack swing days when, as a foster kid runaway, I spent many a night hopping the train from the Bronx all the way to Brooklyn, ducking bullets to find shelter at my best friend Marcelle’s apartment, who, at the time was dating R&B singer Aaron Hall, pre-Guy fame.
In the first decade of the 20th century, Roland Hayes the first African American concert singer to receive international fame, performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). As early as 1920, “negro folk music” received serious attention when presented in concert by the Choral Art Club of Brooklyn and the Columbia University Sunday Afternoon Chapel Choir Brooklyn Choral Ensemble. During the height of the jazz age, in 1928, the Brooklyn Paramount Theater opened its doors on Flatbush and DeKalb avenue. Built with a 2,000 pipe, 257 stops Wurlitzer organ second only in size to the behemoth at Radio City Music Hall, the ornate rococo designed theater was a magnificent 4,124 seat movie palace. It is a little known fact that the Paramount also helped introduce Brooklyn to jazz, presenting artists such as Duke Ellington in 1931. Later, in the post WWII era, BAM and the Paramount became venues for venerable pop artists of their day who are now thought of only in a jazz context including Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, Dinah Washington, Billy Eckstine, and Miles Davis.
The legacy of jazz continued well into 1960s with the influx of notable jazz musicians into the area, making their residences in the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill districts. In 1959, jazz musician John Coltrane’s cousin Mary, and trombonist Charles Greenlee (also known by his Muslim name, Harnifan Majid) rented rooms in a house in at 245 Carlton Avenue between DeKalb and Willoughby, owned by jazz trombonist Slide Hamptonand appropriately nick-named the “jazz house”. Hampton rented rooms to Freddy Hubbard, Wes Montgomery, Larry Ridley, and Eric Dolphy, and often conducted late night jam sessions in his living room.(Dolphy would compose and dedicate a piece to the house titled “245″). Mary would later recall her cousin’s frequent visits.
Around that same time, the Brooklyn Paramount would receive its second wind, introducing Brooklyn to rock n- roll. In the 1950s, radio DJ Alan Freed’s rock-n-roll shows played at the theater, with acts including Chuck Berry and Fats Domino (later, after concern over teenage rioting, the shows were moved to the Brooklyn Fox Theater, on Flatbush and Nevins. At the height of the rock n’ roll era, artists including Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, the Ronettes, Ben E. King, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Mary Wells, Dione Warwick, Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles, the Spinners, the O’Jays, the Marvelettes, Chubby Checker, the Shirelles, Jackie Wilson, Johnny Mathis and Etta James, the Isley Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Flamingos all played either the Fox or the Paramount. When Alan Freed fell victim to the payola scandal of the 1960s, TV host Clay Cole continued his ten-day holiday show tradition, in 1964 featuring a Motown revue with Marvin Gaye, the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations and the Supremes, breaking all existing attendance records. Cole would also present other acts at the Fox, including, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, and Little Anthony & The Imperials. According to anthropology professor Michael Hittman, there were five shows a day noon through midnight” at the Brooklyn Paramount, each show preceded by a B movie. Rock musician/songwriter Peter Sando recalls the shows “would run for ten days” with line forming half around the block as early as 3:30 a.m. Mounted police were called in and barricades erected to the teenagers to the sidewalks. Hittman writes, “It was a strange scene in the twilight, all these kids, black, white, Hispanic, all with a common thread binding them together, the Music! And everybody was there–all the Rock and Roll stars–sometimes over 20 acts in a show! All for $2.50… every act came out and did their two or three best hits and went right off leaving the crowd dying for more.”
With the erection of more modern concert stages, dinosaurs like the Paramount and the Fox were simply outmoded. The Paramount was shuttered in 1960 and converted two years later into its current use as a gymnasium for Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus (the world famous organ and some of the original rococo arches remain). On Thursday, February 3, 1968, the $8 Million Fox Theater went dark and its imminent demolition followed soon after. Nevertheless, Fort Greene music lived on. From the housing projects to the street corners to coffee shops, the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill district became the stomping ground for hip-hop icons including Jermaine Dupree, Big Daddy Kane, Kurtis Blow, Jay-Z. L’il Kim, L’il Cease, Talib Kweli, GangStarr, Easy Mo Bee, and Mos Def. Biggie Smalls aka the Notorious B.I.G. rhymed in the cipher, bagged groceries and sold dime bags on Fulton Street, married singer Faith Evans and embarked upon a successful rap career, making their first home in a two bedroom, two bathroom loft on Carlton Avenue near Myrtle. From her brownstone behind BAM, famed jazz singer Betty Carter and her pianist/life partner Daniel Mixon, honed the talents of Jacky Terrenson, Brian Blade and Pevin Everitt. Cecil Taylor, Randy Weston, the Marsallis Brothers, Erykah Badu all called (or still call) Fort Greene Brooklyn home. As do R&B singer/songwriter Gordon Chambers. In the Brooklyn bohemian 80s and 90s, underground music venues continued throughout Fort Greene at smaller venues including Two Steps Down Restaurant, Sheila’s, Tillie’s Café, Frank’s Lounge and the Kokobar, a Cyberlounge/Espresso Bar/Bookstore opened by writer Rebecca Walker (daughter of Alice Walker) and her partner Angel Williams (with backing from Grammy award winning singer/songwriter, Tracy Chapman). Afro-punk returns to Brooklyn annually with groups like Bad Brains and performances by Ninja Sonic, Activator, Game Rebellion, and P.O.S. and the annual Fort Green fest organized by Peter Tulloch (which has featured the rapper Common as well as Mos Def). Yes, the music lives on.
January 20, 2012
Teddy Pendergrass Biography From AllMusic.com:
Teddy Pendergrass started singing gospel music in Philadelphia churches, becoming an ordained minister at ten years old. While attending public school, he sang in the citywide McIntyre Elementary School Choir and in the All-City Stetson Junior High School Choir. A self-taught drummer, Pendergrass had a teen pop vocal group when he was 15. By his late teens, Pendergrass was a drummer for local vocal group the Cadillacs.
In the late ’60s, the Cadillacs merged with another more established group, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. In 1970, when the Blue Notes broke up, Melvin, now aware of Pendergrass’ vocal prowess, asked him to take the lead singer spot. It’s no secret that Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff wanted Marvin Junior of the Dells for their Philadelphia International Records roster. Since the Dells were signed to Chess, they were unavailable. When the gruff’n'ready vocals of Pendergrass came their way, they eagerly signed the group. Beginning with “I Miss You,” a steady stream of hit singles flowed from the collaboration of Pendergrass and Gamble & Huff: “If You Don’t Know Me by Now,” “The Love I Lost,” “Bad Luck,” “Wake Up Everybody” (number one R&B for two weeks in 1976), and two gold albums, To Be True and Wake Up Everybody.
Unfortunately, the more success the group had, the more friction developed between Melvin and Pendergrass. Despite the revised billing of the group, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes featuring Theodore Pendergrass, Pendergrass felt that he wasn’t getting enough recognition. Around 1976, Pendergrass left Melvin’s Blue Notes and formed his own Blue Notes, featuring Teddy Pendergrass. Briefly, there was some confusion as to which Blue Notes were which. The resolution came when Pendergrass disbanded his Blue Notes in favor of a solo career and Melvin’s group signed a recording contract with Source Records, distributed through ABC Records, scoring a hit with “I Want to Be Your Lover.”
Pendergrass signed a new contract with Philadelphia International Records in late 1976/early 1977. He burst back on the scene with Teddy Pendergrass, a platinum solo debut that included the top-notch singles “I Don’t Love You Anymore,” “You Can’t Hide from Yourself,” and “The More I Get the More I Want.” Around this time, Pendergrass began to institute his infamous “Ladies Only” concerts. His next three albums went gold or platinum: Life Is a Song Worth Singing (1978), Teddy (1979), and Teddy Live (Coast to Coast). The hit single “Close the Door” was used in the film Soup for One, where Pendergrass had a small role.
The singer received several Grammy nominations during 1977 and 1978, Billboard’s 1977 Pop Album New Artist Award, an American Music Award for best R&B performer of 1978, and awards from Ebony magazine and the NAACP. He was also in consideration for the lead in the movie biopic The Otis Redding Story. The ’70s ended, but Pendergrass kept racking up the hits. TP, his fifth solo album, went platinum in the summer of 1980 off the singles “Turn Off the Lights,” “Come Go with Me,” “Shout and Scream,” “It’s You I Love,” and “Can’t We Try.” It’s Time for Love gave Pendergrass another gold album in summer 1981, which included the hit singles “Love TKO” and “I Can’t Live Without Your Love.”
A 1982 car accident left Pendergrass paralyzed from the waist down and wheelchair-bound. After almost a year of physical therapy and counseling, Pendergrass returned to the recording scene, signing a contract with Elektra/Asylum in 1983. His ninth solo album and Elektra/Asylum debut, Love Language went gold the spring of 1984. Philadelphia International issued two albums of unreleased tracks, This One’s for You (1982) and Heaven Only Knows (1983). Other albums included Workin’ It Back (1985), Joy (1988, whose title track went to number one R&B for two weeks), and Little More Magic (1993). The latter half of the ’90s found Pendergrass recording for the Surefire/Wind Up label. Truly Blessed, the name of an 1991 Elektra album, is also the title of the autobiography Pendergrass co-authored with Patricia Romanowski. Apart from an appearance at a 2007 ceremony held in his honor, Pendergrass spent his later years away from the spotlight. He had difficulty recovering from colon cancer surgery and passed away on January 13, 2010.
Also, check out Teddy P’s Unsung Full Episode here.
January 19, 2012
Boy George Biography From AllMusic.com:
British singer Boy George combined a strong, soulful singing voice with a provocative sense of fashion, both of which were first brought to the attention of English and American audiences in the group Culture Club, for whom he served as lead singer from 1982 to 1986. The group wrote and played impeccable pop music, and Boy George’s androgynous persona — heavy makeup and outrageous costumes — gave the group a distinct video image in the dawn of MTV. That very distinctiveness, however, made the group date quickly, and at the same time Boy George encountered highly publicized personal difficulties. He re-emerged as a solo singer in 1987 with Sold, which contained a U.K. number one cover of Bread’s “Everything I Own,” but was unable to duplicate this success in the U.S. Boy George enjoyed four British singles’ chart entries in 1987 and another three in 1988. His second album, Tense Nervous Headache (1988), was not picked up for release in the U.S.; his third, Boyfriend (1989), was a Europe-only release, though Virgin Records cobbled the second and third albums together to present a second U.S. album, High Hat (1989). In 1991 came The Martyr Mantras, another patchwork album largely made up of previously non-LP dance singles. In the U.K., it was credited to a new group, Jesus Loves You, and released on Boy George’s own More Protein record label, though Virgin in the U.S. billed it as a Boy George album. By 1992, Boy George had faded at home, and in the U.S. his solo career had never taken off. Then he was brought in to sing a version of the ’60s chestnut “The Crying Game” in a production by the Pet Shop Boys, as the title song for a movie that became the sleeper hit of the winter of 1992-1993, resulting in his first substantial U.S. hit as a solo artist. Cheapness and Beauty followed in 1995, and four years later Boy George resurfaced with the rarities collection Unrecoupable One Man Bandit. Throughout the ’90s, he delved back into the club scene that birthed his early romanticism, and made a name for himself as DJ in demand. It became more than a hobby toward the end of the millennium, and Boy George garnered attention in the U.K. and U.S. club circuits; such musical creativity was captured on Essential Mix, released in fall 2000.”
After graduating from high school, Usher released his sophomore album, My Way, in 1997. In an attempt to display his maturity and songwriting abilities, Usher co-wrote six of the nine songs and enlisted the help of producers Jermaine Dupri, Babyface, and, again, Combs. The album’s first single, “You Make Me Wanna,” reestablished Usher as one of R&B’s hottest artists, and also made him a crossover sensation; it topped the R&B charts for 11 weeks, hit number two pop, and eventually went double platinum. Both of the follow-up singles, “Nice & Slow” and “My Way,” also went platinum; the former stayed at number one on the R&B charts for eight weeks and became his first number one pop single. In the meantime, Usher launched an acting career, appearing in the 1998 horror spoof The Faculty and the 1999 urban high-school drama Light It Up.
To tide fans over, he issued a concert recording titled simply Live in 1999. Usher returned with his third proper album, All About U, toward the end of 2000. His third album, 8701 (2001), moved him from a teen pop star to a sultry R&B singer. In early 2004, Arista released the single “Yeah!” Produced by Lil Jon and guesting Ludacris, the addictive, lightly crunk cut fast became a club and radio favorite. By the time the Usher full-length Confessions dropped later that March, “Yeah!” had hit the top of the Billboard charts. The album itself was Usher’s most mature work to date and won the Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album in 2004, while “Yeah!” took home the best rapped/sung collaboration award. He starred in the 2005 flop In the Mix and went back to music with 2008′s Here I Stand, an album that was ultimately declared a flop, even though it topped the Billboard 200 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Raymond v Raymond, inspired in part by the end of his marriage, was released in 2010 as three of its songs were climbing the charts. Its buzz single, “Papers,” had already topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. An EP titled Versus followed later in the year.
January 19, 2012
Jennifer Hudson Biography From AllMusic.com:
Best known for her role as Effie White in the 2006 film version of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, vocalist/actress Jennifer Hudson was first brought to the public’s attention while a contestant on the third season of the reality show vocal competition American Idol. Born in 1981 in Chicago, IL, Hudson sang from a young age, first performing in her church. Various talent shows and school musical productions followed until she eventually secured a role in a local Chicago production of the musical Big River. Prior to auditioning for American Idol, Hudson also sang professionally while working on the Disney Wonder cruise ship.
In 2004, she auditioned for and won a spot on the third season of American Idol along with eventual winner Fantasia Barrino. Though a strong contender and fan favorite from the start, Hudson would eventually become the sixth of the 12 finalists to get voted off the show. Ironically, after the show ended, there was speculation that Barrino would get the coveted role of Effie in the film version of Dreamgirls. However, Hudson won the role and went on to receive not only critical acclaim for her performance, but also both a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Her debut album, Jennifer Hudson, finally materialized on Arista in September 2008, led by the Top Ten R&B/Hip-Hop single “Spotlight.” In 2011, Hudson delivered her sophomore studio-album I Remember Me featuring the R. Kelly-penned single “Where You At.”
January 18, 2012
Usher Biography From AllMusic.com:
After Usher Raymond was spotted by a LaFace record executive at a talent show in his hometown of Atlanta, it took no time for his career to take off. The 14-year-old auditioned for LaFace co-founder L.A. Reid, who signed the gospel choir boy to a recording contract. Raymond was introduced to the world simply as “Usher,” and released his debut album of the same name in 1994, which featured co-executive producer Sean “Puffy” Combs. The first single, “Think of You,” gained Usher wide recognition and reached gold status. From that initial exposure, Usher was approached to do other projects. In 1995, he recorded a national holiday jingle for Coca-Cola. He also joined several top male R&B vocalists to form Black Men United for the single “You Will Know,” featured on the Jason’s Lyric soundtrack. He also teamed with teen singing sensation Monica for a duet remake of Latimore’s “Let’s Straighten It Out.”
After graduating from high school, Usher released his sophomore album, My Way, in 1997. In an attempt to display his maturity and songwriting abilities, Usher co-wrote six of the nine songs and enlisted the help of producers Jermaine Dupri, Babyface, and, again, Combs. The album’s first single, “You Make Me Wanna,” reestablished Usher as one of R&B’s hottest artists, and also made him a crossover sensation; it topped the R&B charts for 11 weeks, hit number two pop, and eventually went double platinum. Both of the follow-up singles, “Nice & Slow” and “My Way,” also went platinum; the former stayed at number one on the R&B charts for eight weeks and became his first number one pop single. In the meantime, Usher launched an acting career, appearing in the 1998 horror spoof The Faculty and the 1999 urban high-school drama Light It Up.
To tide fans over, he issued a concert recording titled simply Live in 1999. Usher returned with his third proper album, All About U, toward the end of 2000. His third album, 8701 (2001), moved him from a teen pop star to a sultry R&B singer. In early 2004, Arista released the single “Yeah!” Produced by Lil Jon and guesting Ludacris, the addictive, lightly crunk cut fast became a club and radio favorite. By the time the Usher full-length Confessions dropped later that March, “Yeah!” had hit the top of the Billboard charts. The album itself was Usher’s most mature work to date and won the Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album in 2004, while “Yeah!” took home the best rapped/sung collaboration award. He starred in the 2005 flop In the Mix and went back to music with 2008′s Here I Stand, an album that was ultimately declared a flop, even though it topped the Billboard 200 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Raymond v Raymond, inspired in part by the end of his marriage, was released in 2010 as three of its songs were climbing the charts. Its buzz single, “Papers,” had already topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. An EP titled Versus followed later in the year.
January 17, 2012
Missy Elliott Biography From AllMusic.com:
No female rap artist paralleled the success of Missy Elliott, neither during her reign nor before, and none was more deserving. Unlike most of urban music’s female superstars, Missy writes her own songs as well as performs them, and her creative wit in on a par with her stylish demeanor. In addition to her talent and showmanship, she established herself as a genuine hitmaker alongside her longtime producer, Timbaland. She initially scored hits for others, namely Aaliyah (“One in a Million,” “If Your Girl Only Knew”) and to a lesser extent 702 (“Steelo”), before moving on to score a dazzling run for herself. Her debut album, Supa Dupa Fly (1997), spawned a number of hits such as “The Rain” that were more trend-setting than they were chart-topping. The chart-toppers, of course, came soon after: “She’s a Bitch” and “Hot Boyz” (1999); “Get Ur Freak On” and “One Minute Man” (2001); and “Work It” and “Gossip Folks” (2002). In each of these, Missy proved that, with both dignity and joviality, women could be sexual as well as forceful. As a result, she defied every stereotype imaginable without forsaking her broad fan base.
Born in Portsmouth, VA, in 1971 as Melissa Elliott, Missy’s professional music career began when Jodeci member/producer Devante Swing signed her and her group, Sista, to his Swing Mob record label. Unfortunately, Swing Mob Records fell through and along with it the plans for Sista’s debut album. Determined to move forward, Missy turned to longtime acquaintance Timbaland, who happened to be producing some tracks for Aaliyah’s One in a Million (1996) album. It proved to be a key move for Missy, as the album racked up enormous sales. Soon record execs were knocking on her door. Missy began working with a number of artists as either a songwriter or a vocalist/rapper before finally signing herself a deal with Elektra in 1996. A year later, Supa Dupa Fly hit the streets and soon after went platinum thanks to “The Rain.” Besides the sales numbers, the album also proved critically successful, impressing nearly everyone who heard it. It had not only radio-ready singles (“Sock It 2 Me,” “Beep Me 911,” “Hit ‘Em Wit da Hee”) but also an astounding array of album tracks that showcases just how multi-talented Missy indeed was, singing on some, rapping on others.
In 1999, she returned with her much-awaited follow-up album, Da Real World, an even more ambitious album that featured two mammoth hits — “She’s a Bitch” and “Hot Boyz” — along with an array of often daring collaborations with such unlikely candidates as Eminem. Around this same time, she began appearing in TV ads for the Gap and Sprite, proving that not only was she a musical talent but also an important icon for the era. The cycle repeated itself in 2001 when she released Miss E…So Addictive, again powered by two huge hits: “Get Ur Freak On” and “One Minute Man.” Her remarkable popularity continued a year later with her next album, Under Construction, and its hit singles, “Work It” and “Gossip Folks.” Missy’s music machine continued pummeling the charts, with Timbaland & Magoo’s follow-up Under Construction, Pt. II appearing in mid-November and the new Elliott LP This Is Not a Test! released a week later. Ciara, Slick Rick, Mary J. Blige, and American Idol winner Fantasia were some of the guests on Missy’s 2005 album The Cookbook.”
January 15, 2012
Mary J. Blige Biography From AllMusic.com:
When her debut album, What’s the 411?, hit the street in 1992, critics and fans alike were floored by its powerful combination of modern R&B with an edgy rap sound that glanced off of the pain and grit of Mary J. Blige’s Yonkers, New York childhood. Called alternately the new Chaka Khan or new Aretha Franklin, Blige had little in common stylistically with either of those artists, but like them, she helped adorn soul music with new textures and flavors that inspired a whole generation of musicians. With her blonde hair, self-preserving slouch, and combat boots, Blige was street-tough and beautiful all at once, and the record company execs who profited off of her early releases did little to dispel the bad-girl image that she earned as she stumbled through the dizzying first days of her career. As she exorcised her personal demons and softened her style to include sleek designer clothes, she remained a hero to thousands of girls growing up in the same kinds of rough places she came from. Blige reinvented her career again and again by shedding the bad habits and bad influences that kept her down; by the time her fourth album, Mary, was released in 1999, she had matured into an expressive singer able to put the full power of her voice behind her music, while still reflecting a strong urban style. With her fifth album, No More Drama, it wasn’t just Blige’s style that shone through the structures set up for her by songwriters and producers, it was her own vision — spiritual, emotional, personal, and full of wisdom, it reflected an artist who was comfortable with who she was and how far she had come.
Born in the Bronx on January 11, 1971, Blige spent the first few years of her life in Savannah, Georgia before moving with her mother and older sister to the Schlobam housing projects in Yonkers, New York. Her rough life there produced more than a few scars, physical and otherwise, and Blige dropped out of high school during her junior year, instead spending time doing her friends’ hair in her mother’s apartment and hanging out. When she was at a local mall in White Plains, New York, she recorded herself singing Anita Baker’s “Caught Up in the Rapture” into a karaoke machine. The resulting tape was passed by Blige’s stepfather to Uptown Records CEO Andre Harrell. Harrell was impressed with Blige’s voice and signed her to sing backup for local acts like Father MC. In 1991, however, Sean “Puffy” Combs took Blige under his wing and began working with her on What’s the 411?, her debut album. Combs had a heavy hand in What’s the 411?, along with producers Dave Hall, Mark Morales, and Mark Rooney, and the stylish touches that they added to Blige’s unique vocal style created a stunning album that bridged the gap between R&B and rap in a way that no female singer had before. Uptown tried to capitalize on the success of What’s the 411? by issuing a remixed version of it a year later, but it was only a modest success creatively and commercially.
Her 1995 follow-up, My Life, again featured Combs’ handiwork, and if it stepped back stylistically from its urban roots by featuring less of a rap sound, it made up for it with its subject matter. My Life was full of ghetto pathos and Blige’s own personal pain shone through like a beacon. Her rocky relationship with fellow Uptown artist K-Ci Hailey likely contributed to the raw emotions on the album. The period following the recording of My Life was also a difficult time professionally for Blige, as she severed her ties with Combs and Uptown, hired Suge Knight as a financial advisor, and signed with MCA.
Released in 1997, Share My World marked the beginning of Blige’s creative partnerships with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The album was another hit for Blige and debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. Critics soured somewhat on its more conventional soul sound, but Blige’s fans seemed undaunted. By the time her next studio album, Mary, came out in 1999, the fullness and elegance of her new sound seemed more developed, as Blige exuded a classic soul style aided by material from Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Stevie Wonder, and Lauryn Hill. Mary made it obvious that the ghetto fabulous style and more confrontational aspects of her music were gone, while the emotive power still remained.
That power also helped carry the more modern-sounding 2001 release No More Drama, a deeply personal album that remained a collective effort musically yet reflected more of Blige’s songwriting than any of her previous efforts. The Mary J. Blige on No More Drama seemed miles away from the flashy kid on What’s the 411?, yet it was still possible to see the path through her music that produced an older, wiser, but still expressive artist. In 2003 she was reunited with P. Diddy, who produced the majority of that year’s patchy Love and Life album. The Breakthrough followed two years later and was a tremendous success, spawning a handful of major singles. By the December 2006 release of Reflections (A Retrospective), The Breakthrough’s lead single, “Be Without You,” had spent nearly a year on the R&B chart, while the album’s fifth single, “Take Me as I Am,” had been on the same chart for over four months. A year later Blige came out with her eighth studio album, Growing Pains. It was her third consecutive studio album to top both the Billboard 200 and the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. While on tour with Robin Thicke during 2008, Blige began working on Stronger with Each Tear, which was released near the end of the following year and came one spot short of topping the Billboard 200. My Life II…The Journey Continues (Act 1), previewed through the Eric Hudson-produced single “25/8,” followed in 2011 with appearances from Beyoncé, Drake, Rick Ross, and Busta Rhymes.
January 15, 2012
From AllMusic.com:
When her debut album, What’s the 411?, hit the street in 1992, critics and fans alike were floored by its powerful combination of modern R&B with an edgy rap sound that glanced off of the pain and grit of Mary J. Blige‘s Yonkers, NY, childhood. Called alternately the new Chaka Khan or new Aretha Franklin, Blige had little in common stylistically with either of those artists, but like them, she helped adorn soul music with new textures and flavors that inspired a whole generation of musicians. With her blonde hair, self-preserving slouch, and combat boots, Blige was street-tough and beautiful all at once, and the record company execs who profited off of her early releases did little to dispel the bad-girl image that she earned as she stumbled through the dizzying first days of her career. As she exorcised her personal demons and softened her style to include sleek designer clothes, she remained a hero to thousands of girls growing up in the same kinds of rough places she came from. Blige reinvented her career again and again by shedding the bad habits and bad influences that kept her down; by the time her fourth album, Mary, was released in 1999, she had matured into an expressive singer able to put the full power of her voice behind her music, while still reflecting a strong urban style. With her fifth album, No More Drama, it wasn’t just Blige‘s style that shone through the structures set up for her by songwriters and producers, it was her own vision — spiritual, emotional, personal, and full of wisdom, it reflected an artist who was comfortable with who she was and how far she had come. Read more.
August 9, 2011
One of the great hit-makers of the 1980s and ‘90s, Miki Howard is a torch singer extraordinaire with a jazzy touch. Born and raised in a musical family – both parents were celebrated gospel singers– she burst onto the R&B scene with ‘Come Share My Love’ in 1986, a hit that climbed to number five on the charts. Miki went on to score a half dozen Top Five hits, including ‘Ain¹t Nuthin’ in the World’, ‘Love Under New Management,’ and ‘Ain’t Nobody Like You’, while recording old school standards as well. A romantic duet with Gerald Levert, titled ‘That’s What Love Is’ led to an intimate relationship that mirrored that song’s dizzying passions. Miki’s jazzy chops and smoldering good looks also won her a coveted role as Billie Holiday in Spike Lee’s film ‘Malcolm X’, after which she recorded a tribute album to Lady Day. (Another album of jazz standards, ‘Three Wishes’ was nominated for a Grammy in 2001). But after that her career plummeted, as Miki¹s personal life mirrored the emotional dramas of her songs– hot romances and bad relationships, and subsequent struggles to make ends meet as a single mom with three kids. Now she’s back on the scene, with a voice as strong as ever, and singing with a style that reflects her hard – won experience. “Unsung” celebrates the artistry, the trials and the triumphs of an effervescent diva with a golden touch.
July 13, 2011
Motown songwriter and producer Alphonso Mizell has died at the age of 68.
The star, nicknamed Fonce, passed away on Monday (11Jul11). The cause of death has yet to be determined.
Mizell rose to fame as a member of 1960s hitmaking quartet The Corporation, which included Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, and helped to write and produce a string of the Jackson 5′s early chart smashes, including I Want You Back and ABC.
He left Motown in the 1970s and formed the production duo The Mizell Brothers with his sibling, Larry, for their new company, Sky High Productions. They went on to work with artists at the iconic soul and jazz label, Blue Note Records, producing albums for Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphreys and Johnny ‘Hammond’ Smith.
They also scored hits with A Taste Of Honey’s Boogie Oogie Oogie in 1978 and the dance funk song Gigolo for Mary Wells in 1982.
In addition, The Mizell Brothers are responsible for some of the most lushly created music with a very characteristic jazz funk tinge. Plain and simple, some of the classiest black music ever. While we were first introduced to his music through his classic Motown work, it is the work at the later stages of his career that spawned some of the most incredible pieces, many of which influenced (and continue to influence) modern soul music.
Here are few of our favorite Mizell Brothers and related artists productions:
Think Twice – Donald Byrd (contains Main Source “Lookin’ at the Front Door” Sample
Wind Parade - Donald Byrd (contains Black Moon “Buck em Down” sample)
Music Is My Sanctuary – Gary Bartz
Play with the Changes – 4Hero featuring Fonce Mizell
Fore more information click here.
