A Message From A Soul Brother:

 I have to bring a message to y'all about how I feel about the state of soul music.

R. Kelly "Write Me Back" was leaked last week, when I heard it, I fell in love with it just like I did with his previous album "Love Letter". With these two albums R. Kelly is taking a more sensual approach to his music. R. Kelly is known for making those sexual bedroom songs like 'Sex Me Part 1&2', 'Half On A Baby' and 'Feeling On Your Booty'. So, I took to twitter to explain my opinion on this awesome album because of it's soulfulness. "Write Me Back" would make soul artist like Tyrone Davis and Marvin Gaye proud because he took more 70s approach on this one. On his last effort, "Love Letter" he took more of a 60s soul approach that reminded you of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. As I stated, I took to twitter to tell all my followers about this soulful album and to see their opinions, people said this album sucks and R. Kelly needs to go back to the freaky songs. Those statements bothered me and I knew I had to write something about it.

Now I have been a fan of R. Kelly since 1993. Even though he was with Public Announcement in 1991, but it wasnt until his solo debut, "12 Play" where I became a big fan. This album is most definitely a hip-hop soul classic that included a lot of bedroom songs but on this album my favorite two songs were his remake of the Spinners classic 'Sadie' and the sensual 'For You'. The way he did these two songs were very soulful, which showed he was not just a sexual artist. But R. Kelly knew that sexual songs were what the fans wanted. So, as his career continued he kept making those sexual songs but you can't forget about those soul ballads that included 'If I Can Turn Back The Hands Of Time', 'Bad Man', 'When A Woman's Fed Up', and the classic 'I Believe I Can Fly'. These songs were not sexual songs but they were all very soulful, which songs like these he is giving you on "Write Me Back". In addition, R. Kelly always appealed to the older generation with songs like 'Step In The Name of Love', 'Happy People', and 'Red Carpet (Pause, Flash)'. He made these songs for "The Steppers" that includes my grandparents era. So, R. Kelly has always had that 60-70s soulful sound. 

R. Kelly is now a 45 year old man his mind is not in the same place it was in 1993. Now he is not talking about bumping & grinding anymore he is making songs like 'Lost In Your Love'. In addition, he was going through a divorce with his wife after 10 years, he is not in that place to talk about the bedroom. I felt that "Love Letter" & "Write Me Back" are dedications to his ex-wife. In my opinion, these albums are just like Marvin Gaye's "Here My Dear" album. This underrated album was dedicated to his ex-wife Anna Gordy. This show me that R. Kelly can make GREAT albums without sexual songs but the songs being sensual. In addition, R. Kelly pay tribute to his musical heroes.

Fast Forward, Brian McKnight is talking the approach that R. Kelly did in 1993 making songs that are very sexual . McKnight has a song entitled 'Let Me Show You How Your P---- Works'. Brian McKnight is not known for songs like that, he is know for ballads like 'One Last Cry', 'Anytime', and 'Back At One'. Now McKnight and Kelly are in the same age category, fans of McKnight are angry because they feel that he should not be making sexual songs like this. What about R. Kelly then? I'm sorry I don't want R. Kelly to make another 12 Play album now because in my opinion, he can't be talking like that. Wait! R. Kelly tried to do that with "Untitled" and the fans didn't like because they felt R. Kelly is not in that age anymore to talk about sex and the album didn't perform well. We had new artists like Trey Songz and Chris Brown having that sexual style that R. Kelly mastered after Marvin Gaye.

During the "Love Letter" era, R. Kelly performed at the 2010 Soul Train Awards during this performance he performed 'My Body Callin', 'When A Woman's Fed Up', 'Happy People', 'When A Woman Loves'. He prepared you to let you know where he is today with his music. So, when you hear "Love Letter" & "Write Me Back" you shouldn't be surprised. So, when "fans" say we want the OLD R. Kelly back it shows that you don't want your artist to grow musically. Perfect example, Beyonce's latest album "4" was her best album musically but it didn't sell as much as "I Am...Sasha Fierce" which included the female anthem 'Single Ladies'. People didn't like the album because she went back to her R&B roots that didn't include pop anthems. Beyonce even said that the "4" album she will look back on and be proud of it. Now, that album didn't sell as  much as her previous efforts, but now she wants to make pop anthems like 'Single Ladies' again. Again, I feel like fans don't want their favorite artists to grow musically. But the same people that are hating on R&B based albums are complaining that R&B is dying.

R. Kelly in my opinion has always been soulful and with albums "Love Letter" & "Write Me Back" he is keeping the soul music alive since in this era we are so pop/dance based. In addition, when you have new school artist like Trey Songz and Chris Brown making sexual explicit songs, R. Kelly passed the torch and now he can make more classy and sensual songs. There are only a few R&B artists that are mainstream that are trying to keep R&B a float that include Mary J. Blige, Jill Scott, and R. Kelly. Artist like Anthony Hamilton, Calvin Richardson, and Kelly Price are not as mainstream as the others but they are making soulful music. Above all, I am glad R. Kelly made "Love Letter" and "Write Me Back" because it shows that R. Kelly feels the same way about soul music as me and feels it needs to come back into the mainstream because the pop/dance music is getting to much to handle. 

Check The Rhime

A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest is my 2nd favorite group of all time, but my favorite hiphop group. These dudes brought the real hip-hop. It was not about gimmicks with them, that's why their music will last for a lifetime. A Tribe needs to be put in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on the 25th year in the music business. With songs like Check The Rhime, Award Tour, & Can I Kick It they are considered rap classics. Let's rock to the music for a minute

Check The Rhime

Bonita Applebum

OKAY YALL FEELING ME NOW!!

I was inspired to write about my favorite hip-hop group after I saw the documentary done by Michael Rapport, Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of the Tribe Called Quest of the high and lows of the Quest, what the group was called before they decided to call themselves A Tribe Called Quest. The group consist of Q-Tip, Phife, Ali, and Jabori. This group came through a time when hip-hop was trying to become mainstream. During this time, the only rapper that was "claiming" hip-hop was pop was MC Hammer. But in Q-Tip's lyric from Check the Rhime, inform the world and Hammer "rap is NOT pop if you call it that then STOP". This group was just real and musically awesome. The Tribe incorporated soul, jazz & hip-hop and made it sound so perfect.

Now I was introduced to A Tribe Called Quest in 1993, with "Award Tour". As you know from reading this blog, I am a SOUL/R&B head, so if I like a hip-hop song it had to be great. Music stayed on in my house so the radio would always be playing and I remember one day coming home from school hearing this song. I feel in love with it. I used to go to school singing "We on the award tour with Muhammad my man". Now vibe to this classic.

DON'T THAT REAL HIP-HOP FEEL GOOD!!

About two years later I was introduced to the Tribe again, everyone watched The Wayans Brothers. The theme of the show was "Electric Relaxation". The song is so smooth because the group added jazz into the song, which made the song so epic. Now I know the show was funny, but I used to just watch for the show to hear theme because I liked this song so much. Check it out!

Theme to The Wayans Brothers

Awesome, nah I can't let yall get just a snippet, here's the full song...rock with me 

After this I was not introduced to A Tribe Called Quest until college. My homeboy Sheldon is a big hip-hop fan. So I saw that he had two cd's from the Tribe. I asked him if I can get those so I can listen to it because I next heard a full album from the Tribe. Sheldon is a type of dude that he wants you to hear the REAL hip-hop because he feels that hip-hop is not as real as it used to be. He gave me the The Low End Theory & The Midnight Marauders. From that day, I haven't stop playing these albums. The Low End Theory has became my 4th best hip-hop album of all time. (Oh Sheldon I know it's been 5 years I owe you those albums back, lol.)

The Low End Theory musically was epic. They incorporated jazz with hip-hop which sounded like a perfect marriage. From this album, I learned who Phife really was because I always knew Q-Tip, this was Phife coming out album because lyrically he was awesome. "Yo microphone check 1 2 what is this"....(yall know the rest)

Buggin' Out

Yall can't tell me Phife didn't murder his first vibe, even on the documentary Q-Tip said "when Phife walked out of the booth, they looked at him and said, THAT WAS FIRE!" Of course "Check The Rhime" was a classic, but the musically "Jazz (We Got)" was a masterpiece. The smoothness of the song made you want to listen to what they were saying lyrically.

Jazz

The last song on the album is a collaboration classic that included a young Busta Rhymes that was part of the Leaders of the New School, everybody remembers "as I combine all the juice from the mind". Rock to the first "Touch It Remix"

Scenario (Video)

 

THIS WAS HIP-HOP!!!

After listening to The Low End Theory I thought that these guys are not going to deliver another great album. So, I expected The Midnight Marauders to be disappointing. Now even though, I don't think it better than The Low End Theory but the Tribe delivered with hits like "Award Tour", "Electric Relaxation", and my favorite artist Mary J. Blige sample this song for her hit "Love At First Sight"

Hot Sex

I KNOW YOU HAVE TO BE BUMPING RIGHT NOW!!

Now The Tribe have so much more hits, but I felt from watching the documentary I inspired to write about them. During the documentary, I discovered that Q-Tip produced a lot of the Tribe's music. He grew up with that old soul and jazz and it reminded me of myself because I raised with that old soul. In all, this documentary made me respect and love them more. And that's why they are my favorite hip-hop group of all time.

More Tribe Bangers 

Can I Kick It

With The Zu Nation/Native Tongues: Buddy

Stressed Out

MUST WATCH DOCUMENTARY

WHATS YOUR FAVORITE JOINT FROM TRIBE? WHY?

COMMENT

  

The Album I Can't Get Enough Of

"Emotions" (1991)

Mariah Carey's "Emotions" for the last month I've been listening to everyday. I knew of this album but I really never listen to in its entirely. So, on twitter one of the trending topics was what was your favorite album from Mariah Carey most of my followers said the album "Emotions". See I never had a favorite Mariah album because she was not one of favorite artists. Now Mariah can SANG, but I never really listened to her albums in full expect "The Emancipation of Mimi". After seeing many of followers talking about the "Emotions" album I felt I will give it a full listen. Even though, I already knew songs like 'Emotions', the inspirational 'Make It Happen', and my then favorite song 'Can't Let Go'. When I finally listened to this album, it become one of my top favorite albums of all time. I absolutely love this album. Mariah was SANGING on this album. This album made me have so much more respect for her. Now as I give my "emotions" on this masterpiece, you will realize that I have 3 new favorite songs from her.

Track By Track Reviews (My Emotions of each song)

1. Emotions- The title track of the album was always great to me. I remember this song when I was in kindergarten and we used to play the radio during lunch and I remember singing this song with my class. (Yup this tells my age...lol) But I remember when the class used to try to hit the those high notes she did at the end. (Imagine high pitch 5 year olds trying to sing..classic!) This track was a very known track that I knew from Mariah because of the memories from kindergarten.
2. And You Don't Remember- One of my new favorite songs from Mariah. This was a track that I never heard before. The only time I knew about this song was when I saw Mariah do interview and they asked her what was her favorite song from this album she said 'And You Don't Remember'. This song sent chills through my body because the harmonies and her sanging was legendary. In addition, this song connected to me because made me think about situations that I have dealt it. It's like you gave your heart to someone and they don't remember the great/loving things they told you. But the thing that really gets you with this song is when she hits that high note graciously during the bridge.
3. Can't Let Go- This song use to be my favorite of mine from Mariah but since I have listened to this album in full this song is still great but 3 other songs in my opinion are better than this. But before my full listen, I used to love this song because of the smoothless, Mariah brought you into the song with her voice. During a time when I thought that someone really care for me but I turned out to be wrong, I really felt that Mariah was saying everything I wanted to say, and when she sings "and every night I see you in my dreams". I used to sing this and try to hit the note at the end, but one time I was singing with such emotion, I actually hit the note at the end. So that high note makes perfect sense at the end Mariah...lol 
4. Make It Happen- This song was also a song that I knew from her. I remember this song from the video with her in the church. This song is very inspirational, during my college days when I wasn't going to church on Sunday's I used to have Gospel playlist, this song was on there. Now we know Mariah is known for those high notes, but on this song it wasn't needed. She didn't over do it on this song. The part of the song that gets me is when she sings "I held onto my faith I struggled and prayed, and finally found my way". If you need a song with inspiration and a great beat, I recommend this song.
5. If It's Over - As I stated, I didn't know a lot about Mariah, so one day I was on youtube and I found this performance of her singing this song on the Grammys. That performance was epic, but it still didn't make me go listen to the album version. Every time someone would ask me about this song, I would say "have you seen her performance of this song on the Grammys". But finally after listening to the album version, I understand why Oprah wanted her to sing this song on her show. This song is great, but I feel that Grammy performance made the song legendary.
6. You're So Cold - This song is most definitely an album filler. But what draws me into this song is the beginning because it sounds like the beginning of the O'Jays "Backstabbers". With the O'Jays being in my favorite group of all time, Mariah had me from the beginning, when she hit that high note in the beginning then it was over, I was like "damn this girl has range". Every time this song plays, I rock out to it like if it's hip hop song. 
7. So Blessed - Another favorite of mine. I play this song every Sunday before church. Maybe Mariah talking about a person, but I feel like she is SANGING to GOD. It's like when you get to this song on the album, you realize maybe you have been hurt but you are blessed to see another day. "You are my heart, my everything, feeling you now is all I need". When she says this song, it continues to send chills up my shine. (I am listening to the song as I type this...*shakes from chills*). From this song and 'Make It Happen' you know that Mariah is very spiritual. Thank you Mariah for another inspirational song in my eyes.
8. To Be Around You - This song gives me the vibe of a 70s party, like from the scene in Claudine where Claudine plays "On & On" by Gladys Knight & the Pips and the party gets live where the people start doing the bump. Mariah gives me that vibe in this song. The end of the song where background vocalist harmonize with people talking was a great ending to the song.
9. Til The End of Time - This is my 2nd favorite track from the album. This song is so smooth. Mariah takes you to another place on this record. You can just close your eyes and imagine the person you want to be with and sing this to them. There is really no words to describe this song, but LEGENDARY!
10. The Wind - I love how she uses the wind in the background while the piano and her vocals sound great together. I feel that Mariah wanted this song to be more about the instruments which I love, which gives you that jazzy/blues vibe. This song was a great way to end an emotional album, as she lets instruments finish the album.

Well these are my emotions for each track of this masterpiece of an album. I see why many of my twitter followers love this album so much. I have such more respect for Mariah after hearing this album. I know it's late to give a review of this 21 year old album, but a masterpiece album like this I had to. If you don't have this album in your collection you need to get it.

MY TOP 3 FAVORITES SONGS

(LISTEN TO THE GREATNESS)

AND YOU DON'T REMEMBER

SO BLESSED

TIL THE END OF TIME

THE GRAMMY PERFORMANCE OF IF ITS OVER