John Legend: Evolver

May I throw an ‘R’ before that album title, sir?

John Legend’s new album Evolver is what I like to refer to as mainstream soul.  In fact, John Legend in general defines mainstream soul.  He draws upon all that greatness that could make an artist iconic, but for some reason it never quite manifests into new greatness. Read more

Jazmine Sullivan: Fearless

A review of the debut album from Jazmine Sullivan…

I know you be asking yourself who Jazmine Sullivan is right now, but let’s just say you should get familiar with her.  Finally releasing her debut album “Fearless” on J Records, Jazmine stands up and reminds us what mainstream R&B could be right now. Read more

Giving up on Musiq…

“Don’t front. You know you loooove it.” Not quite, homey.

As if soul wasn’t already an underground genre, now Musiq is trying “Radio”.  I expected this one day, but thought there would be a few more singles signaling the inevitable end between then and now.  Nope, Musiq dove head first into the mainstream.  Can he swim though? Read more

Dumb it down!!

Go sit down til you learn how to appreciate this here…

In the R&B aisle of my most frequented spot to pick up music (as in ‘yes, i actually like having a physical CD and reading liner notes from a booklet’), I ran into a melanin-deficient fellow who asked me what was new. His question being general as f*ck, I asked him what style he was into. He responded that he wanted some ‘real singers’. Instantly, a list popped into my head. As I prepared to see how far into the ‘real singers’ he got so i could make a suggestion he interrupted. You know how they say, ‘Better to be thought a fool and remain silent…’ … yeah. He sees the Jill Scott CD in front of him and says “Yeah, but, not Jill Scott though. I want somebody with some pipes; like Mary J.” Wow, really? He then proceeded to attempt to let me in on ‘the real thing’. Supposedly he saw Jill in concert and felt she was too wrapped up in being Jill Scott; kept doing all these ‘vocal things’. ::sigh:: I asked him ‘what makes you feel that way?’ He couldn’t say, only that ’she just gave that vibe’. Ri-i-i-ight. Sounds like some personal insecurities to me, homey.

Read more