Chris Brown came to my town Saturday night and he had the crowd in a frenzy especially the young ladies. Chris is just the latest in a long line of r&b heartthrobs in the music industry and he's just absolutely handsome and gorgeous. So for selfish reasons I'm going to post a picture of him from this weekend. I wish him a very long and successful career.
There have been a few gospel songs that cross over to grab an R&B secular audience usually during times of economic hardships. So it comes as no surprise that the latest song to achieve that feat is Marvin Sapp’s “Never Would Have Made It” which is steadily climbing the R&B/Hip-Hop charts. In a time when massive unemployment, foreclosures, repossessions are just the tip of the iceberg of a recession this song has an inspirational message that gives the hope as bad as things are you can make it.
On May 21, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. I lost my brother. He wasn’t supposed to die before me I am more than 14 years older than him. People who you can remember clearly before they were born and being almost too nervous to hold them for the first time they are suppose to go after you but that wasn’t the case here. From his boyish appearance to his warm smile Kevin was the peacemaker especially when it came to dealing with our dad.
With my dad and I both being strong minded opinionated Leos, Kevin had a way of being that bridge that would encourage us to make amends and not let things keep us apart for too long. He was kind, friendly, and too many times too wanting of people to like him to the point that he would get used. More than anything he was only 22 and hadn’t tasted what life was or could offer. Nobody is perfect and Kevin had his ups and downs and challenges but more than anything I took for granted time. Time that I thought we would have because certaintly at age 36 and he being only 22 i didn’t think that time would stop for us but it did and not with expectation. I talked to Kevin on a Tuesday afternoon with the last words i’d ever hear from him being I love you too and by Sunday night he was gone, no more I love you’s, no more let’s get together, and no more crazy late night calls just the only reminder of his voice was calling his cell phone until that too was gone forever.
People tell you that with time you can go on and each day gets better but there are times it’s as if it was yesterday that he died. There are moments without any reason i completely breakdown and have a good cry, the grief is too raw and thinking about him for too long just reminds me that i have to live in a world that he doens’t exist in. I will always think of the baby I rocked to Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’ or the little boy who sat at a Michael Jackson concert at the age of 4 and was scared of the fireworks but got excited when he saw the performance of the song ‘BAD’ or the young man he was respectful to all adults, who wanted us to go on a roadtrip to California that we never got around to.
Finally, I will miss those last plans we made to spend Father’s Day of 2006 doing something with our dad and him comforting me in my grief when in March of that same year i’d just lost my stepdad. Kevin used to make me laugh, he used to do things to irritate me in a sibling way, and most of all he used to make me feel like sometimes that he needed to be protected. In the end though all I had left was seeing him after he’d past away and being the wonderful selfless man he’d been in life, he was a organ donar having helped eight families. God bless them, I still miss my little brother.
One of his favorite artists was Mariah Carey, her song 'One Sweet Day' sums up best how deep the lost is and another song that i listened to for quite some time after his passing was T.I.'s 'Live In The Sky' I hope both songs move you as they did me. Warning: T.I.'s song has explicit cursing.
There are plenty of male groups I am a huge fan of but if I were to narrow it down it would be the original Temptations, and Earth, Wind & Fire. The original Temptations were form in Detroit with Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin and the only living original member Otis Williams. Their tremendous run of eight R&B no.1s before David was replaced was never matched by the future lineups that came after and that group is considered by many to be the greatest male R&B group ever.
My other favorite all time group is Earth, Wind & Fire. I think that’s largely due to knowing how much of a huge fan my mother was of them and played them a lot when I was a very young child. While The Temptations biggest success came in the 1960s, Earth, Wind & Fire became massive stars in the 1970s. This group which was formed in Chicago, was headed by Maurice White, and featured numerous lineup changes but the two vocals that always stood out where Maurice’s and Philip Bailey. Besides being some of the best musicians they also put on awesome stage performances that many groups of that era borrowed from.
Honorable mention of groups I loved include the Jackson 5/Jacksons, the Commodores, the Ohio Players, the Whispers and the O’Jays.
There have been countless female r&b girl groups I’ve been fans of and so I’ve decided to pick my favorites from different decades to illustrate my wide range in tastes. From the 1960s, I pick the Supremes made up of three young girls from Detroit Michigan name Diane, Mary and Florence who epitomized the ultimate in girl groups and wore dazzling costumes and who racked up an astonishing 12 no.1 pop hits that will never be matched. From the 1970s, my favorite girl group would be the Emotions a female trio from Chicago who had beautiful harmonies and some of the biggest hits when they worked with Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire.
My favorite group from the 1980s career began in the 1970s but they peaked in the 1980s and it’s the Pointer Sisters who hail from Oakland and during the 80s racked up an impressive seven top 40s with my favorite among them being ‘Jump(For My Love)’ and my favorite group from the 1990s is En Vogue. Also from California like the Pointer Sisters, En Vogue came from San Francisco and had their first three singles hit no.1 on the Billboard R&B chart, arguably they are one of the last great female groups in R&B and as other came and went during the 1990s, they left the most lasting impression. Since then no female group exists in the 21st century and hasn’t been formed during this decade, it leaves a huge void and is part of the obvious problem that has crippled the music industry as it is today. There doesn’t seem to be any signs of any female groups that will come along in the foreseeable future so I’ll have my memories of all of the great ones that I’ve mentioned here and countless others I am a huge fan of to continue to enjoy their music.
The BET awards were a mixed bag this year but truly the old skool artists made the show watchable and the best performer of the night was the one and only legendary Al Green. For a guy that is 62 years old his performance was inspiring and awesome and sent chills up my spine. True raw soul singing can never be topped and Mr. Green is still the man check out the links below to see why he is one of the greatest soul men and one of the very few that is still with us to be enjoyed.
In honor of Motown turning 50 this year I will from time to time talk about various Motown artists so I will start it off with Stevie Wonder. I could sit here all day and talk about the musical brilliance of Stevie Wonder. He’s my all time favorite singer/musician and so today I celebrate him. The first song I ever heard by Stevie was ‘Superstition’ and my love affair began there. So sit back and enjoy Stevie from 12 year old prodigy to mega superstar that he became in the 1970s.
Initially i didn't like his prior efforts but this song 'Stay' brand new by him just has me swooning. I love the song and the video, click on the link and check it out I hope that Ray's debut album has more great offerings like this one:
I've been a few weddings and the variety of songs people choose always fascinate me. Some are really great and some are just head shaking ones LOL so today i pick two songs that were my favorites, my later father sang to my mother Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" and my cousin's husband had a couple sing Eric Benet's "Spend My Life With You"
When I was 4 years old i used to love this song called "Rock The Boat" but as a little girl i always thought they were saying Rock your baby, yes because i had a Baby Alive doll and i figured that song was about her. The song is such an R&B classic and is worth checking out, thank goodness with the modern technology of youtube i can hear the lyrics accurately.......
Normally i'd post pics but today not really interested more about noting the irony that two black male singers accused of child molestation both get acquitted 14 times on the same day of June 13th. Bottom line regardless of how much a jury acquits you in the end the final verdict comes from the court of public opinion who have the last say. As much as some famous people like to play victim and cry about being set up by everybody it's not everyday a celeb is accused of child molestation and goes on trial. Clearly these two male singers made bad choices and landed in hot water, may they both learn to make better choices and avoid being a in a constant state of stupidity and worse face possibly going to prison again.
I confess I'm not a huge fan of hip hop but for some reason i am drawn to Lil Wayne aka Wheezy. Some of his lyrics are ahem too risque for most ears but soemthing about his current smash 'Lollipop' has me almost hynotized. Maybe it's the electronic feel of it or some subliminal level it's seducing. All in all it has worked for the New Orleans rapper who has for years built a steady following and has become a favorite of most artists to be on their remixes of late. Here is a clip of "Lollipop" warning though it is R-rated for strong language
Certainly back in the 1980s I wouldn’t been calling them lite rock artists but more than 20 years later they are and some of my all time favorite artists. When I think of high school two female vocalists stand out and it’s Whitney Houston and Anita Baker. Much has been written about their distinctive careers and about how Anita came off more ‘soulful’ than Whitney etc…so instead of focusing on the negatives instead I offer up clips of them to be enjoyed and appreciated.
I came of age in the 1980s but I love Disco. It reminds me of my late uncle Len and it reminds me of being a small child in the 70s. Some of my all time favorites were Donna Summer of course, K.C. & The Sunshine Band, and Gloria Gaynor among others. Today though I have to give it up to my all time favorite disco act and in all fairness to them they were more than that but hey they were the ultimate and that’s the Bee Gees, I mean the soundtrack to “Saturday Night Fever” is a must own album. With songs like “How Deep Is Your Love”, “Stayin Alive”, “More Than A Woman’ and of course the always booty shaking “You Should Be Dancing” and I’m off and having a great time being 8 years old again, if only music can be that much fun again someday…..
Everybody wants to keep talking about how bad music is and so fake and not real; so I figure change the focus on an artist that is very real and exciting. I know that she is getting major notice among many of us neosoul and R&B fans but I figure if I post a link here of her then more people can get into this up and coming artist. Change the record and meet this wonderful artist name Ledisi. She’s been around for awhile but is currently blowing up and I hope to see her get as big as one of my all time favs: Jill Scott
There are a number of celebrities turning 50 this year or have already turned 50. In music you have from Anita Baker to Kenneth Brian "Babyface" Edmonds and of course ultimately the big three in order of their birthdays: Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson. It would be very easy to focus on the ups and downs of their respective careers from their peaks in the 1980s which is when I came of age from leaving middle school and entering high school and graduating high school in 1987 when they essentially peaked. Instead I’ll focus on what they meant to me during the 1980s in their glory years, I’ll begin with Michael Jackson who grew up before our very eyes beginning with his brothers and having ultimately the greatest career of a solo artist who started out in a band.
His music and videos got me into many arguments with my holier than thou mother and gave me many great conversations with my dad. It was the thing we could share talking about music and going to the Victory and BAD tours was the ultimate for me personally because for my generation he was the perfect combination from James Brown and Jackie Wilson to Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly with Sammy Davis Jr and Mikhail Baryshnikov all thrown in the greatest entertainer I’ve seen in my life time, having to make sure I got good grades to attend the Victory tour was how much seeing Michael meant to me and so I think of those times in viewing him rather than focus on how his life turned out many years after that.
Madonna wasn’t going to ever be confused with a legend like Aretha Franklin vocal wise but her gumption and raw talent of knowing how to work a crowd, be forever innovative, and market herself will be legendary for many years to come. Her videos like Michael were always an event not to be missed, waiting for the world premieres and always wondering what Madonna was going to do next was fun. Madonna proved if you have a vision and have the confidence then you can last and last. So today I celebrate all 3 of them, they set a bar so high that the artists that would come after them would be sub par at best and embarrassing at worst. I know that every generation think their generation was better but I truly feel like I got to see 3 of the greatest in history and something like them we will never see again.
So I go into Best Buy this past Saturday and I’m looking for a current hot release, but when I go into the store what greets me the HDTV; I’m looking to the left and looking to the right but the HDTV is like notice me. Finally I see the CD racks but they are very small in number almost as if they are in a small circle surrounded by TV’s and stereo systems and home appliances and suddenly im thinking is it me or has the store made the decision for me save your gas, stay at home get online don’t come to the store. It’s not like when you used to go to the store and you’d get excited about a new album release and go and stand in line as the new album was played throughout the store, having sales people actually know about all types of music and having a great time talking them up no instead it’s the CD’s are right there but this week you can get that 27 inch HDTV for 499 with a 100 dollar rebate, talk about having that HDTV pushing back those CDs.
Remember when live concerts mattered not pre-taped
Remember when artists danced not exercised
Remember when you couldn’t decide which album you wanted to buy because there were so many great artists unlike now when you might go months and not even go to a Best Buy
Remember when you’d get all excited staying up to watch an MTV premiere instead of today being indifferent because you can see videos on youtube long before they show up on actual TV
Remember when music was all about feeling love, joy, pain and happiness instead of now being some repetitive noise that is fake and unreal.
Maybe one day real music will matter to a dying music industry and I won’t have to be remembering when….
I'm a woman who enjoys listening to music from the 1950s to the mid 1990s. I love sports and this upcoming election has gotten me passionate about politics.
