Before Uncle Charlie Wilson launched his solo career, he was the lead singer of The Gap Band, and "Early in the Morning" was one of their biggest singles. If you listen closely, he uses elements of this song in his cameo on Snoop Dogg's "Signs." The Gap Band was on of the biggest groups of the 70s and 80s, and many of their songs are sampled by artists to this day.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Classic R&B Song of the Day: The Gap Band "Early in the Morning" (1982)
Before Uncle Charlie Wilson launched his solo career, he was the lead singer of The Gap Band, and "Early in the Morning" was one of their biggest singles. If you listen closely, he uses elements of this song in his cameo on Snoop Dogg's "Signs." The Gap Band was on of the biggest groups of the 70s and 80s, and many of their songs are sampled by artists to this day.
Friday, October 16, 2009
New R&B: Slim of 112 "Talk to Me"
It's always disappointing for me to hear an established singer using auto tune technology, and that's what Slim chose to do on his latest song "Talk to Me." The worst part is, Slim is has a great voice, so to do this type of thing is complete unnecessary. Slim will release his 2nd solo album "Cruise Control" at some point next year, and if this is the direction he chooses to go on the album, you can count on me ignoring it.
New R&B: JoJo "Impossible to Love"
Here is a new song by R&B singer JoJo called "Impossible to Love." After some label disputes, it looks like things are finally settled and she will be releasing her third album "All I Want is Everything" in early 2010. Interestingly enough, she confirmed earlier this year that she will be attending Northeastern University starting this year, so let's see how much that effects her ability to release music.
New R&B: Tank "Cellphone"
"Cellphone" is a new mid tempo song from singer Tank that finds him separately complaining about each cell phone provider. I found the line "Verizon's cool but their plans cost a lot" to be especially entertaining. This is the third time this week I've posted a new song by Tank, it's good to hear all of this new music from him.
New R&B: Brandy "I Don't Really Care"
A new song from R&B singer Brandy leaked today called "I Don't Really Care." No news yet on an upcoming album, but she will surely look to rebound after her previous album "Human" was a huge disappointment sales wise. Despite this setback, she is still a huge name and has the talent and star power to be successful again.
Classic Hip Hop Song of the Day: Jurassic 5 "Concrete Schoolyard" (1999)
Hip Hop group Jurassic 5 released the song "Concrete Schoolyard" off of their "Jurassic 5 LP" in 1998 and is today's Classic Hip Hop Song of the Day. The album would serve to position them in the center of the alternative hip hop movement that was emerging in the late 90's. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles based group split in 2007, and "Concrete Schoolyard" stands as it's only top 40 charting single.
Classic R&B Song of the Day: Case "Faded Pictures" featuring Joe (1999)
"Faded Pictures" by Case featuring Joe is today's Classic R&B Song of the Day. The single is featured on the soundtrack to the "Rush Hour" movie and also off of Case's 1999 album "Personal Conversation." This was one of Case's biggest singles in the 90's, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Top 100. It's also nice to see Case is still making music today; he released "The Rose Experience" earlier this year.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Why Should You Ever Listen to Music on the Radio?
It might seem like a stupid question, but in this day and age, why would the best alternative for listening to music ever be the radio? Ok I admit this is bound to be a controversial topic, I'm not saying all radio stations should be boycotted or anything like that. I'm also not talking about college radio stations or smaller independent stations. What I'm referring to are the big corporate owned stations who are out to make money. In it's most basic form, all these radio stations do is take the so called "hits" and constantly replay them in rotation probably over the span of an hour.
But who chose these hits, and are these really the best songs currently out there? Doubtful. More than likely, the big name record labels are paying these stations for spins of their biggest artist's latest single. And it's not even like that single was chosen by fans, so in a lot of cases, it might not even be one of the best songs on the album. See where I'm going with this?
Why should you let someone else tell you what you should be listening to? Why should you let someone else decide for you, what songs you should be hearing at any given time? Is it really fair that some of the best artists never even get heard on the radio, but instead listeners are force fed some particular artists who don't have talent?
Sure it's nice to hear new songs get premiered on the radio. However, in the internet age, there is a much better chance that you will be able to hear the song first online rather than over the radio. Additionally, it brings us back to the original problem, will you even be hearing the best new songs that are being released by artists?
So what am I suggesting? There are plenty of alternatives out there. The first is simple, the Ipod. It seems like everyone has one of these nowadays, and they even sell the connections to the stereo in your car for pretty cheap. Just put the thing on shuffle, and I guarantee a much better rotation of songs to your liking will come up. There is also such free services such as Pandora. Although they are selecting the songs for you, you have the power to skip songs you don't like! What a great idea. Also, if you find the right station on there, you could get a string of ten or so songs you like and maybe haven't even heard in awhile.
My conclusion is simple. With a hobby that many of us are so passionate about such as music, why would we let someone control what we are listening to? I don't have the answer to that.
New R&B: Ne-Yo "Never Knew I Needed"
"Never Knew I Needed" is a new song by Ne-Yo off of the soundtrack to the upcoming Disney film "The Princess and the Frog." You would probably be hard pressed to find a harder working singer in the business right now, since Ne-Yo always seems to have a new leaked song out or have his hand in writing a song for someone else. He has seen no fall-off since releasing his debut album back in 2006, and remains in the forefront of R&B today.
New R&B: Tank "After the Club"
With the number of Tank songs that seem to be leaking weekly, we can only hope that he is close to completing the follow up to "Sex, Love & Pain." However, "Sex Love & Pain II: The All Night Experience" still has no release date. I'm loving in the beginning of this song when he says "Keep the autotune off my voice, I got this." He's right, Tank actually has talent that will put most of these new singers who can't sing to shame.
New Hip Hop: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony "See Me Shine" featuring Lyfe Jennings
"See Me Shine" is a new song from the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony that is expected to be the first single off of their upcoming album "The World's Enemy." For the first time in nearly 10 years, all five members of the group will be together for an album as Flesh-N-Bone was recently released from prison. Plans were to originally release the album on their September 7, their mentor Eazy E's birthday, but conflicts forced them to push the album back to a November 24 release date.
Classic Hip Hop Song of the Day: Slick Rick "Children's Story" (1988)
When considering the greatest hip hop songs of all time, one that would undoubtedly always come up in the conversation is Slick Rick's "Children's Story." Rick vividly tells his story so vividly on this son you can actually visualize it. The England born rapper released his debut album "The Great Adventure's of Slick Rick" in 1988 and would eventually go on to reach platinum status. Countless artists have sampled lines from this album and it is widely considered as a Hip Hop classic.
Classic R&B Song of the Day: Janet Jackson "That's the Way Love Goes" (1993)
Today's R&B Classic Song of the Day is "That's the Way Goes" by Janet Jackson. This is a flashback from '93 and was the first single off of Jackson's fifth studio album "Janet." To this day, the song still stands as one of her biggest hits, as it spent 8 consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and also earned her a Grammy Award.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
New Song: Cormega "Make It Clear" Produced by DJ Premier
Whenever you hear a track is produced by DJ Premier, it becomes a must listen. Now when you hear DJ Premier produced a track for a legendary MC, it becomes an instant classic, and that's what Cormega's "Make it Clear" is. This will be the first single off of Mega's upcoming album "Born & Raised" which is scheduled for release on October 20.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)