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The producer-vocalist-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist has managed to keep the heat turned up any way you look at it.
Complete with a heaven-sent choir sound, his latest hit, "I Wish," sets aside his signature slinky, bump-n-grind bedroom vibe for a moment to remember those close to him that have experienced untimely deaths. With an uncanny ability to creep deep into our hearts and souls, R crafts classic love soundscapes so touching, tender and inspirational it reminds us of being in church. Now can we get an amen.
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Who Is Jill Scott?
The album, produced by DJ Jazzy Jeff's A Touch of Jazz camp, has been certified platinum, but even more impressively, the gifted songbird recently received an impressive three Grammy nominations.
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Excerpts from MTV.com
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Make no mistake. Jennifer Lopez is a performer, not a singer. (I don't care if her man is up on weapons charges.) Take Jennifer away from the Pro Tools and chances are she won't sound good — or at least that good. While adequate, her voice has no particular timbre or tone to distinguish it from any other dancer/actress/celebrity/performer out there. She is musical, though, and knows how to make the best out of what she does (or doesn't) have. And, in point of fact, Lopez is one of the better non-singing singers around. She makes terrific R&B-pop — and terrific, insanely vivacious R&B-pop is what her sophomore album has to spare. J.Lo has a feisty, damn-I-know-I'm-all-that attitude, combined with pulsating, insistent beats that leap out of the speakers and make you wanna move.
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Reggae popster Shaggy has been climbing the charts for six months with his aptly titled Hotshot album. And his unlikely comeback hit, "It Wasn't Me," recently unseated the singles chart's reigning independent women, Destiny's Child. In fact, the album didn't begin picking up steam until a radio DJ in Hawaii downloaded a copy of "It Wasn't Me" from Napster and began playing it in heavy rotation. The rest is history: The album has sold more than 2.3 million copies to date, according to SoundScan.
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Outkast have developed a major sweet tooth for P-Funk, but what they've picked up from their former collaborator George Clinton isn't his low-end bounce. It's rather his hovering, serpentine vocal arrangements and his acidic political fantasies, as well as his acknowledgment that human beings are leaky and smelly and that's where the funk comes from. (Come on — "Stankonia." Is that perfect Parliament geography, or what?) And one other thing: electric guitar, specifically the howling wah-wah of the earliest Funkadelic records. "Gasoline Dreams" cranks up the ax-factor, throws in a tribute to the first line of Maggot Brain ("I hear that Mother Nature's now on birth control"), and rocks in a way rap-metal arrivistes can only dream of.
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Not many cats can talk to Jay lyrically, and this album is no different. Unfortunately, there's a lot of mic time given to Bleek and Sigel who are still well behind their mentor in terms of skills. Thankfully, Amil - by far the weakest member of the crew - sees only limited mic time on this outing.
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Though strong and seemingly incongruous, words like "emancipated" and "militant" might do well by Mr. Webster in defining Common's mood on the eve of the release of his forth album, "Like Water For Chocolate". As he puts the finishing touches on a record that he proclaims, "a whole new funky, soul music," he finds himself in increasingly influential company (The Roots, Eryka Badu), a major label record deal with MCA, new city, and the midst of becoming the first real rap star to come out of Chicago.
Words From Marty Behm's Velocity Article
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Chicago's Own
HALL OF FAME
Fo Sho!
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Wasted Talent Entertainment Inc.
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Unauthorized Reproduction is prohibited by federal law.
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