Cassie: The new Ciara?

http://canuhearme.tumblr.com/

LOL guys. So I just got back from seeing How to Dress Well (I know, I know) and I spoke to Tom after the show. Two things:

1) He apparently has been chatting with Cassie on Skype and the whole 'working together on a track for his album' thing might really happen !!!
2) He seemed fairly confident from those conversations that her album would be coming out sometime in 2011, if not on a big label/Bad Boy/whatever, then on something smaller.

um

whoa

(good reporting, btw)

god, you know, i love the internet.

all this electro love

i could see some euro label putting out her album

that's about it tho

cassie singing over a how to dress well song would be a disaster tho unless he decided to record music not like an asshole

lolllll

(Also, on a totally unrelated note, while I really quite love his album he had a cold today and dropped an octave out of the falsetto for one or two songs and MY GOODNESS he has a wonderful (traditionally good) r&b voice when he's not pitching himself up into sad nostalgia indie range. in an alternate universe there is a version of Love Remains which features him singing in his regular singing voice with fuller studio production and it is a BANGING r&b album. he also did a 100% faithfully earnest cover of 'I Wish' by R Kelly which was sort of wonderful)

his "i wish" cover is great

Great update Alex in Montreal. I tried listening to How To Dress Well and my first impression was it sounded like an indie guy singing half ass faux quiet storm music. However, I'm willing to listen to him again.

Also, I hope this album is released in a smaller label. That way it won't have this impossible expectation to sell Rihanna/Beyonce like numbers. Plus, with this seemingly indie love she is getting it would be interesting how they advertise this album.

Plus there is this:

http://www.dummymag.com/features/2011/01/18/a-love-letter-to-cassie/

*on a smaller label I mean

Um...I mean, if HtDW isn't your thing it isn't your thing (Lex, this means you). He's part of a particular subset of underground/lo-fi music these days whose tastes and interests musically are firmly in the world of R&B, bass and dance stuff (and who often have quite good taste when it comes to these genres), but whose music doesn't necessarily reflect that, or at least not the values that more 'traditional' fans of those genres might zoom in on. End result is it appeals more to people who might completely ignore the stuff they're using as inspiration than those with similar musical affections.

Which is just a long round-about way of saying that it will make Lex apoplectic. :)

He's part of a particular subset of underground/lo-fi music these days whose tastes and interests musically are firmly in the world of R&B, bass and dance stuff

Yeah this concept popped up my mind when trying to hear it this past December. It felt like "safe music" for indie kids who didn't want to listen to scary, black r&b (roll eyes). However I have a habit of dissing something at first listen and coming back to it months and years later appreciating it for what it is despite the ignorance of the fans attached to it.

It felt like "safe music" for indie kids who didn't want to listen to scary, black r&b (roll eyes). However I have a habit of dissing something at first listen and coming back to it months and years later appreciating it for what it is despite the ignorance of the fans attached to it.

This seems really harsh. What evidence is there that How to Dress Well fans are ignorant? My understanding is that much of his appeal is that he truly is well researched R&B enthusiast playing with the conventions of a genre he deeply loves and understands. HtDW fans might not be as versed in R&B, but they certainly have an appreciation for the genre. A listener would have to be pretty masochistic to listen to that HtDW album if they didn't like R&B.

Mmm. Not to derail the thread of an artist I really love but it's not about it being safe for white kids or not. He's not trying to make it safe or approaching it ironically - just filtering his interests/influences through his personal musical sensibilities. It seems fairly uncontroversial to me to suggest that people are frequently influenced by music without replicating it in their own output. He's not making R&B. Just influenced by it.

already totally despise how to dress well

can't remember anything from the one song i listened to apart from a) the song was boring b) his voice was intolerable c) it sounded like it was recorded in a toilet, three rooms away

kinda wish folks wouldnt worry about 'sensibilities' & worry more abt writing good songs bcuz when it comes down to it the affects of R&B dont matter like the songwriting does

i dont know anything abt this band, whether id side w/ lex on it or not, just sayin

can't remember anything from the one song i listened to apart from a) the song was boring b) his voice was intolerable c) it sounded like it was recorded in a toilet, three rooms away

Now those are valid reasons not to listen to HtDW. I'm with Alex, though; I think the guy's got a fair amount of talent and could turn out some genuinely great more conventional R&B if he wanted to, and his heart is in the right place. He's honoring R&B, not sanitizing it.

kinda wish folks wouldnt worry about 'sensibilities' & worry more abt writing good songs bcuz when it comes down to it the affects of R&B dont matter like the songwriting does

Unfortunately, with HtDW the sensibilities and the songs are really one and the same... he deliberately slathers affects over his songs to render the lyrics indecipherable, so for better or worse his songs are more about mood than sentiment. That's a big part of why his album is so divisive.

ryan leslie already made 'gibberish'

thats a one-song gimmick imo

p4k interview said he was into black dice and the dream and that his work is abt the reciprocity b/w the dreams swirls of synth and black dice swirls of noise. its not bad rnb its lofi indie rooted in rnb, saying its badly produced if its tryna be rnb is missing the point

you can have well-produced indie too! idk and tbh i don't care how r&b it's trying to be - though i think lilsoulbrother's complaint has a lot of merit when it comes to critical attention/praise that "lo-fi indie rooted in r&b" gets compared to actual r&b - b/c to me this (and gayngs too) fails on a really basic aural level.

idk what is "well produced" tho?

seems to me that it doesnt exist on a linear quality scale.

well to me it excludes most "lo-fi". if it grates on my ears => it is badly-produced.

yeah well then i think yr gonna miss out on abt 50% of what this guy is doing which is spec. about those grating textures and kindof aleatoric dissonance. to say that its "badly produced" seems p unhelpful

lex for the 90th time gayngs sounds 0% like contemporary R&B

Just to chip in, I don't hear much contempory R&B in HtDW, some late 80s/90s intonations in the tunes. Jam & Lewis style. Perhaps I'm wrong tho.

idk i def hear the influence of smthng like lovevmoney pt2 in decisions

I mean, what it boils down to is this. His favourite shit of 2010 is Egyptrixx, Deadboy, Wiz Khalifa, Ciara, The-Dream, Gucci, Girl Unit, Forest Swords, Waka & Teengirl Fantasy + a bunch of metal thread shit. Dude is impeccable taste-wise imo - the dead centre of ILX goons/R&B stans/UK bass/metal rolling thread denizens and channels all of that in various ways. I like it, some people don't, but dude isn't limited to his lo-fi stuff (the three or four mixes he's done for Fader/The Wire/somewhere else have been pretty good). If he ends up working with Cassie, he's enough of a fan of her stuff + her vocals to know what to do with them.

An excerpt from what Tyler, the Creator posted on a neptunes forum about Cassie "Hide":

“fuck. shit is fucking crazy. so much has happnd in the past couple days. i talked to pharrell for like an hour. knowing that my hero is a fucking fan is fucking crazy! i asked him a couple questions that fans would ask. like about that Cassie track HIDE….that shit is not coming out, from what he told me..."

Well at least I have my 1 minute snippet :( :( :(

It's so frustrating being a fan of hers. She is the quintessential artist in limbo.

And don't forget disappointment as well. If she doesn't release this album this year I'm just going to give up.

R&B and label politics is so fucking frustrating. Plus the neptunes are such hoarders of their stuff. They aren't as popular as they were in the early 00's. They should be doing what Kanye, Swizz, and Timbaland are doing but they have delusion of grandeur.

(Apologies for the rant in the future.)

Teen Vogue: Nothing like a little music to get the party started. One of my favorite tracks on Cassie's ipad playlist was her own: her new single Bougie S*%t. "Yep, that's how it's spelling," she says. "I looked it up on the Urban Dictionary. It's a girl power song. It's just very honest," she says. "I like to talk from experience. You know, I'm a girl in my twenties. I've been in and out of love. There are lots of girls who have different stories--I just speak from my point of view."

also she is recording w/ ryan leslie again

Yeah I read this and got a little hopeful.

ok ok NEWS

so in June issue of Nylon, it says Cassie's album is coming out this summer. Doesn't have a title yet!

Her favorite song off it is called "Lonely Disco Ball" ("which is about the end of the night when the party is done and everybody has left.")

Cassie (discussing the album): “It’s a cool blend of pop, hip-hop, and ska. It’s urban Gwen Stefani meets Aaliyah. I hate referencing people but if you had to compare, that’s it.”

ska?????

officialcas Cassie
Listening to my single... is a really satisfying feeling. Can't wait for everyone to hear.

How much longer?????????

― Tape Store, Sunday, June 8, 2008 7:06 AM (3 years ago)

http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Reviews/NeverEndingStory/Images/NeverEndingStory-DVD.jpg

Um... according to Wikipedia, Jason Derulo wrote "My House"

o_O

I feel very conflicted right now

"My House" is literally one of my favourite songs of all time and i will never ever believe that that is true

cassie is the new face of carol's daughter

i get to see her on big posters coming home