Rolling R&B Thread 2007

that nicole scherzinger is a motherfucker of a track

in a good way

"diddy's never really what's wrong with a track, i find; it's the suspicion of diddy that bugs people."

This is totally OTM to a factor of 10. Yeah Diddy is like the Paris Hilton of rap but even more so maybe, people will go to extraordinary lengths to dismiss/deny the good stuff he does, even when often his rapping is really tight and interesting (although that doesn't really apply here). The difference maybe is that I think people's hatred of Diddy actually does originally arise from (parts of) his late 90s music - but that was a v. different time in terms of people's attitudes toward pop-rap and Diddy's style.

ha ha remember when ethan and j0hn d fell out over ethan liking diddy?

speaking of ballsed endings, the sean kingston people are such pussies for leaving out the "SUICIDAL, SUICIDAL, SUICIIIii-rrrwwww" turning off the record metaphor thing at the end of the 'beautiful girls' vid. still so cute tho, i love it. (has the reverend recanted his sins yet? it's so gonna happen, deal with it.)

Ah, I'm afraid not. There are other hit songs out there that I dislike like, but this is the first in some time that I simply CAN NOT LISTEN TO. When it comes on while I'm working I run to the radio to switch it as soon as I hear it, whereas with any other song I don't like I just deal with it, cause I know it will be over in a few minutes. I've actually started avoiding stations that play it. I can't imagine myself ever coming around.

Ironically, the opening of "Beautiful Girls" (at least when played out of a shitty old radio with lots of industrial clatter going on all around) sounds exactly like the intro of "Last Nite", thus lulling me into a false sense of security before that fucking voice kills my soul.

...that I dislike like...

Jeez. As much as I ragged on "Bossy" last year, to the where Jaxon had to tell me shut up already about it (I took his advice, this is the first time I've mentioned "Bossy" on ILM since), I'd take it over "Beautiful Girls" by a wide margin.

...to the point where...

I need to stop fucking up my posts/

Chrisette Michele - Worth investigating?

-- The Reverend, Friday, 6 July 2007 05:26 (Yesterday) Link

The album is quite good. A few tracks are kind of corny in that "neo-soul" way, but for the most part it's great. She's is really talented... it's a shame that the project has been so mishandled by DefJam, I think "Good Girl" could've been a big hit.

RE: Scherzinger's new single... um... YAWN. It's "Blindfold Me" minus all of grime, kinkiness and attitude. I bet it'll be a huge hit :| Man, Kelis just can't catch a break... lol.

"Whatever You Like" is better/sexier than "Blindfold Me" because it doesn't sound like it's being sung by Marge Simpson. Unless you're into that kind of thing.

umm on further listens i could make a pretty good devils advocate case against that scherzinger, mainly for its enervating sucky sucky love u long time vibe (also "she hot as a stove! her name is nicole!" haha) (she hot as some coals? she hot as... some fresh rolls? nah i dunno what'd work better either) but quite frankly unfavourably comparing it to kelis only makes me like it more! i don't feel like a big kelis debate but 'blindfold me's "kinkiness and attitude" is beyond risible, and what i called her 'operatic mooing' on the old thread is at its very worst there. the woman's had a zillion breaks already, it's not our fault she's mad unappealing.

xpost!!

(er is nicole saying "something bout that cock" as well? cf xtina 'candyman' WTF WHEN DID THIS BECOME ACCEPTABLE?!)

i'd really like it if someone had a go at arguing why polow isn't the greatest producer around. but not just listing his worst beats and stuff. at his very best his tracks have this singular concept to them where everything that goes on in them makes perfect sense; at his worst (like the rich boy album, perhaps this nicole too) he's vulnerable to cooking up big chunky soups of interesting but kinda awkward stuff, when u imagine he didnt have a big plan so he thought he'd just chuck everything in. sorta like the way dj shadow sounds so ungainly when he produces for rappers, or at a pinch if lenky felt the need to cram all his bespoke variations on a riddim into one song. obv polow is still totally awesome, but DISCUSS

That line "all cried out, with nothing to say" is like the perfect summation of Keyshia Cole's entire career.

haha ATOMIC PWN. keyshia fans better come and make their cases sharpish, or they lost.

while it's true about diddy presaging certain radio things, i think i love press play more for the ridiculous caprices that won't EVER be fashionable. brazen pharoah monche dress-ups, chintzy boogie, the james brown shit, the amazing chamber orchestra interlude w/ avant, the fucking DRUM N BASS HYPERBALLAD w/ brandy! find me another rich guy in music who dared like diddy! kanye could get a fucking professorship by the time he makes an album as ballsy.

"Thought You Said" = excellence incarnate.

I realize nobody but Al is going to back me up on this, but the Rich Boy album is, for the most part, pretty damn good.

well, xuxhk likes the Rich Boy album and cries about how rap thread meanies should like it more at every opportunity. i don't dislike it, but haven't spent much time with it since the first month or so that it was out, so I'm probably due to listen to and re-evaluate it.

keysh / missy vid

so yeah, i'm guessing i briefly just got bored of everyone else's persona and felt like someone all cried out? holla at an empty signifier. this tune still escapes me, but it's not like you'd bother getting uppity about some old slappers singing along to 'juicy' on the bus either, so.

it is not as good as teedra 'be your girl', for instance. anyone heard teedra's new mixtape? live bits and rap beatjacks as per - naturally, it was very enjoyable. like tim said, her voice cuts you through whatever the weather. critically what sticks out again is her taste in rap beats; she continues her crusade to rehabilitate wifebeaten g-unit beats ('amusement park' this time - consider myself cosigned)(and 'many men'!) and otherwise just popular fun stuffs like 'get it shawty', 'money in the bank', 'throw some ds'... keeps her all young and unpreachy for a soul gal.

i wonder who'd make a good first lady of g-unit. olivia was a little hard done by, to be fair. she looked like a boss bitch, but it wasnt enough to keep the boys under control. teedra's maternal enough but would disapprove at their antics. keyshia was rumoured, bit too baby mama perhaps. the possibility of ciara is a bad dream. maggie thatcher, i hear she's free.

there's nothing really wrong with that rich boy alb i guess, but none of it sticks at all. you let it pass by you for an hour until pastor troy shows up, goes AND I LUV YA BABY! MWAAAAH / HUGZ N KISSES / FUCK THEM NIGGAZ / AND FUCK THEM BITCHES and blows the whole rest of it out of the water.

pretty much gone right off that scherzinger now.

gorgeous summer ballad alert!

and then there's gorgeous summery R&B-friendly zouk: check out "Played Out Record" on Chelsy Shantel's myspace.

Wow, zouk from Portugal. That is nice

Teedra's "Love's Gonna Be" is a little bit disappointing :-(

Not bad actually, and theoretically there's nothing wrong with her making a bid for the charts, but this doesn't utilise her voice enough. And it isn't really catchy enough to justify the move anyway, despite sampling "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

(er is nicole saying "something bout that cock" as well? cf xtina 'candyman' WTF WHEN DID THIS BECOME ACCEPTABLE?!)

cf keri hilson's brilliant 'hands & feet' too, which you prob hate. "where'd you get that from, your daddy?"

trying to figure out whether i love, or merely like and am interested in, j holiday's 'bed'...if 'umbrella' wanted to be 'promise', but didn't quite get there? bits of it sound uncomfortably forced, but then comes a wonderful rolling melody ("gonna rock your body, turn you over") and all is nearly forgiven.

nicole scherzinger rulez. love it.

also "operatic mooing" is kind of perfect to describe kelis on 'blindfold me' but how is this a bad thing?

(I'm popping onto this thread to mention ten days after the discussion that I am shocked and amazed that everything off the Diddy album that's gotten radio play has been great. That's all, fucking off now...)

The album itself is great.

I'm glad Dan used the "everything that's gotten radio play" qualifier instead of just saying "all the singles" or I might've gotten the impression he liked that shitty song with Aguilera.

They played that one to death in the Boston area. I think it's really excellent (but in general Christina has to really try to make me dislike a song she's singing, her first album aside).

I dunno, I think it's the first song where she actually sounds like Britney and has that weird Daffy Duck quality to her voice. I'm glad R&B radio didn't mess with it like they did "Come To Me" and "Last Night" (I guess it did well on pop stations?).

She only really does that on the chorus, though; the pre-chorus hooks are basically Christina singing comfortably in her middle voice without belting. Plus that beat is monstrous.

Eh, vaguely dancey nu-Just Blaze beats just aren't doing it for me, especially compared to the weird hyped up hip house vibe he was flirting with back in 03/04.

xpost: J Holiday's "Bed" is absolutely fantastic. Not quite on the level of "Promise" or "Umbrella" (though, I agree, it sort of sounds like a mixture of the two), but it's so sensual and sumptuous and rich. Amazing.

Some other songs I'm feeling:

Chilli (Of TLC) - Gliding : http://youtube.com/watch?v=xuljAR0g1gU

Candy Hill - Juicy : http://youtube.com/watch?v=yu-9N49qKlw

"Juicy" is totally a throwback to late 90s/ early 00s.. like we were talking about in that Toya thread. It sort of sounds like 3LW.

"Tell Me" is the best single from Press Play so far. It's all about Diddy's unwarrantedly aggro rapping. Really though, there's like five more singles from that album. I have to put in a mention for "Special Feeling", because no one talks about it and it's just about the best thing ever. Diddy should cover "Irresistable Bitch".

the switch remix of 'tell me' is monumental - the a cappella break! makes xtina's chorus sound like the most towering, powerful thing ever! - but i'm always disappointed when i go back to the original.

I'm fucking sick of boring hispanic r&b-lite right now.

Actually, scratch that. It's just Paula DeAnda.

So.. how awful is the new Ashanti song "Switch"? Geesh, 3 years and that's what she comes up with?

I haven't heard it, but that's exactly what I felt about the Lumidee comeback single. I like the last thing Ashanti did w/ Paul Wall & Method Man & the Masta Ace beat.

2007 is shaping up to be a great year R&B-wise, with new albums slated to come out by Teedra Moses, Musiq, Bilal, Erykah Badu (!!!), Faith Evans, Amerie, Tweet, Jill Scott, Lloyd, Beyonce, and a bunch of others.

so where are most of these

Teedra - first single is circulating, samples Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell
Musiq - album has been out for a while now.. it's pretty okay
Bilal - shelved I guess
Badu - album due out later this year
Faith Evans - same as badu
Tweet - same
Jill Scott - First single "Hate On Me" has been out for a few weeks, it's really good.
Beyoncé - I don't know, I sort of doubt that she's going to put an album out this year.

Anyway, I'm totally addicted the new Mya single "Ridin" .. and the new Angie Stone single with Betty Wright (!!!!!) is totally funky and awesome.

Also:

MARY J and CHAKA KHAN "Disrepectful" - produced by Jiimmy Jam & Terri Lewis and sounds like RICH HARRISON. It's a total clusterfuck diva screamfest.

DETROIT (Billboard) - Soul legend Al Green says it's been all love and happiness working on his next album -- a duets project produced by Roots drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson that will feature collaborations with Anthony Hamilton, D'Angelo and possibly Alicia Keys and Joss Stone.
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Green told Billboard.com that he and the Roots already have laid down 15 songs at Electric Lady Studios in New York for the tentatively titled "The Duet Album." Blue Note sources told Billboard.com that they're trying to arrange studio time for Green in August, September and October. They hope the album will be finished by November, with an early 2008 release expected.

"It's turning out to be like fresh cream, man, like fresh milk from the cow's titty, baby," Green gushed. "We wrote these songs right off the (studio) floor and cut 'em right there that same day.

"It's the Roots band playing the music, producing the music, and they let Al sing what he sings and sing with these other people," he said. "I've never heard anything quite like it, 'cause I've never had anybody produce me other than Willie Mitchell. And when you give these young kids a shot at it, it's interesting to see the art they make. It's beautiful."

Green said there's a pronounced hip-hop flavor to the music, but it will contain no rapping. "That's all you need. Don't mess with it, baby," he said.

The album might be something of a departure for Green, but he'll make his familiar sweet soul music this summer as part of the B.B. King Blues Festival 2007, which also features Etta James. Green said the thrill is most definitely not gone in being on the road with King, who, like Green, established his career in Memphis.

"He's the real-deal godfather, if you will, the real-deal person in reference to the blues," Green said of King. "I mean, he played on Beale Street when he was young. And after all these years he's remained true to his calling and is still singing those songs people oughta love -- just like I do."

YES

MARY J and CHAKA KHAN "Disrepectful" - produced by Jiimmy Jam & Terri Lewis and sounds like RICH HARRISON. It's a total clusterfuck diva screamfest.

This will be either the best of worst song of the year.

HOLY SHIT. "Disrespectful" kicks ass! Mostly 'cause of Chaka.

WEHRE DID U FIND THIS?

Where I find the world: Youtube

(hype machine has it, too)

Oh, right.

Can't wait for this. http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news?id=35113http://www.mywebsite.com/mylink.htmlhttp://www.entertainmentwise.com/news?id=35113

Some newer songs I'm loving at the mo

J. Lo - Do It Well [Yet another J.Lo single that uses a classic hip hop break, this time it's Eddie Kendricks "Keep On Truckin'", and like all of the other ones it's AWESOME. Her other single "Hold It Don't Drop It" is great as well.]

Mya - Ridin [THIS SONG IS SO GOOD]

The Dream - Shawty Is A Ten/Shawty Is Da Shit [This dude is the mastermind behind "Umbrella".. this is sort of R. Kelly/T-Pain/Akon/Sean Kingston-lite, but whatever it's way catchy]

Angie Stone & Betty Wright - Baby [SO RAW.. I think this song is about D'Angelo.]

I also really like the "Make Me Better" remix with Lil' Mo (where the hell has she been? lol). Fab & Mo make a nice team. And that new Nicole Scherzinger song.

Also, allegedly Badu's new album is called The Kamah and is coming out mid-October.

dream could stand to slow down with any solo manoeuvring just yet. 'shawty' ain't bad i suppose but it kinda pisses me off on some vague shark-jumping level? i think he also wrote the j.holiday, a factoid i'm trying to forget cos that fucking song is so irresistable, especially when you let it be its own homespun karaoke everyman listening to the radio thing. something, i dunno... protean. like, the bed as a restful thing too! i dunno.

and this is gonna sound strange but i really like the bit in the video where he's driving thru the desert and passes this giant white oil tanker. this big functional thing, going somewhere and back. making glugging noises. just like the song!! haha i think i've turned it into wichita lineman or something.

the polow mix of fantasia's 'when i see u' is really really good too. al was right about it being a great song in the first place, so i was thinking it a fools errand for polow to try and turn it out to the clubs - but no! polow does this brilliant rap on the intro that manages to set up this sorta weird frustration in the song, something almost voyeuristic in fantasia's girly blushing crush so's he can then make it swell with looming pash vibes, until it breaks with this glorious cresting release for the bridge. "that's why i didn't understand, i had a million dollar plan / guess all you really wanted was a man" is a fantastic line, and such a strange angle to come at this particular song with, don't you think?. proper remix.