Album: Above The Rim : The Soundtrack (Interscope; 1994) Songwriters: Caleb Tyrone Armstrong, Brian Alexander Morgan and Ray Smith R&B Peak Position: #4 "It feels so right baby/ That it can't be wrong" In 1979, a little known Jackson, Mississippi R&B-funk act named Freedom scored a regional hit with "Get Up and Dance" , the kind of feelgood, "candy and b" entry that Mariah Carey would swarm over for first single material. While the Freedom song wasn't a major nationwide hit (it peaked at a low #82), [...]
Album: Keep The Faith (Bad Boy/ Arista; 1998) Songwriters: Sean "Puffy" Combs, Schon-Jamel Crawford, Bernard Edwards, C. Emery, Faith Evans, Ron Lawrence and Nile Rodgers R&B Peak Position: #2 "Baby try to understand/ I'll be crazy if you leave/ Cause you compliment my style" On the surface Chic might have seemed like yet another producer-driven disco act, but once anyone became aware of the glittery, uptown-soul-meets-downtown-fun k arrangements behind the image, they were instantly sold on one of the best musical teams to ever cater to the dancefloor. After commanding the [...]
Album: Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (Columbia; 1996) Songwriters: Musze and Itaal Shur R&B Peak Position: #8 "Shouldn't I realize/ You're the highest of the high?" "Who the hell is this dude with the fro crawling all across the floor?!" was the reaction of most when they first laid eyes on the video to Maxwell's debut single, "'Til The Cops Come Knockin'" . The image might have been a bit perplexing but his sound definitely wasn't. Favoring the silky, languid rhythms of classic Quiet Storm soul and armed with a [...]
Album: Confessions of Fire (Untertainment/ Epic; 1998) Songwriters: Cameron Giles R&B Peak Position: #9 "We gonna riiiiiise to the top!" Originally known as Killa Cam of the Harlem rap crew Children of The Corn before scoring a solo deal through an imprint headed by Notorious BIG's manager Lance "Un" Rivera, Cam'ron's introduction to the masses would come via "Horse & Carriage", a catchy club ditty that paired him with former-groupmate-turned-crosso ver rap phenomenon Mase and saw him flirting with the more accessible pop-rap flair Bad Boy Records was dominating with at [...]
Album: Chain (East West/ Atlantic; 1990) Songwriters: Peter Lord, Sandra St. Victor and V. Jeffrey Smith R&B Peak Position: #3 "Ghetto heaven/ I need a little ghetto heaven" Originally known as Evon Geffries & The Stand (the moniker behind their 1988 debut Changes ) before taking on the much simpler name, The Family Stand , the trio of acclaimed vocalist Sandra St. Victor and instrumentalists/ producers Peter Lord and V. Jeffrey Smith scored a major urban radio hit in the summer of 1990 with "Ghetto Heaven", a club [...]
Album: For The Cool In You (Epic; 1993) Songwriters: Babyface and Darryl Simmons R&B Peak Position: #10 "I wanna thank you, girl, for the chill in you/ Especially for you being so cool" In the years prior to 1993's For The Cool In You , Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds seemed to rule the industry, not only as co-CEO behind the blooming Laface Records but also as the Midas-touched songwriter and producer behind ginormous, Billboard -dominating and Grammy Award-winning smashes from Whitney Houston , Boyz II Men [...]
Album: Butterfly (Columbia; 1998) Songwriters: Mariah Carey, Anthony Henderson, Stanley Howse, Stevie Jordan and Charles Scruggs Peak Position: #4 The " Fantasy (Remix)" might stand as Mariah Carey 's greatest hip-pop confection, but when it comes to her best marriage of urban-soul and rap, that honor should be bestowed on "Breakdown", a typically overlooked gem from Carey's 1998 "bye bye marriage"/ "hello bootie shorts" LP Butterfly that found her trading vocal melodies with Grammy-winning Cleveland rap collective Bone Thugs N Harmony. Once again her collaboration choices were questionable (could you [...]
Album: We Can't Be Stopped (Rap A Lot; 1991) R&B Peak Position: #10 "Day by day its more impossible to cope/ I feel like I'm the one thats doing dope..." No other rap act was as simultaneously frightening and enticing as the Geto Boys, a no-holds-barred Houston trio whose rhymes spent a considerable amount of vividly-penned focus on misogynist themes and extreme violence scenarios. Their vulgar, "horror-hop" banter made them targets of disgusted politicians, parents and music journalists, but the imagination (and beats) behind those records (not to mention their [...]
Album: Deep Cover- Music From The Original Motion Picture / Rough & Ready Vol. 1 (Solar/ Epic; 1992) Songwriters: Michael Bennett, Hopeton Lindo and Shabba Ranks R&B Peak Position: #2 "They call me Mr. Loverman/ They call me Mr. Lover" Exploding as a superstar within the Jamaican music scene in the late '80's, the turn of the decade saw Shabba Ranks and his dancehall sound soon begin to garner worldwide mainstream attention alongside other reggae-oriented acts like Patra and Chaka Demus & Pliers. Signing to Epic Records in 1991, Ranks' [...]
Album: No Doubt (Biv 10/ Motown; 1996) Songwriters: Chad Elliot, Missy Elliott, George R. Pearson and Sting R&B Peak Position: #12 "You stay on my mind/ Think about you all the time/ Got to get to know you well/ If you kiss then I won't tell" Before there was Blaque and Destiny's Child , we had 702, a teen-aged R&B girl group from Las Vegas who had suffered through a couple cast changes in between the years of their first chart appearance (the Top 5 Subway duet "This Lil' [...]
Album: Regulate...G Funk Era (Def Jam; 1994) Songwriters: Warren Griffin R&B Peak Position: #14 "I got the sound fo' yo' ass and its easy to see/ That this D.J. be Warren G" A major proponent in the early-90's G-funk sound, it may come as a surprise that rapper/ producer Warren G was never an official member of the Death Row brigade. Yeah, he held a close association with many members of the popular West Coast rap empire (he's the step brother of Dr. Dre , founded 213 with Snoop [...]
Album: This Time It's Personal (Warner Bros.; 1997) Songwriters: James Baker, Rochad Holiday, Tamara Powell, Curtis Wilson, Melvin Wilson and Jeff Young R&B Peak Position: #2 "Don't stop, get it get it/ Don't stop, get it get it..." Somethin' For The People was a Cali-based songwriting/ production/ performance trio (Rochad "Cat Daddy" Holiday, Curtis "Sauce" Wilson and Jeff "Fuzzy" Young) who had enjoyed modest R&B success both in front of- (the '96 Warner re-release of their '93 Capitol debut spawned two Top 40 hits: "You Want This Party Started" and [...]
Mixtape Maestro Presents: 90's R&B Junkie
No Church In The Wild
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The Rains of Castamere by The National
CHROMATICS "THESE STREETS WILL NEVER LOOK THE SAME"
DIIV "How Long Have You Known?" (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Princesse - Tell Me | MP3
Prince – Controversy (Mighty Mouse Re-Edit)
Beck - 'I Just Started Hating Some People Today' [Listen]
[LISTEN] Gotye (Passion Pit Remix)
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
