R and B music reviews

This Philly girl is representing well!! This cd is everything you need on a Saturday night, you don't need a date just this cd,good food and plenty of room to jam. Her vocals are strong and clear..This sista can Blow!!! Need an introduction to r&b?
you need this cd..she brings it well.

Ill be more than glad to make an attempth through this review at answering the question, Who is Jill Scott? Although I've personally never met her, her music depicts her to be a very soul oriented, lyrically motivated and creative artist. The production is definetly soul based, and her lyrics were poetical as usual. Jill differs than the typical singer in that her lyrics aren't the stereotypical "you stole my man heffer, Black men are no good, I want a rider" type theme. She is often supportive of men, and versatile on her first album. I would say the best or my favorite tracks are "Gettin in the Way", "Its Love", "The Way", "Honey Molasses", "A Long Walk", "Love Rain", and "Slowly Surely". I have so many favorites because the whole album is excellent!! I mean great!! I can literally play the whole album staight through. Top notch production, diversity in subject matter, strong singing, and poetry. Definitly classic material! Classic!

Honestly I hate R&B, I just keep it around to set the mood. But Jill Scott, there is somethin' about her. All I gotta say is, if you love R&b, and your lookin for a female with class and personality. You cant go wrong with this. This averages 5 stars for a reason.

This is for the Ladies and Gentlemen who have outgrown the club, who have outgrown the pimping and gold digging! This is for the grown and sexy and confident loving people of the world. If you are smooth then this album, is required in your collection. Purchase and Enjoy!!!!!

Kem has definitely been added to the list of great music. He's such a great artist with a smooth mesmerizing voice. This young man is definitely talented, and I'm looking forward to many CDs to come.

This CD is supberb!! Absolutely fabulous. I received it timely and have enjoyed listening to it over and over again. All my deslings with Amazon thusfar have been outstanding.

Thanks, Amazon

Laura Rigo

but not the amazing classic some of the hype may lead you to believe (maybe it was at its initial release.) Either way, it's a great album with great beats and well worth the $6 I got it for on ebay.

Endtroducing is the debut album of DJ Shadow, aka Josh Davis. He produces a variety of sound in this album, but manages to mix it all together so it's unique but distinctly Shadow. With a meld of trance, rhythm and bass, hip hop, and music from the 60s, DJ Shadow produces an amazingly fresh sound that has been almost unrivaled by anyone today. The second track (Building Steam With a Grain of Salt) and last three tracks (Midnight in a Perfect World, Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain, and What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 1 Blue Sky Revisit) particularly stand outto me for their smoother flow, and 2, 12 and 13's greater use of piano. Samples do this album no justice. For those who are fans of Radiohead and/or Mix Master Mike, chances are you'll love this album and many of the others that follow.

first instrumental hip hop album i had ever heard and all i gotta say is SUPPORT DJ Shadow and BUY this album
Hip Hop classic and to think that Shadow made this in like 96 is amazing.
Tracks to listen to =

Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 4
Stem/Long Stem <----------Mind Blowing
Midnight in a Perfect World
What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 1: Blue Sky Revisit

But f*ck it, all the tracks are worth listening to

but not the amazing classic some of the hype may lead you to believe (maybe it was at its initial release.) Either way, it's a great album with great beats and well worth the $6 I got it for on ebay.

Endtroducing is the debut album of DJ Shadow, aka Josh Davis. He produces a variety of sound in this album, but manages to mix it all together so it's unique but distinctly Shadow. With a meld of trance, rhythm and bass, hip hop, and music from the 60s, DJ Shadow produces an amazingly fresh sound that has been almost unrivaled by anyone today. The second track (Building Steam With a Grain of Salt) and last three tracks (Midnight in a Perfect World, Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain, and What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 1 Blue Sky Revisit) particularly stand outto me for their smoother flow, and 2, 12 and 13's greater use of piano. Samples do this album no justice. For those who are fans of Radiohead and/or Mix Master Mike, chances are you'll love this album and many of the others that follow.

first instrumental hip hop album i had ever heard and all i gotta say is SUPPORT DJ Shadow and BUY this album
Hip Hop classic and to think that Shadow made this in like 96 is amazing.
Tracks to listen to =

Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 4
Stem/Long Stem <----------Mind Blowing
Midnight in a Perfect World
What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 1: Blue Sky Revisit

But f*ck it, all the tracks are worth listening to

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, formed in September 1966 under the watchful and savvy eye and ear of ex-Animal Chas Chandler (who had been tipped off to one amazing guitarist tearing up NYC's Cafe Wha? by Keith Richards' girlfriend, after Stones' manager Andrew Oldham shortsightedly passed on the second great opportunity of his life) were musically a magificent outfit, more coherent than Cream, who onstage (not on record) could devolve into three soloists barely aware of each other. The Experience had Noel Redding as the bedrock rhythm player, letting Mitch Mithell and Jimi Hendrix's telepathic explorations take them and the audience through inner and outer space. After the explosive debut ("Are You Experienced?") and "Axis: Bold As Love", the band started to fracture. "Axis" may be Jimi's greatest single album, certainly it is the Experience's tightest, fleetest (13 songs just under 40 minutes), and most exquisite sounding work, and much of the imagination that needed four sprawling sides to express itself on "Eleectric Ladyland" was reigned in (by Chandler and perhaps Hendrix himself) but fully at peak powers on "Axis."
"Ladyland" is, of course, a classic, but with the recording process taking over a year ("Burning Of The Midnight Lamp" came first, July 1967, and they were back in the studio that December, immediatly after the completion of "Axis"), this drawn out process drove Chas Chandler - fed up with hangers on, drugs, and expensive studio hours wasted - to quit his role as producer, and frustrated Redding as well. If "Axis" is the trio at its best, "Ladyland" shows Jimi with a bigger canvas, a bigger budget, leaving the trio format behind as he starts collaborating with other musicians - most successfully, three members of Traffic and Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady - but also many others who participated in these sessions, from Al Kooper to the Stones' Brian Jones to Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles. Despite the well documented studio excess, there is little waste on the finished product. Sonically the album is all over the place, sometimes murky and almost muddy, a few minutes later exploding in hallucinatory raging power, and still elsewhere crisp and tight as anything on the first two albums. The original LP was indeed grey and drab sounding, and this review is intended for those who may have been skeptical of yet another cd issue or even (like me) analog devotees. But, with Eddie Kramer and George Marino working FOR THE FIRST TIME from original master tapes, this Hendrix album above all the other reissues ("Band Of Gypsys" would be a close second) benefits greatly from the new (1997) remastering. The sonic veil is lifted, and the album truly explodes from your hopefully halfway decent speakers: just turn the volume up on "Come On" or either Vodoo Chile/d", and you'll hear what I mean. Yes, it is more obvious than ever that many studios and sessions and multiple overdubs were involved, but this is as close to the master tape Jimi and Kramer delivered in September 1968 as we're likely to hear for a long time. And Jimi finally, whatever the frustrations of his compadres, didn't make a musical misstep. He honors Curtis Mayfield on the title track, New Orleans' Earl King on "Come On", even Jimmy Smith and what would be called acid jazz three decades later on the "Rainy Day" tracks.
The downside is this pretty much broke the camaraderie and unified spirit of the Experience. Noel Redding to these ears plays bass on perhaps as few as 4 or 5 tracks, with Jimi playing on many of the others and Casady making a grand cameo on the 15-minute "Voodoo Chile." The next year "Smash Hits" collected four previously unreleased early gems on a disc that was issued the same month the group broke up, and it is a fine retrospective that honors their tremendous accomplishments in two-and-a-half years. The group's last studio sessions left some strong tracks (on the box, "South Saturn Delta," and bits and pieces elsewhere). Band Of Gypsys lasted but a month or two before Jimi called Mitch Mitchell back, and two years after this album's release Jimi was still finishing up a successor, which would likely have come out in 1971 as something very close to "Cry Of Love" or "First Rays."
Be it on 180g vinyl or CD, this is the third great Experience album, sounding better than it did in 1968, and is thus essential.

Van Gogh had Crows On A Wheatfield, Picasso had Guernica, and Hendrix had Electric Ladyland. If you do not own this CD then twelve dollars are standing in between you and the greatest album ever recorded by the greatest rock guitarist ever born. The only way Electric Ladyland could be better is if it were longer.

The brief and brilliant career of The Jimi Hendrix Experience was built, astoundingly, on just three albums. The first, Are You Experienced, is arguably the best debut album ever recorded by anybody - it revolutionized popular music. The second, Axis: Bold As Love, was thrown together and while it contains highlights, is the problem middle-child of the canon. Electric Ladyland, third and last, released as an expansive two-album set, raised the bar so high that subsequent players have not even managed to see it with binoculars.

Episodic, brave, diverse, technically breathtaking, and stunningly intense, Electric Ladyland delivers a payload that knocks listeners into the middle of next week. Where the first two albums stayed close to the radio-friendly short format, Electric Ladyland was truly a concept album with recurrent themes and jams that went on even longer than this sentence - a radical approach mimicked by lesser practitioners through subsequent decades. Ironically, it produced two radio hits, the haunting take on Dylan's All Along The Watchtower and the amusingly metaphorical Crosstown Traffic. The apocalyptic Voodoo Child (Slight Return) became anthemic after the fact and seems to pop up everywhere.

Every track has merit but, as Orwell said, "Some are more equal than others." Come On is possibly the quintessential 12-bar house party dance jam; you can almost hear the guitar melting. 1983 ... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be), has an ethereal, trippy quality - a gentle space voyage with a safe landing. But the track that will forever secure this album's place in recording history is the 15-minute Voodoo Child jamaganza. Not only does it showcase Hendrix at his bluesy best, he is joined by pop music royalty - Steve Winwood on organ and Jack Casady on bass (on loan from the Jefferson Airplane).

If only they sold it with the original U.K. cover!

This is just what I was hoping for. Re-Mastered and the sound is excellent. It is as good as the 1st time I heard it on vinyl,

I love Regina Belle, but comparing Lazy Afternoon (#3), Believe In Me (#2), Stay With Me (#4), All By Myself (#5), Reaching Back (#1) and Passion (#6) to this CD, it would have to rank Believe in Me (#7) last on the list. Her vocals are strong but the material are predictable boring R&B tunes. This is the only one of her CDs that is not on heavy rotation on my CD player or computer.

I am such a huge fan of Regina and I cannot wait for the followup to Lazy Afternoon.

Regina Belle is one of my all time favourite female R&B singers. She's so talented and it shows through this cd. It's beautiful. I really do love all of these songs although four really stand out. I love Don't Wanna Go Home, Let Me Hold You, Take My Time and What If. This is a cd that you can listen to over and over again without tiring of it. She's got a voice like an angel and if you are an R&B fan, you should get this for your collection because it's fantastic and very soulful. I love it.

Super vocal diva Regina Belle brings back the long forgotten essense of Soul/Jazz with 'This Is Regina',a collection of soul-spiked grooves that touch some hefty jazzy hooks and return to mainstream.
Partnering with legendary songwriter/producer Barry Eastmond - who crafted some of thes new jazzy-lounge nocturnes specially to showcase Regina's unparalleled vocal skills - Regina Belle swaggers with a smouldering,slow-burning passion and intensity.
'Oooh Boy' and 'Johnny's Back'alone are reasons enough why this CD should be a part of your pocket even if you're a few quarters short after the splurge....
'Take Your Time' and "Someone Who Neeeds Me" are two other articulate , stylized tracks,which sit comfortably
in the sheer range and expression of this album's tonal gradations.
Regina's 'This Is Regina',to summarize,is an original and much needed punch in the fluffy omelette of good pop.
Highly recommended !!

Despite recent and persistent legal troubles, R. Kelly proves once again that he is still at the top of his game. Longtime fans will compare this album to 12 Play---full of tracks with great beats, and fabulous lyrical content. The heat is there also--but there are signs of R becoming more muscially mature and willing to test the limits of his fans. "Imagine That" experiments with electric guitars and has a rock-like sound Kelly fans aren't used to hearing from him, but he of course makes it work. R. Kelly travels from one musical extreme to the other--from tracks reminiscent of rock bands to the heady, romantic, sexy tracks that he's best known for.

Despite the scandals, R shows that he is still quite capable of turning out a quality product.

DYB

This album feat Ignition (Remix),Step in the name of love and on
the bounus disc feat the world's greatest pick this up R.Kelly
is back.

I had this cd since the first day it came out, but I never thought to write a review until now.

Well check this out!!! This cd is off da chain. R. Kelly out does himself again. Can't nobody touch this album, nobody.

From the first cut, the title track Chocolate Factory, just draws you in. Then you have to Step In The Name of Love. When you hear R. tell you to shut up that he'll never leave, oh it's on then. Track, after track, after track, is just intoxicating.

This man is a Lyrical Genius. I like a lot of other male artists, but I'm sorry when it comes to writing, producing, singing and performing R. Kelly's got it hands down. He is definitely the R. in R & B...ya heard!!!

This album was one of the first rap albums that I ever attached myself to. At age 14, I had a new group of best friends that listened to Bone nearly all day. Their older brothers and cousins had introduced them, and so I was introduced second hand. "Mr. Bill Collector" and especially "Notorious Thugz" were songs that I came to hear everyday, along with the whole cannon of Bone albums and occasionally some of the group's solo albums (which nearly always lack something that the group has when together).

Something that always attracted me to Bone was their obliviousness to the trends that populated the rap scene. This album sounds alot like it's peers--Biggie Smalls and Twista are noteworthy--but at the same time holds something that the other didn't, as if the Cleveland boys new something that the east and west coasters' didn't. Bizzy Bone's 2005 release, Speaking in Tongues, is a good indicator of this, as is some of Mo Thugs collective work. But now I'm getting off the subject.

The production is tight and never does it protrude so as to eclipse the lyrics. The rhymes themselves are interesting, if not sometimes confusing. Bone (especially Bizzy) is obsessed with apocalyptic imagery; skulls, hellfire and angels work their way into nearly every song on this album. "Crept And We Came" is a good example: "Ready be off 'em in a coffin, and a all'll be sprayed. Follow the murderous gauge. Follow me murderous ways." The high pitched synth line works well with the piano hook here, as it does on nearly every track that Bone has done. If anything can be said of them, it would definitely be that they work well with string instruments. Shouting out to their homies, or puttin' a shotgun to your chest--it's all encompassed by a somewhat ethnic sense of style. Maybe Bizzy isn't crazy; maybe they do have spiritual connections.

"Tha Crossroads" (which replaced the far inferior "Crossroad", after the former won an Emmy) is the most recognized track on the album, sans "1st Of Tha Month", and shows just how deserving they are of title of "Harmony". "1st of Tha Month" quickly became the summer anthem after the album's release, and is still wildly popular in some parts of the country (hell, even I hear it on the radio from time to time). "Buddha Lovaz" was a fan favorite for years, and was even given the Screw treatment from DJ Screw himself, prior to his death. I'm not sure if it's because of the content, but the song actually sounds better screwed up--something that Bone obviously recognized and favored, as they heralded the release of their Greatest Hits, remixed by Michael "5000" Watts, in 2005. While I do admit that the album gets a bit flimsy towards the end, it wouldn't be the same without "Mo Murda" and it's insanely catchy low-pitch chorus. This itself has been used by other artists, most notably Juicy J (of Three 6 Mafia) on his album Chronicles of the Juiceman.

Sadly, this debut album was the strongest thing to come out of their original incarnation. Art of War suffered from bad editing (it didn't need to span 2 discs), and Resurrection needn't even be associated with the Mo Thugs label. Thug World Order has some damn fine tracks (and an appearance from Phil Collins), but still lacks the personality and unforgiving brutality that E. '99 has. With a new Bone album supposedly coming out in the next two weeks, I'm going to be crossing my fingers and hoping that I feel this fire once again.

I can't believe it took me this long to buy this CD. I give mad props to DJ U-Neek I'm just infatuated with these beats. The Ruthless Bone Thugs!!!

this was the BEST Bone Thugs cd EVER and i love anything bone thugs...i could listen to this cd over and over...i recomend this cd to anybody thats a bone thugs fan or someone who wants a great rap cd

This album has been ranked highly in VH1 polls and Rolling Stone Polls time after time and it really deserves it.....

Is there any other album post 1975 that was this commercially successful and yet at the same time so socially conscious...????? And there's a little something in here for everyone... my favorite track being the jazz/funk/salsa samba of "Summer Soft."
Buy this album now and own a piece of musical history!!!

Stevie Wonder was and continues to be a once every few generations kind of genius!!!

There's not enough words in the English language to appropriately articulate how GREAT he is as a musician and how OUT OF THIS WORLD "Songs in the Key of Life" remains.

--Best R&B album ever made in history
--Best soul album ever made in history
--Best double-disc album set ever made in history
***Strong candidate for one of the greatest albums ever made by any artist, anywhere, anytime and any place in history

If you're black, white, Puerto Rican or Asian, young, old, straight, gay, religious, secular, a music lover, music hater or just plain music deprived, this album's for you!!!!

Can't say enough.

Deserving of 10 stars!!!

I'd put this album up there against any of the best of Michael Jackson, James Brown, Whitney Houston, the Beatles, the Temptations, Prince, Little Richard, Louis Armstrong, MaDonna, Boyz II Men, Elvis, U2, the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley or ANY of the other all-time greats I might've missed.

Even better than "Innervisions" for those Stevie Wonder diehards.

First I'd like to say that, though I love this album, it takes too long for it to really get started. Love's In Need of Love Today is OK but too long, Have a Talk With God and Village Ghetto Land both suffer from bad arrangements, and Contution is just average.
But once it gets started, it just keeps gaining momentum and rarely lets up. From the big-band swing of Sir Duke to the funky I Wish to ballad Knocks Me Off My Feet to Eastern-influenced (!) Pastime Paradise, the first disc of this album has a lot going for it.
And the second half is even better. Besides containing the hit Isn't She Lovely, we also get a couple fine tracks with Joy Inside My Tears, I Am Singing and If It's Magic, it also features the best fifteen minutes in the man's discography--the lineup of As and Another Star, the former a fine ballad encouraging universal love (one of Wonder's favorite themes) and the latter, arguably the most ambitious tune the man cut, ever. In its eight-and-a-half minutes, it jumps from horn-driven soul to African-ish to jazzy, complete with a tasty flute solo.
Thankfully, that ain't all. The bonus EP features four great cuts. Definetly the best, most eclectic album in Stevie's catalogue.

I am so glad that I bought this CD! I was a little skeptical at first, because I had only heard "Move Your Body Girl" (which is THE CUT by the way!!). But I absolutely fell in love with "You Deserve", "Turnin' Me On'" , "Goodbye", etc. I think this CD was great, and I look forward to more music from the twins. Good lookin' out BORICUAS!! WEPA!!!

Nina Sky's debut album is interesting because they both can sing, play instruments, and harmonize together...oh yeah I like the beats too. The songs that I enjoy are "Move Ya Body"-"Let it Go"-"You Deserve"-"Faded Memories" sounds really good I like the feel of it..and many more.... "Surely Missed" makes me think about a friend that passed everytime I hear it. These girls have got what it takes! But like Kanye West said in Vibe, "all they need to is a really good producer." Nina Sky would bring a whole new sound to the music scene. Since there's no more Destinys Child, some one needs to take their shine.

I really love this CD! Really love it to the point that i broke my first one and bought another one. I think the problem is with promotions and advertising! At times i think their songs are commercial and you can see songs like good bye, faded memories and temperature rising is the true nina sky! I think they need to do a entire love ballad (with a band or a guitar cd to show off their talent and steer away from the computerized music!
Also, Imma need people to stop hating. You have to realize that everyone isn't a mariah (who has been doing horrible at award shows), whitney, celine dion! you have to accept people for their style/individualism. Take them as what they are trying to bring and stop comparing them to others. These girls are hot! and it all lies in advertising... oh yeah i got a great idea for a video... but a new alb may come before then!

Toodle