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Tag: Blackstreet

  • They Put Me In The Mix – JSlo 3

    After I created the Jam Slow mixtape, I was thoroughly impressed with how it turned out. Thus, I wanted to do it again. However, because Jam Slow had all of my favorite slow jams from that time and place on it already, the second one would have all the secondary tracks. And it turned out horribly. Jam2Slow was the worst slow jams mixtape ever created. I think I listened to it back once and then tossed it aside. Sometimes, I’ll hear songs that were on that mixtape and have to turn them off because it reminds me of Jam2Slow. Maybe my favorite on that tape was a song called It’s Over Now by a young man named Danny Boy. Danny Boy was actually on team Death Row and was the hook singer on Tupac’s I Ain’t Mad Atcha and Toss It Up. It was a rather boring song, but Babyface wrote it and Danny Boy had a pretty decent voice. I wonder what Danny Boy is doing today. He does have a MySpace page if anyone is interested. Give Danny Boy some love. You can see him in Pac’s classic video below.

    Since Jam2Slow was so bad, I waited a bit and then created the third tape, titled JSlo3 (yes, without the W). It was far better than the second one that I threw away, but still didn’t quite match the first. But there was still good material on it.

    JSlow3 (circa 1997)

    1. Dreaming Of You – Selena
    2. My All – Mariah Carey
    3. Cupid – 112
    4. Every Time – Janet Jackson
    5. Never – Boyz II Men
    6. Never Make A Promise – Dru Hill
    7. Don’t Leave Me – Blackstreet
    8. All Cried Out – Allure featuring 112
    9. Nobody Knows – The Tony Rich Project
    10. Doin’ Just Fine – Boyz II Men
    11. Where Are You Now – Janet Jackson
    12. Place Where You Belong – Shai
    13. On Bended Knee – Boyz II Men
    14. I Care ‘Bout You – Milestone
    15. The Beautiful Ones – Mariah Carey
    16. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You – Michael Jackson
    17. All My Life – K-Ci & JoJo

    My tastes certainly haven’t changed all that much. Actually, during this time, I was buying a ton of CD singles as I was a poor college student, but would soon enough buy all the albums of the singles that I bought on CD on this set.

    • It was all about the dude R&B groups back then – Boyz II Men, Dru Hill, Blackstreet, Shai.
    • I think I OD’d a bit on the Boyz II Men, but Doin’ Just Fine is still great today.
    • Who was Allure? A group on Mariah Carey’s old imprint who didn’t eventually make it. Though of course, the Lisa Lisa and Full Force version is much better, I bought this single and enjoyed the Allure/112 version.
    • The video to On Bended Knee was fantastic for the cameos featuring the beautiful Lark Voorhies (Lisa Turtle from Saved By The Bell – could Wanya really get her?) and Kim Fields (Tootie! – could Nate really get her?).
    • Who was Milestone? For the movie Soul Food, a fictional R&B group was created (K-Ci and JoJo, and the Edmonds brothers including Babyface) called Milestone and the boys together released a song for the soundtrack.
    • I remember having to cut about half of Mariah’s version of the Prince tune The Beautiful Ones (Mariah’s version featured Dru Hill) because the song was long and I was running short on time. Remember, this was audio tape.
    • All My Life was my favorite song at the time and became “our song”, when Carol (former wife, current best friend) and I started dating. Yikes, that was like 11 years ago.

  • New Music In Stores & Online 8-5-08: Is It September Yet?

    I mentioned the “dog days” in last week’s column, but this week’s set of releases appears to be just as, if not more lame than the one that preceded it. Anyway, since we’re about making lemonade out of lemons here, here’s this week’s hotlist.

    The cover of Conor Oberst\'s self-titled new album.
    The cover of Conor Oberst’s self-titled new album.

    Conor Oberst “Conor Oberst”-Since Conor Oberst basically is Bright Eyes, isn’t this a little like Trent Reznor making an album as “Trent Reznor”? I dunno. I can’t say that I know much about Bright Eyes except for the fact that the rock press loves him. Tons of friends have tried to get me into him on mixtapes and I just don’t get it. Too pretentious for me. But you can go ahead and like him. I won’t hate you.

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  • VH-1 Hip Hop Honors ‘07

    This year, VH-1 gives honors to Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliot, and A Tribe Called Quest. Two of those things is not like the other. I guess in order to get ATCQ honored, we have to sit through Snoop and Missy. Oh well, it’s worth it. Tracy Morgan is hosting. I wonder if he’ll dress up like Hustle Man, like when he was on Martin.

    • Does KRS-One really go by KRS-One Tha Teacha now?
    • I wonder is Missy Elliot is going to show up in that rubber balloon suit tonight? I can’t stand the rain, rain, rain.
    • Wait, they’re honoring Whodini and New Jack swing too? Does that mean we get some Teddy Riley up in here?
    • Isn’t Kerry Washington supposed to be blind? Wait, that’s just in Fantastic Four.
    • Missy says that she met Timbaland through Magoo. Can anyone throw Magoo a bone these days? Where is that dude?
    • At least we know Tweet is still alive.
    • Timbo decided to bring the guns to the gun show.
    • Eve and her hair decide to make an appearance. Wait, that’s probably not her hair.
    • Nelly Furtado and her ass decide to make an appearance.
    • Ciara and her Adam’s apple decide to make an appearance.
    • Is Diddy supposed to pronounce the H in homage?
    • Look at Waterbed Hev dancing in shorts.
    • I feel like a kid again listening to Guy.
    • Andre Harrell describes New Jack Swing as a merging of hip hop, R&B, and funk.
    • I wish I could be as cool as Doug E. Fresh.
    • Someone give T-Pain his synthesizer back. He needs it. He’s making me not want HER.
    • If Kool Moe Dee was this big when he rapped back in his day, they’d have called him Heavy Dee.
    • Ne-Yo is doing Remember The Time, which was produced by Teddy Riley and is new jack swing, but Eddie and Iman and her bird were nowhere to be found.
    • All I wanna do is zoom a zoom zoom zoom and a boom boom, just shake your rump. That might be the greatest lyric of all time.
    • Wait, is that Chauncey, who Kanye said was from Blackstreet and was as black as the street was? And if so, where’s Dave Hollister when you need him?
    • LL is out to talk about Wild Style and you know Timbo is in the back like, “My arms are bigger, and I can fit two microphones and a turntable on my arm.”
    • Rappers don’t age well, or at least you’re not used to seeing old men with shades on rockin’ the mic.
    • Well, except if you are KRS-One.
    • Grandmaster Caz just said, “Grandmaster Caz and Wild Style, greatest of all time.”
    • Who did Whodini piss off to have Nick Cannon, Nelly, and Don Chi Chi to represent them?
    • Pharrell seemed a little light in the ass to rap off Doggystyle compared to Ice T.
    • Common and Skateboard P actually did a great job with Scenario in setting up Busta Rhymes for his big spot, and the man just doesn’t have it anymore.
    • Tribe still has it. They need to put out an album immediately.