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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Mariah Carey

  • 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.

  • No Plastic – Kiss You Back

    As I stated in February, I decided to stop buying actual CDs and buy all my music through iTunes. Let me update you on my iTunes journey.

    The month of April saw me purchase three full albums through iTunes. The first was Diddy’s anti-bitchassness group Day26. The album was standard R&B fare and earned Diddy another number one record, but failed to set the world on fire. But what does these days? Marketed as a new New Edition, the boys from Making The Band put together a few songs that worked like Silly Love, the first single Got Me Going, the dreamy Co-Star, and hard hitting Exclusive.

    Next was Mariah Carey’s not so fulfilling E=MC², which should’ve been titled The Emancipation of Nick Cannon. Just kidding Nick. Actually, I’m impressed that the dude had it in him. Before, I remembered him most from giving the movie audience that serious drumming face in the movie Drumline, but now he’s the guy that put that ring on Mimi’s finger. Though I didn’t like the album much and thought it was smack dab in the middle of her career works, iTunes did give me one extra song that wasn’t on the CD version. Though, I’m not sure if it was a truly bonus or not because it was the track 4real4real featuring Da Brat and though she might’ve been cool in 1994, the words “featuring Da Brat” might be the worst marketing in music today. Ok, that was wrong of me. But actually, at least we know that Da Brat is still working. Also included with the extra song was a digital booklet (iTunes version of the physical CD booklet) and the Touch My Body video, which is impressive for how well a late 30s Mimi looks.

    The third full album was the best of the bunch. Before I even tell you what it is, I have to ask, “Who is the most consistent music group in the game today?” You probably wouldn’t answer The Roots, but if they aren’t the most consistent, they are close. Their latest gem is called Rising Down and it’s probably the best album I’ve bought all year. From the killer Rising Up, with Chrisette Michele on the hook to the Talib Kweli assisting I Will Not Apologize, there’s not a bad song on the record. While they might not have the one or two head turning tracks on this album like they usually have, it’s still just damn good. Also included as an iTunes bonus is their duet with Fall Out Boy, Birthday Girl, which was vetoed off the original album and as first single for not sounding Roots enough. I kind of dig it, but I understand where they’re coming from.

    I also bought a bunch of one off songs. If you remember, April was the month of “Idol Gives Back” and instead of donating money, I bought a few tracks including Carrie Underwood’s George Michael cover of Praying For Time, the group version of Rihanna’s Don’t Stop The Music (my kids can’t get enough of this one), and Snoop Dogg’s Can’t Say Goodbye featuring Charlie Wilson. On that same day, I also purchased Bon Jovi’s Bad Medicine and Fuel’s Leave The Memories Alone with the latter being the theme song to the Nature Boy’s Ric Flair retirement. I just had to throw one wrestling reference in.

    Lastly, I purchased Digital Underground’s silly song Kiss You Back. One day, it was in my head and I decided to get it so I could hear it a few times. Without iTunes, I would’ve had to find a used copy of Sons Of The P, and that wasn’t going to happen without making a trek to a used record store some 30 miles away.

    The next edition of “No Plastic” will feature the return of some Boston boys and a man on a mission to get some grown assed respect.

  • The Musichelpweb Midyear Report Part 2: The Good, The Bad & Lil’ Wayne

    Hey Folks,

    In addition to this fine site, I also occasionally write (but mostly comment) for a couple of other sites, one being my friend JayVee’s site, The Round Table. You can find it at theround-table.blogspot.com. This column was originally written for them. Enjoy!!

    Believe it or not, 2008 has not been a bad year for music-unless you happen to be a superstar. Particularly a superstar diva. Janet Jackson, Madonna and Mariah Carey have all released fairly underwhelming albums over the first half of the year-with Janet’s the best of a very weak bunch. Hip-hop has also taken a bit of a leave of absence-unless you’re one of those folks who thinks “The Carter III” is a classic, there wasn’t much to gloat about if you were a rap fan for the first part of this year.

    However, there have been some bright spots. Soul singers on the other side of the Atlantic continued their renaissance after Amy Winehouse set one hell of a standard (and you have to admit that “Back To Black” is a work of genius, no matter what you think of her personally) last year. In addition to the new Brit divas, a couple of vets returned after short absences with albums that rank among the best of their careers. And there’s still half a year to go.

    (more…)