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Tag: Mary J. Blige

  • SonicClash Handicaps The 2009 Grammy Awards Part III: Year of the Gentleman

    judThis year’s R&B categories boast two strange omissions-Alicia Keys and Mary J. Blige. Both are extraordinarily loved by Grammy voters, and yet they’re almost nowhere to be found. Instead, the NARAS folks are honoring soul music’s new guard, with multiple nominations for newcomer Jazmine Sullivan and relative newcomers Ne-Yo and Jennifer Hudson. Let’s see how the categories shake out.

    Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: Me, Myself & I (Beyonce)/Heaven Sent (Keyshia Cole)/Spotlight (Jennifer Hudson)/Superwoman (Alicia Keys)/Need U Bad (Jazmine Sullivan)

    Will Win: Jennifer Hudson

    Should Win: Keyshia Cole

    The obvious first question is “Why is Beyonce nominated for a song that’s over 5 years old?”. Apparently, it’s an audio track from a live DVD and Grammy saw fit to nominate her instead of Mary J. Blige or any of the other deserving females that could have potentially been up for this award. She won’t win anyway. The R&B category this year is going to be very kind to either Hudson or Sullivan I’m betting the sympathy factor works in J. Hud’s factor. However, Keyshia Cole deserves this simply for making me love a song by an artist I detest.

    Best Male R&B Vocal Performance: You’re the Only One (Eric Benet)/Take You Down (Chris Brown)/Miss Independent (Ne-Yo)/Can’t Help But Wait (Trey Songz)/Here I Stand (Usher)

    Will Win: Ne-Yo

    Should Win: Usher

    This is Ne-Yo’s year, point blank. Count on him to challenge Coldplay for most awards won tonight (although I think parity will be the name of the game this year). I don’t see anyone else getting this award. Usher has won three times in this category, but the fact that he has the strongest song in the bunch will be negated by the fact that his album was perceived as a flop.

    Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group: Ribbon in the Sky (Boyz II Men)/Words (Anthony David feat. india.arie)/Stay With Me (By the Sea) (Al Green feat. John Legend)/I’m His Only Woman (Jennifer Hudson feat. Fantasia)/Never Give You Up (Raphael Saadiq feat. Stevie Wonder & CJ Hilton)

    Will Win: Al Green feat. John Legend

    Should Win: Raphael Saadiq feat. Stevie Wonder & CJ Hilton

    The average music fan doesn’t even know that Boyz II Men is still around. It’s not 1994, so it’s doubtful they will win, which leaves the 4 collaborations. Raphael Saadiq and india.arie both have a history of getting Susan Lucci’ed at the Grammys, so that leaves J. Hud and Fantasia (who can sneak in and nab this one, and the beautiful Al Green/John Legend duet, which will probably snag the prize.

    Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance: A Change is Gonna Come (Wayne Brady)/You Got the Love I Need (Al Green feat. Anthony Hamilton)/Baby I Know (Linda Jones with Helen Bruner & Terry Jones)/Love That Girl (Raphael Saadiq)/In Love with Another Man (Jazmine Sullivan)

    Will Win: Al Green feat. Anthony Hamilton

    Should Win: Al Green feat. Anthony Hamilton

    Linda Jones has been deceased for over thirty-five years. The younger contingent of voters isn’t going to know who she is. Hell, the OLDER contingent of voters won’t know who she is. Wayne Brady, despite being totally qualified to win this award, isn’t as well known as a musician as he is a TV personality. If Jazmine Sullivan gets on a roll, she might get this one, but the save bet is Rev. Al, the Ladies’ Pal. And it would give Anthony Hamilton a well-deserved first Grammy! Sweet!

    Best Urban/Alternative Performance: Say Goodbye to Love (Kenna)/Wanna Be (Maiysha)/Be OK (Chrisette Michele feat. will.i.am)/Many Moons (Janelle Monae)/Lovin’ You (Music) (Wayna feat. Kokayi)

    Will Win: Chrisette Michele

    Should Win: Kenna

    Simply put, Grammy voters are going to vote for who they know. So unless Puffy gets everyone he knows to vote for Janelle Monae, the NARAS folks are gonna recognize will.i.am’s name and put a checkmark next to it. I personally would give Kenna the award, seeing as he singlehandedly redeems The Neptunes for half a decade of truly mediocre music.

    Best R&B Song: Bust Your Windows (Jazmine Sullivan)/Customer (Raheem DeVaughn)/Heaven Sent (Keyshia Cole)/Miss Independent (Ne-Yo)/Spotlight (Jennifer Hudson)

    Will Win: “Spotlight”

    Should Win: “Customer”

    One would think that with two nominations in this category (he also wrote “Spotlight”), Ne-Yo would cancel himself out, but for some reason my Spidey Sense tells me that won’t happen this time around. This is another category that I think Jazmine Sullivan has a chance at, especially if she gets on a roll, but this’ll probably end up another J. Hud sympathy vote although, considering she didn’t write the song, she won’t get an award.

    Best R&B Album: Love & Life (Eric Benet)/Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA (Boyz II Men)/Lay it Down (Al Green)/Jennifer Hudson (Jennifer Hudson)/The Way I See It (Raphael Saadiq)

    Will Win: Al Green

    Should Win: Raphael Saadiq

    I still don’t know the difference between an “R&B Album” and a “Contemporary R&B” album. Can someone help me out here? Grammy likes to bestow honors on artists late in their careers, so I think 2009 will be the year Al Green gets honored, not just for “Lay it Down”, which is a great album in its’ own right, but for making “Let’s Stay Together” and “I’m Still in Love with You” and all the 70s hits he wasn’t honored for initially.

    Best Contemporary R&B Album: Growing Pains (Mary J. Blige)/Back of My Lac (J. Holiday)/First Love (Karina)/Year of the Gentleman (Ne-Yo)/Fearless (Jazmine Sullivan)

    Will Win: Ne-Yo

    Should Win: Ne-Yo

    Who’s Karina and why is she nominated? Must investigate. Didn’t J. Holiday’s record come out two years ago? Anyway, there’s three solid nominees here, and even though I wanna say Mary J. might come up and spirit this one away, it’s Ne-Yo’s night. He wins again.

    Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: American Boy (Estelle feat. Kanye West)/Low (Flo-rida feat. T-Pain)/Green Light (John Legend feat. Andre 3000)/Got Money (Lil Wayne feat. T-Pain)/Superstar (Lupe Fiasco feat. Matthew Santos)

    Will Win: “American Boy”

    Should Win: “Green Light”

    I don’t know that the conservative bloc of Grammy voters is going to vote for Lil Wayne. Besides, he’s dragged down by the presence of T-Pain, whose two nominations will probably cancel one another out (not that it worked last year. I can’t believe T-Pain has a Grammy). Grammy loves Andre 3000 and John Legend, but Grammy loves Kanye even more, and “American Boy” was probably the most popular song of the 5 nominated. Plus, Estelle & Kanye are performing on the show. I think that’s the tipoff right there.

  • The Sunday Seven: I Love Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls

    Money Mike has been looking for some volunteers to do their own Sunday Seven column and I raised my hand this week. I’m actually anticipating what’s going to come up because I bet there are going to be songs that pop up that I haven’t heard in forever or songs that are a part of full albums that I may not even like. Since I only buy music from the iTunes store now, my iPod is full of entire albums and thus, stuff that I don’t even really listen to since I’m a big play list guy.

    For those who don’t know, the idea of this column is to take your iPod (or whatever else you use to listen to your music electronically) and put it on shuffle. The next step is to list the first seven songs that come on and list them here.

    Here goes:

    Track 1: The Water Bottle by Bill Cosby

    Aha! The first track isn’t even music. It’s a quick skit by Bill Cosby from his album I Started Out As A Child about children drinking from the water bottle when their parents aren’t home and then leaving just enough in the bottle so they don’t have to refill it. The track is less than a minute long and let’s just say that it’s not his best skit. I have a ton of Cos on my iPod.

    (By the way, I love the fact that on my iPod they actually have “Shuffle” as one of the selections from the main menu. I used to hate having to click a few times to get the shuffle going.)

    Track 2: Let’s Be Friends (Skin To Skin) by Bruce Springsteen

    I love his post 9/11 album The Rising so much that before every semi-pro baseball game after it came out, I listened to it on the way to the ball park. I’m not sure if Bruce only wants to just be friends or not with the skin to skin reference, but hey, he’s Bruce.

    Track 3: Not Gon’ Cry by Mary J. Blige

    From the soundtrack to the movie Waiting To Exhale, this song captures the feeling of the Angela Bassett character Bernadine Harris (thanks IMDB) perfectly. Yes, I think I’ve seen the movie at least once.

    Through sickness and health ’til death do us part
    Those were the words that we said from our hearts
    So now when you say that you’re leaving me
    I don’t get that part

    Word.

    Track 4: Don’t Cry by Jordan Knight

    A few years ago, Jordan Knight released The Fix which was an EP that I only saw on iTunes. It wasn’t bad. But this wasn’t necessarily one of the better tracks. It’s an uptempo song that features, “Don’t cry mama, shake that mama,” as a part of the hook. And that’s one of the better parts of the song. I won’t tell you about the part of the song where he starts talking about her thong.

    Track 5: Girls, Girls, Girls by Jay-Z

    I love girls, girls, girls, girls, girls I do adore. I love this song for all the one liners. From his most famous album, Blueprint, he raps about all kinds of different girls. It’s a fun track, even if he stereotypes them all.

    I got this ho that after twelve million sold
    Mami’s a narcoleptic, always sleepin’ on Hov’

    Track 6: Just To Be Close To You by the Commodores

    The iTunes program that grabs the album art thinks this is supposed to be on the Jackson 5 The Ultimate Collection album. You know it’s a good day when Lionel just starts talking in his songs. He just lays down a soliloquy at the top in a funny accent before saying that he was a lonely man without direction or purpose and no one to love. Of course, that was before he found the girl who made his jagged edges smooth. I have one word that describes this song. Outrageous!

    Track 7: Little Sister by Elvis Presley

    Remember that Elvis hits album that came out several years back and sold like hot cakes even though anyone and their mother who even liked Elvis just a little bit had almost all the songs? Well, they released a sequel called 2nd To None that didn’t sell as well. This song is on the second album. The song is catchy as hell. Elvis, as the mack daddy of all mack daddies, is singing to the little sister of someone he used to date. He used to pull on this girl’s pig tails. But instead of singing her a love song, he’s scolding her.

    Little sister, don’t you kiss me once or twice
    Then say its very nice and then you run
    Little sister, don’t you do what your big sister done

    Thankfully this isn’t the Sunday Eight or else I would’ve had to write about the WWF version of The Land Of 1,000 Dances where the Iron Sheik says that you have to learn to move like the Sheik. That might’ve been a bit embarrassing. Also, I’m going to lose some street cred by only having one hip hop song on here. Sorry guys, I swear I have a ton.

  • Maroon 5 Gets the Cut & Paste Treatment on “Call & Response”

    Remember, like, 20 years ago, when remix albums were cool? Starting with Madonna’s You Can Dance in 1987, just about every major pop artist put out an album of dance remixes of their biggest hits. There was Phil Collins’ 12″ers, Bobby Brown’s Dance…Ya Know It!, Paula Abdul’s Shut Up and…OK, I think you get the picture.

    While most of the aforementioned albums are listenable, there’s not much in the way of lasting value. However, Maroon 5 is setting out to change that long-standing perception of remix albums with Call & Response. The pop/rock/soul hybrid (fronted by nasally-voiced seductor Adam Levine) collected a team of producers as eclectic as the band itself, spanning the genres from hip-hop to indie rock to dance music, and asked them to tackle selections from the band’s two studio albums. The results are varied, but there definitely more interesting experiments here than there are failures.

    The sleazy If I Never See Your Face Again (which is great in it’s original Prince/Talking Heads-esque original version) gets a double makeover. Paul Oakenfold turns the song into a twirling house anthem that retains the sexual tension between Levine and guest vocalist Rihanna (also proving to me that I can deal with modern dance music as long as there’s vocals and melody involved) while Swizz Beatz turns it into a hip-hop party anthem, sampling (and keeping fresh) the well-worn Take Me to the Mardi Gras beat (which you may recognize as Run-DMC’s Peter Piper). Both versions work, as does Mark Ronson’s sinister remix of Wake Up Call. The Amy Winehouse producer gives the original version some extra tension by adding a guest vocal from Mary J. Blige. ?uestlove smooths out Sunday Morning so that it sounds like Sunday Morning. You can picture yourself taking a lazy drive to nowhere with this song in the background.

    Strangely for a remix album, the slower songs work best in their new versions. Deerhoof turns the arena ballad Goodnight Goodnight into a weird indie rock/electro hybrid-kinda like The Postal Service meets Death Cab for Cutie (obviously with Levine standing in for Ben Gibbard). DJ Premier handles the slinky Secret, and even with turntable scratches and a typically thumping hip-hop beat, the song loses none of its’ seductive quality. Even songs I didn’t like originally (or grew to dislike after extensive plays) regain their flavor. DJ Quik turns Shiver into a greasy funk workout, while The Neptunes’ (who have restored some goodwill to their name over the past two days) turn the pedestrian pop ballad She Will Be Loved into another one of their hazy synthesizer jams they’ve become famous for.

    Certain matchups, however, just don’t work. The funky Makes Me Wonder gets slowed down dramatically by Just Blaze (whose work is usually flawless) and the lowered tempo and piano intro (which sounds like the theme from “The Young and the Restless”) just doesn’t work against the song’s cocky lyrics. Another one you might wanna skip is the Cool Kids’ remix of Harder to Breathe, which sports a plodding, murky musical background. I’m still on the fence about David Banner’s 808-heavy remix of Wake Up Call, but the more I listen, the more I like-well, except for Banner’s unnecessary guest verse.

    I dig this album quite a bit, but then again I’m a Maroon 5 fan. If you’re just discovering the band, this is obviously not the place you wanna start. However, if you’re one of those folks with eclectic musical tastes and don’t mind a little hip-hop mixed in with your pop/rock, with a little hi-NRG dance thrown in (and a little sprinkling of indie goodness), then you might want to give Call & Response a shot.