For starters, thank you for reading this blog. It means a lot to me that you would take time out of your day to check out what I have to say.
Since the beginning of the year, I wanted to sum up my feelings on last year’s phenomenal music scene. 2011 played host to some big-time musical events: a heartbroken young British woman records an epic rant about her ex-boyfriend, a New York diva takes the time to tell us that we were all “born this way,” a king from Brooklyn and a king from Chicago unite to “take the throne,” and a “legendary” crew from Philadelphia tells us the tragic story of Redford Stevens. These four events will take center stage in Part 3 of this series (Top-Ten Albums); however, the first part entry in my Year-End Music Awards is dedicated to “special achievement” in music. By special achievement, I am referring to… who am I kidding – these are just fun awards, so let’s get started (by the way, all of the song titles are hyperlinked so you can check them out):
· Most Listened To Song: My Last, Big Sean featuring Chris Brown
According to iTunes, I listened to this song 42 times. What is it about this song that I love? For starters, Big Sean’s flow is superb and his lyrics are some of the cleverest of the year (sorry, the big lyrics aren’t PG so I can’t post them here). Moreover, Chris Brown delivers what I consider to be the best R&B hook in a hip-hop song this year! “Like I never had it at all all all all, all all all all.” Most importantly, I feel as though this song reflects this period of my life so well. When I first heard this song, I was wrapping up my college career at Princeton and really took some time to celebrate and appreciate the moment with my friends and family – that’s what Big Sean is talking about in this song, boi!
In my humble opinion, this is the most beautiful song I’ve heard all year; what Marsha Ambrosius does with the song’s music video greatly enhances the song’s emotional resonance. (Spoiler Alert, but if you haven’t seen the video please click the link and watch it right now) The video features tastefully, lovingly, and openly features a relationship between two black homosexual men one of whom tragically commits suicide after they are jumped in the park by a group of (presumably) heterosexual black males. That’s a lot to take in, but focus on the kids in this video. Aside from the love story, pay attention to how the kids embrace the couple and that’s where the irony lies: it’s the adults, not the children who are ignorant. Despite the tragedy at the end, every frame of the music video is beautiful, well-defined, and lines up perfectly with the song – well done!
“Kiddo says he looks up to me this just makes me feel old,
Never thought that we could become someone else's hero.
Man we were just in the food court eating guy gyros.
Yesterday that's the way,
Every single morning I try to pray!
Grandmama nem they never forgot, nothing else really means nothing to me.”
Wow, just wow. It is so rare that we actually here from Andre 3000 these days, but when we do, it’s totally worth it! By the way, Kanye West has a great part in this song too:
Wow, just wow. It is so rare that we actually here from Andre 3000 these days, but when we do, it’s totally worth it! By the way, Kanye West has a great part in this song too:
“You a bad girl and your friends bad too,
Oh, you got the swag sauce, you dripping swagu
You a bad girl and your friends bad too,
Oh, you got the swag sauce, you dripping swagu”
Just listen to the song… I’m PG now so can’t really go into this stuff, lol. Next please!
· If I Could Choose One More Song: #Trending, The Original 7ven
As previously discussed, the next entry in this series is going to be my Top-Ten Songs of 2011. If there is one more song that I could place on that list, it would be this hot record, #Trending, by The Original 7ven (aka The Time). The really neat thing about this track is that it combines the classic “Minneapolis Sound” and Time elements (Morris Day’s player character, Jerome, allusions to previous songs, and superb instrumentation) with a new and relevant topic: social media. It’s amusing to hear Morris Day, a performer who’s been around for 30 years, saying “Tweet it up y’all.” Also, for those of you who appreciate amazing guitarists, Jesse Johnson is on point here! In a year of such great songs, it is disappointing that I had to leave one of my favorites off the Top-Ten list.
· Best Comeback Album: Condensate, The Original 7ven
Some people would say that we’re waiting a long time for Dr. Dre’s Detox to come out. Well, imagine waiting for 21 years for a reunion album… that’s what Condensate is. For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Time, they were Prince’s most successful side-project band from the early 1980s. Although the group was composed of very talented musicians, Prince would write, produce, and play most of the instruments on The Time’s albums; the only thing that Prince did not do was sing on the records (Morris Day). Eventually, members of The Time became fed up with Prince’s controlling attitude and left the band (If you ever watch a copy of Purple Rain, you’ll notice that Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam are not in the movie – that’s because Prince fired them prior to shooting). In 1990, The Time reunited to release an awesome album entitled Pandemonium, which was significant because it marked the first time the members of the band were playing the instruments and writing the songs.
In 2011, this past year, the band felt that it was just “time” to reunite and give the fans what they’ve been waiting for. The one issue was that Prince still held the rights to “The Time’s” name amongst other things, so they had to reform as the Original 7ven, a reference to the reunion of the band’s original members. This album proved one thing: The Original 7ven had not lost a step or missed a beat. This is a fun, “grown-folk,” and well-done album that I feel that is hard not to enjoy. Additionally, it has something for everyone as evidenced by amount of up-tempo tracks, slow-jams, and Jesse Johnson’s awesome guitar riffs. Condensate was just something that was worth the 21 year wait!
· Best Mixtape: House of Balloons, The Weeknd
Regrettably, I did not download this free mixtape from The Weekend until the last week of the year, but as they say “better late than never.” House of Balloons ranks right up there with the best R&B albums of the year including Beyoncé’s 4 and Chris Brown’s F.A.M.E., but it may have one advantage over those: it’s free. Unfortunately all I can say about it is this: it is a memorizing listen and an awesome effort. Download this mixtape right now here!
· Best Surprise (Part 1): Betty Wright: The Movie, Betty Wright and The Roots
In Part 3 of this series, I’m going to give almost unlimited praise to The Roots’ Undun. In this section, I need to mention that The Roots had another incredible album come out this year in collaboration with R&B singer Betty Wright. Betty Wright: The Movie works along the same lines as 2010’s Wake Up! – the album that The Roots released in collaboration with John Legend. The thing that actually made this album a wonderful listening experience for me was not necessarily The Roots, but rather an introduction to the amazing Ms. Betty Wright! Betty Wright is an old-school soul singer who someone my age has to seek out (due to lack of radio play) and reminds me a lot of Sharon Jones. It was just delightful and unexpected to find this album on Amazon Mp3’s “Deal of the Day” and enjoy it as much as I did!
· Best Surprise (Part 2): Lasers, Lupe Fiasco
I’m not sure which one I’ll remember more: the actual Lasers album or the epic struggle to get Lasers released. When Lasers finally came out, I was happy for Lupe (and proud of him) in that he won greater creative control over his future projects, but I was hesitant to actually buy the album. I did not think that Lasers would actually be a good album because, in many ways, it did not reflect Lupe’s true creative vision; what I did not remember at the time was that Lupe Fiasco’s previous works (Food & Liquor and The Cool) were pretty great albums, if not classics. Here’s a comparison: Michael Jackson’s 2001 album Invincible was actually a pretty good “grown-folk” R&B album, but because it wasn’t as good his previous releases, people thought it was bad. The same thing happened to Lupe. Lasers was a pretty good hip-hop album and if anyone else came out with that album, it would have been a good release from that artist; but since it was Lupe, we were expecting something out-of-this-world. Lupe still has the same challenging and thought-provoking tracks such as “Words I Never Said” and “All Black Everything,” but he’s also added a club-banger in “Out Of My Head” and a hip-hop anthem in “The Show Goes On.” In fact the last song mentioned was Lupe’s biggest hit ever! Not bad!
· If I Could Choose One More Album: The Light of The Sun, Jill Scott
First off, a big thanks goes out to my good friend Maya who convinced me to give this another listen. The Light of the Sun is Jill Scott’s best album, bar none. This was Jill’s first album since leaving her former label Hidden Beach and the results were something special and from the heart. Just read this quote about what went into this record:
“We call it 'going in'. You go inside yourself, inside your spirit, and you explore. It’s exhausting. When we were done, there was a lot of whooping and hugging and high-fiving. It’s that kind of record.” – Jill Scott
Wow! And “going in” is evident from opening of the album in which Jill tells us about what’s going on in her life. I appreciate how personal and well-put together this album is. Among the tracks my favorite is Jill Scott’s collaboration with Anthony Hamilton entitled “So In Love” – it’s a nice type of R&B duet that many artists don’t do anymore. Also, “So Gone (What My Mind Says)” is such a smooth track! I think that if I had more time to listen to this album, I would have appreciated it more. There might be a review on this one a little later…
Alright, that’s it for Part 1! I’m looking forward to your feedback here, on Facebook, and Twitter @ReggieGalloway. Look out for Part 2 very soon!
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