a-ight I been all pop-radio'd out for a minute - yep.

but....let's not say I don't stay available for R&B.


I usually think "adult" R&B has to seem kinda off (the new En Vogue song I heard on the radio "reach for me" works but almost just barely) but this Tamia song sounds like her best track yet.


Tamia really sounds good. Her voice sounded a little to "steely" and "hard" back in the 2000's. Her voice has more dimensions now.


leave it smokin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsXQOaf0LQo


(yes this song seems to be updating the Vanessa Williams song "the comfort zone" mixed with the chords of "can we talk?" by Tevin Campbell, but whatever)

The track slaps. I didn't expect it from her.

Auntie music, if you will.

This is proven by the number of line dance videos for it on youtube.

"Reach for me"


Wasn't sure my generation still had anything for R&B


That Keith Sweat and K-Ci "how many ways" is pretty good too.

I don't know your age, but this music is for the black 40s and uppers, and there is a lot of music, and new music at that, out there for that age range.

whose screen name is c71 have in common?

If so, like I said, there is plenty of music out there for your age group. Music in this vein, the kind of contemporary adult r&b crowd.

This song from Tamia is one of the better songs of this type in the last 5 years that wasn't written by Bruno Mars and the Smeezingtons. But it's no surprise that it's good. The underlying drums are a classic groove they interpolated (the drums from Set Adrift by PM Dawn.) When the groove is good, other things tend to fall in place too, like good melody, good chord changes, mood, etc.

Alot of the new stuff aimed at the grown and sexy crowd nowadays is largely uninspired, resorts to directionless screaming (that K-Ci/Keith Sweat is like this and it's horrible) or tries too hard to incorporate the Hip-Hop feel (alot of Charlie Wilson's current output is like this)

Johnny Gill, Leela James, Ari Lennox, Jaheim, Ro James, fuck even Jodeci have all released albums in the past couple of years that in my mind fit the contemporary r&b mold. And these are artists off of the top of my head without doing a lot of research, I *know* there are tons more out there. Are we in the full 80s/90s heyday of r&b? Naw, but there are still options for people who want to listen to a certain style of music.

(Now in full disclosure I haven't listened to any of the artists I listed (this type of music is not my current taste), but I don't doubt that they produce a certain kind of music)

And there used to be too much high quality R&B to keep track of. Now, the vast majority of the energy for popular and mainstream music goes into Hip-Hop. That's where the quantity is, not R&B. I stand by my statement that there's just not that much R&B being released today at all. I didn't say none.

Something else I forgot to mention is that because most regular kids today have zero interest in R&B, what little interest there is is usually shown by 'Playery types only. So now R&B, among people under 35, has become associated with 'Playeryness and being left of center. It's been relegated to a corner of the population, which has proved bad for the music. And I say this as someone who was dedicated to the Neo-Soul movement 20 years ago. Being left of center is best when there's a related mainstream to play off of, imo.

a traditional "swing" (not just talking about jazz swing) or groove to it.

All popular Black-American (except Hip-Hop) music from basically the early 1930s to about 15 years ago had that as it's foundation. It's what distinguished our music from everything else and a big part of what we all loved about it.

But now that has been relegated to the 40 y.o.+ crowd. Sad.

To me a lot of stepping music is just mid-tempo'd and its kinda smoothed jazzed out in a I'm-not-going-to-dance/dance-but-I-will-do-a-little-bop-motion. Doesn't mean it's bad, just a certain sound to it.

behind the beat.

I like to envision it as fitting with the classic "Mary J. Blige" dance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ9wybq0T1g

And it's not just mid-tempo or jazzy stuff. Any big hit from popular Black music you can think of from the last 60 years that wasn't a slow ballad had this quality. New Jack Swing, Babyface, everything from the 70s, etc. I like to call it the "Pregnant Two/Four" because when you snap your fingers to it, there's a tendency to wait as long as possible before you snap on two and four - you're behind the beat a bit. Contrast this with most Rock, for example. It wouldn't be "wrong" to snap that way in Rock, per se, but Rock music, excluding the stuff that openly tried to sound bluesy, was much straighter. Modern Black popular music is very straight, in this way.

This is the element Bruno Mars tapped into and why all the 24K Magic songs have been so big - he put swing and groove (basically leaning behind the beat) back into the songs and pulled the music away from the heavy, straight, thump-a-dump Trap/Hip-Hop feel. Of course, he also copied alot of artists stylistically, but that's not the point.

Kids today don't have as much exposure to music being rhythmically loose and swingy like that, so that quality is only appreciated by old heads today.

You tamia. Then I realized that Tamia was from 20 years ago.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

______________________________________________________________________________

"To Each His Reach"

but.....

Fuck aliens.

turn Dad.


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

but someone in the comments says her face is round from meds taken for MS.

not that you savages care lol.

Just a good ass cut that doesn’t have cursing, rapping or a trap beat.

25 hears this is from a past era and kind of foreign.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

like 20 years ago.

if she can keep making music and loves it...she should...for as long as she can/wants to. The song is wack to me, though. The chorus is laughably bad. Sounds like a joint you would have heard on BET in the late 90's or something.

*dawns full cape*

Bruno Mars could make this *exact* song, and be praised for the "nostalgic" feeling and ability to capture it without any mentions of "auntie", "uncle" or it being so-called "40+ music."
But somebody who was actually making music 20 years ago and has blessed us by sharing their talent with us for 20+ years just gets trashed for making music for her fan base... incredible. It's like she can't win. If she "updates" her sound, she'll be accused of trying to be like young folks (a la Musiq Soulchild) and if she doesn't, we get this ... which I like btw. If she jacks the melody to 5 different songs from the 90s like ya boy Mars, then she'll be accused of being stuck in the past. The problem here isn't Tamia or the song.

I don't know if I've ever seen a group of older people more insecure about what younger people think of them than OKP. Maybe some of yall are hitting a midlife crisis and maybe it's just this generation in general. Younger folks used to want to impress the older folks who came before them. Remember when Boyz II Men came out? Hell, when Tamia came out. It was an honor for someone like Aretha Franklin or Smokey Robinson to say "I like this kid." Now it seems like it's the opposite for too many older people... not just entertainers, but regular older people. And I won't even get into how it's by design that the wisest among us NOT determine our direction.

To be continued...

As I said, I like the song. It's hard to go wrong with these drums, and the song on top of them is nice imo. Dance-able, catchy... it works. Not much is needed instrumentally beyond the synths in the vein of a Soul II Soul joint.
As for the video:
Tamia has some amazing legs... like Tina Turner-esque. Are those things insured? Jesus.
I'm not a huge fan of sexy posturing at the camera, but it's so minimal here that it doesn't irk me like Mariah Carey or Toni Braxton might go overboard with it. I like everything else about the video. The feel, the lighting, the couples dancing... beautiful.

as far as these folk trying to stay young... lmao.

Shit is sad. This joint goes.

chilllll fam.
Tamia is pretty much the same age as I am.
This is how us old heads cope.
We see someone we used to droll after, and then reality hits us when we see they aged just like we did.
If I was a single man...i'd be allllll up on some aunties...so it's not really a dis anyway.

I've been slacking on new music discovery lately.

yes

I scanned past this thread because it was about the lead single, "Leave It Smokin," and not the album from which that song appears, Passion Like Fire.

How does this album stack up against her previous releases? I bought it from Tarjay and ripped it into my iTunes a couple weeks ago but I still haven't given it a good listen.

Her last project has some really good material. I'm still pissed she didn't get a Grammy nod for "Stuck With Me" just like I'm still livid The Foreign Exchange lost the Grammy Award for "The Daykeeper" over a damn India Arie song :-(

yep

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

That new Shawn Stockman cut is pretty lame. He sounds okay but the song does nothing for me at all. Was actually curious about the first solo projcet from any one of the Boyz so I'm hoping this isn't a good indicator of what to expect.

but hey...im also 47 lol.