- all this talk about D'Mumblo, Maxwell, and all that stuff has me revisiting the mid-to-late '90s again. Now this was the first era I really had my head up my ass as a music listener, because the terrorists were making strides in the hip-hop and R&B popularity wars. As far as R&B was concerned, I was more of a "Maxwell" kind of dude, for a number of reasons (chief among them being that URBAN HANG SUITE took a diarrhea-fied POO POO over most R&B records released in 1996). But he understandably was one of those artists that stood alone in the crowd.

That being said...

- I listened to D'Mumblo's VOODOO in full for the first time this past weekend. Checked out the outtakes and demos that I had somewhere stashed and forgot about, too.

Now I get the obsession. I sort of got it before, but now I *really* get why people are all "Prince.org-y" about D'Mumblo.

Not saying I'm part of it, but honestly, I'm kinda mad it took so long to hear it all... since it sounds just like the kind of music that made me so optimistic about the incoming 2000s, like Common's LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE in particular (no surprise, since it came out of the same shop of creative minds). There really was not a whole lot of music released in that era with that kind of groove. Sure, the sound of VOODOO hearkened back to an earlier time, but it wasn't like they were trying to recreate the shit bit-by-bit. It was very contemporary, but also very funky. I really like that D'Mumblo said "yeah, I don't do that traditional strong structure shit so well" and just went with what worked. And hit it big!

Damn.

I also now really get the disappointment that there was nothing for so many years.

*shrug*

i checked out a couple of tracks from his Dirty Mind or Controversy period *i guess since i dont listened and all* but.. never in full rotation.. so.. yeah..

Then again, maybe that's how they see every pop musician.

RE: I think most people see him as a singles artist.
>Then again, maybe that's how they see every pop musician.
>
>

albums made him a legend.

Which you could say for a lot of artists, because that's how radio listeners roll.

His (fairly big) fanbase and the way they talk about his music strike me as a textbook example of that of an *album* artist. That's not the case with too many artists of that popularity status IMO.

Of course, the regular dude or "radio-listener" will only know his singles but that's the case with practically every artist who ever had a hit or two.

>Of course, the regular dude or "radio-listener" will only know
>his singles but that's the case with practically every artist
>who ever had a hit or two.

I think you'll find way more people that say they love Prince that are just familiar with his singles and not the album cuts then you would with say The Beatles or Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd or other groups that are considered album type artists.

And I think he's someone where lots of those types of fans that LOVE his big singles wouldn't enjoy the album cuts revered by his die hard fans.

Confession, I say this because it's the boat I'm in. I really love a lot of his hits but can't really get into stuff like "Sometime It Snows in April" that I know are really beloved by people on here. Maybe I'm just hoping I have some company in that department.

Those two bands hits can be counted on one hand more-or-less so it's a given that the fans are album-oriented.

As for the Beatles, do many of their fans really know their albums like that? The thing about them is that they had so many famous singles that it's perfectly possible to be a Beatles-fan and only own those blue and/or red comps.

Anyway, I tend to view prince as a R&B/pop act and in that context, there's very few artists who can compare with him in terms of "album-act" status. If we look at his biggest competitors in the 80's, MJ and Madonna, it's not even close (well, "thriller"...) and if we put him up against his early competitors in the funk-scene, like Rick James or Cameo, those acts often don't even have their albums in print outside of "Street songs" and the fans often seem content with a greatest hits. I find prince's status as an album-act closer to that of the 70's album-rock bands than the scene that spawned him or where he thrived...

A lot of people know Beatles albums, but only the compilation albums (the red and blue ones, most prominently).

Besides 'Here Comes the Sun', I would guess quite a few people are mostly unfamiliar with side two of Abbey Road.

~Austin

UHS and brown sugar are amongst the few r&b albums i still listen to from the 90s.

it's a very exclusive club.

>UHS and brown sugar are amongst the few r&b albums i still
>listen to from the 90s.

it was more in the mode of the "hip-hop & blues" type of R&B that was out in the '90s, and D's singing cadence was much more like a rapper (kind of like, understandably he is on "Devil's Pie"). I knew most of the singles and remixes from this album more than anything else. With songs like "Shit, Damn, Motherfucker" (the first song I went to when I got my hands on this CD because of its title), I got the hint that D was a little bit "different".

The singles on this album are straight "money", to use a "Maxxx" term.

I was anti Brown Sugar
My dude was championing him something tough
And a few cuts stood out like Lady and Dreaming
But all the "next so and so....better than so and so" shit I wasn't buying

By the time Voodoo came around I was on board
Its a damn good record
(but my personal opinion says erykah trumps with mama)
But the extra shit was back on
(that Xxl article)
And when i read the liner notes it was on in full force

Like I've said before and will say it again
I don't have a problem with him
I have a problem with the folks who continue to put extras on dude
He is a very talented cat
But we know now that he has or had issues with carrying the weight put on him by his fans and peers
Let D be D
But I know that's not going to happen

Soooo with that said my confession is I vow to avoid any and all board discussion/reviews/quest interviews that's related to d and this project

...on a another subject...

...damn I miss Gangstarr, GURU specifically...pulled out some old LP's by the crew, and they just had that chemistry...GURUS laid back flow...dope...

...also listened to Reflection Eternal "Train of Thought" for the first time in a minute, and it still hits...truly one of my fav. Hip Hop LP's ever...incredible from beginning to end...

>
>...also listened to Reflection Eternal "Train of Thought" for
>the first time in a minute, and it still hits...truly one of
>my fav. Hip Hop LP's ever...incredible from beginning to
>end...

I was all about Black on Both Sides when it initially came out and in the aftermath until about 2001 or 2002 when I listened to the Train of Thought instrumental album front to back really loud on headphones. It was missing a couple songs from the regular album, but the beats just hit me enough to where it prompted me to sit down with the proper album from beginning to end for the first time. . . probably since the day I bought when it first was released.

From then on, I've always thought that while Black on Both Sides is really good, Train of Thought has it beat on sequencing alone. The whole run from 'On My Way' through 'Eternalists' is just epic. Very few hip hop albums up to that point had that kind of scope that actually had the execution to match.

~Austin

Please donate. For Anthony: http://bit.ly/xIIjaE

http://austintayeshus.blogspot.com

http://www.last.fm/user/Austintayeshus

http://twitter.com/Austintayeshus

>...damn I miss Gangstarr, GURU specifically...pulled out some
>old LP's by the crew, and they just had that chemistry...GURUS
>laid back flow...dope...
>
>...also listened to Reflection Eternal "Train of Thought" for
>the first time in a minute, and it still hits...truly one of
>my fav. Hip Hop LP's ever...incredible from beginning to
>end...

2010 wasn't a great year for me personally, and the death of Guru was part of that. I wanted to hear him and Premier link back up for a final song...

~Austin

Please donate. For Anthony: http://bit.ly/xIIjaE

http://austintayeshus.blogspot.com

http://www.last.fm/user/Austintayeshus

http://twitter.com/Austintayeshus

__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

man...
that whole saga made me more sad than the death, really

...up...cause I don't know if someone beat duke down yet...and oh yeah, fucksolar...

my favorite album for a looonnng minute.

Played.it.out.

The sequencing is incredible, and its STILL impressive how solid it is through out considering how long the album is.

Talib is an incredible song writer, and it shows on this album.

I know the Lesson loves em some Kweli hate...but I didn't stop **really** feeling him until Eardrum. Which I thought was bloated and...I dunno, he wasn't really saying anything new.

Anyway, when you think about...

Hi Tek is actually the one who Fell off.

-I've typed out and then deleted a lot of angry posts. Posts I've made in anger, but then I realize the power of words, and that you can't take a lot of them back.


-A lot of people aren't who I thought they were. Yet at the same time, a lot of people are EXACTLY who I thought they were.

-I try and I try and I try and I try...but they just won't understand. (c) Joseph Hill

-It kinda bugs me when I reach out to people ( for whatever reason ), and it takes them days to get back to me.

-The state of Black(Soul)Music in America is flat-out embarrassing.

-I'm getting better at fixing my mistakes. Now if only I could get better at not MAKING them.

-there are times when I *literally* have nothing to do. These are the times that I don't take advantage of.

-blah...

-I'm outta confessions.

Yeah, I never actually listened to Voodoo in full until about 3 months ago. The funny thing is, I was a BIG Brown Sugar fan and have always considered myself a fan of his work. I think when the album Voodoo came out, there was 2 factors which kept me from purchasing it: 1) I was all about underground hip-hop and house music '97-'99 and the singles from Voodoo were very slow grooving, mid-tempo joints that my fast forward AD/HD sensibilities were not a good match for, and 2) I was probably just a little bit insecure as a young guy walking up to the counter with that CD and its accompanying album cover in hand.

After I got over those 2 issues, it just seemed like "What's the point?" When I finally remembered to both get over it and purchase it at the end of last year, I was kinda happy I did wait so long because I had a "brand new" album to carry me through the holidays.

I also picked up "Ridin' Dirty" which I slept on for even longer.



>- all this talk about D'Mumblo, Maxwell, and all that stuff
>has me revisiting the mid-to-late '90s again. Now this was the
>first era I really had my head up my ass as a music listener,
>because the terrorists were making strides in the hip-hop and
>R&B popularity wars. As far as R&B was concerned, I was more
>of a "Maxwell" kind of dude, for a number of reasons (chief
>among them being that URBAN HANG SUITE took a diarrhea-fied
>POO POO over most R&B records released in 1996). But he
>understandably was one of those artists that stood alone in
>the crowd.
>
>That being said...
>
>- I listened to D'Mumblo's VOODOO in full for the first time
>this past weekend. Checked out the outtakes and demos that I
>had somewhere stashed and forgot about, too.
>
>Now I get the obsession. I sort of got it before, but now I
>*really* get why people are all "Prince.org-y" about D'Mumblo.
>
>
>Not saying I'm part of it, but honestly, I'm kinda mad it took
>so long to hear it all... since it sounds just like the kind
>of music that made me so optimistic about the incoming 2000s,
>like Common's LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE in particular (no
>surprise, since it came out of the same shop of creative
>minds). There really was not a whole lot of music released in
>that era with that kind of groove. Sure, the sound of VOODOO
>hearkened back to an earlier time, but it wasn't like they
>were trying to recreate the shit bit-by-bit. It was very
>contemporary, but also very funky. I really like that D'Mumblo
>said "yeah, I don't do that traditional strong structure shit
>so well" and just went with what worked. And hit it big!
>
>Damn.
>
>I also now really get the disappointment that there was
>nothing for so many years.
>

I understand what you mean about it sounding closer to the 90's Hip-Hop inspired R&B sound but I personally don't have a big problem with that sound and much prefer it over late 80's for example so that is not an issue for me. Voodoo SOUNDED better/more organic (Brown sugar sounds a bit plastic at times) but too much of it is just too much moody, almost ambient soundscape music for me and since the soundscapes are so minimal outside of the vocal-layers, I often get bored. I still like it though. maybe I would dig it more if I was specifically a fan of vocal-layering because it sounds like he put a lot of time into that but to me, that is more of icing on the cake.

Also, I find the vocal-melodies stronger in general on Brown Sugar even if I'm not sure the songwriting as a whole was ''objectively'' better-I just don't think dude is a songwriter in the conventional pop sense and never was...

>
>Also, I find the vocal-melodies stronger in general on Brown
>Sugar
>

Yeah, Voodoo: vocal melodies?

Bit of an overstatement, maybe. But the vocal melodies on Voodoo *are* pretty weak in comparison.

I guess I should say my piece on the D'Angelo issue as long as I'm here. . .

I like him. I think his importance and just general all around "greatness" is very overstated, but he is good at what he does. I prefer Voodoo. I will check out a new album with completely skeptical ears.

~Austin

Please donate. For Anthony: http://bit.ly/xIIjaE

http://austintayeshus.blogspot.com

http://www.last.fm/user/Austintayeshus

http://twitter.com/Austintayeshus

...whistling the melody to "the line". Like ANYONE...

lol

it's one of the more "hip-hop" songs on that record though.

now if you are talking about D'Mumblo himself on that record, he's sort of "outside" the pocket on that song. His place on the record is kind of vocal garnish, IMO.

I'll have to listen again with that in mind

(because I can't even remember the bassline either... everything about that song is clunky to me)

but if I were thinking about that song, it would have been that bassline.

Not really a melodic one though IMO. I was mainly referring to the vocal-melody in that song. Anyway, I'm not exactly Mr. Melody myself and some music works better with less pronounced melodies but the musical approach on "voodoo" iMO would have benefitted from stronger melodies... then again, I'm not mr. mood music either...

>Not really a melodic one though IMO. I was mainly referring
>to the vocal-melody in that song. Anyway, I'm not exactly Mr.
>Melody myself and some music works better with less pronounced
>melodies but the musical approach on "voodoo" iMO would have
>benefitted from stronger melodies... then again, I'm not mr.
>mood music either...

Yeah, I can get that. It's kind of muted. Except for "Untitled" where he's pretty much front and center, and "Feel Like Making Love" (which is a cover, of course), D seems content to be the vocal "garnish" to the grooves presented.

In retrospect, it was kind of a real bold statement. It reminds me of listening to a Prince studio bootleg, but with "modern" (for 2000) instrumentation.

Definitely ain't on the conventional tip but that bassline
is as infectious as all get out. Listening now and that shit'll
be in my head all week.



http://twitter.com/collazo
http://www.reverbnation.com/livesociety

*I really hate music top (any number) lists, cause there has never been one that I would agree to or have the exact same artists or albums listed.

**I hate award shows cause the artists I like never win awards.

***artists who have had a hit or semi-hit song from five to twenty years ago shouldn't try to make commercial music while trying to comeback into the industry if they aren't on a major label.

I was listening to an mid-90's rapper the other day on a mixshow and he had a new song out, he's been doing music behind the scenes and whatnot but hasn't made any new songs in a while but the new song he had was on some commercial shit and was iffy, not bad but commercial sounding (I guess he thinkin' he's going to get some airplay on today's radio, LOL) and to me he should be on some underground grimey shit instead since he's not on a major label; they need to know that they're at square one again regardless if they had a hit back in the day.

God I don't know how many people here speak spanish/listen to latin rock but this guy man....when I discovered his music....which actually was like a year ago I IMMEDIATELY fell in love with his music. He has led so many bands Almendra, Pescado Rabioso, Spinetta Jade, Invisible....put out so much work.....I thought maybe I'd be able to catch him live since I'm living in south america for half a year starting soon but......

god damn it. this man was a fucking legend of rock

RIP

And it was most appropriate.

As far as i'm concerned the most slept on Mc in the game will always be Boots Riley, at least among heads in my age bracket.

one
k. orr

?