>>1000 jacks the shit outta Sly & The Fam
>>(possibly my fave group of
>>all time), and I still like it.
>
>yeah, i can def see the sly comparisons. but "1000 deaths" is
>harder and louder than anything on "riot."


Well it's released in 2014 and has the benefit of better technology and Hip Hop
influence, so "louder" and "harder" would seem more of a result of those...
still "Luv N Haight" is pretty loud and hard


>>"Charade"
>
>i initially thought "diamonds and pearls" era prince.
>specifially "money don't matte 2nite". but after i got really
>got into "charade" i realized those were just surface
>comparisons.


Lol... I really wanna say you're bordering on making it hard to take you serious by
saying it's only "surface comparisons". It's a Prince song through and through from
the guitar melody and tone to the melody of the song itself to his "all he wanted was
a chance to talk" ad lib... oh and the clap just puts the icing on the cake. I don't even
know what Prince era to put it in... just anytime after 1986, this is a great Prince impression.
So good that I like it.


>>"Prayer"
>
>man, i ain't never heard a song like "prayer"! those severely
>drunk ass drums??? no chorus??? which song sounds like
>this???



This is another heavily influenced Prince song. The guitar melody and tone strike again,
along with the clap. Of course a clap alone doesn't spell P-r-i-n-c-e, but when you've
got so many other Prince elements running through your music, it's easy to see
where you're coming from.
No chorus doesn't really create something new, lol. Drunk drums either. I guess
these are things that add his own touch to the Prince influence though.
But again, I really like this song too.


>>"Untitled"
>
>sure. definitely a controversy era prince tribute. bass
>popping on a ballad, that riff, etc.



Man if you didn't see this one, I was gonna give up.



>>"When We Get By"
>
>kinda thought so, but i can't identify any particular song
>that sounds like it. jazzy, shuffle song, with drums up front
>like that. it definitely had a hip-hop feel to it, even
>though none of the parts were hip-hoppy. any similar songs?


I was gonna explain, but I realized you did it in your next paragraph...


>every once in a while i hear some specific elements that are
>tributes/derivatives of earlier stuff, but the sum of the
>whole is somthing new. i think "ain't that easy" is a good
>example of this: funkadelic vox, "raspberry beret" clap, etc.
>but again, it's the alchemy of these elements that make it
>into something new.


One could look at it like that. I don't think derivative work always sounds like
one particular song... in fact, I think that's pretty rare. It's just that once you take
so many elements of a particular sound or the take them without altering them too
much, it just sounds like something they would have made, if that makes sense.
In more down-to-earth language, you're jacking their style.
Take for instance Robin Thicke's "Got 2 Be Down" ft. Faith Evans. His vocal stylings
there are obviously derivative of Marvin Gaye. What particular Marvin Gaye song?
I'd have to name plenty, because that's just Marvin's whole style being jacked.
That also happens to be one of Thicke's best songs tho, imo lol.


>now, here are some d'angelo songs i've never ever ever heard
>anything similar to before: "jonz" "SDMF" "dreamin eyes" "the
>root" "devil's pie" "chicken grease" "greatday" "africa"


Yeah like I said, I'm not saying he's never made anything that wasn't biting someone
else's style. He does create... just not habitually as Bilal does. Let's not forget that
the Bilal comparison is why this convo is being had. In light of that, it could be said
that D'angelo knows how to temper his experimentation enough to keep it relatable
to the common person. I'd be lying if I said I don't listen to Bilal and wish he'd just
make a straight-forward song without SO MUCH experimentation sometimes.
For instance "Back To Love" frustrates me STILL, because the beat is there, the voice
is there, but the way he's singing the verses damn near off key... I'm just like WHY?
*sigh* The rest of the song is perfect... it's just stuff like that that keeps me from
going back to his music as often as I'd like to.
I say all that to say that I don't think it's a bad thing that D doesn't create as much
as Bilal. I think Bilal would be better off NOT creating something new every time he
opens his mouth to sing, because a voice as great as his is needed on some traditional
sounds that reach the masses. I mean why is John Legend representing Black music
right now while Sam Smith remakes Whitney Houston songs? It makes no sense lol.
Our great singers are in the basement experimenting. Cmon son.


>and truly unique d'angelo element is his singing voice. no
>one has his tone, his enunciation, his cadence, coupled with
>his layers, vox arrangements, etc. not prince, not phillip
>bailey, not marvin, not al green, not james brown, not aaron
>hall, not...etc. and if any new singer comes along and tries
>anything similar, we'll think "he's channeling d'angelo!"


Lol, I like how you named 7 singers who sing him under the table, and that could
lend itself to why he relies on things like cadence and half enunciation as means
of making himself unique... I'm not sure... but at any rate, the unintelligible cadence
is unique... under-enunciation has been a thing way before D'angelo tho.
Anita Baker was the queen of that when I was younger.