>Van has easily likeable and jammable songs. Is that an argument?

It's not an argument, at all for me, and that leads me to the next point...

>Or look at it this way, all he has is songs. And that ain't enough sadly...


I remember reading an interview with Van Hunt somewhere, and he talked about
being in the basement, working on some music. He runs up the stairs excited about
what he's been working on, and Master P is playing on BET on the TV up stairs.
He realizes this is where popular music is at the time and it takes all the steam
out of him for the time being, and he just gets depressed, because he feels like
he'll never be able to fit in with that. One could say he shouldn't be so easily discouraged,
but that isn't the point here.
What bugs me about it all is that we're here on a sort of site that champions the
unheard voices in music, and we still have the biggest discussions about the artists
who had the most corporate money behind them either now or at some time in the past.
(there is the occasional exception, but it's rare).
I guess it just bugs me that there doesn't really seem to be any community where
the music truly matters more than "all the other stuff".
Don't mind me... just wanted to get that off my chest. I agree with everything you said tho.



>Katy Perry is a top-heavy and reasonably pretty white woman.
>And she showed up singing to Kelly clarkson's audience about
>kissing broads. That opens more folks up to her songs far more
>than an old-looking black dude with punk funk leanings and
>semi-tricky/indirect writing. And you know, labels can put
>more money down when they think a fine chick with a few catchy
>songs and even catchier outfits can help them get rich.
>D'Angelo's first album, the bs Neo soul label, and him hittin
>the gym...same thing. He had all of that AND Questo.
>
>Van Hunt was judged as a squirrelly Maxwell + Lenny Kravitz
>without the over the top cool or any of the 'chicks dig him".
>He did what he could with stuff like Attention and Precious,
>but folks didn't roll with it. Aka 'just some songs'. He's one
>of the artists that let me know I was listening harder and to
>more stuff than the average person.
>
>And good lord, sliding him into the Neo soul bucket clearly
>didn't help either. By that time, the Neo soul label had so
>much baggage anyway. Obviously it is now clear that
>quasi-righteous folks who don't comb their hair aren't a
>reliable or large enough audience to base a career on trying
>to appease. They'll leave your ass hanging for the next 'it'
>soulman and then you're stuck trying to make a hit for folks
>you hated on because you thought they had your back. Then them
>cockroaches will fall up into dancemania without you and leave
>you on the couch watching them dance with Tina. Aka they
>bought the popular stuff that they tricked you into not
>making. Beyonce and nem...
>
>Maybe we also missed the part where Stevie and Marvin were
>cooing out copycat hits and covers for years before rebelling
>and doing their own things. Folks thought they could skip that
>part but the risk is still high.
>
>The first album, they lied about Van's age, had him imaged as
>some neosoul pimp Curtis Mayfield, etc. They also did what
>they could to make him into a 'this dude wrote songs that you
>already like, so now you gotta like these' artist. Penny with
>a hole in it, y'all! This guy wrote that!
>
>Van is a damn good song-writer who probably made a mistake by
>continuing to show up with only himself as a vessel to get his
>songs out and over. I dig Rahsaan Patterson, but he ain't the
>vessel to get more folks into your sounds/songs/work. Even a
>highly questionable artist like Terius Nash has a slice of an
>audience still because he fed songs to visible stars who had
>what he doesn't. Aka he positioned himself in a lane as a dude
>who could 'for the right price make yo shit tighter'. Then he
>slides in the back door with his own stuff. And when they try
>to stop him, he hollers 'I wrote umbrella''.
>
>As an artist or even a known contributor, Van Hunt doesn't
>have an Umbrella. Or an Untitled. Or a Soul Sista. Just A
>Penny With a Hole in it. I mean that literally and not.