Music Reviews

While he is one of the stars of Showtime’s hit series The Chi, Luke James has been making noise in the industry for almost two decades. James began his career singing background for Tyrese with his childhood friend Quentin, with whom he would later form a duo under the moniker Luke & Q.

One of the great things about being an R&B fan is having the chance to discuss artists who never made it past one album. The list is endless, and one such group is this week’s Second Listen Sunday artist, No Question.

The 21st-century teen pop resurgence was in full swing in the summer of 2001 when NSYNC released its final studio album, Celebrity. Given that the group is the featured artist for this week’s Slow Jam Saturday, I could’ve easily featured the smash “Gone” from that album.

After two-plus decades in the music game, R&B singer, songwriter, and producer Tank is releasing what he claims is his final solo album in the form of R&B Money.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Lillo Thomas aspired to reach the top of the world of sports. However, a 1984 automobile accident in Brazil stopped that. The tragedy prevented him from competing at the 1984 Olympics, for which he had already qualified. Nevertheless, Thomas found another passion in the world of music.

For this week’s Slow Jam Saturday, I wanted to take it back it 1987 and give some flowers to Mr. Miles Jaye. The first time I felt the lyrics to Jaye’s hit “I’ve Been A Fool For You” was when I was 24. During this time, I was stationed in England and spent a lot of time watching DVD Box Sets of TV series.

In the fall of 2002, R&B music was a changing landscape. However, that didn’t stop The Prom Queen Of Soul, a.k.a., Mrs. Whitney Houston, from releasing her fifth album Just Whitney on December 10th, 2022. Just Whitney was Houston’s fifth studio album and the first after she renewed her contract with Arista for $100 million.

The current lineup of legendary R&B trio features founding members Eddie Levert, Walter Williams, Sr., and Eric Nolan Grant, who joined the group in 1997. Tonight I get to cross an item off my musical bucket list as I’m attending the Washington D.C. stop of the group’s Last Stop on the Love Train tour.

No matter the music genre, every group has a standout member who is destined for solo stardom. Lionel Richie was already three years into a successful solo career when his former band, The Commodores, released its eleventh album, Nightshift.

Mariah Carey was already one of the biggest stars in music when her seventh studio album, Rainbow, hit stores on November 2nd, 1999. At the time, I was a senior in high school living in El Paso, Texas. Before that, I had spent the last six years outside Washington D.C. Naturally, living so close to Chocolate City with numerous urban radio stations, album cuts weren’t that hard to come by. Particularly during the quiet storm.

Growing up in the nineties, I had the chance to experience a plethora of R&B singers. The market had such a colossal saturation that often, a singer would get lost in the shuffle. Lorenzo Smith, this week’s pick for Second Listen Sunday, is one such artist.

For this week’s Slow Jam Saturday, I wanted to give the elegant Shanice Wilson and her lush ballad “Saving Forever for You” some flowers.