Music Reviews

Musician Kem returns to the scene with his latest EP, Full Circle. The Detroit-based singer opens up his latest project with “Stuck On You,” which has seen success on the Urban AC charts.

After numerous delays and title changes, R&B singer Ne-Yo returns with his latest project, Self-Explanatory. Due to the COVID pandemic, Ne-Yo had to put the project on the back burner despite releasing singles for the project going to 2020.

Vocalist James Ingram was no stranger to the music industry as his older brother Philip was a member of the late seventies R&B band Switch. Before releasing his debut, It’s Your Night, Ingram had already built a fan base two years prior. On Quincy Jones’ 1981 album The Dude, Ingram supplied vocals for “Just Once” and “One Hundred Ways,” garnering him three Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist. For his efforts on “One Hundred Ways,” he garnered the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

For this week’s Slow Jam Saturday, I wanted to feature a rarely mentioned duet between two late R&B legends. Teddy Pendergrass was already one of the premier voices in R&B when his duet “Hold Me” with future superstar Whitney Houston hit the airwaves in 1984.

Terius Nash, better known as The -Dream was already an established artist when he released his I Am Sam EP a few days before Christmas in 2015. The EP was a collection of covers by the legendary Sam Cooke and was recorded during the sessions, The-Dream had with Beyoncé for 4 album.

Buffalo-based new jack swing group burst onto the scene with the debut single, the catchy “Live and Learn.” However, their self-titled debut also featured an elegant ballad in the form of “I Miss You.” The track starts with an elegant instrumental before lead singer Kevin Scott comes in to croon how he feels about a love lost.

R&B singer Sammie recently shared with some of his counterparts for an interesting Versuz. While I was well above the age demographic when Sammie made his debut in 1999, he has always had a capable singing voice. Nevertheless, Sammie decided to go the indie route and has released five mixtapes, two additional albums, and six EPs in the last sixteen years. One of those EP’S, I’m Him is this week’s pick for Second Listen Sunday.

Michael DeLorenzo, who had the role of Detective Eddie Torres for the first three seasons, covered James Taylor’s 1972 hit “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight.” DeLorenzo was no stranger to musical talent, having displayed his dancing ability in the forgotten dance flick Fast Forward and Michael Jackson’s “Beat it” Video.

I wanted to pay homage to Marie’s third album and her personal favorite, Irons in the Fire. Artists releasing two albums was common in the music industry. Teena was still red hot with her second album Lady T when Irons in the Fire hit stores on August 14th, 1980.

One of my favorite saxophonists, Boney James, has many collaborations with R&B singers…, I wanted to highlight Boney’s 2006 collaboration with Earth, Wind & Fire’s lead vocalist Philip Bailey.

After Michael passed in 2009, I began to dig deep into The Jackson 5’s catalog and discovered the vocal vigor in Jermaine’s voice.

Most people think 112’s debut song was the classic “Only You” the group’s first recording was actually “Making Love” from the Money Train soundtrack.