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.
The duo did sign to J Records. However, their debut album never saw an official release. After the group disbanded to pursue separate ventures, James would go on to write tracks for the likes of Chris Brown, Britney Spears, and Justin Bieber. In addition, James has released three solo albums and two mixtapes.
For this week’s Slow Jam Saturday, I wanted to highlight the first time I heard James sing. In 2006 as my loyal readers know, I was living in the United Kingdom and spent many a night DJing. I was part of a record pool to stay up on my music during this time. One month one of the songs was “My Turn” by Luke & Q.
Since the song dropped in 2006, it had had a “Mr. Steal Your Girl” vibe before Trey Songz made it famous. The singer’s voices compliment each other, and they avoid R&B thuggery. The lyrics may seem contrived to some, but the duo makes it work.
“Girl, who that dude you with?
Could’ve swore I saw him push up on your friend
Girl, who that dude you with?
Never seen him buy you nothing, always spending your ends
He don’t ice your wrists
Don’t take no trips
Don’t spend no time
He don’t rock your spine
But I’ll ice your wrists
We’ll take the trips
I’ll spend the time
Girl, I’ll hit ya right
Now it’s my turn, forget about your man”.
While I’m 41 now and married with children, the song still resonates, and hopefully, one day, we will get the chance to hear their aborted album.
Final Grade: B+
“My Turn” is available on all streaming platforms.
One of the great things about buying a soundtrack when I was in my DJ prime was discovering a slow jam that I could put on my mix CDs. For this week’s Slow Jam Saturday, I wanted to highlight one of the songs: Jagged Edge’s cover of Air Supply’s, “All Out of Love.”
After twenty-six years in the game, Atlanta-based quartet Jagged Edge is currently on the road celebrating the anniversary of their magnum opus sophomore album, “J.E. Heartbreak,” with a tour titled “An Intimate Evening With Jagged Edge.” To kick off our seventh wedding anniversary celebration, my wife and I will be the D.C. date on the tour this coming Wednesday.
For this week’s Second Listen Sunday, I wanted to travel back to 1999 and show some love to R&B group Amyth, which was initially signed to LL Cool J Rock the Bells Records. Hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the group was formed in 1995 while the members were students at Southern University.