Music Reviews

Babyface was already a legendary hitmaker when his fourth album, The Day, arrived in stores in the fall of 1996. For the album’s first single, “This Is for the Lover in You,” a cover of the Shalamar classic, Babyface linked up with LL Cool J and the former members of Shalamar: Howard Hewett, Jody Watley, and Jeffrey Daniel.

Released as the second single from the group’s third album Jagged Little Thrill, “Goodbye” was written by group members Brandon and Brian Casey along with frequent collaborators Jermaine Dupri and Bryan Michael Cox. In addition Dupri and Cox produced the song as well.

Kevon Edmonds, 1/3 of legendary R&B trio After 7, was already a household name when he released his solo debut 24/7 in the fall of 1999. I was a senior in high school and living in El Paso, Texas when Kevon broke through with his solo single “24/7”

R&B fans suffered a significant loss on August 27th when news arrived that singer Sam Salter passed away. Salter broke through in 1997 with his lead single “After 12, Before 6,” which lead to his debut album It’s On Tonight via La Face Records.

For this week’s Second Listen Sunday, I wanted to revisit Jon B.’s criminally underrated third album, Pleasures U Like. Joining me in discussing the album is Keith Sweat super fan and Marvel Guru, Edward Bowser from Soul In Stereo

For this week’s Slow Jam Saturday selection, we continue highlighting the songwriting of Jon B. Two months after the release of his debut Bonafide, Jon displayed his writing and production skills on After 7’s third album, Reflections. Arriving in record stores on July 18th, 1995, Reflections featured four songs from Jon.

R&B trio After 7 returns to the scene with a new album titled Unfinished Business via the SoNo recording group. New member Danny McClain joins founding members Kevon Edmonds and Keith Mitchell for the group’s fifth project.

Minneapolis-based soul singer Alexander O’Neal burst onto the scene in 1985 with a self-titled debut that would make him a household name. However, as die-hard music fans know, O’Neal was supposed to make his debut earlier.

Welcome back to Slow Jam Saturday. We are continuing to pay homage to this month’s artist Jon B. This week, we are looking at what many consider Jon’s best album, Cool Relax.