R&B
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Song of the Day: “Party Down”
Soul guitarist Willie Hale is perhaps most widely-known for his head-bopping contribution to Betty Wright’s hit song, “Clean Up Woman,” and maybe just as widely recognized for his nickname, Little Beaver. He apparently received the nickname in honor of his…
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The Recipe to Decolonized Love is in Beyoncé’s Lemonade
“There is a curse that will be broken,” she promises.
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Alicia Keys Returns with “In Common”
After a long wait since her last album, Alicia Keys released a new single this week titled “In Common,” okayplayer. reports. Listen to it after the jump.
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Five Stages of Prince Fandom
You don’t need to know him personally, you say. You get the best of Prince through his music. Maybe that’s the truth, and maybe it isn’t.
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Song of the Day: “Clean Up Woman”
Sometimes the energy in a song is so palpable that you can tell the musicians have hit gold. That’s the case with the 1971 single by Betty Wright, “Clean Up Woman,” a soul song whose popularity at the time signified its…
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Song of the Day: “Come On Back”
From 1962 to 1987, producer Bobby Robinson headed the independent record publisher Enjoy Music. Robinson nurtured and and supported heavy-hitting early R&B, blues, and soul artists of the latter half of the 20th century, including Gladys Knight and the Pips, Elmore James, and Grandmaster Flash.…
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This Week in Posivibes: Gloria Ann Taylor
Ubiquity’s Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing reissue collects some incredible soulful, experimental R&B from Gloria Ann Taylor’s early years, rare tracks that were released during her time with the small label Selector Sound. Taylor owned the label with her brother…
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New Album for Lauryn Hill?
In a recent article about Ms. Lauryn Hill’s career, the artist’s producer Phil Nicolo told The Fader that he’s been working with her in the studio toward the completion of a long-awaited new album. Read the full article here, along…
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This Week in Posivibes: FKA twigs
FKA twigs has released a self-directed video to accompany her new EP M3LL155X, and the result is wonderfully troubling: the four-part video accompaniment to her five-song EP delivers an explicit and uncompromising visual accompaniment to the work’s examination of identity, sexuality,…
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Song of the Day: “Try Me”
The resilient R&B singer Esther Mae Jones adopted the stage name of Little Esther Philips at the age of 14, allegedly taking it from a gas station sign in Los Angeles. She had a rough-and-tumble career, a tumultuous relationship with the…
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Song of the Day: “The Prayer”
Black Messiah is an apt title for the long-awaited follow-up to contemporary soul master D’Angelo’s 2000 record, Voodoo. Fourteen years allows for plenty of anticipation. At times, the news from industry insiders made it seem like Black Messiah would never…