Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love

I still think this song is creepy. "Bleeding love?" Really? How Romantical.

Atlantic Starr "If Your Heart Isn't It"

Love this song. (don't mind the incredibly crappy vid quality)




AS always had a knack for sweet melodies...

guilty pleasures: T-Pain's Can't Believe It

T-Pain Feat. Lil' Wayne - Can't Believe It (New) [HQ]

I'm not a fan of T-Pain. Or Autotune. Or the fact that dude has probably ushered in this insipid era of phony sounding "urban music" that has everybody thinking that they can sing.

(I'm looking at you Kanye)

That said, I did this song (nice melody) and the cool ass video concept. The video is really well done from a creative and visual standpoint. It's creatively risky and not afraid to do something different. I do like the subtle stuff scattered thoughout. I like to call it the "for no reason" syndrome. There are little elements (the mime dudes hiding behind the couch, etc.) that don't really need to be there but add that nice layer of detail and commitment to the core concept.

Lil' Wayne comes in around the end and threatens to ruin the song but I still dig it.

Now imagine if a real singer sans Autotune sang this ditty.

The Fatback Band - I Found lovin´

Another 80s headbobber...





The Wop even.

Heart - Alone

Don't front on Rock power ballads from the 80s:



The Funky Snob digs this and doesn't care who knows...

Check Out Def Jam’s Secrets To Success!

It's funny cuz it's true.


Def Jam's Secrets To Success! from jeff on Vimeo.

It's also likely how Puffy aka P.Diddy, Puff Daddy, WTF he's calling himself these days made Bad Boy the camp supreme back in the day.

How else do you explain Total and The L.O.X. going PLATINUM (WTF?!?) back in the late-90s.

My theory anyway.

Deniece Williams - Free

If you can't vibe to this there's no hope for you.

Deniece Williams - Free



The Funky Snob wasn't aware that Maurice White (Earth, Wind & Fire) produced this. Nice.

Stardust-Music Sounds Better With You

The Funky Snob approves of this groove:




Stardust, a side project of Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter, delivered this gem (featuring this dope sample of Chaka Khan's "Fate") in the late-90s.

If any dance track exemplifies sweat-drenched, alcohol-tinged late-night euphoric revelry this is it.

Anthony Hamilton's Ain't Nobody Worryin'

Every time I’m ready to give up on today’s R&B/Soul music and dust off some Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, along comes someone like Anthony Hamilton to fully reaffirm my faith in the genre.

With Ain't Nobody Worryin', Anthony Hamilton could’ve went the easy route and crafted some bubblegum soul complete with guest appearances with the rappers du jour – to his credit he didn’t. What he did do, however, is create a solid soul (sans the “neo” tag) that wouldn’t look the least bit out of place next to Marvin Gaye or Bobby Womack on the shelf.

Anthony Hamilton - Can't Let Go



Heavily drawing from southern soul and gospel influences, Hamilton’s unique and easygoing drawl takes us back to a time where old school soul reached the mainstream consciousness. The title track, Ain’t Nobody Worrying is a “What’s Going On” type joint, perfectly details the ills of today’s society. Lead single “Can’t Let Go” is hot buttered soul, “Change Your World” is classic Motown, and “Pass Me Over” is contemporary gospel. He even skillfully throws in some reggae vibes with “Everybody.” Even though this album was released December 2005, this was an early candidate for best of 2006.

That said, this song is just too corny:

Anthony Hamilton - Sista Big Bones



Why this was released as single, I don't know.


Even so, The Funky Snob is looking forward to his new album, The Life of a Southern Gentleman, tentatively slated for a June release.

Biz Markie - It's spring again

In case you don't know...

It's spring again- Biz Markie

Where in the World is Jimmy Cozier?

Who you say?

Jimmy Cozier - She's All I Got


Yeah. That dude.

I wouldn't call this song a classic but it's worth a "That song was cool. Whatever happened to that dude?"

Hence this post.

Erykah Badu - New Amerykah, Pt. 1

The Funky Snob’s initial WTF?!? feeling on listening to New Amerykah was perhaps too hasty. The initial folly was in greedily gulping Badu’s latest straight out the box, instead of letting it marinade in my mental.

Having now given this a few listens and fully digested the goods, I’m still not sure whether I enjoyed it or if I’m willing to send my regards to the chef simply on account of not tasting fresh new “neo-soul” for a while.

(Okay, I think we’ve tapped this particular metaphor enough.)

New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War is….it just is. The album is proof that the industry needs Badu more than she needs it. Her first new project in years, Badu is content to let her hair down (is it really her hair this time?) and succumb to the militant-P-Funk-neo-soul-incense-burning-esoteric esthetic that she has cultivated since she summoned the spirit of Billie Holiday with 1997’s “On and On.”
So we get a 11-track project that nonchalantly non-commercial, heavily hip-hop influenced and markedly militant.




"I just laid down my vocals and let the music breathe while the melodies tell the stories," says Badu.

Indeed. Those expecting an album full of mainstream sounding joints like “Honey” will be sorely disappointed.

As a tribute to J Dilla, "Telephone" is perhaps one of the more commercial sounding songs, even at eight minutes long. “The Hump” bumps with a creeping bassline but loses points for the pointless and indulgent bridge in the middle. Indulgent is the operative word with the album as many songs are heavily experimental (see” Master Teacher, My people).

Not that there’s anything wrong with that but Badu has always been guilty of creating songs that would have so much more reasonance if she delivered them with just a bit more focus.

Sonic mediation is all good but off kilter for off kilter’s sake leaves me with vertigo. New Amerykah is destined to be one of those albums that everyone has and claim to love…but one that they don’t actually listen to much.

Black Science Orchestra - New Jersey Deep

Classic house material.

Black Science Orchestra - New Jersey Deep

The Roots - Get Busy

More fire from The Roots...

The Roots - Get Busy


The Rising Down hype machine is working overtime. Hot.

Raheem DeVaughn - Customer

The new Raheem DeVaughn single...



I don't blame his A&R people for serving this up (see what I did there?) as the new single. There are much better joints on the Love Behind The Melody album (Mo Better?). But with its concessions to today's "R&B" (ay-ay-ay-AY) and on-the-nose lyrics, "Customer" is perhaps well suited to the juvenile Soulja Boy crowd. And can/should Burger King sue?

And has Raheem ever had a decent video for one of his songs? He really needs to step up his "find a good director" game. That said, I have to respect DeVaughn's hustle and hope he stays on his grind.

The Roots - 75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)

Off the upcoming Rising Down project:



DAMN.

Dropping N-bombs all ironical like too.

Organized Konfusion - "Who Stole My Last Piece of Chicken"

Classic material.

And lol@ that fat kid

Janet Jackson - Discipline

Damn Janet...you ain't aging well. And the plastic surgery is not a good look.

The feedback on first single Feedback?

Meh.

Plus each new album you release seems to adhere to the law of diminishing returns. Now, The Funky Snob knows that you got a raw deal with the "wardrobe malfunction" fallout and your last album wasn't as bad as they say, but damn...Discipline is disappointing.

Boring even.

Digitized megapop ain't really doing it for me -- not to mention the overt sexuality vibe is more corny than carnal.

I love me some Janet but she's now in her forties. Not that there's anything wrong with that but I would love to hear to mature, souled out Janet...on the "That's the Way Love Goes-meets-Let's Wait Awhile" tip.

Just because it's Janet, The Funky Snob is going to give Discipline a few more listens, just to see if it grows on me.

But only because it's Janet.

Mother's Finest - Love Changes

The Funky Snob randomly rediscovered this sweet 80s R&B/Funk track by Mother's Finest:

Mother's Finest - Love Changes



Always loved that track, which makes it weird that I not only forgot all about it, the band's rep doesn't really register with me. Love Changes, however is the joint. The supremely underrated Joyce Kennedy sings the holy hell out of this jam.



As an extremely underrated rock/funk metal/R&B outfit, Atlanta-based Mother's Finest was/is forever destined to be saddled with the "Black Rock" tag -- and subsequently ignored. Mother's Finest turned out some decent rock funk in the 1970s in addition to some more soulful stuff in the 1980s.

You see, for most blackfolk, rock is that distant cousin that that only see at the family reunion and have no intention of staying in contact with. Sure, blah blah about rock being invented by blacks and blah blah about being appropriated by the mainstream (re: whitefolk).


Bottom line, most blackfolk ain't checking for modern rock music. Period. As a result, radio didn't really know what to do with Mother's Finest (a fact that they acknowledged by naming their 1990s release "Black Radio Won't Play This Album")

Which is a shame, because there is some alright stuff out there. As for Mother's Finest, they apparently are still touring.

The Funky Snob is playing the hell out of Love Changes. As for their other, more-rock and funk metal oriented material...The Funky Snob will get around to listening to it eventually.

Or not.

NYOIL: Cap'n Save A Hoe!

The latest from Staten Island emcee NYOIL:

NYOIL - Cap'n Save A Hoe!


Comedy.

New stuff from Camp Lo

This Funky Snob thinks that Wikipedia (of all places) puts it best in describing Camp Lo’s steez as “lyrics that consist almost entirely of Blaxploitation-style Dadaist slang.”

Indeed.

People slept on 2007’s Black Hollywood, which was a solid, if sometimes even, project.

Camp Lo firmly falls into that “love em or hate em” polemic, particularly in today’s hip hop landscape. I highly doubt that Luchini, Coolio High and other 70s inspired ditties off the classic Uptown Saturday Night would get much mainstream love in the new millennium.

That said, the new joint is aiight:

Camp Lo - Lumdi

Kindred the Family Soul – Where Would I Be

Damn. The Funky Snob wasn’t aware that they made a video for this:

Kindred the Family Soul – Where Would I Be


I was always curious why married duo Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon never got the same shine as Hidden Beach labelmate Jill Scott.



Their debut, 2003’s Surrender to Love was criminally underrated and spawned this sweet track (remember?):

Kindred the Family Soul – Far Away


Kindred has the same “neo-soul” slant (even though The Funky Snob hates the tag “neo-soul”) and the same warm fuzzy “nutritionally good for the soul” Philly vibe thing going on. Perhaps it’s their “gimmick” (for lack of a better word) – a “strong down-to-earth married couple with kids professing their love through music.”

A hard sell? Perhaps.

But it shouldn’t be.

Fugees: The Score revisited

I recently revisited The Score (via iPod) and by and large, it still holds up.

Will mainstream hip-hop ever again see a potent trio as The Fugees? Listening to Wyclef, Pras and the inimitable Lauryn Hill effortlessly drop lyrical missives and “capture your bounty like Eliot Ness," it makes one realize that there will likely never ever be a hip hop crew of two dudes and a hot chick to bring the commercial fire like New Jersey’s finest did in 1996.

The Funky Snob was no doubt down with the "Fu-Gee-La," appreciated the Roberta Flack jack of “Killin’ Me Softly” and feened off the ill Enya sample in “Ready or Not” – but really dug underrated joints like “The Mask” and especially "How Many Mics"...

Fugees - How Many Mics


...where Lauryn serves up perhaps one of the best hip-hop verses of all time (just a taste):

I get controversial
Freak your style with no rehearsal
Ooo, contraire mon frere
Don't you even go there
Me without a mic is like a beat without a snare
I dare to tear into your ego,
We go, way back like some ganja and pelequo
Or Coleco-Vision
My mind makes incisions in your anatomy
And I'll back this with Deuteronomy
Or Leviticus, God made this word
You can't get with this
Sweet like licorice,
Dangerous like syphillis, yeah.

Nuts. Speaking of nuts…


Um...

Ms. Hill, please come back. Get your act together.

The rap game needs you.

Fiona Apple : Across The Universe

it is blasphemous to say that this cover is better than the original?

Fiona Apple: Across The Universe


So be it. This version kicks ass.

yael naim - new soul

that new macbook air commercial prompted this funky snob to do some google-fu:

yael naim new soul


infectious. typically bohemian video however.

Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Album Cover

Not sure what the big fuss is about over this:



Meh. Whatever. I mean it doesn't suck...

That said, this Funky Snob is waiting to hear what Badu has got in store for us...

Damita Jo Freeman - Soul Train Sista Girl

In a word:



FUCKING AWESOME.

Okay that's two words but whatever.

Keyshia Cole - I Remember

Not a big of Ms. Cole (that terrible riff-run on Love really turned me off) but this tune ain't bad:


Keyshia Cole - I Remember


She's definitely stepped her vocal game up. Now she just needs to tone down the hoodrat vibe somewhat.

Maxwell: This Woman's Work (Live)

I do believe that this is actually better than the original.

Maxwell: This Woman's Work (Live)



Perfection. No offense Ms. Bush.

Coldplay: The Scientist

...because you need to be reminded how frickin cool Coldplay is.