Nearly two decades ago Mary J. Blige released What’s the 411?, her debut album, and follow-up, My Life, both fan favorites which helped earn her Queen of Hip-Hop Soul title. In her nearly 40 years, she’s endured much but always managed to prevail, and today she releases Stronger withEach Tear, which represents who and what she is right now.
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Writing much of the material and serving as executive producer alongside Johntá Austin, Mary enlists a number of musical heavyweights to help on the project including Darkchild and Stargate on the first two singles, “The One” (featuring Drake) and “I Am”, respectively.
“Tonight”, an upbeat sampling of Edwin Birdsong’s “Rapper Dapper Snapper”, is the perfect opening to the album, produced by The Runners and Akon. Hip hop’s current “It” boy Drake makes an appearance on “The One”, which includes an auto-tuned Mary and was featured in an AT&T commercial earlier this year. The Ryan Leslie-produced “Said and Done” sounds like a reject from his latest lackluster release. Fortunately, the upbeat, feel good vibe returns on the Ne-Yo-penned “Good Love” featuring T.I.
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It wasn’t too long ago that blue-eyed soul singer Robin Thicke released Something Else, his follow-up to the highly successful sophomore album, The Evolution of Robin Thicke, which really helped introduce him to the world. Since then, he’s been known for smooth, sexy songs and on Sex Therapy he goes into sexual overdrive.
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Sharing producer credits with Polow Da Don and Swizz Beatz, Thicke tries his hand with a new sound on an old theme on two variations of the album: the regular version, Sex Therapy: The Session, and the deluxe version, Sex Therapy: The Experience, which includes five additional tracks mixed in with the regular tracklisting (instead of at the end). Both include seven guest features (more than any of his previous albums) and also marks Thicke’s first album with a parental advisory label.
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After almost a year of reports that focused mostly on his personal life (rather than his music), Chris Brown is hoping to put the past behind him by way of his new album “Graffiti.” Although the album provides much of what we’ve grown to love and expect from Brown: a fusion of pop/R&B with a hint of hip-hop, you can’t help but wonder if art is merely imitating life.
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Tapping big name producers like Polow Da Don and Swizz Beatz, on “Graffiti,” Brown reminds us why he’s so good at what he does. Even still, the lead single “I Can Transform Ya,” is nothing to write home about. The futuristic production and typical lyrics courtesy of Lil Wayne’s feature makes the song intriguing but far from certified banger material. On the contrary, “Sing Like Me,” is smooth a butter as Brown contemplates which woman to choose in a room full of options. Content aside the delivery is where the 20-year-old is luminescent.
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Nobody does sex, love, and spirituality quite like R. Kelly and true to form on his ninth album “Unititled,” he doesn’t disappoint. If his lead single, the bangin’ track “Number One” featuring Keri Hilson, was any indication as to where this sex train was going, nothing on this album should come as a surprise.
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Kellz jumps right in with “Crazy Night,” a West Indian influenced track assisted by Konvict Music recording artists R. City. The admirable thing about Kelly is that he’s not afraid to transform his R&B stylings and merge into different musical lanes, but at this point it’s getting a little stale.
Despite his fumbles, Kelly gets his sea legs by mid album offering up a taste of his classic technique by way of the tracks like “Go Low” in which he likens a woman to a meal, that he wants to eat. “For instance you look like a food, wanna’ put you on my plate suck you up with some biscuits and go one and eat you baby.” Yes it’s enough to make you blush but it’s R. Kelly for goodness sakes!
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