the queen of hip hop soul?

how have i got this far without doing a post on mary?

mary j.blige isn't labelled the queen of hiphop soul lightly. when she arrived in 1992, the only artist that had even come close to what she did when she debuted were en vogue. they too mixed hiphop beats and soul vocals, but they did so without being street. en vogue merely used the beats - mary was the beats. she was hiphop, she just didn't choose to rap.

growing up in yonkers, she was surrounded by pioneering hiphop such as run dmc and grandmaster flash. but the sentiments of these artists didn't match the experiences of a teenage girl. mary sought solace in soul artists like anita baker who sang about realtionships and wanting someone you can't have. it was the synergy of these two cultures that would later give mary her edge.

when i first saw 'real love' on mtv in 1992, everything made sense. i liked hiphop and i liked soul but they didn't individually feel that relevant to me. i was too young to fully appreciate smooth soul productions and too far removed from the realities of hiphop lyrics. mary sang about things i could relate to as a 16 year old and added a touch of danger. it was a genre of music i had been waiting for, only i didn't know it.

many fans have stated that mary produces her best work only when she's suffering. true, her first two albums are my favourite but at the time i knew nothing about her personal demons. in fact her last studio album, 'the breakthrough' echoed those days, but she is now blissfully happy with producer kendu. i'm sure no one would really wish trainwreck kci hailey on her again...

ten lesser known mary tracks - download here

you remind me

even though this was her first single, fans who joined the mary train later in the 90s won't be so familiar. this remix captures the essence of 1992 and a summer day like nothing else.

reminisce

another hit from 'what's the 411', remixed to feature pete rock and cl smooth and grab portions of 'they reminisce over you'. see what they did there?

changes i've been going through

'what's the 411' album track that really drilled the message home - this was not soul music in the traditional sense.

you don't have to worry

411-era track from the 'who's the man?' soundtrack. this is the soundtrack version, not the remix version that was more widely available.

love no limit

so ubiquitous you would have thought it was a single. bad boy remix that still gets played out today.

be with you

duet with lauryn hill originally intended for the 'my life' album. lauryn sounds young. at the time she had just released her first fugees album with pras and wyclef.

if i don't love you this way

cover of jackson five classic from the 'my life' era. included on some international releases.

everyday it rains

from the 1995 'the show' soundtrack. sounds like it could have been from either of the the sessions for the first two albums.

get to know you better

'share my world' album track. should have been released.one of my favourites.

he think i don't know

from the 'no more drama' repackage.

90s girl bands - premier league

though the pop decade would be dominated by boy bands such as nkotb, take that and the backstreet boys until girl power hit, on the r&b scene, girl bands were always big business in the 90s.



after the spice girls, many tried to emulate their cartoony characteristics to achieve crossover success, but the truly talented chose credibility over advertising deals.



the integration of hip hop beats into r&b tracks was first heard on en vogue's hold on in 1990 and the influence of the grittier hip hop scene saw some bands adopt a more casual or comedy image, notably tlc and jade, mostly via their clothing, to identify themselves with the more credible hip hop scene.


by 1995, it became more acceptable for girls to be girls and a more glamorous side emerged, eventually becoming the perfect complement to bad boy's patented late 90s bling scene. despite this, many of the girls were tied to bad record deals and failed to recoup much of the reward for their success.



these girls were on top of their game in the 90s - download here









en vogue - lies
in 1990, en vogue sounded like nothing else. slickly manufactured 80s soul had given way to new jack swing but some were finding the music over-produced. enter four girls, looking like the supremes, but singing over the kind of beats associated with bands like nwa and public enemy. in a rare faux pas, smash hits labelled en vogue one hit wonders in their round up 1990 - quote "...their second single currently 'lies' (arf) in the discount bin at woolies..." I think the only reason I remember this is that it was actually quite funny. but wrong.









tlc - ain't too proud to beg
colourful, cute and individual, tlc burst onto the scene in 1992. condoms flying. their first album 'oooh on the tlc tip' was slightly overshadowed by their loud image, but by the time 'crazysexycool' was released in late 1994, the girls were all grown up. if it were possible to wear out a cd i would now be on my 25th copy. though chilli and t-boz tried to carry on without left eye, it was visibly painful and they're now working on solo projects.










destiny's child - show me the way
hands up who preferred destiny's child back in the day? beyonce's voice is natural and the four girls harmonise perfectly. this track is from their debut, at age 15, and letoya is rumoured to be singing on the first verse. it does sound like her. maybe one day all six members will reunite, dreamgirls style....or not.









swv - i'm so into you
inspiration of many of today's current female r&b singers and the crown queens of new jill swing. swv were young, but looked older due to some hard times growing up. famously sampled wacko on 'right here' and went on to release five singles from their successful first album. band member lelee has recently alleged that they left their contract penniless in 1998, mirroring tlc's experience with laface.









jade - i want cha baby
game attempts to look sexy in lumberjack shirts five sizes too big paid off for jade, whose worldwide hit 'don't walk away' put them up there with swv for a time. for years, the intro to that song featured on many an answerphone. after a second successful album, like swv and tlc, jade suffered from mismanagement and split in 1994 with little financial return.









702 - steelo
in the mid 90s, 702 tried to fill the gap left by financially ruined girl groups before them. against the odds, and with scant vocal ability, they have survived well into the 00s, partly due to the clout of longtime compadre missy elliott. still, they are responsible for some nice tracks.










eternal - stay
when they arrived, eternal were revered in the uk as a band the american record buying public would lap up. their success, whilst sizable, remained slightly more local so it was rumoured that single white member louise was offloaded to improve their chances in the us r&b market. unlikely, but in any case it turned out in her favour and she's the only member still getting work. unless you count kelle bryan's appearance on celebrity love island. which is precisely the opposite of being in demand.








xscape - understanding
underrated girl group who favoured mid and slow tempo jams that allowed their vocals to shine. another young group, the then mid-teens sang at jermaine dupri's birthday party in 1991 and got a contract for their efforts. split in 1998 but now regrouped.









total - no one else
total were a bad boy project, originally singing choruses on hip hop joints for artists such as biggie smalls and ll cool j. had they stuck with this strategy, they could have disguised the fact that neither kima keisha or pam can actually sing. their debut album was painful listening and i dread to think what the untouched demo sounded like. the beats of course, were bad boy's, and wasted on them.








brownstone - if you love me
this group managed to negotiate the obvious pitfalls of being signed to wacko's label and became reasonably successful with this track in 1995. after replacing a member who left due to bronchitis (read: girlfght) they failed to recover.