India Arie - Voyage to India, Ashanti - Ashanti, Mary J. Blige - No More Drama, Brandy - Full Moon, Toni Braxton - More Than a Woman, Mariah Carey - Charmbracelet, Floetry - Floetic, Vivian Green - A Love Story, Whitney Houston - Just Whitney, Jaheim - Still Ghetto, Donell Jones - Life Goes On, Glenn Lewis - World Outside My Window, Musiq - Juslisen, Meshell Ndegeocello - Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape, Jaguar Wright - Denials Delusions and Decisions

Release Date: September 24th, 2002

It seems the biggest fear of any initially successful artist is the "sophomore jinx". For an artist such as India Arie, whose debut was eventually recognized and acclaimed, to the tune of 7 Grammy Nominations (no wins though) this is a real concern. But from the outset of Voyage to India Arie makes it clear that the "sophomore jinx" is not of her concern. As she says on the infectious lead single "Little Things" (which cleverly contains an interpolation of the song "Hollywood") - “I do this for the love of music not for the glitter and gold”. Besides, after a few minutes listening to this album the sophomore slump will likely be the furthest thing from your mind. As was the case on her first album, Voyage to India is steeped in deeply soulful and uplifting material that at times is reminiscent of Stevie Wonder (her idol/inspiration) especially on songs like "The One" and "Little Things", but it still has it's own flavor. Tracks like "Talk to Her", "The Truth", "Get it Together", "Can I walk with You", and "Good man" also provide a window into healthy relationships and self-images. The biggest drawback for me was the heavy reliance on the acoustic guitar on much of the album, which doesn't lend itself to enough musical variation, and consequently some songs seem almost "under composed". Overall though, Voyage to India is a strong follow up to a classic and fluid debut, perhaps she'll even win an award this time.

Release Date: April 2nd, 2002

Okay, I probably shouldn't make this statement without my lawyer present, but I find myself liking Ashanti's debut album in spite of it's attempts to shoo me away by dabbling in gratuitous ignorance. There, I said it. No, I still don't like the lead single "Foolish". In fact I think it was foolish to use that track, and Bobby DeBarge should get production credit, but that's neither here nor there. I'm just sick of the rampant over-use of old hits to give some new piece of mediocrity a running start. No, not all samples and/or interpolations are bad, but dammit, if you call yourself a professional then get creative! The first tune I noticed myself grooving to on this album was a joint titled "Happy" (which uses a clever interpolation of Rick James' "Moonchild"). For those sharpshooters out there, listen for the direct correlation between Ashanti's vocals and Jeffrey Atkins (I refuse to call him Ja Rule) rhyme style on the 4th track. Talk about ya frustrated singers! But enough about him. Back to ol' girl. I seem to be interested in Ashanti's voice the same way that I like Billy Lawrence (ducking tomatoes). It's a combination of semi-sweet chocolate and something else that's not as sweet but naggingly artificial, which you find yourself enjoying nonetheless, albeit guiltily. The album kinda dips for a moment somewhere around the track entitled "Scared", which features Irv Gotti running his mouth in extraordinarily useless fashion. Though it recovers nicely with the 8th tune, "Rescue". She seems to exude this aura of innocence, sort of like a little girl trying desperately to be recognized as an adult. Too bad singing about adult shit doesn't necessarily make you one. Perhaps my favorite track on the entire disc is "Dreams" (in fact, I think I dreamt that this song contained an interpolation of "All This Love", by DeBarge - I sure hope El, or Chico or SOMEBODY in that family is getting paid). The funny thing is, the tune that best showcases Ashanti's potential is not a song at all, but a simple vocal, Thank You. I just wish we could have gotten a little more of the vocal ability she displayed on the Thank you, and less of the fodder that ultimately weakens her debut. I sure would like to see what she could do with a seasoned production and songwriting squad.

Release Date: January 29th, 2002

No More Drama is a truly fitting title for this album. Gone, or at least subdued, are many of the tales of broken hearts and betrayal so memorable from many earlier albums. But make no mistake No More Drama is memorable in its' on right. Mary J. Blige is noticeably more upbeat on this album and she enlist many of Hip-Hop's biggest names in production, such as Dr. Dre (“Family Affair ”) and The Neptunes (“Steal Away”) to achieve this generally more upbeat sound. Most of the material is strong or at least decent and artistically Blige steps out a little more on this release, which doesn't rely as heavily on the sampling or 'borrowing' of elements of other artist' famous hit songs as previous releases. She does some spoken word on “Forever No More”, croons about Pre-Menstrual Syndrome on “PMS” and transforms the theme of the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless into a slick head-nodder with “No More Drama”. Apparently there is no more drama, but it's still Mary J. Blige.

Release Date: March 5th, 2002

They say that "you never get a second chance to make a first impression" - well not only is that true - it's also hard as hell to change those first impressions. Brandy Norwood has been trying hard, for over a year, to shake her "goody-2-shoes, girl next door" image, so if the cancellation of Moesha, a recent marriage, and pregnancy won't do it maybe this album will. With the release of Full Moon Brandy attempts to stake her claim to one of the top spots among her female, pop peers, and to get people to truly see her as an adult. This Album has Rodney Jerkins written all over it, which is not a bad thing because he is a very good producer, but at times that digitized sound does get a bit repetitious. Although the sound of Full Moon is still very "youthful", Brandy has stepped her game up significantly, especially in the mid-tempo and ballad departments. She shines many times throughout the album on songs like "Apart", "Like This", "Love Wouldn't Count on Me", "It's Not Worth It", "He Is", and "Nothing"; and she even finds a way to incorporate her talentless younger brother, Ray-J, on the Phil Collins remake "Another Day in Paradise". This album doesn't fall into that overused and coveted "Neo-Soul" category - it's still Brandy - but she's not a kid anymore.

Release Date: November 19th, 2002

Toni Braxton is back boys and girls. Her latest effort, entitled More Than A Woman, is in ya local record stores (which I certainly encourage you to shop for music at as opposed to the music conglomerates cause small businesses deserve to thrive too). I’ll be the first to tell ya that I wasn’t at all hyped about Toni dropping a new joint after that mediocre effort that she last put out. However I am happy to report that Toni has done well with More. Of course there are the tracks obviously angled at keeping Ms. Braxton’s image fresh and young and hip even tho she’s not the same Toni that arrived back in the early 90’s. I could do without the second track "Give It Back", featuring the Big Tymers (or maybe I could just do without the Big Tymers on the track; I know it’s one or the other). But the disc recovers nicely with a taste of classic Toni; the Toni that I long for, on the third track, a lolling, drifting semi-ballad entitled "A Better Man". Only to spiral into the depths of “not exactly hip-hop” mediocrity with "Hit The Freeway", complete with tired rap intro by Loon, Sean Combs’ new Mase (or is he the old Mase? That guy’s been writing the same rhymes from the BadBoy cellar for years!). Actually the song wouldn’t be so bad, but Loon’s lil verse just KILLS it for me. The track is decent, not stellar, but good enough to get some grind on dance floors. Things mellow out and Toni seems more herself from the fifth track on, with those sultry, smoky, hopeful vocals that remind you of her in her Babyface days. My favorite tracks include "Always", "Selfish", the aforementioned "A Better Man", and the slow bounce of the sexually playful "Tell Me" (do I detect an Anita Baker extrapolation in there?). The surprise for me was "Me & My Boyfriend". Yeah, that's right, the song concept that Jay-Z purportedly co-opted for his own means. Still, Mrs. Braxton dusted herself off and came up with nice track for herself. A nice acoustic guitar and an almost eerie TuPac sample (Pac states ‘Look For Me’ throughout the song’s chorus), fill out the cut and I found myself diggin’ it. Maybe it’s cause I’m just a sucker for acoustic strings, but it comes together kinda nice-like. Toni Braxton’s last effort made me wonder what happened to the Toni Braxton that wooed and seduced me vocally with tunes like "Another Sad Love song" and "Love Shoulda Brought You Home". It turns out that Toni is alive and well with More Than A Woman.

Release Date: December 3rd, 2002

Ok this is a Mariah Carey album, so what do we know off the back? Well we know there will be (1) a great voice (Mariah), (2) nothing creatively groundbreaking or adventurous, (3) and lot's of rappers - the latter 2, I feel have hurt Carey's career significantly. All the tracks featuring rappers or based around rap tracks are weak and/or extremely uncreative. "Boy (I Need You)" featuring Cam’ron is basically a remake of (take a wild guess) Cam’ron's "Oh Boy"; "Irresistible" featuring West Side Connection and “You Had Your Chance” are other straight jacks of familiar samples; and Freeway's appearance on "You Got Me" is quite unnecessary. Mariah would probably do better to simply focus on the things she can do, like sing, instead of trying to always sound "young and hip". But then again marketing Mariah is likely not in her jurisdiction. Mariah's last few albums, although she may have had a number hit single somewhere on them, have basically been without songs that had any staying power. Even with many of her recent chart toppers I can hardly remember a standout Mariah Carey song since that wasn't a flash-in-the-pan (song that sounds good now but you won't want to listen to a couple of years from now) since, "Vision of Love", which was in the early 1990s. There are a few solid cuts on Charmbracelet though, such as “Subtle Invitation”, “Clown”, and “Yours” (sounds like R.Kelly produced it) and a really personal dedication song to Mariah’s recently deceased father called “Sunflowers for Alfred Roy” - just not enough of them to hold my attention. Almost every time I listened to this album to review it, I found myself drifting of into other activities, pressing the skip button, or just losing interest - there’s a reason for that and it isn’t my attention span.

Release Date: October 1st, 2002

Floacist and Songstress are proof that good music is still being made, it all depends on which artist you are checking for. I am still not sure which one is Floacist and which is Songstress (are they doing that intentionally) and I would hate for this to be another Erick B and Rakim type of faux pas, but both of them can sing their asses off and share the spotlight equally so it might not even matter. They do need to step it up on the marketing though, especially the packaging of their album cause by the time their next album drops they will probably be so popular that they will be getting bootlegged, and if your CD packaging ain't doing nothing for you, your poorer fans will feel like they are not missing out which makes artist more susceptible to the bootleg. Here in Philly these girls are killing'em, not in terms of Radio play because payola is nationwide and its hard to get radio play for anybody unless a major label is backing you (which is why they have to do more but in terms of local recognition because people here know the time, now if the rest of the country will only wake up!). These sistas are nice looking but they don't have the "video girl" type of figure that helps to push artist gold or platinum. Plus they aren't selling sex and that's sexy. However they sing so good, that real music fans will recognize da skills. You won't even hear those English accents, and if you do it will work for them as Slick Rick and De La Soul made it work for them. Soul Train nominated them for 2 awards as best R&B Soul Single and best R&B Soul Album. In addition they were nominated for a IMAGE Award. I hope they win something. Floetry reaches the mental and emotional, and that produces the physical, yep the biggest hard on of all comes from good music.

Release Date: November 12, 2002

Philadelphia really has it going on right now! The short list of R&B successes to come out of the “City of Brotherly Love” recently, already includes Musiq, Bilal, Jill Scott, and if her debut album A Love Story is an indication, then add Vivian Green to that list. Although Green is a former backup singer for Jill Scott, she has her own flavor, style, and sound. In addition to packing some impressive vocals, Green admirably and impressively writes her own song lyrics and is proud enough of them to have them printed on the album cover insert, which is almost always a plus. But enough small change and personal notes, what you want to know is if the music is good, and the answer to that is a strong and resounding, Yes! The album is very solid with a number of true standout songs such as “What is Love?”, “Be Good to You”, “Complete”, and “Keep it Going”. These are of course in addition to other standouts like “Emotional Rollercoaster” and “Fanatic”, that you may have heard a couple of times on your local R&B station. A Love Story also doesn’t fall into the trap of having all the songs sound the same either. Songs like “Superwoman”, “24 Hour Blue”, ”No Sittin’ by the Phone” are also strong but are arranged and delivered from vastly different musical styles. A Love Story would be an accomplished and polished album even for a veteran with several albums under the belt, but as a debut it is even more impressive (if this album review is late then it's your fault for not letting me know, how could you let this album slip under the radar without giving me a heads up).

Release Date: November 5th, 2002

Listening to Jaheim's sophomore effort Still Ghetto you can’t help but think that vocally he is capable of some special things. Without a question he can sing, (imagine a mix of Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandross) and this time the production and song concepts are up to par with his vocals. There are tight tracks about a number of topics that most people can relate to, from growing up ("Fabulous", "Let's Talk About It"), to his deceased mother ("Everywhere I am"), to difficulties keeping female friends ("Tight Jeans"), to neglecting ones mate ("Put that Woman First"), in addition to the obligatory wedding song ("Long as I Live"). The only thing holding this album back is Jaheim's attempts to be still be "ghetto" - not that he isn't in real life. Somebody needs to tell him that love songs titled "Me and My Bitch" ARE NOT ROMANTIC, although he seems to know this since on the song’s hook he says me and my lady or baby, MOST of the time. It will be a wonderful day when people stop celebrating being “ghetto” which has become little more than a code word for being ignorant or classless, but even with slip ups like these overall Still Ghetto is an even stronger follow up to his freshman effort.

Release Date: June 4th, 2002

If you're not sure, go back and listen to Donell Jones' first disc, My Heart, then check out his latest album, Life Goes On and you begin to get an idea of just how special Where I Wanna Be is, that album was indeed a classic. That being said, let's address the latest effort from Donell Jones. This album is very good. The songs have that laid back vocal signature that Donell will no doubt become famous for. The collection springs to life with the track "Still", and maintains that bouncy flavor with the second track "Put Me Down", before easing into a mellow groove with "You Know That I Love You". Jones' strength is his amazingly even keel mentality when it comes to creating a song. He doesn't embroil himself in the things that other songwriter/producers may get all wrapped up in when constructing a tune. He's obliviously straightforward in his approach and as a result his songs come out sounding very clean and well put together. A little less uniform than the previous albums in terms of track diversity, there still remains that emphasis on the romantic, that ballad which every male vocalist remains ever loyal to. The acoustic guitar from Where I Wanna be even makes its way onto Life Goes On for a couple of subtle appearances, but apparently Jones is declaring his versatility by shifting dramatically from the instrument which carried his last effort. The boy knows what he's doing 'cause this album flows together evenly with a sense of effortlessness. Stand out tracks include the aforementioned "Still", "Put me Down", "You Know That I Love You", "Gotta Get Her" and "Lovin You". Life Goes On for Donell Jones, and apparently it goes on smoothly.

Release Date: March 19th, 2002

What can I say about Glenn Lewis' debut album? In my opinion the effort is a fairly solid addition to the slowly expanding court of "Neo-Soul" artists. It's not an outstanding venture by any accounts, but the album is very even. There's just not much here that simply blew me away. The other thing that kinda hung in the back of my mind is that Glenn Lewis didn't seem to be hitting off on his own vibe. He seems to drift back and forth between sounding like Stevie Wonder and Musiq Soulchild. Granted, not bad acts to be compared to (especially the legendary former), but still, you want to believe that every artist is looking to ultimately fill their own aesthetic. The one track that does stand alone in my opinion is track number eleven, entitled "Take Me". The song's mood is surreal and you kinda get lost in its' melodic trance. If it filters into your sleep, U might dream that U're simply floating. The fourth cut, "Something to See" is also strong enough to stand on it's own as a single. Lewis does exhibit some vocal versatility, sliding in and out of light falsettos and other tonal variances, but still much of the material seems to be just around marginal. The Neo-Soul genre is for the bold, the trailblazers. I have to measure dude against his counterparts like Bilal, Musiq, Maxwell and others who have put their definitive stamp on a sound with their releases. Debut (and in Maxwell's case subsequent) releases that let you know to be on the look-out. Glenn Lewis seems to be on the right track, and he definitely has the potential and talent to get him over the hump, but he ain't over it just yet. U kinda listen to World Outside My Window waiting for it to burst open, but it never comes through on that promise. The collection just seems like it's missing something.

Release Date: May 7th, 2002

Ladies and gents I'm glad to announce that Musiq (Soulchild) has returned and it appears that Aijuswannaseing was not a fluke. The follow-up from the Philly phenom breaks open with the smooth, summer-soaked track, Newness, which relaxes from the outset and sets a mellow groove. Musiq's laid back style permeates the disc and his musical sensibilities, which bounce around everything from old school soul to hip-hop to gospel and beyond, are well in abundance here. He even manages to refer back to his debut album for the second track to tie up some loose ends about that young girl, in the tune "Caught Up". The album flows along and falls together really well. The mix of ballads and mid-tempo jams is well balanced and with a couple up-tempo "jawns" helping to round out the collection. Musiq maintains his identity and builds on his steadily mounting track record with Justlisten by not straying from his style and obviously ignoring the little birds who I'm sure may have whispered to him, 'Yo, you should do a joint wit Beanie since y'all both from Philly, son. That shit'll be hot son!' In fact, let me go even further to say here that I am immensely thankful for the non-appearance of any rap artists (artists?) on this LP. It's just refreshing to be able to sit and Juslisen to an album without any guest appearances from people that don't even fit or gel with the overall style of the album. People feel nowadays that every damn thing has to have a guest rapper in it. They even got "thugs" trynna sell me athletic shoes these days. Like a damn Reese's peanut butter cup ad; 'You got your rap in my soul music! Well, you got your soul music in my rap!' It's nice to know somebody is doing his own thing. A special note to the ladies to pay attention to the eleventh cut, "Previouscats". The one thing I could do without was that damned remix of "Girl Next Door", with that damned sample of DeBarge's "Stay With Me" (It's NOT BIGGIE'S SONG!). I was shocked and amazed that Musiq even went there, that track is so redundant. Even though he did add some elements to it, I'm just not interested in hearing that melody recycled yet again, yet so soon. Outside of that small shortcoming, Justlisten scores as an excellent follow-up to Musiq's debut album, Aijuswannaseing. So far, so good, but would like to hear some duets though, maybe with India Aarie, or Jilly from Philly or Ms. Badu. I love a great duet. Musiq scores again (did I already say that?).

Release Date: June 2nd, 2002

Meshell Ndegeocello has long been one of the most groundbreaking, under appreciated, and hardly publicized, artist on the soul scene (besides her loyal following). Perhaps it's her open bisexuality and acid tongue that has left her somewhat obscure, but whatever the reason those who are not familiar with her work couldn't imagine what they have been missing. Ndegeocello has made a career out of blurring the lines between R&B, Hip-Hop, Funk, Rock, and other musical styles and her 4th album, Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape certainly continues that trend. Where Ndegeocello has always surpassed so many of her contemporaries is not her vocals (which are not incredible but quite signature), but in her ability to tackle more than the mundane R&B concepts of "Love" and "broken hearts". She regularly deals with other serious issues like race, religion, class, materialism, and politics. Issues regularly touched on in the soul and pop-rock music of yesteryear by the likes of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Prince, etc. but that are rarely even mentioned in much of today's R&B world. She deals with the crisis in "black leadership" on tracks like "Dead Nigga Blvd.", engages issues of class and poverty on cuts like "Hot Night" (featuring Talib Kweli), and continues to touch on these issues as well as other controversial ones on cuts like "Berryfarms", "God.Fear.Money", "Better by the Pound", "Priotities:1-6", and "Akel Dama (more spoken word than a song)". But don't get it twisted Cookie is more than a political manifesto, Ndegeocello still succeeds in the sensual ballads that turn a romantic, Friday dinner into a Saturday breakfast, and Saturday breakfast into the rest of the weekend. On songs like, "Earth" and "Trust" she draws on rhythms reminiscent of Afro-Cuban and Middle Eastern culture to seduce. The album also features a heavy dosage of spoken word. Some of it from notables like Gil-Scott Heron and Angela Davis, as well as a Missy Elliott remix of the song "Pocketbook", that features Redman and Tweet (surprise). To those of you who are new to Ndegeocello's groove you should be able to appreciate her latest offering, and may be intrigued enough to pick up earlier albums. To the long time fans, who complained that her previous album Bitter was not "funky enough", you should have less to complain about this time.

Release Date: June 11th, 2002

Raphael Saadiq has circumvented the aging process and come up with an Instant Vintage, which is the name of his solo debut disc. It turns out that whole Lucy Pearl thing was just a warm up, cause Vintage is the real deal. It's got a dreamy sorta old school flava that isn't forced or pretentious; quite the opposite, you simply recognize where Saadiq's musical loyalties lie. The cat is old school like Dr. J's afro, like Mean Joe Greene's old Coke commercial. And it's all in the music. While it has that yesterday flava, it doesn't sound like anything else from back when; instead it just sounds like old school soul's child. I think the thing that holds this album together is the focus of the artist. It has a definite direction whereas most discs are simply a collection of songs with no real relation or feel between them. Instant Vintage has all of that and the songs are real. When Saadiq sings about his daddy sitting on the couch nodding his head you can recall that imagery from your own memory. When I say the songs are real lyrically, that's the realness I'm referring to. Boasting his own signature sound crowned GospelDelic, Saadiq is mindful of being ground into the heavily mined resource that is the neo-soul sound. As a result, his GospelDelic sound stands on it's own as it's own resource, Saadiq its' only purveyor. Of course you can hear the influences of the artist pop up from time to time, the trick is to recognize when it's done in tribute as opposed to someone merely copying a style. From Al Green to Steve Arrington Saadiq's influence's receive their props. Stand out tracks include "Excuse Me", featuring Ms. Mahogany Soul herself, Angie Stone, "You're The One That I Like", "People", "Faithful" and "Uptown". The guest appearances are kept to a decided minimum, Angie Stone, T-Boz And D'Angelo among the more popular cameos along with Calvin Richardson and Rosie Kaye whom I am sure we will all hear from sooner or later. Some artists make you wait for a long time between projects but when the disc drops, everything is alright. From Tony! Toni! Tone! to Lucy Pearl and various singles in between, Raphael Saadiq has proven that he's not an instant vintage, but that he's been aging his GospelDelic for quite some time.

Release Date: April 2nd, 2002

When I first heard about Tweet, and how she had contemplated suicide because she could not break into the music industry after 8 years, I was a little disgusted so I almost passed on this review. I am glad I didn't. Forget everything you thought you knew about this young lady, it probably isn't true. Southern Hummingbird is nothing like the hit lead single "Oops" which is no doubt a standout song. In fact it's kind of hard to describe what this album is like. It doesn't exactly fit into the coveted "neo-soul" (I hate that term) category but it's certainly not the club-bounce, R&B that you might expect from a singer coming out the Timbaland/Missy camp. Actually Timbaland only has production credits on 3 tracks. Most of the rest are done by newcomers (they're new to me) Nisan and Craig Brockman. Tweet's Vocal's aren't spectacular but overall the album is strong and original. She also avoids the pitfalls of bling-bling and thug R&B where women prowl clubs looking for a 'baller' and most of a woman's former boyfriends are inmates or hustlers that drive fancy cars. You'll probably really enjoy cuts like "Smoking Cigarettes" (which will probably piss the people at www.truth.com off), "My Place", "Always Will", "Complain", "Heaven", "Beautiful", and "Call Me" (another song with major club potential). I guess Tweet is happy she chose to live.

Release Date: June 25th, 2002

I thought this shit was a Geritol promotional stunt because I don't know how old she is (she's 40-lol) , but Truth Hurts age is probably the best part. She's cute and she can sing and nobody should care about her age anyway. If you thought she's a one hit wonder with "Addictive" being the highlight then you were very wrong. Don't just download this album, I say buy this one because it's something that I keep in rotation in the CD player. "Next to me" shows the mighty vocals and that she didn't need a super producer like Dr. Dre to make them shine (but he doesn't hurt either). Well what are you waiting on? Go check Truthfully Speaking out its better than most of the stuff out there which is about 90% sexual nonsense produced strictly by a machine. Yes the Truth Hurts and you will be pained if you don't listen to me.

Release Date: January 29th, 2002

Denials Delusions and Decisions is a solid first offering from the latest Philadelphia native to crash the R&B scene. Although I must admit I was a little disappointed with this album; the disappointment was mostly due to my expectations being extremely high. At her best Jaguar Wright is a solid talent and it shines through early, on the albums first 3 cuts "The What If's", "Country Song", and "Stay" and also on songs like "Lineage". However too often she is less than spectacular, particularly in the song writing and content departments where her material seems to devolve - into a world of bad relationships with men, and Vaseline-Faced-No-Earring Catfights with other women, over men - as the album "progresses". And don't think just because she's an R&B singer that you should ignore the Parental Advisory sticker, because Ms. Wright earns it, ya'girl got a "Potty-Mouth".