Slept-on 90s R&B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6lO7W4nrNg

inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_APh3Jf2n8

aww man, their other single was dope too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCf3ZKwItkM

been randomly jamming this the past couple weeks, like catnip to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQSSQcV7m4U

http://open.spotify.com/track/0C6ckpxtwmPzZqTFP6kvzz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWdQlhuYwdw

can't be bovd to research but 'i like' one of the very first neptunes productions iirc?

threads like this are fun but the broad sweep of just "90s" is always so deadening and meh. fight for your rights and demand hopelessly specific r&b cratedigger elitism imo

"slept-on" fuses my brain as well tbh. or perhaps it's just that i have a shit memory and when called on to remember stuff in any context i just come up with a blank sheet

taking shanice 'it's for you' as inspiration then, i would go forrrrr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi43Jn_8ii0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By9R3l55BXU

^Ha wow I just came here to post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA0wN46d3Co

always look to the remix, 90s fans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzHBN-8tt0k

portrait's bandmember and producer michaelangelo somethings was no slouch and something of a microauteur

(did he even produce that shanice come to think of it...?)

(yes he did)

threads like this are fun but the broad sweep of just "90s" is always so deadening and meh. fight for your rights and demand hopelessly specific r&b cratedigger elitism imo

― r|t|c, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 8:40 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvskN47bNow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeZ3QV_IJXc

i was even feeling to start a thread on this one not so long ago but i forgot what i wanted to say about it now! i was and remain transfixed tho

already gone off-piste there tho see

oh well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-y_OeIX29Y

here's an all time underrated classic, even though "i'm on fire" is not reaaally the opening line you wanna be going for horace. 12 with an instro is murder to find but as iirc dj spinna once said somewhere this is one of the best beats of the 90s full-stop

and the fucking BALLAD MIX ahh don't even get me started

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c32WaIABTDc

- get in the cab, meet me at the spot... got a surprise for you baby"
- what?
- REMIXXXXXXX
- ... oh

Tara Kemp's "Piece of My Heart" is pretty good, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-MZ6GvSPTc

Always dug this Chaka Khan single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLK_J7PJn5U

for the sake of illustration, jaymc's last two picks could conceivably be awkward but workable jump-offs for freestyle-informed 90s vocals and uk streetsoul threads respectively

'strawberry letter 23' on that tara if i'm not mistaken?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsDlHOFLetI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsXwEAVXMDw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBn6s_VqEjM

last one, for now.

great picks, adore that asante

ever heard the so so def mix of that jade tho? bewilderingly ahead of its time for 1994!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nphZ20nOrNk

uploaded for the first time a mere 16 hours ago i see so you know it must be destiny

the asante gets a huge boost from the fugees assist. but, it still stands alone as a pretty great track.

xpost

that remix was definitely not on the cassingle i bought in '94. excellent!

threads like this are fun but the broad sweep of just "90s" is always so deadening and meh. fight for your rights and demand hopelessly specific r&b cratedigger elitism imo

― r|t|c, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 8:40 AM (1 hour ago)

otm. i only-somewhat jokingly asked andy k on twitter last week to follow this thread up with picks from every other year of the decade

Loving this thread. So many great recommendations. Wish I could find a 12-inch of that Tatyana Ali song.

Rev, are there any other good songs on that Soultry album beyond the singles? "Cash Money" is like the perfect pastiche of everything I love about 1995.

Evan otm, good thread. Gonna go thru these tonight.

as "slept on" as something that went #2 on r&b can be i guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyy1EiY6_9Q

as "slept on" as something that went #2 on r&b can be i guess

It's a relative concept. "Here We Go" and "Love You All My Lifetime" both were top 5 R&B hits (prob wouldn't have heard them otherwise), but I don't hear anyone talking about Portrait or '90s Chaka Khan these days. Those Tara Kemp songs actually both went top 10 on the Hot 100: two-hit wonder.

feelin' these last night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oClzwzOGlGM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-smvKlO9zU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-jnwkIHUfM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISerQkz7EJE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdRF9fq5Pqw

hope ppl don't find my dorking out on remixes obnoxious

where d-40 at btw, don't u know thread starters have ~responsibilities~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5kXTT4ZN34

even with the little new jack rap in the middle.

threads like this are fun but the broad sweep of just "90s" is always so deadening and meh. fight for your rights and demand hopelessly specific r&b cratedigger elitism imo

― r|t|c, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 8:40 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

otm

― ghostface protocollah (some dude), Tuesday, April 10, 2012 8:01 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lets not pretend you wouldnt cosign any criticisms of anything ever

i like the general-ness of the thread concept b/c then ppl can go in on their own particular niches or interests

Rev, are there any other good songs on that Soultry album beyond the singles? "Cash Money" is like the perfect pastiche of everything I love about 1995.

― Evan R, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 7:59 AM Bookmark

iirc it was p good! i don't have it any more tho. had it in an era where i didn't take care that my cds don't get scratched to hell. :/

but yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJUybvX8g4c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vopw_kQIfo&feature=relmfu

house piano, g-funk synths, and "mind playing tricks" guitar. what more can you ask for?

I wish radio had a deeper memory for this stuff. My contemporary r&b station doesn't play much in the way of throwbacks, and though my adult urban station has a really huge playlist, the 90s (especially the harder-edged tracks from the era) are a blind spot.

this is kind of compellingly bizarre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_J-HJn9IuY

man the late 90s were the only time r&b acts and bjork sported the same hairstyles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E5bg02oauA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmPRcE0LhYk

nice!

kind of a weirdly high-vis slept-on cut as "splackavellie" purely as a novelty word still has an abiding currency far beyond the song itself (could've sworn i saw it in an article just this last week in fact iirc)

check out 'shake it down' on the album btw for what surely must have been the inspiration for 'take it 2 da house' three years before the fact

A fave of mine from back then. I can never find the exact version of this track that I remember (the piano intro in the one I'm thinking of is like a minute long) but this is closest I can get:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ_hBeFkfdo

missed k3v posting 'grapevyne' btw, one of my favourites! i've always assumed it to be nearly as well known as the great en vogue powerballads but judging by youtube sesh blank looks apparently not

daaaaaaaaaaamn why don't i know this aftershock song it is great

what is it even... part new jack, part eurodance, part pm dawn

and written by neo-soul footnote sandra st victor!

Glad you liked it!

I dunno wtf is going on when I can't find the version I remember anywhere on the internet.

i'm listening to their first album now, quality outfit

features a song called 'plastic finger' that turns out to be a lot more mundane than what i was expecting

hahaha

yeah this aftershock is great

rtc you should use this thread more often yourself imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1uayIkqhj4

this peaked at #7 but i had never heard of these ladies when i heard this on the radio recently

^co-written by prince btw

did not know that about prince!

do know this is the mix you really want

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MPufkrcdL8

kind of a weirdly high-vis slept-on cut as "splackavellie" purely as a novelty word still has an abiding currency far beyond the song itself (could've sworn i saw it in an article just this last week in fact iirc)

check out 'shake it down' on the album btw for what surely must have been the inspiration for 'take it 2 da house' three years before the fact

― r|t|c, Monday, May 13, 2013 6:15 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah Splackavellie was fairly popular but it never really comes up in fav 90s r&b convos. Pulled out an old CD case last week and had the Players Club ost in there. I have a bunch of soundtracks from around that time, I should post more as I go back and rip the CDs.

Shake it Down is awesome, spent some time with the whole album today. Down Under, Do Boy, Dont Get It Twisted... jams.

I didn't even know that aftershock had albums.

I'd never heard of "Splackavellie". Feel like I missed something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuDTYIQvU0k

Ah man that Grand Puba remix <3

intro - why don't you love me?

maybe not right for this thread since it's a deep cut and not a single, but it's slept-on enough that it doesn't have a youtube! seriously stunning song though, these dudes or whoever wrote their songs had some serious swing and really knew how to write a fading outro

nice.

Listened to this Christion album 'Ghetto Cyrano' today after pulling out the Streets is Watching ost.

Maxwell fans should love this:

Full Of Smoke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFwik0Lon-g
Anything Goes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aQnYDDl1Qk

2chainz brought back "smoke" on trap a veil 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pt_qRcDe6s

Oh damn, nice xp.

I had that Changing Faces album. 'Stroke You Up' was pretty massive.

Never heard their later work outside of GHETTOUT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QqO1AYKOfc

was moved to post about this on techno and house bobbins 2013 , may as well crosspost here

feel sorta glad that hipster retro has to date never really quite captured the full realness of the whole sundial zodiac hippy medieval baroque 90s look there

i actually scored a dope(/possibly horrible) collarless perry ellis denim shirt on this tip the other day and now i feel emboldened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MakEPx5eM84

seems right to follow up with a lesser-known pm dawn cut that i have recently enjoyed. had to post that video but i do prefer the og versh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dzpTFQR0Tg

think i'd want to start a spoof pm dawn advice twitter acc if i could ever be bothered

krs one could unfollow me and everything

Tracie Spencer - It's All About You (Not About Me)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBlKvoqgzT0

My 15yo self was so sad for her because I loved this song and video but knew it would go unnoticed.

oh shit that's dope

soulshock & karlin go straight into the fake timbo friki-frikipedia

i feel like someone may have posted 'tender kisses' already but fuck it u can't go wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1mIku1kAHI

Wow, you just transported me to the back of my mother's car going to go pick my dad up from work.

That Zhane joint inspired some dope rap music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhyguEpBbYA

love love love what the producer did with that

do dj fresh and co still keep themselves busy

yeah but too busy...

Fresh drops way too much shit.
AK-47 is the producer's name. lol

haha i did glean that but it seemed falsely familiar to refer to him by name

the waiting to exhale soundtrack is obviously not slept-on but i think this song is incredible and sort of buried in it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rYNUmnd-_8

that zhane song is super dope, now attempting to procure parent album

whoa "tender kisses"...

this is my favorite thread

that little lower register she uses. man. entire life lived in 4 minutes

Another gorgeous Soulshock & Karlin production, similar in sound to the Tracie Spencer one upthread. Includes early autotune effects as a bonus - first time in R&B?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjLaH1xcI28

this is gorgeous ^^

"Believe" by Cher revived autotune in the late 90's and you saw acts try to include that across genres. "You Don't Know" is not even close to being the first R&B song to use vocodered effects. They were just riding the wave at the time.

Yes, I was alluding to the post-"Believe" wave. "Believe" charted in the UK and Europe late '98 and impacted in the US in early '99. The 702 album "You Don't Know" was on was released in June 1999, so they were definitely at the front of this particular wave. Could you give examples of earlier (post-"Believe") R&B songs featuring autotune?

Jamecia - "Rodeo Style". From the Jason's Lyric soundtrack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOc9lTcP8I

Sweet Sable - "Old Time's Sake". Above the Rim soundtrack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTgxLGoY7Zo

1998 bought the Sons of Funk lp cos I bought EVERYTHING No Limit dropped.

Pushin Inside of You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrXnrefQ83I
Sons Reasons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrMzYzir3FU

pushin' inside of you is a jam. this song is great, if just for the use of the hilarious and underrated term "hit the skins":

day and night - dante's girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avJ0BiYm6UY

Dante's GIrl yessss.

Knockin' Boots >>>> Hittin' Skins >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> everything else

Chante Moore "Love's Taken Over":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afZB4gTZXDM

Amel Larrieux, "Get Up":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH4MAEyHHww

Blue / green is the color of late 90's music videos.

let the cartesian 12" free your mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPYyXZ5Thhs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aogl7V7XJyg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aogl7V7XJyg

love that amel larieux...

whoa @ that sons of funk. whole album is good, spottie?

Yeah real dope overall. Minor classic. I Got The Hook Up! with Master P (fun verse) is the one that kinda put them on the map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL0u90WCm0k
Also this one is probably as good as Pushin Inside You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_-3zqUqa5E

Dropped that album and then just vanished.

Always liked these two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozO8wCJA-LU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJJUyr33HC8

early 90s sound was so different to the late 90s sound

I loved 702 in high school. 'Specially that first album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdpQfyJFu9A

Second album had some gems too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTTSXdEXH6k

This is a fun topic. Very nostalgic for me.

I've just gone on a Youtube binge going through some of my old favorites.

What about Soul For Real? Kind of bubblegum-y, but some of the songs they were given on that first album. This wasn't even a single, I don't think. Still my favorite song on the album. Wow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fISdxEwA6zg

And, of course, the signature tune. Huge hit, but somehow completely forgotten now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ihhJCPYHuk

ELTID and Candy Rain remix (RIP Heavy D) were the ones that I remember vividly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAyCyETLT1o

Love those baggy suite in the ELTID video

*suits

xx[ wait, how is that the signature tune? that was the not quite as big second single

xxp*

"Full of Smoke" and the Amel joint have been my jams since they came out. I've been playing out this dope K Millz jersey club edit of the Zhane track but it isn't on youtube and seems to have disappeared from soundcloud.

This was favorite version of Groove Theory's biggest hit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCjZkXpwcic

Remember randomly hearing it on the radio whilst driving to school one foggy fall morning.

unnnnnnnnnnnnngh this is 2 much 4 me

is anyone after an album and can dl now? i just wanna test a website out real quick

i can if u r still down

yeah what do u fancy

i mean i might not have it if its super regional but i got a lot

lol sorry i am looking like some secret weirdo

http://www.sharefest.me/

basically i saw this and it looks rad for sharesies

and it's like, instant

I dont have any 702 albums if you have those or just drop me a personal classic that you don't think I would have. Most my 90s listening in r&b came in from the hip-hop side of things and then some Usher/Kellz/ToneTonyToni.

lol I got no creep vibes here

http://www.sharefest.me/7b1a3026

aight lets give 702 a spin i'll think about percys later

not working :/

Tried an updated chrome and using firefox nightfly

damn i thought that was going to revolutionise some shit :/

Now I want the album :(

A couple times it said 'connected to 1 peers' and then it dropped back to zero

http://reynaldoblackmusik.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/702

this'll have to do i guess

Thanks!

Some choice cuts from Melky Sedeck:

Just For My Baby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPddXQv17c4

Mi Amor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqyh_Qj91GA

and also this kinda unheralded Mobb Deep colabo 'Raw'
http://youtu.be/cVOD_biK00s

The string sample on Mi Amor is so perfectly used. Same exact drums that were used on Mario Winans 'I Dont Wanna Know' a few years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk4zURoO3qQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxW_UFZ4r_Q#t=13

fell off my chair at the interlude

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1582105

great 90s r&b album title, will seek out

Adina Howard - Freak and U Know It (club mix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBlhYeHEll4
produced by quik, some sweet talk box/guitar action (Rob Bacon) throughout

my motherfuckin favorite thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwpYprNBnVI

Here's a '90s r&b song in spirit if not in fact. I've been listening to a slew of singles from '81 with a relatively similar sound, and then this one stood out like a beacon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLRBVE98Bv4

There are a few bits that date it but it otherwise wouldn't have sounded at all out of place on the radio a decade later. It's really weird how many future r&b tropes it packs into a single song. I think Debra Laws might be a time traveller.

Oh, never mind. The song in the video is probably the actual '81 version of the song (and it sounds like it's from '81). I must have wound up with some latter day remix on my iPod. I = a chump.

Maybe you heard the Big Daddy Kane version?

sucks how literally all the links no longer work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl_JRSyYcHs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta12K0OrKz0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d_af6Ux2Ls

if any thread cried for a playlist it's this one, but I guess it's probably too late

that Mac Band record is fascinating in the sense that its like an 80s hangover, where hip hop never happened & sleek expensive 80s R&B was allowed to keep gilding its aesthetic cage for eternity

Yeah -- written/produced by (the truly unsung) Gary Taylor, who recorded the original a couple years earlier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK-atW8ylQw

if any thread cried for a playlist it's this one, but I guess it's probably too late

― Evan R

theoretically somebody could just pull the urls out of the page source and playlist them, i'd do it now but i'm late for work

fallen into the rabbithole that is this thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsDlHOFLetI

― Playoff Starts Here (san lazaro), dinsdag 10 april 2012 16:09 bookmarkflaglink

Wow, the Isleys-ballad-for-the-90s-ness of the original of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onG-SaHRbX8
Asanté • Look What You’ve Done

full album version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RT7bJIP_DI

David McAlmont just posted this on facebook, from his 1998 album but has less than 200 plays on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlRHPaiyS_Q

"Weak" by SWV was #1 for 2 weeks in 1993, so I don't think it's considered slept-on really, but I've played it in my mind a few times since I got hit by a car on my bike last month, which left me feeling weak in the knees for a few weeks.

Love that McAlmont track!

That Soulshock & Karlin one-two of Tracie Spencer’s “It’s All About You (Not About Me)” and 702’s “You Don’t Know”...

...and then there’s the remix with The Roots:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N3Ie7DmBrk

(stay for the drum & bass at the end. there’s actually a full d&b remix too)

Reading up on “Return of the Mack” because of the thread revive I was reminded of Chuckii Booker’s “Games”, which was prime source material for it. Great song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TDpSsj-Kog

Now sing along with me: “marijuana, play your games on me!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GzqAVTy9E0