Eddie Rockerz VibeZ

Thirty-one tracks tracing a catalogue of just three studio albums across twenty years. D'Angelo died on 14 October 2025, aged fifty-one. D'Angelo (1974–2025) Brown Sugar arrived in 1995 and reset what R&B could sound like. Michael Eugene Archer was twenty-one, played most of the instruments himself, wrote and produced nearly all of it, and delivered a record whose rhythm sat so far behind the beat that it initially sounded like a mistake. That looseness was the innovation. Working from Al Green, Prince, Marvin Gaye and the church, D'Angelo built a groove that breathed — drums slightly late, bass slightly early, everything blurred at the edges — and an entire movement followed him into it. The word neo-soul was invented largely to describe what he had done. He then released only two more albums in twenty years, and both were extraordinary. His death in October 2025 closed one of the most frustrating and most admired catalogues in modern music. What to...

Thirty-two tracks balanced on the line between hip-hop and R&B at the moment when that line stopped meaning very much. ChilledSoul Vol. 19: Hip Hop / R&B Mix The premise of this volume is a distinction that was already dissolving when it was made. By the late 2010s the separation between rapping and singing had become a matter of degree rather than of kind, and the most interesting records were the ones that refused to choose. What holds the set together is production rather than genre — a shared preference for muted drums, jazz-derived chords and vocals mixed into rather than on top of the track. What to listen for Robert Glasper's "Gone" , with Cordae, Bilal and Herbie Hancock , is the most significant thing here. Glasper's Black Radio project put jazz musicians and hip-hop artists in a room as equals rather than as guests, and having Hancock on the track makes the lineage explicit. Brent Faiyaz's "Trust" is the template for a ...

Twenty-one tracks from a singer who spent years engineering other people's records before anyone heard his own — and it shows in every mix.   SiR Sir Darryl Farris came into the business through the back door. He worked as an engineer and a background vocalist, wrote for other artists, and only stepped forward as a solo act in his thirties, by which point he had a technical command of the studio that most singers never acquire. That history explains what his records sound like. They are unusually well balanced, with real attention to the low end and to how much space a vocal actually needs, and they are patient in a way that suggests someone who has spent a long time listening to other people's sessions and forming opinions. His brother is D Smoke , the rapper and teacher who won the first season of Rhythm + Flow — which makes for one of the more remarkable family records in contemporary music. What to listen for "John Redcorn" is the one to hear...

Sixteen tracks of something close to weather — ambient folk built from reverb, falsetto and a great deal of restraint. Haux Haux is the recording name of American songwriter Woodson Black , and the project belongs to a specific corner of contemporary music that has no settled label: acoustic songwriting recorded with the production values of ambient electronica. The method is consistent. A guitar or piano figure is played simply, then placed in an enormous amount of reverb; a falsetto vocal sits just above the noise floor; strings or synthesised pads arrive late and leave early. Nothing is emphasised. The emotional information is carried almost entirely by texture and space rather than by dynamics. Done badly this is wallpaper. Done as well as it is here, it produces music that rewards close listening precisely because so little is happening — every small change registers. What to listen for "Caves" is the entry point and the most complete realisa...

On March 30th, 2020, we lost a legend. Bill Withers was one of the few authentic souls in the music industry that opened his soul to the world for us to peer through & to a greater or lesser extent, we were transformed. That was the power of his music. Of all the articles I’ve read over the years about this extraordinary artist, this is the one that stands out for me: Bill Withers: The Soul Man Who Walked Away . Collected here are my favorite songs by Bill Withers. This is the perfect music for us to listen to as we stay locked inside our homes amidst the chaos & tragedies swirling outside our door steps. Be kind to each other, y’all & stay safe.