Eddie Rockerz VibeZ

Eight tracks, and every one of them is a monument. This is the Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes catalogue at the moment Teddy Pendergrass was the greatest singer in America. Philadelphia International, at full power Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes had been working since the 1950s without much success when they signed to Gamble and Huff's Philadelphia International in 1972. Two things then happened at once: they got the best writing and production team in American music, and their drummer, Teddy Pendergrass , moved to the front of the stage. Pendergrass had a voice like nothing else — a huge, rough, gospel-scarred baritone that could sound utterly desolate one moment and physically overwhelming the next. Melvin remained the group's leader and namesake, which became a source of tension, and Pendergrass left in 1976 for a solo career that made him the biggest male soul star of the late 1970s. A 1982 car accident left Pendergrass paralysed from the chest down...

Eleven tracks for a rapper who spent a decade turning independence into a business model and was murdered outside the shop he built. We miss you, bro. Ermias Asghedom, 1985–2019 Nipsey Hussle was from South Central Los Angeles, of Eritrean and African American descent, and affiliated with the Rollin' 60s Crips from his teens. What he built out of that starting point is the reason he is remembered as more than a rapper. He spent roughly a decade releasing mixtapes independently and refusing the major-label deals available to him. In 2013 he sold Crenshaw for one hundred dollars a copy — a deliberate provocation about the value of music that Jay-Z answered by buying a hundred of them. He opened The Marathon Clothing store on Slauson Avenue, invested in the neighbourhood, funded a STEM centre, and worked on programmes to reduce gang violence. His debut studio album Victory Lap arrived in 2018 and was nominated for a Grammy. He was shot dead outside his own stor...

Forty-one tracks that treat the African continent and its dance floors as one continuous conversation. Volume seven, and the ear has not slipped. The chill end, seventh time out What keeps this series worth following is the refusal to chase the biggest record. The selections are made on mood — melodic, mid-tempo, built to run for hours — which means South African deep house sits comfortably next to Nigerian pop and neither has to shout. This volume in particular catches a specific moment: the point at which amapiano's log drum had become a continental default and Nigerian artists were beginning to reach for South African producers rather than the other way round. What to listen for Rema appears four times, which is the right call for this period. "Calm Down" became one of the most-streamed African records ever made, but "Peace Of Mind" and "Runaway" are the better songs. Tems gets two — "Damages" and ...

Six tracks from a band of Los Angeles session musicians who decided to become a band and accidentally made one of the most-streamed songs of all time. The best players in the room Toto formed in 1976 out of the Los Angeles session scene — Jeff Porcaro and his brothers, Steve Lukather , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , David Hungate and singer Bobby Kimball . These were the musicians other artists hired: between them they played on Steely Dan records, Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees , and, most famously, most of Michael Jackson's Thriller . That pedigree is the reason critics disliked them. A band of professionals with no scene, no scruffiness and no ideology looked like the opposite of rock authenticity, and they were treated accordingly despite selling enormously and winning six Grammys in one night for Toto IV . The reassessment has been complete and slightly absurd — "Africa" became an internet phenomenon in the 2010s and is now among the most-streamed ...

Eleven slow jams from a singer who was accepted by Black radio in a way very few white artists ever have been, and who earned it. Jon B. Jonathan David Buck grew up in Rhode Island and Southern California in a musical family — both parents were classically trained musicians and teachers. He was signed to Tracey Edmonds' Yab Yum label, an imprint of Babyface's Epic-distributed operation, which put him inside the most successful R&B machine of the decade from the start. The Babyface connection was formative. Jon B. wrote and produced much of his own material, plays multiple instruments, and his records sit squarely in the 1990s quiet storm tradition rather than attempting anything crossover. That he was fully accepted by an audience with every reason to be sceptical is worth stating plainly. It happened because the records were good and because he never positioned himself as anything other than a student of the form. What to listen for "They Don'...

Thirteen tracks from a Nigerian-American DJ and producer who has been one of the connective figures between Lagos, New York and the wider Afrobeats world. DJ Tunez Michael Babatunde Adeyinka was born in Nigeria and raised largely in the United States, and built his reputation as a DJ before moving into production. His most consequential relationship is with Wizkid , for whom he has served as tour DJ and frequent collaborator, and that association has placed him at the centre of Afrobeats' international expansion. What he does well is assembly. A DJ Tunez record is typically a collision of people who might not otherwise be in a room together — a Nigerian singer, a South African vocalist, an American R&B artist — over a groove built to work in a club anywhere. What to listen for "PAMI" is the biggest and the best demonstration of the method: Wizkid , Adekunle Gold and Omah Lay on one record, each doing something different, and the whole thing...

Thirty-seven tracks from a British-Ghanaian producer whose warm, unhurried records helped define the whole Afro-fusion sound. Juls is a curator as much as a beatmaker. Juls Julian Nicco-Annan was born in London to Ghanaian parents, spent formative years in Ghana, and has built a career that moves fluidly between Accra, Lagos and London. He is one of the small number of producers genuinely responsible for the sound that took over British and West African radio in the 2010s. His signature is space and warmth. A Juls track typically has fewer elements than its peers — a highlife-derived guitar figure, a soft percussion bed, a bassline with real melodic movement — and it trusts the singer to fill the rest. That restraint is why his records sound less dated than a lot of what surrounded them. He is also a genuine connector. The guest list across his catalogue reads like a map of the entire Afro-diaspora. What to listen for "Your Number" with King Promi...

Twenty-four tracks from an artist who was a teenager when he signed and is now responsible for one of the most-streamed African songs ever recorded. Rema Divine Ikubor is from Benin City, Nigeria, and was discovered by D'Prince — brother of the producer Don Jazzy — after posting a freestyle over a Mavin Records instrumental. He was signed to Jonzing World under Mavin at seventeen. What he brought was a genuinely new hybrid. Rema's melodies draw on Indian and Arabic scales as much as on West African ones — he has spoken about growing up on Bollywood soundtracks — and he calls the result Afrorave . Whether or not the label sticks, the melodic sensibility is unmistakably his. "Calm Down," particularly in its Selena Gomez remix, became a global phenomenon and one of the most-streamed songs of its era, making him the most internationally visible Nigerian artist of his generation. What to listen for "Dumebi" is the record that...

Twenty-one tracks from a Swedish-Iranian singer who makes the most luxuriously sad records in modern R&B. Snoh Aalegra is a specialist in longing. Snoh Aalegra Shahrzad Fooladi was born in Uppsala, Sweden, to Iranian parents who had left Iran after the revolution. She was signed to a major label at fourteen under a different name, spent years being shaped into something she did not want to be, and eventually walked away to start again. What she rebuilt is unusually coherent. Her records are built on lush, live-sounding production — strings, real bass, a lot of reverb — and a voice that stays deliberately restrained even at emotional peaks. The obvious comparison is Sade , and it holds: both make music about wanting something at a temperature just above cool. Her father died when she was young, and grief runs through the catalogue as a constant. What to listen for "I Want You Around" is the signature record, built on a Little Dragon sample and...