RIP to The Eagles’ guitarist, Glenn Frey. I wasn’t really much of  an Eagles fan, but I did like a few songs from their extensive body of work which I highlight on this playlist. The first song, “The Last Resort” is my favorite. I never understood why this song went into the shadows when it’s way better than their much heralded “Hotel California”. In an interview regarding “The Last Resort”, Don Henley explained that the song is about how people from the Eastern United States ruined the West early on. They killed the Native Americans, and the more West America went, the more commercial it got. In a 1987 interview with Rolling Stone, Henley said: “ The Last Resort is still one of my favorite songs… That’s because I care more about the environment than about writing songs about drugs or love affairs or excesses of any kind. The gist of the song was that when we find something good, we destroy i...

Forty-four tracks tracing a career that began in defiance of a famous name and ended by embracing it. Natalie Cole died on the last day of 2015, aged sixty-five. OneLove Natalie Cole (1950–2015) Natalie Cole spent the first half of her career deliberately not being her father's daughter. She arrived in 1975 with hard, gospel-inflected soul records produced in Chicago, won Best New Artist at the Grammys, and was frequently compared to Aretha Franklin rather than to Nat King Cole . The second half is one of the more remarkable reinventions in popular music. After years of addiction and commercial decline, she released Unforgettable... with Love in 1991 — an album of her father's repertoire, including a duet constructed from his 1951 recording. It won seven Grammys and sold millions, and it recast her as a jazz and standards singer for the rest of her life. She died on 31 December 2015, and this playlist was posted a fortnight later. What to listen for ...

Sixty-two tracks from a Haitian-American producer, rapper, singer and guitarist who has never once stayed inside a genre for a whole album. OneLove Wyclef Jean Wyclef Jean was born in Haiti, raised in Brooklyn and New Jersey, and came to prominence in The Fugees , whose The Score (1996) is one of the best-selling and most influential hip-hop albums ever made. His solo work is defined by restlessness. A single album will contain hip-hop, reggae, Haitian kompa, soca, folk guitar, gospel and Spanish-language pop, and he plays guitar throughout — which is unusual in hip-hop and central to how his records sound. He has also been a significant figure in Haitian public life, running a foundation, campaigning after the 2010 earthquake, and attempting a presidential run. The catalogue is inseparable from that. What to listen for "Guantanamera" with Lauryn Hill , Celia Cruz and Jeni Fujita is the most ambitious thing here — a Cuban standard rebuilt a...

Twenty-two tracks from a band who used reggae rhythms to make new wave, and a songwriter who then spent thirty years refusing to repeat himself. These cats were the shit!!! Their music atill sounds fresher than most of the crap on the airwaves today. Sting & The Police The Police were three highly accomplished musicians pretending, briefly and successfully, to be a punk band. Stewart Copeland was a drummer of genuine technical sophistication, Andy Summers had years of professional experience behind him, and Sting was a jazz bass player and schoolteacher. What made them distinctive was rhythm. They built almost everything on reggae and ska patterns — the emphasis on the offbeat, the enormous space in the arrangements, the guitar playing chords rather than riffs — and combined it with pop songwriting of unusual quality. Sting's solo career went further into jazz, world music and classical repertoire, with a rotating cast of first-rate players, and it ...

R.Kelly is without a doubt a musical prodigy. In spite of his questionable, well-publicized personal issues, he ranks up there with the best (Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder..) when he is at his best. There are few artists who can master both the production and performance sides as well as R. Kelly. With 13 solo studio albums and over 100 million records sold worldwide, he reigns as the most successful R&B male artists and also one of the best selling musical artists of all time. OneLove

Sixteen tracks from a singer, writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist who made herself indispensable to a scene that had no category for her. The ivory Queen of Soul will never be forgotten! Teena Marie (1956–2010) Mary Christine Brockert was a white woman from Santa Monica signed to Motown , which the label handled by releasing her first album without a photograph on the sleeve. A great many listeners assumed she was Black, and the eventual reveal did nothing to dent her standing — she remained one of the most genuinely beloved figures in Black American music until her death in 2010. The reason is that she was the real thing at every level. She wrote her own songs, produced her own records, played guitar and keyboards, arranged her own vocals, and sang with a power and agility that put her among the best of her generation. Rick James was her mentor, collaborator and sometime partner, and their work together is the centre of both catalogues. She also w...

Seventy-four tracks assembled as a thank-you rather than a greatest hits — and almost none of them are the songs you would expect. OneLove Thanks Mike: a Michael Jackson collection The most striking thing about this set is what is missing. There is no "Billie Jean" , no "Beat It" , no "Thriller" . What there is instead is seventy-four tracks of Motown-era Jackson 5, Jacksons album cuts, ballads, and the quieter corners of the solo catalogue. That is a deliberate curatorial argument. The received version of Michael Jackson is built almost entirely on four years in the eighties. This set makes the case for the other twenty-five — the extraordinary child singer, the Philadelphia-produced group records, and the adult ballads that get overshadowed by the spectacle. Heard this way he sounds less like a phenomenon and more like a singer, which is the harder and more interesting thing to hear. What to listen for "Who's Lovin' Yo...

Twenty-two tracks from a Minneapolis band who played their own instruments in an era of programmed R&B and were quietly the best live act in the genre. OneLove Mint Condition Mint Condition are an anomaly and have been since 1989: a six-piece self-contained band in a genre that had comprehensively moved to producers and session players. They write, arrange and play everything, and they have kept essentially the same line-up for three decades. They came out of Minneapolis and were signed to Perspective Records , the label run by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis , which placed them at the centre of the city's scene without making them sound like anyone else on it. Stokley Williams is the reason they cut through. He sings lead and plays drums simultaneously — a rare combination — and he has one of the most flexible voices in R&B, capable of a rasp and a falsetto within the same phrase. What to listen for "Breakin' My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)" ...

Nineteen tracks from an Atlanta quartet built around twin brothers, who made some of the most durable R&B of the early 2000s.     OneLove Jagged Edge Jagged Edge were Brian and Brandon Casey — identical twins who wrote most of the material — with Kyle Norman and Richard Wingo , signed to Jermaine Dupri's So So Def in Atlanta. What they did better than their contemporaries was harmony. Four singers, all capable of leading, arranged so that the lead line moves between them within a verse. That is an old technique from doo-wop and gospel quartets, and in the late nineties almost nobody was bothering with it. They were also unusually good at a specific register: the apology record, the commitment record, the argument-in-a-relationship record. Their biggest hit is literally a marriage proposal. What to listen for "Let's Get Married" is the enormous one — and the remix with Run from Run-DMC officiating became the version most peopl...

One of the best conscious Hip Hop groups  is Dead Prez. Their message is clear, politically charged & powerfully expressed. Their penchant is reporting on what is happening on the dark side of a society haunted by the lost, contorted souls. They not only paint a nightmarish picture overhanging darkly across the American landscape, but  also offer strokes of wisdom like healthy living, conscious love and giving respect to the Earth. I wish more of our young ones tuned into their message of self-discipline, honor, love & respect. In “Don’t Forget Where U Goin” they rap: “ Ghetto children you’re the spark, you’re the energy, you’re the heart To the granma’s, you’re the glue ’cause you know things fall apart” Now isn’t this better than most of the garbage in rotation today? Folks are thirstin’ for this revolutionary flow…. OneLove...

Every generation has an artist that stands high above his/her competitors. Once upon a time, Notorious B.I.G & 2Pac loomed large, then Jay-Z , Nas & Eminem arrived and smacked the competition off the stage. There has always been an abundance of talented wordsmiths, but the ones that stood out for me were the ones who had something relevant to say. Right now I see Kendrick Lamar as the voice of a new generation. He is unlike most in his peer group in that he thinks – no empty, forgettable lyrics from this young brother. Much like Nas, he combines a razor-sharp, sometimes harrowing street mentality with a depth-diving philosophy that gives us reason to pause & go hmmmmm. At the end of his song “Faith” for example, he opines, “ I’d rather not live like there isn’t a God than die and find out there really is… ” Sounds a little like Dostoevsky if you ask me. Some will take offense to the profanity in some of his son...

Veteran R&B crooner Babyface is making  one hell ,of a comeback with the release of his first original solo album in 10 years,  Return of the Tender Lover. “This is old-school R&B with a fine glass finish, the musicianship and production audibly expensive and the man’s voice so honeyed it presumably requires the attentions of worker bees,” the Guardian ‘s music reporter Dave Simpson wrote in his three-star review on Thursday. The nine-track album is all about love which has pretty much gone out of in the current hyper-sexual musical landscape. He won’t boast and have his way with the ladies, but treat them with respect, tenderness, understanding & a sense of wonder like a true lover, hence the title of this fantastic release. “The collaborations on Return of the Tender Lover and the design of its production feel traditional, in the sense that they don’t attempt to update Babyface’s sound ...

Fifty-four tracks from a songwriter who wrote enormous hits for other people before anyone let him sing, and then turned out to be a better singer than most of them. Ne-Yo Shaffer Smith spent years in Las Vegas and Los Angeles as a writer for hire, and the record that changed things was Mario's "Let Me Love You" — a number one he wrote and did not sing. Def Jam then signed him as an artist, and "So Sick" went to number one too. His significance is as a craftsman. At a moment when R&B was fragmenting into producer-led atmospherics, Ne-Yo wrote songs in the old sense: verse, chorus, bridge, a clear idea stated and developed, melodies that a person could sing back after one hearing. He has said repeatedly that Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder are his models, and the writing bears it out — he is one of very few artists of his generation who thinks in terms of the standard rather than the moment. What to listen for "So Sick" ...

Twenty-six tracks from a singer who releases an album roughly once a decade and has never made a bad one. OneLove Maxwell Maxwell arrived in 1996 with Urban Hang Suite , a concept album about a single relationship, recorded with musicians from the seventies soul world including Leon Ware — who wrote much of Marvin Gaye's I Want You — and Stuart Matthewman of Sade's band. That combination is the whole story. His records sound like nothing else because they are made by people who understand seventies soul as a craft rather than as a reference, and because he sings in a falsetto that he uses architecturally rather than for display. He is also, famously, slow. There are long gaps between albums, and he has said plainly that he releases records when he has something to release. The catalogue is small and there is almost nothing weak in it. What to listen for "Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)" is the record that introduced him and still the be...

Thirty-four tracks from a Minneapolis singer who was nearly in Prince's band, and instead became the voice of the city's other great production team. OneLove Alexander O'Neal Alexander O'Neal is a fixture of the Minneapolis story from an unusual angle. He was the original lead singer of Flyte Tyme , the band that — after he left — became The Time under Prince's direction with Morris Day out front. What he did instead was reunite with the two Flyte Tyme members who became Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis , and make a run of albums for Tabu Records that are among the best productions either party ever managed. His voice is the distinguishing thing: a big, slightly hoarse baritone with real force behind it, which gave Jam and Lewis's meticulous, synthetic arrangements something rough to push against. He was also enormous in Britain, considerably more so than at home. What to listen for "If You Were Here Tonight" appears twice here and...

Twenty-five tracks from the group that invented new jack swing and changed how R&B records were built. OneLove Guy Guy were Teddy Riley , Aaron Hall and — after Timmy Gatling's departure — Damion Hall , and their 1988 debut is one of the genuine hinge points in Black American music. The innovation was Riley's. He took hip-hop's drum programming — hard, swung, sampled — and put R&B singing over it, which nobody had properly done. The result, christened new jack swing by the critic Barry Michael Cooper, dominated the following five years and is the direct ancestor of essentially all modern R&B production. Aaron Hall is the other half of the story. His singing — enormous, gospel-derived, unashamedly indebted to Charlie Wilson of The Gap Band — became the template for a generation of male R&B vocalists, Jodeci's K-Ci very much included. What to listen for "Groove Me" is the opening statement and the clear...

Sixteen tracks from a supergroup of three established solo singers who decided, against all industry logic, to form a vocal group in 2013. OneLove TGT TGT were Tyrese , Ginuwine and Tank — three men with separate, substantial careers who spent years talking about forming a group and eventually did it. The album, Three Kings , arrived in 2013 and went to number one on the R&B chart. The premise was explicitly nostalgic: a deliberate attempt to make the kind of male vocal group record that had essentially vanished from the market. Three leads, real harmony arrangements, ballads that take their time, and a complete indifference to what radio was playing. The voices are genuinely complementary. Tyrese has the biggest instrument, Tank the most technically agile, and Ginuwine the most distinctive tone — and none of them is trying to win. What to listen for "Sex Never Felt Better" is the single and the most immediate thing here. "Tear...

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Born and raised in Philadelphia, spoken word artist, poet and songstress Ursula Rucker graduated from Temple University’s journalism program and has been enchanting audiences with her talent since 1994. Rucker is recognized as one of the premiere spoken word artists in the recording industry today. She has collaborated with an array of artists and producers including King Britt, 4 Hero, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Josh Wink and most notably The Roots. The Grammy Award-winning band called on Rucker to craft “The Unlocking,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Return To Innocence Lost.” She has performed alongside Gil Scott-Heron, Mos Def, Macy Gray and opened for the late Nina Simone. Hear her truth…and ascend. OneLove

. Linton Kwesi Johnson, aka LKJ, is the intellectual conscience of reggae music. Since the early 1970s he has forged a melding of true poetry with roots reggae rhythms, holding to a political perspective honed by long involvement with movements for better living conditions and rights for Black people in England, where he has lived since he was eleven years old. As a university student, writer, editor and musician, his voice and words have been unmistakable – unique within reggae, really. Arguably,LKJ invented dub – or reggae – poetry, and still does it best; he is thus both the premiere and premier exemplar of this singular genre of music. OneLove

One of my favorite Reggae Dub poets. Mutabaruka is the truth. His observations/critiques are powerful and prophetic and in this vast wasteland called Western ‘civilization’, voices like this need to heard & respected. OneLove

The influence of Frank Ocean, Drake & The Weekend are apparent, but Johnny Rain carries his own when it comes to the beats he uses. All of the instrumentals are produced & played by himself which is a rare feat in today’s industry. With such a load of talent, this rising artist is definitely going to make his mark & become a household name in the near future. OneLove

After years of being assaulted & numbed by inconsequential & vapid commercial rap music, we get a whiff of fresh air from an up & coming 19 year old rapper from the ATL – Raury. Yeah, he comes off sounding like Andre 3000 – the influence is quite obvious – but he is forgiven. His lyricism is what is needed at this moment in our polluted stream of consciousness. Give me his – I seen the news and seen the lies They kill our kind The system’s blind, the system’s blind yeah So peel your eyes, don’t close your mind Cause human kind must grow benign or slowly die, extinction There’s truth and lies in death and life The masses cry, but heaven smiles, always The trees they grow The leaves belong to mother nature Not to man to legalize it, yeah And take back Rick Ross’ whack-ass- Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it Got a hundr...

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Brilliant soul…

I just need to know that I did the very best I could and that I was true to myself. ~Lenny Kravitz

Do not call her a R&B artist because Janelle Monáe cannot be categorized into one genre. She stirs a big ol’ pot of sound with influences from everywhere- from Prince to Fela Kuti to 2PAC. It’s almost impossible to categorize her as anything, really. Even her look is edgy. I like this as we humans are so quick to put people in our comfy lil boxes. May her eclecticism catch fire and burn these lame ass, unoriginal artists on our airwaves in desperate need of imagination & awareness. OneLove

This brother is goes deep… .real deep. Take a song like his smash hit, “Down Here In Hell (With You)” where he says- I love the battle lines The battle lines we draw when crossin’ the mud Ooh, I love it when we fight Standin’ on the verge of breakin’ up or makin’ love What would I do if we were perfect? Where would I go for disappointment? Love without pain would leave me Wonderin’ why I stay? This puts love in its proper dimension, meaning it gets complicated & it aint all about romantic evenings & hot sex. He stands out in our current field of Great Pretenders. Or take a song like “Old Hat” from his current album, “The Fun Rises, The Fun Sets” which is subconsciously inspired by how “modern technology has taken away some of the things that we should probably hold dear. Things that have lasted for thousands of years like integrity, patience, intuition, instinc...

In honor of the incredible body of work by legendary R&B producers Jimmy Jam /Terry Lewis, I made this playlist featuring my favorite cuts they wrote/produced for various artists. These maestros crafted #1 hits for damn near everybody stretching from the early 80’s to the present and have created some of the best R&B/Pop music of our time.

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Classic lady, classic sound…Timeless! OneLove

Play that funky music white boy!

For a Child Love is the answer to a child Just as hope is the answer to us all But it’s there at the beginning That we learn to hope at all And God help us if we don’t Tell me where is this place From which there’s no return What can we know of another road From the one that we made With our anger and our rage We dare not go where there is no hope Not even for a child If dreams fly over the rainbow Truth lies waiting for us all If siren’s voices cloud our reason Can we still resist their call ’cause God help us if we don’t For so many people livin’ their whole lives Waiting to be saved For so many children taking that short trip From the cradle to the grave….. ….so powerful…. OneLove From the cradle to the grave…..