Rukus! ... reps Nigeria born in U.S.A. (Imo not Enugu State but it's all love). I think it's beautiful that African messages are being passed through our generation's music. We'll have to bring him to the Bay someday... I wore his CD out! Cop his CDs! More pix of this cutie...
Mary J. Blige: What people say about her music touching their soul is so true - I would have murdered people my younger youth had it not been for "Love is All We Need". And somebody in my fam better buy me her newest CD, Reflections, for Christmas else there's gonna be problems. Finally Queen of Hip Hop Soul gets props from mainstream America!
Amerie: Another artist I LOVE! I believe she's the next MJB (see above) because her music is so real. All I Have didn't blow up like Touch, but she needs to drop an album of singles like Janet or Mary do to solidify her true status: I missed her performance at the "Destiny Fulfilled" concert in Atlanta where she & Mario opened, for which I pouted (at the time I wanted to see the openers, not the headliners...). A friend pointed out that Amerie only had 3 major songs from 2 albums; I replied that her albums are good but not enough singles make radio. Hopefully her new CD,Take Control, brings more respect to her...My sister called me out about my musical tastes: it's true I'm old school at heart...well, not old school but the '90's had the best music! There's an article in Jan/Feb Vibe that pays tribute to music from this era (it's not online so I'm gonna have to scan it) and features new artists who sound like that era (because they're our age and were brought up on it). So yes, Mint Condition, Tony Toni Tone, Janet Jackson, En Vogue, Mary J Blige, Jodeci, Mista, Tevin Campbell, LL Cool J, Tony Terry, Soul 4 Real, Another Bad Creation, Bell Biv Devoe, and countless others should be mentioned here (especially since some still rock my MP3 player regularly) but I guess I highlighted the above because they're more recent, my students have a tendency to call my favorite music "old skool" (and I have a tendency to struggle not to clown them-LOL), and I genuinely like their music, maybe because it sounds like what I grew up on but a bit more modern. So that's that Josephine!
