Neo-Soul Pimps, Supa-sistuhs
And Another Jigga Summer:
A Best of 2001 Review

By Mark Anthony Neal
SeeingBlack.com Music Critic

Bilal: 1st Born Second

Yeah, his label abandoned him and his aesthetic was too cerebral for urban audiences who think that Jada and Ja Rule are creative innovators. And still yet he was too graphic and stank-funky for the Neo-Soul Bourgeois who like their music middle-brow-never ghetto-but never complicated, how else do you explain the fascination with India.Arie and Musiq Soulchild (at least she CAN sing). But such is the life of a "pimp for Soul." At 21, Bilal will be macking for sometime.

Angie Stone: Real Soul Music

Betty Wright. Millie Jackson. Nona Hendrix. You get my point. Angie don't need no head wraps, guitar props, cosmic ideologies, and street teams. She can just flat out sing this music we call Soul. Neo-soul? What the hell is that? It's just Soul music, and "Mahogany Soul" is the sweetest slice that this generation has seen. Grounded by the anti-Neo-Soul manifesto "Soul Insurance" and the "I got a nickel in my pocket" flava of "More than a woman" with Soul-beau Calvin Richardson, "Mahogany Soul" finds the balance between artistic integrity and "ghetto-fab" accessibility. You got to love a sistah who can hate trifling folks on tracks like "So Pissed Off" and "20 Dollars" and still find enough love to drop a serious head-nod to the "Brothas".

"Damn' Jigga Held You Down for Six Summers":
Jay Z's The Blueprint

I don't want to hear nothin' about Jada, Ja, DMX, Fabulous, Ludacris, Petey Pablo… just peep this lyric: "and some day I slow down, but for now I get around like the late Makiavelli or Perelli twenty inches or caine and O-dog, stick up tape from menace you tell 'em chicks if they must know my business." Damn that some ghetto Pulitzer flow. In my mind one the best lines since Biggie talked about getting his the "ski-mask way" or Rakim talked about them "seven Mcs." Those were Jigga's lines from the "remix" of "Girls, Girls, Girls" (yes, that means that the joint was an afterthought). Digging in the stacks to find Jim Morrison and that old-school countrified mack Bobby "Blue" Bland (still hocking after all these years) "The Blueprint" is the best Jigga since "Reasonable Doubt" and further evidence that don't nobody do it the way he do. All together now—"H to the izzzo…"

Philly's Finest?: Who is Res? Volume One.

Naw, don't get uptight, this ain't no dis to Jilly. Jilly the real deal (gotta book chapter to prove my commitment, hope Lyzel stepped to her with as much). But Jilly ain't Res. Who? It's my homie Nic J, sitting with DC and KF singing lyrics to "How I Do," as Res opens for eventual no-show Maxwell in Albany's Palace Theater, while the ghetto-real (naw bruh, it ain't fabulous) loudly ask "Who the hell is this?" Res (my bad not Reece, though "Eclectic Soul" was some banging alternative funk also) is like Belinda Carlisle squeezed thru a tight, lanky body of brown-skinned Philly. Still trying to freak the lyrics to "Sittin' Back", but damn if "Ice King" and "Golden Boys" ain't some serious head-nodding, finger-wagging cerebellum. This is, as my Soul Mama Alexis D. would say, some "Newblack" Funk.

"Now Don't I Know You from Somewhere Long Ago?": The Return of Mr. Biggs.

Ain't no need in calling the Isleys geniuses—they've always been derivative, whether covering Seals and Croft, Todd Rundgren or Chicago, as they do on "Eternal." And "Eternal" is no doubt a straight jack of the Isley's classic 3+3 sound, but the key to the Isley's has always been the mellifluous vocals of Ronald Isley. Mr. Biggs (aka Ronald Isley) could get panties off a mannequin singing "The Lord's Prayer". With a wide range of producers behind the boards including Raphael Saddiq, Jam and Lewis and Mr. Kelly (can we finally acknowledge that this man is the most accomplished singer/songwriter/ producer/arranger of his generation), "Eternal" is the comeback of the year. Kiss the game goodbye? Naw the game on the next level now. "Eternal" moved an amazing 224,000 units in its first week. Sell outs? Possibly, but let's see The O'Jays, Gladys Knight, Isaac Hayes, Patti Labelle and a host of other wannabe old-schoolers try to match that. And let's not sleep on that closer—words to a Curtis Mayfield classic instrumental with a nod to those storefronts spaces them Isley boys came up in. Respect the game!

That Detroit Nigga, J-Dilla

Got real love for Primo, Dre., Ali Shaheed, ?uestlove, but I'm into Detroit Nigga these days like them smart-niggas Todd Boyd and Mike "Holla Back" Dyson. Even among Detroit Niggas (and honorary ones like Kid Rock, Eminem, and Madonna), Jay Dee has been slept on, even as he laced Tribe, Common, Bilal and Badu. Slum Village's 2000 release was the best hip-hop release that nobody talked about—J-Dilla even freaked T. Monk for that joint. "Welcome 2 Detroit" is the next level, with J-Dilla's remake of Donald Byrd's "Think Twice" (the sample to Main Source's "Looking at the Front Door") as one of the best musical moments of the year.

Take Yo Praise…Supa Sista

It's about the funke white-boys. Fat Boy Slim knew who Camille Yarbrough was, did you? And yeah, Jilly was up there with them Blue Men (what the…?) and no doubt, Moby look like a homeless crack-head from Houston street, but damn didn't that Grammy moment confirm that sista girl is an artIST. Hopefully, we ain't got to wait for another funke white boy—and I ain't talking about John Mellencamp—for Ursula Rucker to get her praise. Props for just finding a way to flow-block Jigga, lament crack mom parenting skills, and celebrate ghetto drill teams on the same project. "Supa Sista" was a major aesthetic moment. Go 'head sista, take yo praise.

A Woman's Worth

Granted, I got so sick of hearing "Falling" on Hot-this and Lite-that, and Smooth-this other. The record was not that good. Alicia Keys though was a new millennium exotic-and Clive-e knew she had skills, that's why she moved with him to J records, when Arista put that retirement clause in effect. The music will come. "Songs in A Minor" just scratches the rind. But you can't give Keys love without a shout to video collaborator Chris Robinson. The video for "Falling"—call it the Kimba Smith aesthetic-was a straight feminist flip of the prison industrial complex, as in a bunch woman get incarcerated trying the protect the trflin' thugs they "luuuuuve." And what's a "Woman's Worth" in the ghetto public sphere? Dig who Alicia is singing to in the PJ commons in that video. You got your answer.

Loofuh's Back

OK. On the whole, the "Luther Vandross" CD was booty. But "Take You Out" was the sweetest, most infectious Luther single since the first joint "Never Too Much". "Fancy," the Sean Jean make-over, (the hyper-masculinity) and the air-brushed wrinkles is just gravy for critic wannabees like myself.

Soul Patrol: The De La Trilogy Volume 2

De La Soul has never been about those "Champaign sippin' money fakers" they skewered well-done on their classic "Stakes is High." But, finally, this is some hip-hop for grown folks. Not just nostalgia. Pos reminds us that he been in the game since "Kim Field's mom jacked Penny." But grown folks issues like paying the utilities and getting good mortgage rates as in "Keepin' it Real" is about making sure your shorties get to daycare on time. Grown-up as in love for grown women, especially those who come "thick" or "extra-thick" as with the track "Baby Phat" which harks back to the innocence of "Buddy." And the there's that cat Cee-Lo ( Man!?? where the solo project?) who gets straight up church on the masses with his cameo on "Held Down. Ain't no soon-be middle-age rappers ever been at their peak. Hell, a bunch of 20-somethings fall off everyday. On the real, the Daisy-Age De La whose loss critics (mostly white) lament has long been dead. With AOI:Bionix De La is still in the game, still naming the game, still beyond the grasp of the game and, as such, there will always be progressive possibilities for this thing we call Hip-Hop—ya don't stop.

-- December 21, 2001

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