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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 25: New Edition, 'You're Not My Kind of Girl'
New Edition is one of my favorite groups ever because of course, they are. “Can You Stand the Rain” is one of the greatest songs of all time because of course, it is. There’s a reason why BET’s The New Edition Story was such an event. Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike, Ralph—and Johnny, too, have been…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 24: Ari Lennox, 'Night Drive'
J. Cole has quietly amassed a hell of a roster over at Dreamville. One of his current artists, Ari Lennox (who in May released her debut album, Shea Butter Baby—seriously, how fuckin’ awesome of a title is that?)—is really starting to make noise, as she should be. Lennox, who is a singer/songwriter from Washington, D.C.,…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 23: Deep Cotton, ‘We’re Far Enough From Heaven Now We Can Freak Out’
Have you ever heard a song that totally had you at hello? Well, for me, one of those songs would be Deep Cotton’s “We’re Far Enough From Heaven Now We Can Freak Out.” Deep Cotton is the duo of Nate Wonder and Chuck Lightning, Janelle Monae’s longtime collaborative partners responsible for much of the production…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 22: Mark Morrison, ‘Return of the Mack’
Today is the 22nd day of June, in the year of our Lord, 2019. Since the year of our Lord 1996 I’ve been preaching the same (debatably controversial) gospel: Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack” is one of the greatest songs ever created. I stand firm and pat on this statement. Mark Morrison “Return Of…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 21: Nicole Bus, 'You'
Almost nine years ago now, I was listening to the radio, back when that was a thing, and I heard a song that sounded so much like a Lauryn Hill song, or one that should have been a Lauryn Hill song, that I absolutely yelled out the window, “LAURYN BACK LAURYN BACK GOT ALL THESE…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 20: Phyllis Hyman, 'Be Careful (How You Treat My Love)'
There’s almost no way I could do a series like this without at least one nod to my second-favorite singer of forever, Phyllis Hyman. Turns out, almost four years ago, before VSB became part of The Root and before we started writing full time, I wrote everything I was going to write today in a…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 19: Joi, 'Freedom' x Various Artists, 'Freedom'
Since today is Juneteenth (in celebration of June 19, 1865, the day the slaves in Texas learned they were freed), I decided to drop a two-fer in the name of freedom. The song is “Freedom” but there are two versions and they’re both getting their due today. Most people of a certain age might remember…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 18: The Temptations 'Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)'
As a child, I grew up hearing The Temptations, but I don’t recall really listening. Of course, I knew of Motown and thus I knew some of their biggest songs, some by heart, even if I wasn’t entirely up on game. “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” and “My Girl,” and “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg,”…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 17: Intro, 'Funny How Time Flies'
Intro might literally be the most unsung group ever. They’re so unsung, they don’t even have an episode of TVOne’s Unsung and their contemporaries like Troop, Hi-Five and Silk, who are way less unsung than Intro, have episodes. They have one of the most recognizable ’90s R&B songs in “Come Inside” (waaaaaaaaaaay too long intro…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 16: Gladys Knight & the Pips ‘Daddy Could Swear, I Declare’
Happy Father’s Day! You know what’s difficult to find? Positive songs about black fathers. I’m not saying there aren’t any, I’m just saying that the genre, as it were, could stand some more entries. So today, I decided to go with a song by Gladys Knight & the Pips. The song celebrates dads, or Gladys’…
