30 days of musical blackness with vsb
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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’…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 15: Fela Kuti ‘Lady’
I’d heard of Fela Kuti before I heard Fela. But when I finally made the discovery of Nigeria’s Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti aka Fela Anikulapo Kuti aka Fela, I was done for. Actually, that’s a little untrue. After being told to check out his music I went out and bought the Best of the Black…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 14: Sister Nancy, 'Bam Bam'
I literally have zero recollection of the first time I heard Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam.” I don’t remember it at all before college though, so I’ll just go ahead and assume I heard it at the same place I heard so many dope songs during my college tenure: (what we called) “Fashion Fridays” at Spelman…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 13: Lysette Titi, 'Young, Sad and Blue'
For years, I knew very little about Lysette. For instance, I had no idea her actual artist name (at the time) was Lysette Titi. I didn’t know she was from the D.C. area. I had no idea she was, at one point, a lead singer for legendary D.C. go-go band Backyard Band. All I knew…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 12: Luther Vandross, 'So Amazing'
I don’t know what you can say about a song already called “So Amazing” that literally lives up to its title, even though the “amazing” being referenced is love. I mean, it really is so amazing to be loved, even following people to the moon and the sky above. Not much has to be said…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 11: Fresh Start Worship, ‘Mention’
I listen to a lot of music, from hip-hop to country to rock ’n roll to even Celtic (seriously, some of that harp work jams … on the one), but when I need to hear something that digs into my soul, I go straight for gospel, and more specifically, praise and worship. Some of this…