donny hathaway
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'This Christmas' and the Next: Donny Hathaway to Receive Posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
This Christmas season was a very special one for Donny Hathaway’s fans. According to Vibe, the Recording Academy will honor Hathaway with a Lifetime Achievement Award, just in time for the 40th anniversary of the late soul singer’s death. The Academy announced the recipients on Dec. 19. “Each year, the Recording Academy has the distinct…
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To Queen Aretha, You Are Appreciated. Rest in Power
Like many people, hip-hop was my entryway to a lot of the music I know and love today. Through the use of samples, I made my way into various genres of music and discovered the lifeblood of artistry on several continents. Similarly, it enabled me to become more well-versed in American treasures. One such treasure…
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10 Music Biopics I'd Really Like To See
On Nov. 2, 2018, Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic about the group Queen, but mostly about the Freddie Mercury, hits theaters nationwide. I can’t wait because I’m a fan of the group and Mercury in particular, and I generally love music biopics and biographies. I always look forward to finding out things that I didn’t know.…
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10 Best Christmas Soul Songs, Ranked (Also Known as the Hardest List of All Time)
What I’m about to do will possibly be THE most controversial and contentious list ever created. I want you to know that up front. Even as I was making this list, I started a fight with myself that didn’t end well, and I think Brick killed a guy. So let’s just get the most important…
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10 Songs for Your Black-Ass Playlist for Days You’re Feeling Particularly Black
I love the movie Cool Runnings. Peace be the journey and all that jazz. I especially love the part where Doug E. Doug—playing the role of Sanka Coffie, the movie’s comic relief and spiritual center—says to other bobsledders on top of the hill, “I’m feeling very Olympic today!” I try to work that into lots…
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The Black Christmas Music Debate: If ‘Santa Baby’ Isn’t on Your List, Your List Is a Fraud
I love Christmas … but I really love Christmas music. I’m the kind of guy who will start listening to the Yuletide classics immediately after Halloween—and only if I wait that long. While I love the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s “Christmas Time Is Here,” and I can appreciate Frank Sinatra’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,”…
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An Ode To Donny Hathaway and "This Christmas"
If you know like I know you don’t want to step to this Christmas season doesn’t officially begin until the first time I play Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas”, his 1970 single (that he wrote with Nadine McKinnor) that tanked upon release but over time has become as vital to the Christmas season as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want…
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This Generation’s R&B Music is Asswater. Stop Paying For It.
A couple weeks ago, while driving to Ann Arbor for the homecoming of my alma mater University of Michigan, Donny Hathaway’s “A Song For You” popped up on the shuffle. He didn’t write the song, but he made the definitive version; much like with Isaac Hayes’ “By The Time I Get to Phoenix” or Luther…
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How I Discovered And Fell In Love With Phyllis Hyman
I remember the first time I heard a Phyllis Hyman song. This was in March 2006 at my boy Tim’s condo. He’d turned his second bedroom into a makeshift studio and we did a lot of writing and producing in that room. At the time, he was the producer and I was just learning the…