D’Angelo

Even as I type this post, an early D’Angelo classic was playing on a radio station’s late night soul show.  

Brown Sugar can easily be found on a restaurant table as well as on the sound system.  

In the mid-late 1990s, my focus was hip hop music but I made time and space for R&B.  I saw D’Angelo as another R&B singer but I would learn he had a unique style.  His treatment of Smokey Robinson’s Cruisin’ was particularly special. 

Regardless of which album you prefer or consider his best work, D'Angelo has classic music in his catalog. 

Now is as good a time as any to revisit his discography as we mourn his passing. 

Rick James - Cold Blooded (1983)

Cold Blooded would be one of the first Rick James records I would seek when I started collecting vinyl.  

The song is funky as hell.

I remember Rick James' early 1980s era vividly. I remember Super Freak playing on the radio but it would take 1983s Cold Blooded for me to really connect with Rick.

The ballad Ebony Eyes would have registered with me more if I were older at the time of its release but I did remember being amazed Smokey Robinson would team with the reckless Rick James. Regardless of what I thought about either of them, they were label mates on Motown Records.