10PM — 2AM USED TO BE LIT
How many of y’all have memories of cakin’ on the phone with your little boyfriend/girlfriend while you listened to the Quiet Storm? How many of us fell asleep to slow jams for the majority of our formative years?
Through every change in urban music and urban radio — new formats, satellite, streaming, conglomeration — The Quiet Storm endures. This week I paid tribute to a key institution of urban music & culture for Vibe, and then in a #MusicSermon experience on Twitter (you can start here and scroll) and of course the tribute deserved a playlist.
Black folks know, sonically and culturally, what the Quiet Storm means, even if they can’t easily describe it. It’s the deep, cognac smooth vocals of the format DJs everywhere (I feel like they go to school for that); Drake recently paid homage to Toronto Quiet Storm host Al Woods and the format itself through snippets on his Scorpion album. It’s the distinctive, airy and jazzy music beds behind those voices. The sensuous, romantic mid-tempos and ballads. But the story of how the format started and why it became so popular gets lost…Keep Reading @ Vibe
Now, Get Your Groove On
…with this collection of classics and mainstays from the overnight hours.