Birthday in the Key of STEVIE

Revisiting #MusicSermon’s tribute to one of our greatest living artists: few illustrations of Stevie’s wonder. Today is the birthday of one of our greatest national treasures, Mr. Stevland Morris. This isn’t a full Stevie sermon — I’ve been promising a revival-style look at hist music as some point — but a quick highlight of some of my favorite things aboutContinue reading “Birthday in the Key of STEVIE”

OUR #MARCHMADNESS ISN’T CANCELED

#MusicSermon’s annual Springtime Music Showdown is still on and popping’! This year, it’s the BATTLE OF THE REMIXES! We resumed regular #MusicSermon services last weekend with a celebration of the real and true REMIX. Not these somebody-emailed-you-the-track-you-laid-you-verse-and-emailed-it-back joints, but the real and true, change the whole song, change the lyrics, up the energy, put fiftylemn peopleContinue reading “OUR #MARCHMADNESS ISN’T CANCELED”

Soft & Warm…

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 — TheContinue reading “Soft & Warm…”

CELEBRATING THE KING OF NEW JACK SWING

ON TEDDY RILEY’S BIRTHDAY, WE REFLECT ON SOME OF HIS ENDURING HITS. New Jack Swing technically turned 30 last year; that was the anniversary of the Village Voice article on then 20-year-old Teddy Riley in which Barry Michael Cooper (New Jack City, Above the Rim & Sugar Hill) coined the phrase (he told Riley, “You haveContinue reading “CELEBRATING THE KING OF NEW JACK SWING”