This crossed my mind as I was getting ready for my j- o
My theory on the terminology: Neo Soul
I believe they call it Neo Soul for two distinct reasons. (1) R&B/Soul music and especially the lyrics is written with less of a sociopolitical spin, and more of an urban spin. What’s up with all the cussin’ in R&B these days?! Stevie, Marvin, and Donnie ain’t have to cuss to write a classic. How you gon’ woo a decent woman and call her a bitch in the song??? If you listen closely, Tank was talkin’ bout chokin’ his broad out in his first song, “I Deserve”. What’s really going down? Because India has an acoustic guitar and sings about positivity, she’s Neo Soul? Earth, Wind & Fire never had anegative word in any of their songs, are they Neo Soul? Now, if anybody does some …Innervisions type shit, they are automatically Neo Soul, huh? That shit don’t come from any “new” soul, it comes from old souls, timeless souls, souls that have been around forever. It’s just straight up Soul Music. Whereas Papa Was a Rolling Stone spoke to a generation about deadbeat dads, Baby Mama Drama just says you’re in a petty dispute with the mother of your child (whom you’re obviously no longer with). Similar formulas, but not quite the same. (2) Many of the people who are classified as R&B/Soul singers, are taking the genre to someplace its never been. I mean, Ronal Isley is a prime example. A legend who has been a part of a hits machine since the late fifties, I may very have been conceived to the Isley Brothers. However, it’s now the Isley Brothers featuring Ronald Isley (which it always has), and they’re doing mindless rhythm and bullshit MR. Bigs skits with R. Kelly, who couldn’t write his way out of a paper bag.
Don’t get me wrong, R is mad talented and in tune with what makes a hit, but that doesn’t mean he can write. Let’s take the biggest song of his to date, I Believe I can Fly:
I Believe I can Fly/
I believe I can touch the sky/
Spread my wings and fly away/
Think about it every night and day
Oh, I believe I can soar/
See me running through that open door (?)/
I believe I can fly…Oh I believe I can fly
Random Sarcasm Wow, that was a really profound hook. Shook me to my core. Makes me question the lyrical integrity of MArvin Gaye's Ecology...
Sidebar Tangent Hmmm, now having those kids in the choir don’t seem so hot does it?
Point of the matter is R&B has been ghetto- ized by the likes of R Kelly, Jermaine Dupree (Jagged Edge), Next (You’ve got sexy feet with no corns (?!), and a host of other guilty parties. Even Babyface is making videos with his grown ass having all types of scantily clad youngyins in it. There isn’t any soul in it anymore. It’s now ghetto soul, which is soul, but that shit is different. So these younger artists who are just putting their spin on true R&B/Soul are unfairly being dubbed Neo Soul Artists, as if they are doing something new. Shit, river dancing is one of the newest sensations in dance in the last few years, and the shit is centuries old probably. Ain’t nobody callin’ it Neo Riverdance. Watch what they sell you. Folks are good at repackaging some shit that’s already been done and renaming it to make it sell better, like new coke, or the new peoples court, or George W. Bush. LOL Watch these labels ya’ll…these same peoples that are labeling our music have been labeling our people for the past four hundred plus years, like that changes who we are as a people.
Be Easy