artist dedication: musiq soulchild.

[i hope to do more of these dedications. i'm already cookin' up another one.]
currently listening: musiq soulchild, 'loveofmylife'


for the past 2-3 weeks, i've been in a strictly R&B mood. sure, there's the random hip hop jawn that has been played (i.e. playing the whole Roots discog minus Illadelph Halflife and Santogold [which is dope as fluck], Blu and Drake for a lil' minute), but 90% of the past 21 days or more (sometimes the weeks and days just run together, real talk) has been R&B. and add to the fact that last friday i went to see jazmine sullivan, musiq soulchild & ne-yo in concert, i really don't feel the damndest need to go back to hip hop any time soon.

(i'm not saying it like it's a bad thing, because there was a heavy point in the past year when i listened to hip hop 24/7, like i was getting paid for the shit. trust me, i wasn't. )

the main reason of this blog dedication is simple: this musical mood i've been in encouraged me to revisit some albums i ain't heard in a minute. i'm talkin' about Forever My Lady, Songs In the Key of Life, Get Lifted, Once Again, Songs in A Minor...and then i just went on this musiq BINGE.

i've seriously been listening to him strictly for the past 4-5 days. it started with OnMyRadio, then i was just like fuck it, lemme listen to his whole discog (minus the christmas jawn). after listening to his whole discog, i remember why he was my fave R&B artist for so long, and why he still is.

(yeah, john legend, i'm talking to you. you stole the spot briefly, but then you shitted on my life with some parts of Once Again and 90% of Evolver, so you get the gas face until you redeem yourself to 2nd place)

aijuswanaseing DEFINED me as an 8th grader. that was my first real CD, and i still cherish it. juslisen sucks, i'm not gonna lie. but even with that ass of an album, there's jams (see previouscats). and then with soulstar, he redeemed himself, especially with my JAM her produced by the man 88-keys (whom i swiped this laink from; what up 88! lol).

luvanmusiq is probably his most cohesive joint to date after aijuswanaseing. every track (well, not every track; i could do without one of 'em) is just solid material. i remember in '07 when he came to chicago for the taste right after this album came out and he had ALL of chicago singing his jams, even tho his outfit was just on some otherworldly shit (it was bejeweled; yeah, i'll let you marinate on it). and not just jams off of luvanmusiq, i'm talking jams from previous albums. betterman > any song on evolver.

late last year (like 4th quarter-ish), there were rumblings that my love musiq was dropping another album. i was a lil' excited or whatever, because my babe is consistent with that good shit. but then...i heard Radio. and i was like 'huh?' i was perplexed. i mean, it wasn't horrible per se, but i just...didn't get it. i'm all for artists expanding and gettin' out of their comfort zones, but this punched me in the face, and i didn't know if it was a good or bad feeling. i just felt weird. then it kept getting pushed back and back (apparently it was supposed to come out on his birthday, which was in september, and that day came and went...). so then the jawn with MJB came out (co-written by Miguel Jontel, whatup!), and i was definitely feeling it. december came around, and i was at work; one day i forgot my iPod in my room (smh) and i decided to listen to OnMyRadio on myspace. and i was disgusted.

nah, that's too harsh. i wasn't pleased AT ALL.

when i was done listening i wanted to punch him in the face.

couple of weeks later, i receive the album as a christmas present lol. for some odd reason, the damn CD won't properly play in the doJo, so when i get lucky, i can hear tracks 4-end if the CD player doesn't spit the CD out. i seriously let that jawn play for the first 3 days of school and i was still not impressed. so i let it lay next to the computer for about 4 weeks (mostly because i forgot i had it); but then i got in the aforementioned mood, and i revisted the album, and now i'm punching myself in the face because this album is tight. i mean, there's some throwaway joints on the album (see the song with damian marley...wtf?), but all in all, this album, is pleasing to the ears. my ears, especially.
cuz, like, what the FUCK was i on when i heard this jawn for the first time and blew it off?! smDAMNh
somthing about musiq's falsettos make me wanna make out with the nearest man next to me (who isn't related to me or i didn't grow up with)
aijuswanaseing.
luvanmusiq.
onmyradio.
soulstar.
juslisen.

---

another reason i've fallen head over heels madly in love with dude again is because he is the ONLY man in my eyes that can rock a 'hawk WAAAAY past its prime and not get the side-eye from me. (cuz we all know i can't stand the 'hawks anymore). and can we big up the man and his personal style? my good lord, i know it's the norm to get your grown-and-sexy on in this music industry if you're a) hip hop or b) r&b, and a lot of cats try and pull it off and only few succeed, imo. justin succeeds (hell, he succeeds with everything. i ♥ him unconditionally); t.i. succeeds (when does his sentence start again?), jigga succeeds; musiq definitely succeeds. he seems so put together, and then the mohawk just sends me over the edge. my dude has been in the gym; he's tone and svelte. if he wasn't so self-conscious about his cock-eyededness and wore some different glasses, he woulda got the business a long time ago. i wish i could find some of the photos from his album booklet on these here intranets, because he is FOINE.
the fact of the matter remains: musiq ftw. i seriously could go on and on about him, and i almost did. his missteps are small, imo. just pretend juslisen didn't happen besides about 6 songs.

so i leave you with this: his new video. it's really long, so just skip to the 3:30 mark. lovely song, lovely singing, lovely man.