R.I.P. Gerald Levert

This is the Top 5;
The Delfonics - La la la la la means I love you
Freddie Jackson - Rock me Tonight(for old times' sake)
Guy - Let's Chill
Lenny Williams - You are my Starship
Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
( Special shout for Lenny Williams - Cause I love you and Frederick - Gentle)
These songs guaranteed you at least three kids on the way after you was finished!
Back in the days, the woman was made love to, you didnt sex them out, or beat it or banged her out! The songs of today bring this hit it and be out kind of way and that's wack! Back in the days after you made love to your woman, she laid on your chest with the biggest smile and went to sleep! We need to bring back baby making music!

It's funny to see how all of these songs from different eras and artists have special meaning and hold nostalgia for all of us. Some of the songs and artists I have never heard of, but they are near and dear to other people. Music is amazing...if it's the soundtrack of our lives, we better make our selections carefully.

Here are my Top 5...

1. Sensuality - The Isley Brothers

2. Just To Keep You Satisfied - Marvin Gaye

3. Sumthin' Sumthin' (Mellowsmoothe Remix) - Maxwell

4. Cry Together - The O'Jays

5. Be My Girl - The Dramatics

I THINK baby makin' music was so powerful back in the day because artists were more mature and experienced in life in general. Black entertainers back in the early 70's through the late eighties had been witness to the birth of a movement. BLACK LOVE was real and it was strong. The love songs that grew out of this era were PERSONAL....and about love inside of a relationship. It wasn't constantly about SEX then. It was about 'GROWN FOLKS MAKING LOVE'!

After the civil rights movement there was a need for black people to be down for each other FOR REAL! Day to day frustrations were able to be wiped away with the sultry croon of AL GREEN or the pleading angelic voices of groups like the STYLISTICS or ENCHANTMENT.

If you are dealing with the unabashed truth then you KNOW ONLY a MAN knows how to handle a WOMAN. There are no boys and egos handling girls and dumps. Listen to 'WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN' by Percy Sledge. Only a MAN can speak to a woman in that way that will make nothing else exist but HIM. That skill comes from YEARS of experience that allows him/her to expertly know their own wants and desires.

PRINCE thrived on that knowledge. Although both songs are sexually charged, his hit single, SOFT AND WET (For You LP 1978) is far from the mature pleading of ADORE (Sign of the Times LP, 1987) almost ten years later. His first lp,FOR YOU, was on the market by the time he was 17 years old. I guess you could say 'ADORE' has more meat (no pun intended, but hey we're all grown right?)

In today's society children are singing to us telling us they are or can be ..."the best you've ever had!". Now honestly, how is that possible for a 38 year old woman to believe? It's cute, they're cute (especially that youngun Chris Brown), and it sounds good but not believable.

The problem with our music today is simple. The messengers of love are now between the ages of 16 and 23. SEX sells and we're buying. Older artists have even taken on younger personas and rhythms in order to get radio airplay (Lionel Richie, Ron Isley, Charlie Wilson). But because their status was established during the time when content mattered they are able to reinvent themselves and be relieved to know they still have their core fan base which is older and more loyal anyway. If you notice, all of the older artists who are being pushed today have a LONG, SOLID music history that none of the 'up and comers' can ever compete with. Technically these artists can't lose.

I also THINK NEOSOUL music is a serious attempt to get back what was lost but even there we've got to be careful that the music not only emulates those nostalgic sounds and beats we have come to associate with ole' soul but that it pushes the envelope on love and soulful intimacy like Marvin Gaye or Minnie Ripperton did. Although I deeply appreciate Jill Scott, D'Angelo, and Angie Stone and even have duplicates of their albums...me personally?
Gimme 'MAGIC MAN' by Robert Winters & Fall, 'IN THE MOOD' by Tyrone Davis, or 'YOU ARE MY STARSHIP' by Normon Conners anyday! PEACE!!!!

As a hip-hop-head..
Gotta have your love-songs straight..!
(no particular order..:)
1. Earth,wind & fire - Love's holiday
2. Fatback band - Feed me your love
3. Junie - Loving arms
4. Marvin Gaye - That's the way love is
5. Johnny Guitar Watson - It's all about you
6. Al Green - Simply beautiful
7. Al Green - Wish you were here
8. Charles Wright - You are the one for me
9. Michael Jackson - Lady in my life
10.Leroy Hutson - Love to hold you close

Not that you asked me...it's just that this blog got my old dormant alter ego DJ juices flowing so I came up with 2 lists.

My Top 10 Love Songs (old and new) that I like to sang along to:

10. Saturday Love, Alexander O'Neal & Cherrell

9. U Can't Change That, Raydio (yes, I'm serious)

8. Go on Without You, Shirley Murdock

7. U Give Good Love, Whitney "Hell-to-da-naw" Houston

6. If I Ain't got You, Alicia Keys

5. Dontchange, Musiq Soulchild

4. Baby I'm For Real, After 7

3. Two Occasions, The Deele

2. Ready 4 Love, India.Arie

1. All Seasons, Levert

My Top 10 Not So Subtle Songs for the Grown & Sexy (old and new and full of innuendo or straight up raunchy)

10. Do Me Baby, Prince or MeLissa Morgan

9. Say Yes, Floetry

8. DJ Play a Love Song, Jamie Foxx

7. Sexual Healing, Marvin Gaye

6. Juicy Fruit, Mtume

5. Loosen up my Buttons, Pussycat Dolls f/ Snoop

4. Bump-n-Grind (remix), The R-ah (court date coming up)

3. Too Close, Next

2. Naked, Marques Houston

1. Promiscuous Girl, Nelly Furtado f/ Timbaland

bonus track: All Night Long, Mary Jane Girls

As a DJ, I grew up admiring DJ's in the 80's who would always drop a tight slow jam or two right when it was time to sew a honey up. Surface, SOS Band, or Keith Sweat woulda made it hot at any party back in the day. Not to mention all the classics already printed above.

When I'm spinning nowdays, no one ever wants some baby making music. Bumping, grinding, and dropping to the front to touch your toes are encouraged. A couple of years ago when Usher's "Lovers and Friends" was hot, I ended a night with it and asked a young lady to dance. She replied that she didn't know how to dance to a slow song. I thought, "UNBELIEVABLE!" She cut it up to every Ying Yang, Ludacris, and Kelis song but didn't know to how to dance to a slow song.

Yes babymaking music is gone for the masses, I feel you, Ne-Yo and all those other soft pop, puppy crush songs don't do it. But for those in the know, I might be bumping some Kem, Heather Headley, Goapele, or Jill Scott, maybe even some Boney James or Joe Sample, I'm getting kinda oldschool now. And of course some candles and wine.

Furious Styles' Top 5 Babymaking Jams:

1. Prince "If I Was Your Girlfriend"

2. Isley Brothers "Between The Sheets"

3. Luther Vandross & Cheryl Lynn "If This World Were Mine"

4. SOS Band "Tell Me If You Still Care"

5. Michael Jackson "The Lady In My Life"

Mr. Rogers...hey, ain't nothin wrong with that...just make sure you take off the sweater and hang it in the closet first.

Only two words just came to mind when I thought of a newer artist who is mainstream, romantic and I am diggin...Anthony Hamilton. There is some good stuff out there.

Question to D. In your opinion, what is the difference (if any) between love makin music and baby makin music?

There's no air of mystery to the love songs today. Sure, people like Teddy P, Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye were talking about bonin', but they did it with such style and flair, that it was more romantic. But today's singers don't waste time tellin' you they wanna do the do. No tact whatsoever.

Whatever folks are listening to it sure hasn't slowed down the babymaking in this world...Sex has taken a backseat to Romance...delayed gratification is played out and generation next wants it all NOW - Instant coffee, instant meals, instant credit, instant cures for E.D. it was a matter of time before instant sex appeal permeated the culture. So I'm sure there are more babies being made between commercials during ESPN's Sports Center that there are to any ballads. Wait for the commercial baby...or better yet just push the EASY button...and bam..there's a baby! I'm sure there are great ballad writers out there they just don't get any shine because the songs that get right to the point squeeze all the oxygen out of the A&R room.

It's gonna take a lot for us all to slow down again in this whirlwind of a world...but a slowjam could be played as the last song at the end of a D-Nice party...u have to start somewhere!

P.S.

U left out D-Train You're the REASON!!!
For the Rock Ballad Fans "DRIVE" by the Cars.

:)

Damn, Jac... Family making music is great! But, I'm not playing a Mr. Rogers song when I'm being romantic! BABY MAKING MUSIC!

:-)

We've been singing the baby makin' blues for a while now...each generation gets a li'l mo' raunchy I'm thinkin'. Our parents had the same complaints about our music so it was their job to play their music for us so we'd have a point of reference from whence we came. Does life imitate art or art imitate life? Are we lacking class and taste or is the music to blame? It's all relative you ask me. But the thing is, babies keep being made, that's not where we lack. It's the family that is falling apart. So maybe we should have some artists writing some new school family makin' music to bump to!! LOL

Much Love and Respect

Just like real hip hop has died (almost) so has those feel good, sexy r & b ballads from back in the day. The Movie "When The Music Dies" speaks on; where has the music gone? The real artist, the real musicians, the real singers who can sang, the real hip hop? I miss Jodeci, the Teddy Pendergrass, Bell Biv Devoe had some serious slow songs, Ready For the World, Mint Condition, Atlantic Starr, remember Renee and Angela!!!?? Isley Brothers put it down!!! So many other memorable artist and more play in my iPod, I am keeping the music alive own way. I hope one day we have a "Baby Making Music" Revolution!!! Bring the music back!!!!

The last Baby-Making-Artist my generation had (I was born in '77)is R-Kelly. I can't think of anyone else & its a shame that I have to make love while listening to him because I start imagining him writing those songs while thinking of 12-year-olds. Then before him we have Guy (Let's Chill); before them Luther. But like you say D those classics you mentioned we can still rock steady to & get your groove thang on!! FOR REAL!

That music is thrown out the window!! Cats these days don't even know what a baby making joint is. I'm living in Florida now and I hear some shorties talking about their baby making Cds and when I hear them its straight up garbage. No finesse and sexy into the tracks. Only tackyness but then again we can blame A&R's and labels for being one dimensional with alot of these artists out now that a baby making joint is the least on their minds. Its sad already that R&B is on life support but baby making songs is dead! That's so sad but I stay listening to the ghosts of the past!