One of the best to ever do it, Donell Jones, is back on the music scene after 7 years and he just dropped his new single “Karma”!
Donell could be singing from the woman’s perspective or from a man’s perspective; but the song is about karma that you get after cheating on someone who has been good to you. He used the sample “Payback is a Dog” by the classic 70’s group The Stylistics. Since karma is something everyone has experienced, this is another timeless Donell record that you can look forward too. He’s also releasing a new album next month and you can expect more singles and hits!!
Donell is best known for making love and relationship records that woos his fanbase. His voice sounds as soulful as it did over 20 years ago when he entered the music industry
Award-winning artist Donell Jones graced The Gold Spot Podcast to talk to me about what he’s been up since his last album in 2013. He addresses the music industry in regard to records labels and being independent, artist sampling his timeless work such as “Where I Wanna Be” “Get it Together” and more, AND his new album coming in December.
Anyone who knows R&B, knows that the 90’s had the best R&B. The debate is who is the “king” of R&B. If you are into today’s R&B, you may have heard of the king of “eeee”, Jacquees.
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Jacquees claims to be the “King of R&B”; I’m guessing he means of today’s generation. My issue with this is…he disregarded Chris Brown, Trey Songz, Daniel Caesar, Eric Bellinger, the list can go on. What baffles me is…Jacquees’ single “B.E.D” was part of the bridge of R&B Avant’s song “Read Your Mind.” THEN there’s him making a Quemix to Ella Mai’s “Trip” record. I loved the remix BTW, but he’s clearly not original. He’s seen on YouTube remaking Chris Brown “Yoooo” song and Soul For Real’s “Candy Rain” videos. Oh Jacquees (eye roll).
The way I see it, there are different kinds of categories to place artists a far as the “King of R&B”. There’s different eras like the 80’s R&B, the 90’s R&B, the 2000’s R&B and the 2010’s R&B. Now, we can split those decades up by early 80’s, 90′ 00’s 10’s and the same for the mid/late decade.
For the 80’s, the R&B Kings were:
Luther Vandross (1981-1988)
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Bobby Brown (1986-1988)
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Teddy Pendergrass (1980-1988; and late 1970’s)
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90’s
Keith Sweat (1991-1998) (late 80’s)
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R. Kelly (1992-1998) (00’s too)
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Usher (1994-1999)
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00’s
Usher (again; 2001-2016)
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Chris Brown (2005- currently)
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Trey Songz (2005-currently)
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Ne-Yo (2006-currently)
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Tha Dream (2007-2009) (2012-2016)
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So after that break down, you can tell that there’s some overlapping, like the 90’s singers dipped into the 00’s and the 00’s dipped into the 2010’s. These artists have worked hard enough to earn the title or even QUALIFY for being the “King of R&B”
Jacquees has started this uproar and he probably did it intentionally with his sneaky ass. BUT he had the audacity to interrupt a cameraman asking Keith Sweat about the King of R&B debate. Keith barely had the chance to answer before lil Jac-ki-ki popped up out of nowhere adding his two sense saying he was the King of R&B for the 16-25 age crowd. BOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY PLEASE! YOU JUST CAME OUT! Luckily Uncle Keith didn’t sweat it (did ya catch that?) and said he was the King of getting the bag. Lil Jacq-ki-ki need to respect his elders in the music game, sit back, and try to sell out an arena or something.
I feel like, if you are good at something, then let someone else give you a reigning title. I don’t recall hearing Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass bickering about who was better during their time. OR Tyrese and Usher. If you are the best at your craft during a certain period of time, stay humble, at least until you win a Grammy or something.
I’ll say it again, Jacquees needs to sit down somewhere and respect the game AND this new generation of artists need to stop overusing the term “King.” You got Tekashi69 saying he’s the “king” of New York. I’m no big New York fan but i’m pretty sure Jay-Z wouldn’t pass that torch to him.
Let’s just pray that Jacquees humbles himself and retracts his statement.
Wale has been on a roll with dropping these EPs (extended play) lately. In Mid March, he dropped the EP It’s Complicated that had 4 songs on it, including “Black Bonnie” featuring Jacquees, which I absolutely LOVE, it’s more slow melody EP. Then yesterday he dropped Self Promotion., which is more hip hop based with a splash of slow melody. Not only did he release these two EPs two months apart but he just released a whole album last April, Shine. I guess he figured, he gotta stay relevant and by that, he’s dropping back to back EPs.
I respect that he’s independent and that sound is different than other artists to me. There “may” be artists who have his same flow but I believe he is the first to do so with poetic words. It’s Wale’s delivery that makes his music different and as a artist/rapper, he can express his feelings in a poetic flow without sounding like a punk lol.
What are your thoughts about Wale dropping these back to EPs?
On Saturday, Childish Gambino, also known as Donald Glover for his government name that he uses for acting purposes, dropped a song and video titled “This Is America” and let me tell ya….it was needed.
He starts off the video, topless, dancing then BOOM, he shoots a guy with a pillow case covered over his head, in the head. But the way he shoots him is in the stance with one leg stretched in an angle and the other bent slightly. After researching, that stance that he shot the guy in, was part of a Jim Crow caricature dance. Jim Crow is the practice of segregating black people. With him doing that stance, he wants to show that Jim Crow is still I a thing in America, hence “This Is America” title; the lyrics are “Don’t Catching You Slippin Up.”
He goes on doing a bunch of trendy dances, with students dressed in uniforms. The dancing was going on in front of us but did you pat attention to the craziness happening behind the dancing? NOPE, that was the point. Dancing could be used as a distraction in America to distract us from what’s really going on. That could be social media in a sense too.
Next scene is a black choir singing, Gambino comes out and shoots them, hinting at the 2015 Charleston Church shooting. Self explanatory message.
You see a burning car and a police car with sirens on, people around, and a person on a horse
Gambino continues to dance again with the school kids but in the background, You see a burning car and a police car with sirens on, people around, and a person on a horse. He lifts his hand up acting as if his hand is a gun, then everyone disappears, he lights a blunt. Then the guy he shot with the pillow case over his head, is playing the guitar. Gambino then hops on a car, one of many that are portrayed in the video, and dances until the video goes black. As the video is zooming out, you see SZA sitting on the car. After the video goes black, he is seen running fast because there are people chasing him, then the video ends.
Every time I watched this video, I saw something new. How I perceived this video is this, Americans shoots and kills innocent people, but distracts us from some of those stories by people dancing or new trends on social media. Overall, I like the video, Childish Gambino is good for creating music that makes us sit back and listen.
What are your thoughts?? Comment them and check out the video below!
Coachella was the talk of social media this past weekend ESPECIALLY Beyonce. She stole the show for the WHOLE WEEKEND, with her HBCU band, her reunion with Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams from Destinys Child and bringing her sister Solange on stage to kill it with her. Beyonce has the whole Beehive wanting to pledge Beta Delta Kappa, which is the sweatshirt she wore in the second picture. Fans drew the conclusion that Beyonce was a sorority and they wanted to pledge. The letters B-A-K were on her sweatshirt and it could mean B-Beyonce, A-symbolizing Delta, but could also be related to the Roc Nation sign, and the K-for Knowles.
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*the above images are from Beyonce’s instagram*
Our fav Cardi B performed “Best Life” with Chance the Rapper, “She Bad” with YG, “Bartier Cardi” with 21 Savage, “Ring” with Kehlani and even “No Limit” with G Eazy. Her attire with full blown Left Eye vines with the all white and even the ponytails.
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Bae SZA took stage and performed “Drew Barrymore” then she brought out K-Dot (Kendrick Lamar) for “Doves in the Wind” “All the Stars”.
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Migos even took the stage and performed some of their old hits like “Fight Night”
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Of course there were more performance, but these were just the highlights. Make sure you check out my next post about the Coachella Fashion looks over the weekend.
Today is the late Marvin Gaye‘s birthday. Coincidentally he died a day before his birthday, in 1984.
He’s had so many hits that of course his songs were sample by the following artists:
Kanye West- “Spaceships”, College Dropout album sampled from “Distant Lover”
Robin Thicke, T.I. & Pharrell- “Blurred Lines”, sampled from “Got To Give It Up”
The Jackson- “Shake Your Body”, Sampled from “Got To Give It Up”
Ja Rule & Ashanti- “Mesmerized”, Sampled from “Stop Look, Listen”
Smilez & Superstar- “Tell Me”, Sampled from “Stop, Look, Listen”
Method Man & Mary J Blige- “All I Need”, sampled from “All I Need To Get By”
Chris Brown- “Back To Sleep”, sampled from “Sexual Healing”
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Thats just to name a few artists who sampled the GOAT music. He was Inducted in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and Received a star on the Hollywood Hall of Fame in 1990.
I know I wasn’t even thought of when his music was released but I have an old soul and appreciate older music!
Danii Gold 