Jazmine Sullivan’s “Heaux Tales” : Double Standards & Accountability

Jazmine Sullivan is a talented soul that is often overlooked because she doesn’t put out music as often…until now. She released her fourth album on Friday January 8 and it was everything–from honest to controversal to acceptance.

The album title is exactly what the songs are about, hoe tales & hoes escapades. The skits are the best parts of the album. Jazmine starts the song off with an intro of a night not memorable–drinking too much and going home with a random guy. It goes into woman explaining that men can’t handle women who own up to their shit and that women who do have the same reckless behavior as them. The perfect transition was “Pick Up Your Feelings.” Men seem to feel a kind of way when you “pull a you on you,” meaning you pulled a move that they normally would do, but you pull their move on them. Women have been taking back the control, men aren’t the only ones who can be “hoes” and have sex with whomever they want.

The next tale/skit was from singer Ari Lennox who bowed down to a man because he had good dick. She was willing to submit and accept unacceptable behavior all because he “put it down” in the bedroom; which transitions into the next song “Put It Down”. The record explains that you’ll do anything for a man because it has good dick, from giving him money to paying his rent, to tricking off on him period. Jazmine brought our good sis Ari in for “On it.” It’s about sitting on it and spitting on “it;” I’ll let y’all figure out what IT is, but the track was the BEST one on the album.

Another interesting tale/ skit was addressed and that was tricking; women tricking to get what they want even from their husband or a guy they are just having sex with. That song transitions into “Pricetags.”

“Rashida’s Tale” leads into a beautiful transition to “Lost Ones” which is about losing someone you loved and it being your fault. You want the individual back but you know it’s a lose cause.

Everyone can relate to “The Other Side”— working hard, never getting a break and wanting to be on the other side, the side of financial freedom. That may entail meeting a millionaire or a rapper who can buy you a booty, diamonds, cars, etc, but overall just wanting to live a life free of worrying about money.

The last track featuring H.E.R. titled “Girl Like Me” is about wanting to be enough for a man and hope that he doesn’t cheat. Instead, men cheat with hoes and in the end, the hoes be winning. Knowing that, it makes women want to turn into a “hoe” and leave their good girl behavior in the past, because their good girl ways doesn’t get them anywhere but cheated on.

Our sis Jazmine did THAT on this album and if she wasn’t on people’s radar before, she is now.

What did y’all think of the relatable album?

Happy Birthday Teyana Taylor: Here’s Some TT Appreciation

Happy 30th birthday to the talented, sexy, entrepreneur, successful, director, producer, dancer, artist Teyana Taylor.

Sis is the shit and beyond and very much underappreciated. Recently, Spotify released their year end wrap up of analytics for artists and for us regular folks, the top artists we’ve listened to all year. Here’s Teyana’s below:

Teyana Taylor Is Amazed by Her Spotify Wrapped 2020 Statistics; Singer  Announces Retirement by Leaving a Heartfelt Note for Fans - Report Door
reportdoor.com

Around this time, the Grammy nominations were announced and Teyana was not nominated….at all. Now let’s check the facts–According to Billboard “Album debuts at No. 6 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 8 on the all-genre Billboard 200.” Her single “Wake Up Love” landed at #14 on the billboard charts; along with other non-singles “Boomin” featuring Missy and Future peaked at 21 on the charts, and “Morning” featuring Kehlani at number 15 on the charts. Her first week sales were 32,000.

As far as the Grammy nominations go; Chloe x Halle were nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best Progressive album–they’re first week sales were 25,000.

New artist Giveon released an EP titled Take Time andddddd he was nominated for Best R&B Album, but not Teyana who actually released an album.

Dont get me wrong, I liked Giveon’s EP and Chloe x Halle’s album but i feel as if Teyana should have been nominated for Best R&B Album.

Let’s talk about her directing abilities. She’s directed all the videos from her current album including “We Got Love,” “Made It,” “Bare Wit Me,” “Wake Up Love,” “Still,” “1800-One-Night,” “Concrete,” and “Lose Each Other.” WHO do you know would do all that WHILE pregnant??

bare wit me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs | Tumgir

With all these accomplishments and accolades, sis has decided to retire from music. She posted a message on her Instagram on Dec 4 that she felt underappreciated as an artist and was not getting much support from the machine aka her label.

A few days later she confirmed that her decision had nothing to do with not being nominated for a Grammy but more so directed towards her label. She explains that she puts in 110% and they only match 10% of that, which make sense because she is directing all her videos and her first week sales could’ve been better. If you are a TT fan, then you’ll follow her and her music but if you aren’t, having a supportive label behind you will help with gaining more fans and sales.

All I’m saying is–let TT go Def Jam! Sis can be successful without the machine, especially with her other talents like directing, dancing and acting.

Anywho, Happy Birthday TT. May you enjoy 30 years on this earth and finding peace of mind during your retirement.

featured image: billboard.com

Donell Jones is Back With a New Single “Karma (Payback)”

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

To give it a listen, click here > https://www.donelljonesmusic.com/

If you missed my full interview with the talented R&B singer, check it out here on my podcast, The Gold Spot Podcast or the video on YouTube.

Exclusive Donell Jones Interview on The Gold Spot Podcast

 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.

Here’s the video version of our interview:

The audio version of the episode is available:

Anchor: https://anchor.fm/s/2774bf68/podcast/rss

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Jn2LGOzc5VmjcwJwkeGMF

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gold-spot-podcast/id1528615560?uo=4

Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8yNzc0YmY2OC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

Kehlani “It Was Good Until It Wasn’t” Album Review

Kehlani dropped her 3rd album It Was Good Until It Wasn’t and per usual, she didn’t disappoint. From features with Jhene Aiko and Lucky Daye to her dope interludes and outro.

Kehlani is one of those artists who isn’t 100% mainstream but you know who she is. She hasn’t had a top 10 or 20 song on the charts but she’s still respected. Yes, she’s been brought up in the media mainly for her relationships with Kyrie Irving, then PARTNEXTDOOR, and as recently as YG. But don’t let her relationships overshadow her great music, if anything let them be motivation for you to listen to her music and find out some tea on why the relationships didn’t last.

Light Bulb GIFs | Tenor

Anywho, the titles of the song are self-explanatory. “Toxic” is about being in a toxic relationship or situationship; “Change Your Life” is about changing a man or woman’s (because Kehlani is sexually fluent) life and uplifting them and making things more positive for them.

Can we talk about the skit “Belong to the Streets” and how it goes into “Everybody Business?” It’s plain and simple; people will talk crazy about you without even knowing the whole situation in which they are talking about. Prime example, her past relationships and people saying she cheated on Kyrie with PARTY. “I Hate The Club” is about hating the club but wanting to go because you want to see someone you’re interested in. Every other song is straightforward. What was special about this album was her “Outro” freestyle song, which is by her friend and artist Lexii Alijai who passed away suddenly earlier this year. She was also on Kehlani’s 2015 mixtape You Should Be Here.

Kehlani and Lexii Alijai - May 2017 | Kehlani, Kehlani parrish ...

For those who aren’t fans of Kehlani, can you give her a chance before judging her by her past relationships? She may be a toxic Taurus but she makes GOOD music and deserves some credit that she doesn’t receive.

If you listened to the album, what are your thoughts?

New Music Friday 4/17: Da Baby, DVSN, The Dream, Kelly Rowland, 21 Savage featuring Summer

This past Friday was packed with new music. I guess these artists decided to release some anticipated music for us during this quarantine. 

Da Baby- Blame It on Baby

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Da Baby released his 3rd album Blame It On Baby, with some nice features such as Roddy Rich, Quavo, A Boogie, Meg Thee Stallion and Ashanti. He’s known for having the same sound and flow but he switched it up some on this album.

The Dream – Sextape 4

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This is his 7th album and he is usually lowkey with his drops these days. He only has one feature on this album, which is Jhene Aiko; how could you resist putting her on an album. If you’re already a Dream fan, then you’;ll easily vibe to this but if you’re a distant fan, it’ll take you longer to get into this album.

Dvsn- A Muse in her Feelings

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They dropped their 3rd album and per the norm, it has a sexy sultry sound. They can’t do wrong honestly, especially with the features they have on the album like PARTYNEXTDOOR, Jessie Reyez and the lovely Snoh Aalegra. This, to me, is considered a full album; it has 16 songs, an array of features and a little kick to it.

Kelly Rowland- “Coffee”

Kelly Rowland Returns with New Single 'Coffee' | Rap-Up

Kelly has popped back on the scene with this sexy single “Coffee” which coincidentally mimics her poppin melanin. The cover art is dope and hopefully we’ll be getting an album from her by the end of the year. She’s been dropping singles for the past two years but her last album was Talk A Good Game in 2013. Come on Kelly, we waiting for an album!!

21 Savage featuring Summer Walker- “Secret”

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This was a different collaboration but needed. This pair decided to sample Xscape’s “Little Secret” and it doesn’t sound bad. Honestly, it’s starting to become a trend for Summer to sample 90’s hit like “Come Thru” featuring Usher, which was sampled from his song “You Make Me Wanna.” Another is “Summer Reign”, which was Rick Ross song she was featured on, that sampled “Rain” by SWV. Summer isn’t making it sound bad, but let’s hope it doesn’t become her “thing”. Granted, she has more non-sampled songs than sampled songs so let’s keep it at that.

What did you think of these drops over the weekend? Comment below and let me know!

Not-So Mainstream Artists Who We Should Cherish

It may sound weird, but I love the artists that aren’t mainstream. Often at times, when artists become mainstream, they create music that tailors towards the radio. Producers, songwriters, writers, etc know how to create a song strictly tailored towards the radio. You do have some artists that are so hot, that when they drop a single that isn’t a radio song, it doesn’t matter because they have such a huge following, that no matter what they produce and drop as a single, people are going to gravitate towards it, such as Meg Thee Stallion’s B.I.T.CH record. CLEARLY, that song isn’t meant to be on the radio but since it got so much attention on social media, Meg and her team edited it down to be radio-friendly.

BUT, there are artists who make poppin music, who’s poppin on Apple Music, YouTube, Instagram, etc but their music doesn’t get much play on the radio; those are the artists to cherish and watch out for. These artists are the ones who make that unique music, that different shit, that “I wanna clean the house, write in my journal, and reflect” music. Here’s a list of those dope artists:

 

Xavier Omar

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Okayplayer.com

He’s been making some dope music  for a while now. His biggest hits on Apple Music are “Afraid”, “Runnin’ Round”, and “Blind Man”. I love his sound and he’s one of the artists that you want to keep near and dear to you without them being mainstreamed and their sounding changing for radio standards.

Snoh Aalegra

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exclaim.ca

 

Ms. Aalegra is getting noticed out here. She does have one song on an r&b station but she’s not 100% mainstream. Snoh is Swedish and she crossed over to American music. Her popular songs are “Woah” and “I Want You Around” which is on the radio. She’s becoming more noticed and more than likely will become full mainstream by the end of the year.

Kiana Lede

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Hypebae.com

This lady has been singing covers on YouTube for years now; (that’s how she got my attention.) Some of her most viewed covers was “Come and See Me” mixed with “Location”, “Hotline Bling” and “White Iverson.” She just made her way into mainstream with her single “Ex”. Her latest song is “Forfeit” but it’s not on the radio. Kiana should be recognized because she’s been working her ass off, making herself noticeable for years now. GO KIANA!

Alina Baraz

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medium.com

Alina Alina. She’s a Ukrainian artist born in the US and she makes that sensual sexy music. She’s been lowkey on the scene since 2015. Some of her best hits are “Electric” featuring Khalid, “Fantasy”, and “Floating” featuring Khalid again. She has an album coming out this year in which she’s released music from it. Her music hasn’t made its way to a radio in my city (St. Louis) but she’s an artist who’s going to go far even if her music doesn’t make it to the radio.

Nao

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Dazed.com

Nao is another great artist who’s sound is just as melodic as the above artists. Her popular songs  include “Another Lifetime”, “Bad Blood”, and “Orbit”. She hasn’t released any new music since her last album Saturn. 🗣WHERE YOU AT NAO??

Victoria Monet

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Hawtcelebs.com

Victoria has been recognizably making music for 5 years but her music has been generating in Apple Music playlists and more streaming sites for some time now. Her single “Ass Like That” is personally one of my favs. Another one of her reason singles is “Moment”.
Sometimes when you hear the same artists on the radio, you get over them real quick and you want to listen to something different. Try listening to these artists and if you’re already to listening to them, keep it up and support them.

Comment your favorite song by these artists if you’re already fans.