Category: Hip Hop

Case’s classic R&B record Open Letter is getting a new vinyl variant. The third studio album from Case will be released in a 2LP format, with one version in classic black vinyl and another in a limited edition color variant. Both versions of the LP are available for preorder now.

Released 25 years ago, Open Letter is presented as if Case is speaking directly to his partner through letters. The album is noted for its mix of 2000s R&B, soul, and hip-hop influences, and was bolstered by singles “Missing You” and “Not Your Friend.” “Missing You” ultimately peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the outlet’s Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart upon its release. The track earned Case a nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 2002 Grammy Awards, and also had a memorable placement in the Eddie Murphy movie, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.

After its release, Open Letter reached number five on the Billboard 200—Case’s highest position ever—and has since been certified gold. The album remains a standout in Case’s discography; after the debut of Open Letter, the star didn’t release another album for eight years. “Right after that, I moved to Atlanta in October and I just stopped doing it. I mean, it was me doing what my heart told me to do,” Case reflected later to YouKnowIGotSoul.com. The pull to music was too hard to resist, however, and he returned to recording with 2009’s The Rose Experience.

“Every time I write a song, it’s either about something I am going through, have gone through or somebody really close to me has gone through. For me, inspiration is everywhere. I just try to draw from real life and put some substance into the music,” Case said of his creative process in a 2015 interview with Vibe. “Those are things that you need to address and sing about.”

Buy Case’s Open Letter here.

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With hits like “We Belong Together” and “Shake It Off,” The Emancipation of Mimi, released in 2005, marked Mariah Carey’s return to her chart-topping highs of the 90s. The 2008 follow-up, E=MC2, is – for the most part – the party she threw to celebrate the win.

E=MC2 is a largely uptempo album loaded with beats that are ready-made for head-nodding, finger-snapping, and two-steppin’ on the dancefloor. Even some of the ballads – such as hood fairytale “Love Story” – have a deep bass thump. Mariah accomplished this sound by re-teaming with longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri, who oversaw Emancipation’s biggest cuts, as well as working with other producers known for innovative R&B.

Danja, a Timbaland protégé, helms the opening cut “Migrate,” featuring autotune virtuoso T-Pain. The tune comes off as if Mariah, singing in her whistle tones, is hopping from club to club, following the lead of a beatboxing robot pied piper.

Atlanta’s DJ Toomp, known for his work with rapper T.I., contributes the airy “I’ll Be Loving U Long Time.” The track is built around a snatch of El DeBarge’s “Stay With Me,” which was also used on The Notorious B.I.G.’s 1995 smash “One More Chance (Remix).” (Mariah has used familiar hip-hop samples throughout her career. The 1993 smash “Dreamlover” borrows the same loop from The Emotions’ “Blind Alley” that’s used by old-school rapper Big Daddy Kane on his 1988 hit “Ain’t No Half-Steppin’.”)

Lyrically, Mariah is more conversational and playful than ever before, shouting out B.I.G. and 2Pac on the house-y “I’m That Chick,” complaining about a dude who “brings the drama [with] six baby-mamas” on the reggae-tinged “Cruise Control,” and referencing YouTube – then just three years old – and talk show host Wendy Williams on the springy, come-on “Touch My Body.” (The song, which was E=MC2’s first single, became Mariah’s 18th No.1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.)

But E=MC2 isn’t all fun times. It also deals with Mariah’s lingering family issues. On the rhythmic elegy “Bye Bye,” the biracial crooner reconciles with her Black father after years of estrangement (“I’m glad we talked through all them grown-folk things [that] separation brings”). But sadly, they reconnect only shortly before his death from cancer in 2002. She regrets that he wasn’t able to witness how she rebounded from the commercial disappointment of her Glitter film and soundtrack: “You never got to see me back at number one.”

The closing song, “I Wish You Well,” which surges with gospel fervor, addresses the more complicated relationship that Mariah has with her brother and sister, both of whom have sold stories about her to the tabloids. She makes peace with the fact that she’ll likely never be able to trust them enough to have them in her life. “I weep for what I dreamed we all could be,” she sings with longing.

These last two cuts make E=MC2 both a celebration of the joys of success and a testament to the wounds it can never heal. For Mariah, Emancipation was not an endpoint, but the beginning of an emotional open road.

Shop Mariah Carey’s E=MC2 here.

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Motown Records had a slogan, “The Sound of Young America,” that it had represented well for the 1960s. But by the end of the decade the company was in transition. Among its biggest stars, Diana Ross was ready to leave The Supremes; Stevie Wonder was growing up; Marvin Gaye and The Temptations traded balladeering for philosophical fare. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was dead, free love was aching to break through, and founder Berry Gordy was ready to move his empire out of Detroit to Hollywood. Could anyone make Motown feel hopeful in tumultuous times?

Listen to the Michael: The Birth of a Superstar playlist now.

Gordy had his answer in the form of five brothers from Gary, Indiana. The Jackson 5 — Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael — were gifted performers who infused Motown with a new surge of energy. The J5 took the traditions of doo-wop and rhythm and blues and added a youthful exuberance not seen since the days of Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers. Motown added pop magic from their stable of songwriters and producers, as well as a marketing muscle that earned the group visibility enjoyed by so few Black performers: sold-out world tours, live-action and animated television appearances, and a tidal wave of merchandise from posters to coloring books.

As The Jacksons the group continued to captivate the world and, decades later, there’s still a magic to those early Jackson 5 recordings. Here are 15 of our favorites from the group, including key solo tracks from young frontman Michael Jackson, who grew up to rank at the top of the world’s best-known and best-selling entertainers.

The Jackson 5, “I Want You Back” (1969)

Their debut Motown single is one of the best first records by any group, one of the most energetic songs about the pain of a breakup and surely the most high-spirited one sung by an 11-year-old. Recorded in Los Angeles, where Gordy was prepping the whole Motown organization to relocate, “I Want You Back” is pure pop bliss from the opening piano glissando — the label’s essence boiled down into three minutes of sound. A month into 1970, it was the No. 1 single in America.

The Jackson 5, “ABC” (1970)

Deke Richards, part of “The Corporation” writing and production team that created “I Want You Back,” “ABC” and many more, recalled a crucial lesson from legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier, who once played him a medley of hits in a rehearsal room. “He showed me that all the chords were similar, and there was no shame in that,” Richards once said. “It kept the feeling going. I never forgot that.” Writing “ABC” may have been easy as… well, you know, but it’s even easier to get down to — one of Motown’s greatest party-starters of the ’70s.

The Jackson 5, “The Love You Save” (1970)

Just how big were The Jackson 5 in 1970? “ABC,” their second chart-topping single, knocked The Beatles’ “Let It Be” out of the top spot in America, and “The Love You Save” ended the two-week run of The Fab Four’s “The Long and Winding Road” at No. 1. All was forgiven: a grown-up Michael would record two hit singles with the group’s Paul McCartney: “The Girl is Mine” and “Say Say Say.”

The Jackson 5, “I’ll Be There” (1970)

With “I’ll Be There,” a tender ballad crafted to perfection by Berry Gordy, producer Hal Davis, Willie Hutch and arranger Bob West, The Jackson 5 did something no group had done before or has done since: their first four singles all hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The brothers’ tender vocals rarely sounded better and Suzee Ikeda, Davis’s creative assistant who worked closely with The Jackson 5, credits Michael’s tireless work ethic. “Michael had good instincts, even at that age,” she later said. “Most artists had cassettes to learn a song, but [he] didn’t use them.”

The Jackson 5, “Who’s Lovin’ You” (1969)

It is one of the great B-sides, twice: in its original form as the back of The Miracles’ 1960 breakthrough “Shop Around,” the first single from a Motown label to sell more than a million copies, and the J5’s “I Want You Back,” where Michael yearned to make you forget the original. After MJ’s heart-stopping rendition during an early appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, all of America felt it was his song.

The Jackson 5, “Mama’s Pearl” (1971)

At a respectable #2 peak, this was the first Jackson 5 single on Motown to miss the top of the pop charts. “Mama’s Pearl” features more great MJ vocals and great backing vocals from the brothers, but it could have been one of the strangest numbers in their discography had it been released in its original demo form: “Guess Who’s Making Whoopee (with Your Girlfriend).” (That version was finally released on a collection of rarities in 2012.)

The Jackson 5, “Never Can Say Goodbye” (1971)

Motown’s marketing staff worried that “Never Can Say Goodbye,” another ballad like “I’ll Be There,” was too mature for The Jackson 5; Suzee Ikeda recalled challenging Michael to define “anguish,” one of the more surprising words in the lyrics. Were audiences put off, though? No, no, no: the track became their fifth No. 1 hit on the R&B charts, as well as something of a soul staple, covered by Isaac Hayes, Gloria Gaynor and more.

The Jackson 5, “Maybe Tomorrow” (1971)

“Maybe Tomorrow” was the title track of the group’s fifth album in three years and was a more modest chart success than many of its predecessors. But what a sound. Arranged by Gene Page, who was cutting tracks for Motown out west and whose credits would later add the hits of Barry White and Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom,” “Maybe Tomorrow” supports not only the impassioned vocals of Michael, Jermaine and their brothers, but a mix of strings, horns and even sitar for a sonic experience like little else in the J5 discography.

Michael Jackson, “Got to Be There” (1971)

Legend has it that Michael was only encouraged to record as a solo artist after The Osmonds, whose hit, “One Bad Apple,” was a straight J5 cop, spun brother Donny off into a hitmaker. In retrospect, though, a group member that talented was an easy choice to give some spotlight of his own, and “Got to Be There” met the moment with its gentle, golden-sunlight arrangement and another winning vocal from the most talented kid on the pop scene.

Michael Jackson, “I Wanna Be Where You Are” (1972)

Michael’s third solo single (following a cover of Bobby Day’s “Rockin’ Robin’”) missed the Top 10 of the pop charts. Audiences didn’t know what they were missing: a fiery, blissful love song given wings by a dazzling arrangement and some serious high notes in the chorus. Written by Arthur “T-Boy” Ross (Diana’s brother) and Leon Ware, the song earned a second wind when covered by Marvin Gaye on his striking 1976 album I Want You.

Michael Jackson, “Ben” (1972)

Oh, rats!! No one could have predicted that Ben, a sequel to the 1971 horror film Willard, would have benefitted from a mellow ballad about the on-screen love between a lonely boy and the oversized rat he befriends. And yet, Michael’s rendition sold the song all the way to the top of the charts — his very first solo No. 1 single — as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

The Jackson 5, “Dancing Machine” (1973/1974)

Even the best boy bands go through thick and thin on the charts. The Jackson 5 were no exception: Michael’s voice was starting to change, and the group wanted more creative control over their music. But “Dancing Machine,” the group’s last Top 10 pop hit (and the No. 5 song for all of 1974, per Billboard) was impossible to deny. Originally featured at the end of their eighth album Get It Together in 1973, an edited version of the tune was the title track of their next LP the following year. Michael’s stop-start dance routine to the song, now known as “the robot,”
stunned audiences hard when he debuted the move on Soul Train.

The Jackson 5, “Buttercup” (1974)

The Jackson 5 were so prolific that, even after releasing 10 albums of studio material for Motown between 1969 and 1975, and another seven across their solo releases, they had recorded more than a half-dozen albums’ worth of additional material. I Want You Back! Unreleased Masters, issued months after Michael’s passing at the age of 50 in 2009, featured the 1974 highlight “Buttercup,” a gentle roller-skating jam written and produced by Stevie Wonder. That same year, Stevie featured the J5 on his No. 1 smash “You Haven’t Done Nothin’.”

The Jackson 5, “Forever Came Today” (1975)

Recorded at the tail end of The Jackson 5’s tenure with Motown, “Forever Came Today,” a cover of a hit by Diana Ross and The Supremes and written by the Holland-Dozier-Holland team, who’d left Motown before The Jackson 5 arrived (what could have been!), was at once a nod to the past and a look toward the future. The track topped an early incarnation of Billboard’s dance charts as disco started to take hold, a foreshadowing of the brothers’ success for the rest of the decade as dance music masters.

Michael Jackson, “One Day in Your Life” (1975)

Michael’s last solo albums for Motown were virtually ignored by radio, with the once-young singer — and his audience — adjusting to changes in his voice and appearance. By the end of the ’70s, he’d proven his mettle as a grown-up star with Off the Wall, an album that was so popular that Motown started re-releasing old material. “One Day in Your Life,” a moving lost-love ballad that sounded most like the adult Michael, was reissued in 1981 and topped the charts in England a year before the King of Pop ascended to the throne with Thriller.

Shop The Jackson 5’s music on vinyl and CD now.

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“Credit will have to be given to such pioneers as Don Robey out of Houston, Texas, starting the ball rolling with the Blind Boys of Mississippi. Peacock Records is one of the largest recording companies in the country today, owned by a Black man,” Brother Sylvester Henderson, a popular gospel disc jockey, producer, and promoter, proclaimed in a 1970 column in the Soul newspaper. Peacock Records was, by then, an institution, one that listeners, radio announcers, and retailers alike depended on for the best in gospel, blues, and soul recordings.

Robey began Peacock Records in 1949 and for the next thirty years, recorded artists that would shape the global trajectory of popular music, beginning, most directly with Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog,” one of the foundational songs in rock and roll history. Robey helped shift the public’s perceptions of R&B music, which people “felt to be degrading…low, and not to be heard by respectable people. People believed that for years,” he told Billboard.

Listen to the best gospel from Peacock Records now.

While the label’s R&B and blues roster boasted Memphis Slim, Clarence “Gatemouth” Carter, Bobby “Blue” Bland, O.V. Wright, and Billy Davis & The Legends (prior to The Fifth Dimension), Robey developed a sprawling gospel division that eventually became known as Songbird, getting in on the ground floor of the careers of popular gospel acts like The Mighty Clouds of Joy, The Williams Brothers, The Jackson Southernaires, The O’Neil Twins, and Rev. Cleophus Robinson. As gospel evolved, Peacock didn’t limit itself to traditional gospel. They helped some of their artists like Tessie Hill, Josh Albert Hailey, and Liz Dargan and the Gospelettes cultivate a contemporary edge.

Robey sold the label to ABC-Dunhill Records in 1973, turning over 2,700 composition copyrights, and the entirety of the master recording catalog which included over 2,000 unreleased recordings. In 1998, the Peacock Gospel Classics series made some of the gospel division’s output available digitally for the first time. Here are a few highlights to begin with.

Five Blind Boys of Mississippi – Our Father

The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi had only recorded a few sides prior to joining the Peacock roster in 1950, but they struck gold at their first session with “Our Father,” which took them all the way to #10 on the R&B charts in January of 1951, selling an estimated half a million copies. With lead vocalists Archie Brownlee and Rev. Percell Perkins, the group became stars in the gospel world. Gospel historian Anthony Heilbut wrote that Brownlee would “demolish huge auditoriums with the bluesiest version of the Lord’s Prayer ever recorded.”

The artists that they influenced would make their sound an essential ingredient in popular music. Ray Charles’ bandmate and musician, Renald Richard, said, “[Ray] used to talk all the time about Archie Brownlee, how much he liked him. Then he started to sound like him, turning his notes, playing with them to work the audience into a frenzy!” The group’s last recording with Peacock, My Desire, earned a Grammy nomination in 1974. They continued to tour internationally into the 1990s.

Inez Andrews – Lord Don’t Move the Mountain

From the moment her 1958 recording of “Mary Don’t You Weep” with The Caravans hit the airwaves, Inez Andrews was believed to be the next big thing in gospel music, a singer/songwriter with a multi-octave range. She signed with Peacock in 1964 with her group The Andrewettes, but by 1967 was a solo act.

Her recording of Doris Akers’ “Lord Don’t Move the Mountain ” cracked the Top 50 of the R&B chart in 1973 and was the #2 gospel album on Ebony’s music poll that year just behind Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace (which contained Andrews’ arrangement of “Mary, Don’t You Weep”). Vogue wrote, “She erupts from an initial, polite, Sunday-best gentility into a screaming, ranting revivalist…recommended for anyone who loves great singing.” Andrews stayed with Peacock until 1978, earning a Grammy nomination for 1976’s War on Sin.

Dixie Hummingbirds – Loves Me Like a Rock

By the time the Dixie Hummingbirds hit the #2 spot on the pop charts in 1973 joining Paul Simon on his single, “Loves Me Like a Rock,” the group had been singing together for forty-five years. They signed with Peacock in 1952, just three years into its existence, and remained with the label until 1978. Credited as inspirations for R&B legends Jackie Wilson, James Brown, and the Temptations, the Hummingbirds were one of the few groups who managed to take gospel into unconventional venues like Cafe Society and the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals without alienating their gospel base. Lead singer Ira Tucker told Blues & Soul, “Don Robey spent 25 years trying to persuade us to get into R&B. But everybody in the group chose to make financial sacrifices to stay in gospel.” The group earned a Grammy Award for their recording of “Loves Me Like a Rock” sans Simon in 1973.

Carl Bean and Universal Love – Something for Nothing

Carl Bean came to Peacock with a wealth of experience with gospel heavyweights under his belt: he was in Bishop William Morris O’Neil’s choir at Harlem’s Christian Tabernacle, recorded with Calvin White’s Gospel Wonders on their 1965 hit “Long As I’ve Got Jesus,” as well as with the Gospel Chimes at Atlantic Records and toured with Alex Bradford. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 70s and with O’Neil’s choir director Alahaundra Romeo and Craig Pearson formed Universal Love. The group’s only Peacock album, All We Need is Love, took a turn towards the progressive side with a set of message songs aimed at the general market that failed to reach the masses. Young, however, remembered Bean when he became an executive at Motown and facilitated Bean’s recording of the gay disco anthem, “I Was Born This Way,” which inspired Lady Gaga’s hit of the same name.

Listen to the best gospel from Peacock Records now.

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Ebony Riley has launched the pre-order for her debut album Beautiful Tragedy, unveiling the project’s official artwork and sharing a new track, “Through The Motions (Interlude).” The rollout also includes a black-and-white trailer introducing the themes and imagery behind the album.

The newly revealed artwork shows Riley seated atop a pile of garments, referencing her background in fashion while signaling a shift toward her work as a recording artist. The image connects her earlier career with her current focus on music, drawing a line between those two chapters. Fans who pre-order the album receive immediate access to “Through The Motions (Interlude),” a short piece built around a voicemail from a loved one that offers an early look at the project’s tone.

Riley also released an accompanying trailer for Beautiful Tragedy. The visual follows her running before stopping and embracing a young girl watching archival footage of Riley on a television. The clips include moments from her childhood, early performances, and training, presenting a narrative that reflects the personal experiences behind the album. The sequence concludes with the album title, setting the framework for the project’s story.

The announcement follows a period of momentum for the Detroit-born singer. Her 2025 single “Only You” reached No. 15 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart. She continued into 2026 with “HONEST,” produced by Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins. Before focusing fully on music, Riley built a career in modeling, appearing in campaigns for major fashion houses.

Listen to Ebony Riley’s “Through The Motions (Interlude)” here.

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With hits like “Let’s Stay Together” and “I’m Still In Love With You,” Al Green had established himself as a legend, scoring pop hits in the early 70s with his Memphis-soaked brand of soul. Green invoked an undeniable spirituality into the most sensual music, something that became increasingly noticeable when he had a conversion experience after a performance at Disneyland in 1973 and became what he described as a “born-again Christian.” He began recording gospel songs on his secular albums through the decade’s end, until he finally decided to leave his pop career to pastor and sing gospel exclusively in 1980.

Critics complained of his first gospel albums for Myrrh Records that the hymns and traditional gospel songs made it challenging for “the non-believing listener to make a one-to-one identification with the singer.” So when his tenure with the label – which had earned him five Grammy Awards – ended in 1984, Green signed with A&M Records, signaling a desire to do things differently. He told Newsweek, “I was interested in becoming an A&M artist. You need to get the word out to as many people as possible. We’ve been trying to open some broader doors for gospel music.” Green’s three albums for A&M, which all earned Grammy Awards, were important projects that helped him strike a balance between the sacred and the secular.

He is the Light (1985)

He is the Light reunited Green with producer Willie Mitchell, with whom he’d recorded the songs that put him in the spotlight in the first place. Green’s last Myrrh album, Trust in God, had seen him returning as a songwriter, penning five of the album’s ten songs, and, likewise, He is the Light showcased five more of Green’s compositions. Mitchell wisely invoked the sound that Green was famous for, most notably on “Power” and “I Feel Like Going On,” heavy with punchy horn lines and searing strings reminiscent of his Hi Records catalog. Green also brought the sauce on his cover of The Soul Stirrers’ Sam Cooke-led classic, “Be With Me Jesus.”

Rolling Stone praised the album, writing “Green and Mitchell…have perfectly recaptured the magical sound of ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ ‘Livin’ For You’ and the like.” Green remained ambivalent when critics felt that He is the Light might lead to a return to pop. “You can’t go back and forth like that,” Green insisted to Rolling Stone. “That’s an unstable-minded person. You pick a thing and stick it out if you think that’s what you’re called to do.”

Listen to Al Green’s He is the Light now.

Soul Survivor (1987)

By 1987, Green clearly was letting his ideas evolve about his direction. He told Billboard that when an A&M executive asked how to describe the new album, he told him, “‘We’re not going to call it gospel, we’re not going to call it Christian, we’re not going to call it secular. We’re going to call it Al Green.’”

The album’s first single, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” marked his first entry on the R&B charts in a decade. He also covered inspirational staples like Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend,” accompanied by Billy Preston, and “He’s Not Heavy, He’s My Brother.” Green said, “That Carole King song is for a higher love. We didn’t try to fabricate and put ‘Lord’ in there because we’re a Christian act. We just sang the song straight like the song is. And it fits perfectly.”

Listen to Al Green’s Soul Survivor now.

I Get Joy (1989)

When “As Long as We’re Together,” the first single from I Get Joy sailed into the Top 30 of Billboard’s Hot Black Singles chart, many couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Mixed by Al B. Sure!, the dance-oriented, radio-ready single was controversial to Green’s gospel base and a shock to R&B lovers who couldn’t fathom that the cut came from his latest gospel effort. Green told Cosmopolitan, “I sang gospel music as a child, then wrote and sang pop songs for ten years before I was born again in 1973. I’ve never known what the dividing lines were and still don’t.”

The album’s most dynamic moment was his cover of “Mighty Cloud of Joy,” popularized by B.J. Thomas in the 70s. He growls, squeals, and tours the terrain of his range with abandon, rendering one of the most inspired vocal performances from his 80s catalog. The gospel was interwoven with three new songs about love. “This album is an extension from gospel to ‘Love and Happiness’ to contemporary gospel and I’m going on up. I’m made spiritual and I’m made physical…it’s time to take it up to a higher elevation. People may not understand… but my ideal is not to satisfy the appetite of the person who’s already saved. I’m reaching out.”

Browse our R&B / Soul / Funk collection featuring limited edition vinyl and CDs here.

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It was more than a simple love song. When Peabo Bryson unabashedly proclaimed “I feel like reaching for the sky/…I’m so inspired/I wanna reach a lil’ higher,” he was offering a message to Black America embedded, like many R&B songs of the time, in a tune about romance. “Reaching For The Sky,” Bryson’s 1977 debut major-label single, spoke to an age of audacious Black achievement.

Set off by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was an era that saw Black people rack up achievements likely beyond the most fanciful imaginings of the Africans who were brought to this continent in chains, as property, to work the land and build the country’s infrastructure from scratch: Former NAACP National Defense Fund lawyer Thurgood Marshall became the first African American to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967; model Beverly Johnson, in 1974, was chosen to be the first Black woman on the cover of American Vogue; and one year before the nation celebrated its 200th birthday, baseball’s Henry “Hank” Aaron, who started playing on Negro teams, broke the record for most home runs in the once-segregated major leagues.

With “Reaching For The Sky,” Bryson offered an inspirational anthem, not just for those whose accomplishments made headlines, but for the everyday Black people who braved entrenched racism in pursuit of opportunities to improve their lives and those of loved ones.

Bryson’s empathetic connection to the plight of other African Americans came to him by way of his humble raising. He spent his youth in a rural Greenville, SC flat with no running hot water. As he once put it, “some people try to put a greater distance between the early part of their lives and the point of success they’ve reached. I grew up a country boy and my grandfather’s farm of 100 acres was the country. I plowed with a mule, picked cotton, and planted everything that grows. I even washed toilets bowls for a living.” Even at a point in which he was gracing the cover of Jet magazine in 1982, Bryson’s down-home roots were evident: “…he enjoys a plate of grits, salmon, and biscuits just as much as he does an eight-course meal featuring filet mignon and Dom Perignon.”

Listen to the best Peabo Bryson songs on Apple Music or Spotify.

Bryson’s identification with the struggles and workaday heroism of ordinary Black people even impacted his early career choices. Despite wide opposition to the Vietnam War from such Black luminaries as the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and boxer Muhammed Ali, Bryson – then an aspiring singer who was lucky enough to avoid the draft – chose to perform for the troops, which comprised a socially disproportionate number of African Americans. The experience irrevocably transformed the singer: “My values changed. Things that I thought were important didn’t seem very important anymore after I saw what was going on over there.”

Bryson didn’t make overt protest music in response to the racial inequities he witnessed and experienced. Instead, he crafted songs that reflect what writer/radio personality Ayana Contreras calls Afro-Optimism, a form of Black expression that is “imbued with buoyant hopes” as a response to “crippling injustice.” Afro-Optimism defines the first phase of Bryson’s career and provides the emotional foundation for his phenomenal crossover success as an all-purpose balladeer, lending his voice to an eye-popping range of pop culture phenomena from animated Disney flicks to the theme for the afternoon soap opera One Life To Live. Bryson can see artistic potential in both challenging social circumstances and the most mainstream-skewing pabulum.

With a force powered by his abiding Southern Baptist faith, Bryson sings in such a way that makes almost anything seem within human reach, whether it’s the social, cultural, and political advancement of Black people or escapist Disney fantasies about whole new worlds. As he belted on 1981’s “Ballad For D.,” a tribute to multi-instrumentalist/crooner Donny Hathaway: “When you wish upon a star/It’s not all in your mind/It’s getting closer.” Bryson’s conviction comes from a belief in what is possible.

Here’s a guide to some of the best of Peabo Bryson’s early songs.

Afro-Optimism Anthems

“Reaching For The Sky” is not the only Peabo Bryson song to reflect the striving post-Civil Rights-era consciousness of many African Americans. Also included on his major-label debut is the soaring “Hold On To The World,” on which he prompts: “Don’t you know…that old universe is calling your name?” Similarly, on the secularly-titled “Love Is Watching You,” from his 1978 album Crosswinds, Bryson makes it clear that his sense of the possible is divinely inspired: “Don’t you know that heaven is watching you?”

He told Blues & Soul in 1979: “I always acknowledge the presence of God in everything I do. After all, that is the source for all the creativity. And He is the only power greater than anything, so I don’t look at other people in awe. I realize that I can do all the things that the Creator has given me the ability to do.”

Love & Heartbreak

Almost all of Peabo Bryson’s songs are rooted in themes of enduring love and dealing with heartbreak when things don’t work out for whatever reason, including – as he sings on the Doobie Brothers-esque “When Will I Learn” – when “it was the right thing at the wrong time.” He promotes emotional openness in pursuit of romance, an approach that’s summed up in the title to one of his biggest early hits: “Let The Feeling Flow.” As Bryson once told Blues & Soul: “I’m not afraid of being vulnerable. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that you’ve loved and lost, that you’ve been hurt, felt pain. The most important thing is that you survive and that’s something to be proud of.”

Bryson is a gentle moralist, concerned with his own conduct throughout the ups and downs of a relationship. He sings on the tender slow jam “Feel The Fire,” once boldly covered by R&B vocalist Stephanie Mills: “And if I should lose your love/For any reason, any reason at all/Then let my record show/I gave you all the love I know.”

Bryson’s forte is heart-to-heart connection, as opposed to private parts bumping under blue lights in the basement. This made him a throwback in the erotically liberated ‘70s. “When I was a teenager, I thought you had to be in love to seriously consider sex,” he once told an interviewer. “That was the way I was brought up and it just stuck.” The tender “Don’t Touch Me” exemplifies Bryson’s ethos and how he was concerned about issues of consent way before the #MeToo era: “If you think I should/Girl, I’m gonna love you/’Til the feeling is right/…And let’s not make love/Until you mean it.”

The Duets

Like a discerning lover, Peabo Bryson wants duets to yield satisfaction for all parties involved. This is likely why his pairings with women vocalists (Regina Belle, Celine Dion) are such a notable part of his canon. His most frequent early mic partner was Roberta Flack, the gifted musician who began exploring her talents at the Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and later refined them at Howard University, where she received a full scholarship and graduated at 19. Flack was known throughout the 70s for her exquisite collabs with Howard classmate Donny Hathaway. Bryson stepped in to stand by Flack’s side after Hathaway’s tragic death.

Flack and Bryson made an ideal pair because of the similarities in their backgrounds and sense of purpose in music. Flack lives by the words of an old Methodist hymn (“Shun not the struggle/’tis God’s gift”) and infuses her music with racial pride: “I think everything you do as a Black person in this country represents a struggle for survival.” Their sweet “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” – an adult contemporary mainstay that hit the pop Top 40 and sold more than a million copies – rises above the saccharine because of the implicit subtext that it’s wondrous for Black folks to be able to focus on love and nothing more.

Another of Bryson’s early duet partners was Natalie Cole, the wild-hearted daughter of showbiz legend Nat King Cole, with whom he did an entire album, We’re The Best Of Friends. Their duets are notable for their tender soulfulness. “This Love Affair,” penned by Cole and her then-husband Marvin Yancy, is a brilliant showcase for Bryson and Cole’s contrasting vocal styles. She opens the song almost conversationally, singing, “This love a-ffair…” Then she pauses for a breath as if coming up with the words on the spot, before she continues, “…of ours…” When it’s Bryson turn on the record, he digs deep and issues a soaring declaration: “This harrrrr-mo-nyyyyy weeeee share is something wonderful.” Bryson and Cole have two different, but complementary, ways of bringing drama and emotional truth to a song.

Another gem from the album is the rhythm-driven “Love Will Find You,” written by Bryson. Cole’s vocals recall both the smoothness of her father and the undeniable gospel-soul influence of Aretha Franklin. When her voice joins with Bryson’s, the effect is inspirational in its sheer power.

For as great as these other duets are, none have the sentimental value of the slow-jam-groove “Here We Go,” which saw Bryson lend his vocals to the first posthumous single by the beloved Minnie Riperton, who died from breast cancer in 1979 at age 31. Although Bryson never met Riperton in person, he was thrilled by the opportunity to work on the song, calling it “one of the greatest honors of my life.” Bryson lends a vitality to the record that makes it nearly impossible to hear it as maudlin. As he and Riperton harmonize about the highs of love and “never coming down,” “Here We Go” becomes nothing less than a toast to one of life’s many joys.

Finger-snappers

Bryson’s first solo single, on the independent Shout Records, was called “Disco Dancer.” But after that, he turned his focus away from music designed to make your body move. “After you’ve been dancing at a disco all night long, you’re not going to go home and continue to play disco music,” he told the Associated Press in 1979. “If you think about it, you don’t want to hear disco in bed.”

As a result, Bryson’s best uptempo joints progress at an easy foot-tappin’, finger-snappin’ pace. “A Fool Already Knows” is a mean shuffle about how “a wise man will never fall in love,” therefore he knows less about life than someone who follows his heart. “Crosswinds” recalls the Philly-steeped soul of Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone,” as Bryson seems to issue an actionable appeal to anyone within earshot: “Love…is calling out your name.”

On other songs, Bryson uses the faster tempo as a way to cut directly to inspirational Afro-Optimistic messages. He sings, on the rhythm-guitar-driven “Go For It,” “Whether I’m your friend or your lover/I want to see you make it to the top somehow.” On “Spread Your Wings” – the closest he comes to making space-funk – he has a verse that offers advice to the young, gifted, and Black: “Born one of the chosen few/Heaven shined her glory/Pay your dues…/Keep your faith/And never be afraid to try.” Then he references his breakthrough hit: “You can reach, reach the sky.”

All of these songs speak directly to the reason Bryson makes music. As he once said, “…people need to hear [my songs] to know that they’re still alive.”

Browse Peabo Bryson’s music on vinyl here.

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When looking at Rihanna’s career trajectory, most people point to her 2005 debut single, “Pon De Replay,” or her 2007 international smash hit “Umbrella,” as her starting point. But it was her second album, A Girl Like Me, that set Robyn Rihanna Fenty’s future in motion.

The dancehall “chune” “Pon De Replay” displayed the Bajan icon’s ability to combine her native musical roots with commercial appeal; but at the start of her career it often left her unjustly pigeonholed by critics. Yet while “Umbrella” found her reaching new heights as a superstar-gone-bad-gal, her previous two albums often went overlooked.

A Girl Like Me started with a radio hit that sampled Soft Cell’s 1981 synth-pop cover of Gloria Jones’ Northern soul hit “Tainted Love.” “SOS” – and its respective “la la la” hook – reached No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Dance Songs chart. This nicely followed the unexpected success of “Pon De Replay,” continuing Rihanna’s genre experimentation.

More than your average 18-year-old

Released on April 10, 2006, A Girl Like Me proved that the Def Jam star and Jay-Z protégé was more than your average 18-year-old. By the time of its release, she’d already adopted the one-name moniker (a true sign of divadom), and she would notch two more Top 10 singles on the back of “SOS.”

The first of these was the Evanescence-inspired “Unfaithful,” a dark piano ballad that starts out with a “story of my life” opener that manifests into a tale of unrequited love penned by Ne-Yo and produced by Stargate. The second, “Break It Off,” was a dancehall hit that recalled the riddims of her debut album, Music Of The Sun, and featured Sean Paul. A Girl Like Me’s third single, “We Ride,” brings the spirit of 90s-centric hip-hop soul into the mid-00s. While the song didn’t garner the same commercial success as its immediate predecessors, her diehard fanbase still regard it as an underappreciated cult favorite.

Outside of these singles, listeners get to experience the truest indications of Rihanna’s emerging music persona. Though her follow-up album would initiate the Good Girl Gone Bad phase, songs like “Selfish Girl” would lay out her “by any means necessary” nature. Hidden beneath a bubbly reggae-pop arrangement, “Selfish Girl” implies that Rihanna’s willing to venture to the dark side if that means pleasing her crush. It’s the underlying premise of A Girl Like Me. If the album doesn’t quite go so far as the whips and chains of “S&M,” it’s certainly an indicator of what was to come.

Laying the template for cultural dominance

While her next album, Good Girl Gone Bad, was straightforward in its titling, A Girl Like Me walks the fine line between overt sexuality and radio-friendly pop, as evidenced on the rocksteady jaunt “Kisses Don’t Lie.” The album strikes a perfect balance between the star-making hits that would propel Rihanna to superstardom and her own musical identity as inspired by her native roots and personal artistry. For every pop and R&B ballad on the record, there’s an equal amount of dancehall and soca tracks.

Rihanna wasn’t the first artist to incorporate patois slang into pop music. Everyone from Bob Marley to Shabba Ranks and Sean Paul had been doing it for years. But Rihanna was certainly one of the first solo female artists to do it on a massive scale, speaking to an entire generation in the process. From “Dem Haters” (featuring fellow Barbados native Dwayne Husbands) to “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” (which takes its cues from Marley, Barrington Levy, and Dawn Penn), Rihanna proudly wears her influences on her sleeve and puts the spotlight on Caribbean music.

A Girl Like Me not only introduced the world to an emerging pop force to be reckoned with, but an artist serious about her craft, laying the template for her complete cultural dominance in the near future.

Buy A Girl Like Me on vinyl.

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The year 1989 was a momentous one for London’s Soul II Soul, who took the world by storm with their unique and distinctive mash-up of Caribbean-tinged soul, funk, reggae, hip-hop, house, and jazz flavors. A collective of singers, instrumentalists, rappers, and DJs led by the MC and producer Jazzie B (AKA “The Funki Dredd”), the group were hugely successful in their home country and even made a huge impact in America, where they topped Billboard’s R&B singles charts twice within the space of three months: first with the infectious “Keep On Movin’” and then with its equally appealing follow-up, the UK No. 1 “Back To Life (However Do You Want Me),” both showcasing the exquisitely soulful vocals of Caron Wheeler.

Those two chart-topping singles were plucked from the group’s debut album, Club Classics Vol. 1, a landmark release that altered the landscape of R&B at a time when the brash, hip-hop-influenced swingbeat sound had been America’s dominant sound. After Soul II Soul’s arrival, many R&B records aped the distinctive drum loop and string arrangements that had defined the group’s two biggest singles; and Jazzie B and his partner in crime, the band’s keyboardist Simon Law, were also in demand as producers and remixers, working on tracks for a variety of artists, ranging from US house music queen Kym Mazelle to R&B star Jody Watley, and even the reggae group Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers.

Listen to Soul II Soul’s Club Classics Vol. 1 now.

Offering an assortment of different musical styles, Club Classics Vol. 1 reflected the musical eclecticism of British club culture and stayed true to the band’s motto: “A happy face, a thumpin’ bass, for a lovin’ race!” Its tracks ranged from minimalist electro-funk (“Fairplay,” featuring vocalist Rose Windross) to bubbling house music (“Holdin’ On”), sampladelic hip-hop (“Feelin’ Free”), and jazz-infused dance cuts (“African Dance”). Though it covered a lot of different musical bases – and sometimes sounded like it featured several different bands – the LP was given a sense of cohesion by Jazzie B’s groove-conscious production that gave each track an addictive dance pulse.

On its release in April 1989, Club Classics Vol. 1 (which was retitled Keep On Movin’ for the US market) rocketed to the summit of the UK albums chart during an incredible 60-week stay in the hit parade. It also topped the US R&B charts and rose to No. 14 in the Billboard 200. In 1990, two tracks from the album brought the group a couple of Grammy awards: “Back To Life” won Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, while “African Dance” grabbed the Best R&B Instrumental Performance. Quite an achievement for a debut album that more than lived up to its title.

Listen to Soul II Soul’s Club Classics Vol. 1 now.

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Sekou has returned with his new single “Dangerous Lover,” marking his first new release since last year’s In A World We Don’t Belong Pt. 1. The British singer-songwriter unveiled the track on April 3 as he builds momentum ahead of his upcoming UK and EU headline tour, which includes dates in Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Manchester, and London.

On “Dangerous Lover,” Sekou leans further into his R&B influences, shaping a sleek, modern record rooted in honesty and self-reflection. In a statement shared with the release, he described the song as an escape as well as a personal reckoning, explaining that he was focused less on perfection in the studio and more on truth. That perspective carries into the single itself, which arrives as another confident step forward in his evolution as both a vocalist and songwriter.

The new single follows the release of In A World We Don’t Belong Pt. 1, the five-track mixtape that showcased Sekou’s ability to blend familiar melodies with a fresh, contemporary edge. The project included highlights such as “Catching Bodies” and “Never Gunna Give You Up,” helping further establish his sound and deepen his connection with listeners. Next month, Sekou will bring that material and more to the stage when he launches his In A World We Don’t Belong UK and EU Tour. Demand for the run has already been strong, with additional dates added, and the itinerary includes a London stop at EartH Hackney on April 20.

Sekou has also stayed busy in recent months with a series of high-profile appearances and milestones. He played a pop-up show at London’s Rough Trade with Kevin Abstract, opened for Sam Smith during the To Be Free: San Francisco residency, and made his BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge debut with performances of “Catching Bodies” and Justin Bieber’s “Yukon.” He also earned his first MOBO Awards nomination for Best Newcomer.

Listen to “Dangerous Lover” here.

​Discover more about the world’s greatest R&B artists | uDiscover Music