I admit that I’m not the biggest listener to urban contemporary
\nmusic. It’s not that I don’t like it, or that I’ll turn it off the
\nmoment it comes on the radio in my car; it’s just that I’ve never
\nreally developed a big taste for it. I can appreciate hearing
\nartists like Boyz II Men or Luther Vandross, and I enjoy some songs
\nin this vein. But if there’s any genre that I could afford to be
\ntaken to school for, urban contemporary is it.<\/p>\n
Lo and behold, in the mail comes
\nBET Best Of Planet Groove<\/i>, a compilation of some of today’s
\nbiggest and brightest names in the genre. There is literally
\nsomething for everyone on this disc, and while I can’t say I liked
\nevery performance, there was enough on this disc to make me more
\ninterested in the urban contemporary genre.<\/p>\n
This 15-song disc collects many of the names that even a casual
\nlistener would recognize (Janet – anyone know why she won’t use her
\nlast name of Jackson?, Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey), as well as some
\nothers that might not be as well-known (Chico, Jon B.) if you don’t
\nfollow the scene. A lot of the tracks intermix raps with the smooth
\ndeliveries, which is not always the most welcome marriage of
\nstyles, depending on how it’s delivered.<\/p>\n
I would like to wonder out loud why the selection from Erykah
\nBadu, “Tyrone,” had several words edited out – I mean, I can figure
\nout which words they were quickly. But I would have rather heard
\nthe song in its entirety, cursing and all, to truly appreciate it
\nthe way that Badu obviously wanted it performed. I guess I’ll have
\nto go pick up a copy of
\nLive<\/i> to hear the original.<\/p>\n
The difficulty with reviewing an album like
\nBET Best Of Planet Groove<\/i> is that whether you’ll like it or
\nnot is a matter of personal tastes. For my part, I’m not that big
\non Jackson or Carey’s recent work, so I can’t say that “I Get
\nLonely” or “Breakdown” (the latter pairing Carey with Krayzie Bone
\n& Wish Bone) made me warm up to either singer’s work. Likewise,
\nmy first real tastes of Sparkle (featuring R. Kelly on “Be
\nCareful”) and Montel Jordan (“Let’s Ride,” featuring Master P &
\nSilk ‘The Shocker’) were anything I’d want to write home about.<\/p>\n
Then again, there were some performances that blew me away.
\nLSG’s contribution (“My Body”) was an interesting change of pace,
\nwhile Jon B. (“They Don’t Know”) and Chico featuring Joe (“No
\nGuarantee”) all made me interested in hearing more from these
\nartists. In fact, the last third of the disc turned out to contain
\nthe strongest material, featuring artists like SWV (“Rain”) and
\nXscape (“The Arms Of The One Who Loves You”).<\/p>\n
And then, there was “A Song For Mama,” the contribution from
\nBoyz II Men. If you are not moved by this song, you must have ice
\nwater running through your veins. Why this song didn’t steamroll
\nthe charts the way that “End Of The Road” did a few years ago is
\nbeyond me; this song, simply put, is possibly the best work that
\nthis group has ever done.<\/p>\n
Is a disc like
\nBET Best Of Planet Groove<\/i> going to make you instantly
\nknowledgeable about urban contemporary music? Honestly, no. But it
\nwill generate interest in the groups who are leading the way
\nnowadays, and might just make you interested in hearing more from
\nthese artists. And that, I think, is the whole point of the
\ndisc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39341","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39341"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}