AliciaKeys said:

Yeah, you're only on your 2nd album here, so check your ego. I guess you mean kind of classic stealing from real soul artists?
[Edited 7/5/05 16:34pm]

VoicesCarry said:

right-o

Are you guys mad at Alicia because she admires prince?

kookie said:

I'm not....I just think she's highly overrated, that's all.

AnckSuNamun said:

That's what all the orgers say,but I think it's deeper than that .....
[Edited 7/5/05 17:11pm]

I've been hearing a lot about Alicia's unplugged album. It's going to have covers, most of her hits, and some new stuff.

That's the new Org catchphrse: "This Post Is Classic Me"

You can put a Little Richard spin on it "His post is classic me."

A P Diddy spin "We ain't gonna stop posting."

A Rick James spin: "This Post Ain't S***."

cranshaw62 said:

kookie said:

Well she is, imo. Her vocals are kinda weak, considering the fact that she's R/B. She just came at the right time, in the middle of the attack of the bubble gum pop tarts. People rave about how talented she is just because she can tickle three or four ivories. If Alicia didn't have the piano or looks, she'd just blend in with a bunch of artists. I can't believe how people my age are so shocked to see a newer artist who actually plays an instrument. They've been depraved, if you ask me.

typo
[Edited 7/5/05 17:28pm]

AnckSuNamun said:

maybe you're right...

Can't wait to hear it.

Alicia does get a lot of hate on here for reasons that I'm still trying to figure out. Why hate on a female artist that's trying to bring musicality and soul to overproduced pop music? She's doing her thing and I'm proud of her.

She's not the greatest AT ALL, but she does have the greatest potential. I just hate that being on a major label will probably hinder that.

And nothing is wrong with her saying "Classic Me". People complain because she doens't broaden her sound enough, and now the complaints are because she's saying that she has a sound?

dragondayz said:

Because we've heard too much authentic musicality and soul to buy into her.

Everything she does is a complete rip-off of real soul music. But everyone is so desperate for a young, hot mainstream R&B artist who knows how to play an instrument that people buy into her schtick.

dragondayz said:

Her sound isn't her sound, it's the sound of the real pioneers in soul and R&B. Did you miss the little fact that she lifted the melody line from JB's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" for "Fallin'", for example?
[Edited 7/5/05 19:09pm]

VoicesCarry said:

Or they could buy into her schtick simply because they like her songs?! That theory doesn't seem too far fetched.

Really, every artist emulates an artist from the past. You or nobody else can claim it as being false.

Although she emulates a little of Prince, Stevie, Roberta, Aretha, Isaac, that Patrice lady and many others lol, she still manages to have her own sound and her own way of doing things.

The titles that they give her like "genius" and "prodigy" can be a bit crazy but she's in a competitive business and people ahead of her and many of our other A-list artists of this generation are constantly looking for ways to seperate this one from that one. That's Alicia's scheme but I don't totally blame her for it and I honestly like a lot of her music. That's why I buy the albums.

She can sing

She can play

She can compose

She can look good doing it


Fucking haters! I swear!

dragondayz said:

I'm not saying I don't like Alicia's songs, but there's a difference between liking her songs and buying into her schtick ie. believing she's all she's claimed to be.

dragondayz said:

Every artist is influenced by artists from the past, but no, not every artist emulates (which means IMITATES) artists from the past.

dragondayz said:

So describe "Alicia's sound" to me. I'd really like to know how any part of it is original in any way.

dragondayz said:

Certainly more than "a bit". Terms like that should be reserved for artists such as Meshell. But the industry is currently sold on image and not talent, and so Alicia wins.

dragondayz said:

Yeah, and Alicia's "the talented one". That says a lot more about the pathetic state of the industry than it does about her. 30 years ago she'd be singing in a bar somewhere, ya know.

dragondayz said:

Neither do I. Alicia needs to pay the bills.

dragondayz said:

Fair enough.
[Edited 7/5/05 19:31pm]

Well I meant influenced.

Alicia has her own sound because she mixes hip hop, soul, and classical and I don't recall it being done many times before. She even mixes a bit of jazz and gospel in there at times. Listn to the organs in the back of her song Diary. I think she majored in choir, which taught mostly gospel, in her high school so that's the bit of grit in her voice.

I've never heard a Karma type track or even a Fallin type song done before. Yeah she took bits of James Brown song but she put hip hop in it and added her own little twist...in my opinion.

dragondayz said:

Ok, you ever heard "It's A Man's Man's Man's World"? Because structurally, it's essentially "Fallin'".

I think maybe once you hear a bit more music, you'll change your mind. There really is nothing original about Alicia's songs, her instrumentation, or her production. I donno, I think I've just heard too much to appreciate Alicia. She's so superficial and talentless when you compare her to some of the greats working right now. I come back to Meshell but I wish she'd come out in the 70's because she'd actually have a chance at the mainstream. I have no problem with Alicia, whose music is harmless although completely derivative. Same thing goes for an artist like Mariah Carey. My problem is more with how they are promoting her as "THE BEST THING EVAR!!!", and she's going along with it as if she actually believes it.


[Edited 7/5/05 19:40pm]

she's alright. I just cant get past those hairy chest pics that were posted on here a while back...

ok yall just because when she first got started people promoted her as a prodigy, genious, female stevie, the shit all that. and because she didn't live up to what people were claiming her to be yall wanna hate? that aint right. that aint alicia's fault that the label, press and all them put that on her. thats their fault. if u gonna like her thats cool. hate her? thats cool too, but realize that the hype aint her fault. and either except her for what she actually is..or go listen to somebody u like.

That promotion totally turns me off. I wasn't able to make myself buy The Diary, just because it seemed like a false promise from the get-go.

Dauphin said:

CO-SIGN!!! on that

Her "Classic sound"? Stevie had been performing and writing for years before he hit his classic sound in the early 70's.

Being overly marketed doesn't mean your deep, interesting or a great songwriter. Clive Davis has a product and her name is Alicia Keys and she is a pretty girl who is a classically trained pianist and he has presented her to the world as the next "Roberta Flack" or "the Female Stevie" . She's trying so desperately to turn into what she is being marketed as.....A so called "savior of soul music." Anytime you are labeled as the "next this or that" and you buy into that you're fucked. Sure Prince, Madonna, and Michael borrowed and immulated certain lengends, BUT every single last one of the "HOLY TRINITY" HAD THEIR OWN PERSONALITIES AND WERE "IN CHARGE" OF THEIR OWN SOUND & IMAGE. Can AK play the piano, yes! can she sing, yes! The girl is not even in the same galaxy of "true greatness" or "true genius". Between having her mug at every red carpet event, her lyrically un-imaginative beat-driven songs, her sloppy overly-eager to please performances, and all the uneccessary cheesey PR crap Clive has her doing, I just don't GET A SENSE OF WHO SHE IS. I listened to the "Diary" album twice, I've seen her perform live and I'm just not convinced. She just seems so damn PHONEY to me. I saw her on a tv show once and she said "she wanted to get into writing more provocative lyrics". That tripped me out! You don't plan to be provocative...you either are or you aren't. Stevie Wonder said that "Ordinary People" by John legend was the best song he has heard all year and he wish he'd written it. I don't hear any of "her" idols saying that about her songs. Her songs could be performed by anybody and they are no more or less interesting than any other R&B/Hip Hop songs that's out there. I hope she grows into the person she is aspiring to be, but right now I find her annoying & boring.

If opinion makes me a hater, then I'll just keep sipping my hater-ade until this chick puts out a fierce album that lives up to her hype. When she does, I'll buy it.

MistyCotton said:

Keys ain't no savior of soul. Songs like "Girlfriend" and "My Boo" sound like typical mainstream R&B and don't even get me started on that "thug" thing she had and probably still has goin' on.

Y'all can be some hating ass folks, i swear...the org can be venomous....



Y dont we actually give her a chance to develop into her own before we brush her off?
I think people are excited about her because she shows a lot of promise; probably more than anything else strutting round these parts nowadays.

Granted,It was a little premature to call one of your own songs classic with a grand total of two albums under your belt, but we ALL know that girl aint had a reality check in a spell...Dont blame her, blame the yesmen.



We all know that looks count-- and obviously they go a long way, but lets not act like they carry you that far...something about her sound (as remeniscent as it is of preceding acts ie. Gladys, P, JB, Stevie, Roberta et al.) sets her apart from the rest-- now if she could only develop her talent and come more onto an artistic level while keeping
her pop appeal -- she'd be unlike any artist we've seen recently.

If Jennifer Lopez can live, so can this bitch!


And I'm spent.

Nobody doubts that Alicia has talent.But do they have to give her multiple Grammys everytime she releases a new album?! Sure,she has a few decent singles,but her music is not that original,deep or soulful.In the old days,artists were allowed to grow and develop before we started calling them "genuises" and giving them a handful of Grammys.These days,a female artist who plays piano yet releases mediocre,derivative R&B songs (some of which are based on samples) is hyped up as "the next big thing".Even Prince pointed out that it took him five albums before he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.Alicia releases one album,and already she's on Rolling Stone.Thanks to the Clive Davis/Clear Channel hype machine,she is now officially the female Stevie Wonder

It's ridiculous.

Scorpion said:

Exactly.That's absurd.

cinnamonjo said:

I'm sorry, do you listen to a variety of music or do you just listen to whatever shit is playing on mainstream radio? Because she is hardly the best thing out there.
[Edited 7/6/05 4:00am]