phunkdaddy said:

m.j.b is allright,,,, i love the cd"what´s the 411?"

but i can´t stand.. "fine".... just crap.. nothing special...

but listen 2 "Love no limit". or "you remind me". hot!

For once, her latest song "Just Fine" sounds pretty good until she started singing. I mean, the song had a nice tempo (for once), it had the Princely sounding synths, and it had a "Planet Rock" sounding drum machine rather than the weak sounding shit hop ones that just barely tap. Everything was sounding pretty good until she got to those lyrics and her singing style on the song. One verse might contain 50 words in it so it ends up sounding like someone "singing a rap" rather than "talking a rap". A lot of today's singers do that. That's what put the shit hop edge in the song. For God's sake, take all shit hop elements out and let the genre die it's long overdue death. Even one shit hop element is one too many. It can't die that way.
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[Edited 3/28/08 14:48pm]

phunkdaddy said:

I have nothing against those ladies (although I think Tamia is beyond boring -- Angie's easily the best of the bunch), I would much rather listen to Mary J. (even Love & Life).

vainandy said:

@ shit-hop edge

Mary's first two and fourth LPs are masterpieces. To me, Mary J. Blige is UNQUESTIONABLY the QUEEN of hip-hop soul. That is no hype - that is EXACTLY what she is...or was...the problem is that hip-hop has been dead since around 1997, and her creative wherewithal died shortly thereafter. And how could it be otherwise? Without hip-hop in the world - and what calls itself hip-hop today is not even a little bit close to being hip-hop - Mary J. Blige has NO IDENTITY or forward motion as an artist and this comes out in her music. She can't figure out what to do with herself, what direction to go in, because she is not moving within the greater societal river that WAS HIP-HOP. She reflected a particular ASPECT (let's call it "hip-hop soul") of an incredibly POWERFUL movement which in its day grew stronger literally by the day. When that movement died, where did that leave her? With what options? To limply mimic her own past former glory, that's what. A shell of her former self. She is left simply rehashing the same ideas over and over again - but this time with really bad, tinny-ass sounding music. But I am not mad at her. What the hell is she supposed to do? Retire in her 30s? To do what? Now, there were people who were saying Mary was wack, cannot sing, out of tune, etc etc back in '94 and '95. These people are either a) jeaulous, because Mary WAS TRULY something special when she first arrived on the scene and this was simply self-evident, ...or else b) they have no taste. Personally I think it was more often a case of a) rather than b).

Mary is the real deal. That's why people love and respect her.

Now you know.

Volitan said:

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!! Finally, I'm not the only one. When she first came out, she was cool with me. But lately, she sounds like a hyiena (don't know if I spelled that right) giving birth, especially live performances. The lastest award shows that I have seen her on, she is always wining about, "I just want everybody to know the real me and my struggles." We know your crap, just want you to get over it already and move on. Dang!!! But i will give her credit that she hasn't aged a bit. Good for her!!!