Before anyone starts in, yes, I know all men are vastly different singers, yet all 3 became well known with the neo soul movement. But while Maxwell and D’Angelo became superstars, Eric didn’t and I am curious why. I am not a fan of his music and to tell you the truth, I have never known anyone that was a fan of his.

So, thoughts as to why he never really blew up? Or maybe he did and I wasn’t watching.

He doesn't wear shoes. If he had on some fly kick, the sky is the limit ...

The break-up with Halle and the sexual addiction after it sealed that.

But as much as I like his stuff, I consider him to be safer than Maxwell and D'Angelo.

Harlepolis said:

Yeah when your sexual indiscrections overshadow your career look out.
Although I like him as an artist.

scriptgirl said:

He cheated on Halle Berry...yep, that basically sums it up,

Eric Benet was the shit! Evidently the time he should have devoted to his career was spent hoin' around....

D'Angelo , too, except he wasted his time crackin' it up
Hell a whole lot of folk could've been ballin' if it wasn't for drugs and hoes.

there's a moral in here somewhere...

I think bad publicity played a major part. He landed a beautiful wife that had a lot of power behind her to boost his career then he phucked it up. I wonder if he's still dating Prince's ex Manuela? He could have been black balled in the industry.

Maxwell won this battle

I have no idea. A Day In The Life came out before the Halle Berry scandal. It was a solid album.

His personal life got in the way of his career like many disposable artists.

What I don't know is why D'Angelo reached that status.

For me he's never been even close to Maxwell.

I like Benét's works a lot too.

tritoncin said:

His current album is pretty good, too. At least, I think so.

I actually think it's more album content. He's all over the place in his sound on each album. Eric Benet didn't have a solid album until Hurricane IMHO.

I've never been a big fan of his music, though he's wonderful to behold His shit was boring for the most part - "Georgy Porgy"? PLEEZE It just didn't hit, & always seemed to be geared toward older, quiet storm type mf's. I do like a handful of songs by him though: Love Don't Love Me, I Wanna Be Loved, When You Think Of Me... He was slightly wack before Halle & stayed that way, their relationship just brought him a bit more pub.

I agree with those who say Benet failed to put out a solid album and that his sound was rather bland. He has a voice and some aesthetic appeal, but when you compare his early albums against the other two mentioned artists-he just wasn't as interesting. They stepped out further on a limb with their debuts and follow ups, whereas he stuck to nice middle of the road quiet storm.

same could be asked about Van Hunt and Anthony Hamilton

RnBAmbassador said:

i also prefer a. hamilton over all them with maxwell being the only exception.

mcw00 said:

WHAT??!!

Please tell me U never heard his 'True To Myself' album.

That was a FANTASTIC album, with diverse styles, and a bold approach.

Unfortunately, he totally abandoned that vibe, and his following albums were more as U described.

Do yourself a favor, and get the 'True To Myself' CD.

Specifically, these songs:

"True To Myself"
"Chains"
"More Than Just a Girlfriend"
"What if We Was Cool"
and his cover of the Sly classic, "If You Want Me To Stay"...

HERE:

http://www.lala.com/#albu...5171035549

Peace.

~G

All that being said, I think Eric sort of played himself.

That album wasn't promoted properly by the label, and didn't do well.

So subsequently, he releases blander, less adventurous material.

Plus Roger Troutman's touch was gone after that album, unfortunately...

He was getting a lot of attention for A DAY IN THE LIFE, which is a great overall album then if I'm not mistaken Halle had that car accident & fell apart so he put his career on hold to help her deal with that situation. The looooong break cooled his career off then of course prior to the release of his next album, the sex addict charges & divorce broke so lots of people declined to buy his cd because "he did Halle wrong" (quoting a woman in a record store who questioned why I was buying his cd).

Eric albums seem lacking something. He does have a nice voice maybe the best out of the three (I said maybe, I'm not sure)


It's all about timing. I think the fact that D'angelo came out first and pretty much introduced us to what we now call neo-soul followed by Maxwell, Badu, Jill Scott etc. is why he's hyped so. Plus his debut album was pretty simple, good and straight to the point.

junebug18 said:

Just curious what was the promise D'angelo failed to live up to?

daingermouz2020 said:

Writing, producing, recording albums, not releasing an album in how long? Maybe?

I like all 3 gents. Mr. Benét music is probably the first I'd grabbed to listen to. I'm just getting into his music. I don't know why but I didn't pay hime much attention until "Hurricane", which I liked very much. So, I've had to backtrack on the 3 previous albums.

I don't know much of the particulars of what went down between him and his ex Ms. Berry but I find it hard to believe being a ho' damaged his career? If you told me the long wait between albums that seems plausible.


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[Edited 12/17/09 2:11am]

mcw00 said:

because he's lame

bboy87 said:

I loved Femininity...but his stuff seem to never leave the r&b ditch

datdude said:

Now Van Hunt I can def dig

There was a time when I couldn't give 2 shits about dude till I heard his unreleased album

Van is FAAAAAR more intersting than Benet IMO.

Giovanni777 said:

...and of course there's irony, in that the title of the album is 'True To Myself', which he was being... There's been nothing like that since then.