Jaden | Music

On Wednesday of this week I was lucky enough to accompany my good friend and superstar singer, Neha, to Radio 2RDJ. She was invited to join the most lovely DJs Liche and D for their Mixxbosses radio show – a 2 hour slot dedicated to Neo/Soul music!

The evening ended up being a lot of fun for us – getting to play a few songs unplugged (an American Boy/Kiss medley, and a rendition of one of our original tracks, Your Love), as well as general chit chat with the girls in between their regular show features. Neha’s vocal performance was angelic (as always), and despite having some butterflies before going on air, she kept myself and the listeners well entertained with her amusing anecdotes.

I must be honest and say that I was not expecting a whole lot from the show in terms of the playlist (although admittedly I had never heard of the station/show before we went on). Much to my [pleasant] surprise, DJ Liche dropped a whole bunch of awesome music – some sexy, some groovey, some funky, some old school, and some fresh new stuff. Props to Liche for her knowledge of soul/RNB, and for her exquisite taste in tunes!

Some highlights for me were tracks by Ryan Leslie, Pharrell, John Legend, and a couple of new artists that I have since been exploring. They also had an interview with the one and only Gary Pinto, and a couple of tracks from his newly released album (awesome, banging tracks – might I add).

Here is a little snippet from the show (I don’t know if the full performance is up anywhere, but this was a sassy little freestyle that Neha conjured up at the end of the show)

Thanks again to Liche and D for the fun times and hospitality, and I look forward to tuning into their show for more great tunes

2003 & 2004 were great years in Music.

Jay-Z released ‘The Blueprint 2.1’ and ‘The Black Album’, Justin blew up with ‘Justified’, Ms Badu released ‘Worldwide Underground’, Outkast dropped ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’, Britney released ‘In the Zone’ and ‘My Perogative’, Alicia came out with ‘The Diary of Alicia Keys’, Kelis released ‘Tasty’, Kanye announced his arrival with ‘The College Dropout’ Brandy released’ Afrodisiac’, Beyonce started solo with ‘Dangerously in Love’, Ashlee and Jesse Mac had pop smashes with ‘Autobiography’ and ‘Beautiful Soul’, Snoop Dogg released ‘R&G’ and last but not least S Club 7 released their ‘Greatest Hits’.

Putting aside all these classics and completely forgetting about S Club 7, the real reason these years have to this day been my favorite in Music is that in my opinion one of my biggest inspirations in Life and Music, The Neptunes, hit their Production/Creative peak. I don’t think its coincidence that they won ‘Producer of the year’ at the Grammy’s in 2003.

From the moment I heard ‘In Search Of’ I began a journey into everything Neptunes from Kelis to Clipse. But 03 and 04 in particular father some of my favorite Neptunes releases to this day;

Justin Timberlake – ‘Justified’ and ‘I’m Lovin it’
Pharrell – ‘Frontin’
Jay-Z – ‘Excuse Me Miss’ and ‘Change Clothes’
Kelis – ‘Tasty’
N.E.R.D – ‘Fly or Die’
Nelly – ‘Play it Off’
Snoop Dogg – ‘Drop it like it’s Hot’, ‘Signs’, ‘Let’s get Blown’

To me these years signify so much melody and colour taken to the top of the Charts by the Neptunes. The chords, progressions and melodic vocal hooks take me back to a time when popular music was fun, positive and had a heart.

Fast Forward to 2009 in a time when Robotic, Auto-Tuned loops dominate the charts along with their ‘Heartless’ artists, finally after years of wondering the musical desert The Neptunes have returned to their roots with the release of Snoop Dogg’s ‘Special’ ft. Brandy and Pharrell off Snoop’s new Album ‘Malice in Wonderland’.

Back to the Melodic Hooks, Colorful Chord Progressions and classic Neptunes Beats. Back to Music with a Heart.

Time is yet to tell whether ‘The Renaissance’ led by the Neptunes is a light at the end of our musical tunnel or if this will unite the 03-04 Legends long enough to build an army strong enough to take on the lifeless robots controlling modern day Pop/Hip-Hop/RnB but ultimately it gives me hope.

I’m starting to dream about the ‘Good Old Days’ and I’m not old enough to accommodate these thoughts comfortably just yet.

Anyone who has spoken to me for more than 15 minutes will be no stranger to my obsession with The Neptunes. There is already plenty of future blog space assigned to this this particular topic but today i wanted to post about one of my favorite Neptunes releases which kinda slipped under the radar back in 06′

Sleepy Brown of Organized Noise, a talented and successful producer in his own right (TLC, Outkast, Curtis Mayfield), employed the Neptunes to spice up his self produced album ‘Mr Brown’.

The track features Big Boi and Pharrell, who interestingly enough signs the majority of the track, leaving Sleepy a feature of his own single.

Maybe this in addition to the seriously questionable video clip is one of the reasons it flew under the radar when released but to me this track is all class.

Everytime i hear this on my iPhone shuffle it brings a smile to my face. Today was another one of those days.