Any suggestions?

Orizio

I've been listening to a lot of HipHop fused with Funk and Soul lately(Ohmega Watts,J.Rawls,The Coup etc)and R'n'B (Res,Amel Larrieux etc)so I'm looking for suggestions on what a noob to these three music genres should listen to.

I tend to find it difficult to listen to music with uninspiring and unoriginal lyrics and usually prefer new stuff over old stuff,but hey good music is good music whatever era.

BTW if there is a thread suggesting music to beginners then could some body point me in the right direction(couldn't find anything)and some mod delete this thread.;)

spacecoyote

Straying into other forums now are we Oriz??

As you might have seen from the few posts that appea on this forum, prince goes down pretty well. His early stuff is amazing if you ask me, purple rain is one of my fave albums of all time. thats not to take away from the rest of his early stuff, and even his most recent albums. To be honest, i've got about 8/9 of his albums and i couldn't say that any of them are not worth a listen.

From a funk point of view you could look at George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic. Don't expect too much lyrical inspiration here, but their music had a massive influence on shaping the sound of hip-hop so might be worth a listen. I'm a Bootsy Collins fan myself. He started out working woth James Brown/George Clinton, etc... Again nothing inspirational lyrically, just nice funk. He still puts out albums collaborating with hip-hop artists. Fresh Outta 'P' University is one of his more recent albums which i liked. Again with his earlier stuff you'll hear the influence he has had up to now. His track I'd Rather Be With You was pretty much re-hashed by Tupac on All Eyez On Me with I'd Rather Be Ya N.I.G.G.A.

For more recent soul artists I really enjoy Maxwell. Urban Hang Suite was his debut, and its a real funk/soul classic. Some excellent funky instrumentals and some real soulful crooner tracks. His more recent album, Now, has a more upbeat, funky sound, but still has some tracks with real heart in them. I also like D'angelo. His debut was Brown Sugar, which is another cracking album and after that he released Voodoo, which has a dirtier, grimier(?) feel, collabo's with redman/method man on this. Musique Soulchild is pretty good too.

I'm not massively into this genre, that'd just be picks off the top of my head from what i sometimes listen to myself

Oh and from a funky guitar/bass point of view, definitely check out Stu Hamm & Victor Wooten. Unbelievable guitarists and definitely worth a listen

fuse

look at George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic. Don't expect too much lyrical inspiration here

I beg to differ on that one, the older parliament & funkadelic stuff is just as good lyric-wise as it is musically (which is great!).
Lyrics in tunes like "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts" are hardly uninspiring.
"Come in out of the rain" is another.

Anyway, if you wanna check out the roots and influences of the hiphop you listen to. Check out http://www.the-breaks.com/ find out who they're sampling and listen to more of the sampled artist.

StevieG

A few of my favs
Erykah Badu
Sa-Ra
Kim Hill
Amel Larrieux
Platinum Pied Pipers
Tiombre Lockhart
Bilal Lina,
D'Angelo,
Musiq
Eric Roberson,
Raheem De Vaughan,
Vinja Mojica
Dwele
Digable Planets,
Jill Scott,
Bahamadia,
Mary J Blige
Raphaeel Saadiq
Lauryn Hill
Alicia Keys,
John Legend,
Syleena Johnson
Havana

StevieG

Old skool wise i wont even start but ive loads listed on my myspace at
http://www.myspace.com.jamatcork

A few to begin with would be
Marlena Shaw
Donald Byrd
Roy Ayers

Orizio

I already have about half of that list StevieG,did Vinja Mojica and Eric Roberson actually release some albums?I don't seem to able to find any of their work.Been meaning to check out Digable Planets for a while.

Thanks for the lists everybody.Got to get to amazon.;)

Spacecoyote get back to the Hip-Hop forum before I ban your disloyal ass for treachery.:p

StevieG

Orizio wrote:

I already have about half of that list StevieG,did Vinja Mojica and Eric Roberson actually release some albums?I don't seem to able to find any of their work.Been meaning to check out Digable Planets for a while.

Thanks for the lists everybody.Got to get to amazon.;)

Spacecoyote get back to the Hip-Hop forum before I ban your disloyal ass for treachery.:p

Vinja is almost like a female Nate Dogg (better looking tho!:))she cameos' so much, i have loads of 12"s but no full length album
Eric Robersons stuff I mainly have on bootlegs seems to suffer from industry rule number 2080 as regards record companies!
I forgot to mention Adrianna Evans and Dred Scott!

Lust4Life

I'm from the old school.

For Funk, you can't beat Joe Walsh or James Brown.
For Soul, The Temptations RULE! Ever heard "Standing on Shakey Ground"? Dang! Or how about a mixture of both in The Commodores "Brick House"?

However, if you want to blow your mind, check out Tuck Andress. He is a guitar master. Blues, Funk, Jazz - very fast hands. One of those musicians who seldom takes the mainstream by storm, but other musicians worship him.

Key words - Tuck And Patti - if you're going to surf for him.

Hugs!

Lust4Life

OP, have you ever heard George Benson's version of Down Here On The Ground?? One of my all time Fav Jazz/ R&B songs. The lyrics are so inspiring!!! And he sings it best IMO.

Also one of my all time favs is She Caught The Katy from the Blues Brothers Soundtrack. You can just feel it! And isn't that what it's all about???

and How about BB King's How Blue Can You Get????? "I gave you seven children! And now you want to give them back????" Oh, yeah! THAT's Blues!

L4L

Cousin it

just one suggestion at the mo as all the usuals (and unusuals) have been mentioned already.

robert walter's twentieth congress, organ funk with a strong new orleans feel and definite hip hop tendencies, instrumental only tho, sorry if that's not what you're looking for.

for more good stuff try robert walter radio on pandora.com, i have it on right now.....mmmm gooood:)