Ever since I first saw "Sweet Love" on Music Video Connection as a youngster, Anita Baker has been in my top 10 favorite R&B singers of all time. However, in the tradition of greats like Michael Jackson, James Brown and Michael McDonald, she has one "drawback" to her delivery: when she gets excited, her ability to enunciate suffers a bit. Exhibit A: in the verse following the bridge on her 1990 single "Talk to Me", it always sounded like she was saying "hacienda"; in actuality, she says "across your face". Right before going into the last round of chorus repetition, I always thought she said "you avoid my rush, you avoid my race, baby" when the factually correct translation is "you avoid my advice, you avoid my embrace, baby". In all fairness, I don't have the best hearing in the world due to years of listening to music in my headphones nearly at full blast and only grasping the concept of protecting one of my greatest assets within the last decade. Nevertheless, I know I'm not the only one who has looked at her like, "What the heck did you just say, lady?" Now that I've graduated summa cum laude from The Big Dadi Scribbler School of Lyric Translation, let's roll with the rest of the nonsense--and trust, I do mean nonsense...
You never know how a month's worth of random songs being lodged in the corners of your mind will work. Once the last batch of brain invaders left the scene of the crime, the first culprit looking to raid was "In My House" by the Mary Jane Girls. Truth be told, I can't even tell you what made me think of that song recently because as much as I've always liked it, I don't think about it very often. Hence, I had a feeling neither "In My House" would make the cut nor "Put It In Your Mouth" by Akinyele, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack", "My Dad's Gone Crazy" by Eminem nor "The Lovers" by Alexander O'Neal. Guy's "Goodbye Love" had three opportunities to make the list--twice on its own and once via sampling on Mary J. Blige's "Don't Go"--but still didn't make it despite a strong resurgence. Of all people, Rihanna nearly made "Get Out of My Brain!" history with three entries including "Sex With Me" and "Needed Me", but you will soon see which one endured. Now that the losers have been accounted for, let's talk about the winners...
So let me tell y'all a "what had happened was" story about this month's "In Heavy Rotation". My "Against the Grain Pick of the Month" was supposed to be Aesop Rock's The Impossible Kid, but it just didn't come together the way that I wanted. It's not that I didn't listen to it or enjoy the album. However, whereas I can listen to most albums and pick out my favorite three songs and a few notables, I couldn't quite do that this time around. I had every intention to listen at least one more time to get a better feel, but I never got around to it because May has been a month for lack of more specific words. Maybe it was just that good that I couldn't limit my "review" to just a few picks, but at any rate, I'd definitely recommend the listen and purchase. Also, the first pick mentioned in this post could've almost been O.T. Genasis' Rhythm & Bricks or Desiigner's Panda mixtapes, but there just weren't enough standout songs on either project other than "Cut It" and "Panda", respectively. Long story short, although there are only four picks instead of five, they all bump. Now that I've explained myself, let's get to the real reasons why you're here...
