Really, are we this obvious?

Well yeah, but it’s not like Polow da Don left us much of a choice. Those cheap-sounding vibrating synths,  kind of like slowed-down trance music, made the perfect sleazy digitalized backdrop for Usher to proclaim how damn horny he is. What takes the song up another level (from the already vertigo-inducing heights we’re at) is how Usher’s vocals sound both aroused and melancholic at the same time. Who else in the world can pull that off? Not Celine Dion, that’s for sure.

Granted, the beat was essentially two readymade loops from the computer program Garageband, and the lyrics are about how Usher wants to pull his thing out on the dancefloor. But isn’t that a testament to how friggin great this song really is, that despite the borrowed beat and scandalous singing, nobody really cared?

Everybody just danced. In slow motion.

Usher ft. Young Jeezy - Love In This Club (prod. by Polow da Don)

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The album Lessons In Love didn’t quite live up to the expectations after last year’s surprising Street Love, but one song showed why I consider Lloyd to be one of the most talented young artists of today.

‘Year Of The Lover’ was written by Rico Love and produced by Eric Hudson, whose previous work includes songs by Mary J Blige, Omarion and Ne-Yo, just to mention a few. The production fits Lloyd’s voice perfectly, and Lloyd really seems to have found his niche as a young rnb Casanova far from the sugar sweet music he used to perform as lead singer of boy band N-Toon a few years back. And when it comes to the lyrical content, the song title really speaks for itself.

Lloyd - Year of The Lover (written by Rico Love, prod by. Eric Hudson)

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That commercial and artistic success somehow should exclude each other may never be true, and certainly isn’t when it comes to rnb. Last year, ‘Umbrella’ was the perfect example of the billboard top ten meeting the avant garde: perfect pop, perfectly fresh. Indeed, a lot of rnb-hits follows a popular formula, Chris Brown (with Stargate) has definitely been guilty, charged with the cynical ‘It’s You’.

How he redeemed himself. ‘Forever’ starts out with melodic information virtually unheard of in rnb, so pop it’ll make you blush. It’s a song that goes in all directions: the lyrics freestyled, the backing harmonies ridiculously expensive, the keyboard arpeggiators 90’s european, the drums Timbaland played through an old boom box. In my opinion, the closest thing to perfection to come out this year.

Chris Brown - Forever (written by Chris Brown, prod. by Polow da Don)

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This year hasn’t been a good year for rnb girl groups. Dear Jayne though, is one example of groups that deserves much more attention and succéss than they’ve recieved so far. With their third single ‘Fall Back’ they’re confronting their unfaithfull boyfriend, played by The-Dream. They know he had company last night and that it wasn’t theirs. You could call ‘Fall Back’ a modern drama.

‘Fall Back’ involves the faithfull friend:
While you where chilling in a club,
I was getting textmesseges from my girl,
She sent me a pic of you and this chick,

It got the boyfriend’s lie:
You know I miss you girl

And the independent woman’s perspective:
No, what you missed was my call,
When you cut your phone off!

And the part where she says goodbye and goes on with her life without bitterness.
I hope you sleep tight,
You ain’t gettin’ no tonight

Dear Jayne ft. The-Dream - Fall Back (written by The-Dream, prod. by L.O.S.)

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To see T-Pain stand next to Mariah Carey is something quite special. She, a classical trained soprano singer, meets T-Pain, the front figure of the both hated and loved autotune. ‘Migrate’ strenghtens the fusion between new influences and traditions, between high culture and pop culture. But formost, in terms of music, it turns the adjective “authentic” up side down when the soul scenes greatest voice takes use of the controversial effect that makes anyone capable of singing.

The Danja produced ‘Migrate’ is not only one of the years best rnb songs, it’s also one of Mariahs finest moments.

Mariah Carey ft. T-Pain - Migrate (prod. by Danja)

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T-Pain and Lil Wayne blew up to enormous proportions and exploded this year. Megalomania is fascinating when it comes to artists and it´s been interesting to watch their characters freak out. When it comes to the quality of their music it´s not always that uplifting though. Lil Wayne´s evolution from bluesy soul and rnb to crappy college rock is really depressing to me and T-Pains hysteric circus persona is starting to feel more like a pain in the ass.

‘I Can´t Believe It’, however, manages catch them both at their best; cool and laid back on a slow dreamy beat. It is probably my favorite song of 2008.

T-Pain ft. Lil Wayne - I Can´t Believe It

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Almost ten years after their debut 3rd Storee who made a smaller buzz in the late 90’s are planning a come back. With The Clutch as songwriters and Danja as producer 3rd Storee presents one of the best and most fascinating songs of the year. They surely deserv our vigil attention after this master piece.

3rd Storee - 2 Piece Juicy (written by The Clutch, prod. by Danja)

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After scandals as rape dancing a underage girl at a concert, throwing a minor head first down the scene at another performance, and being accused of fabricating his jail sentence (which he’s based his whole convict image on), Akon shows us a new self with his 2008 album Freedom. His thug gard is almost completely down together with the hiphop influences, and a softer, loving, more sympathetic him is presented in a pure pop package. A great strategy move, which also has crafted his best album so far.

‘Could You be The Reason’ is the demo track of Freedom’s ‘We Don’t Care’, which is much better in my opinion. In this old version there’s less background vocals which puts more focus on the magnificent production. Here you’ll notice the heavy disco strings, and without the rapid guitar the bridge works much better as a build up to the powerful hook. This is Akon at his very best.

Akon - Could You Be The Reason

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James Fauntleroy - Heated

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Are you one of us that constantly claim we’re not systematically drawn to the fascination of ghetto culture? One of us who tries to define the purchasing of golden chains to the fact that it reflect wealth - not fashion - and just loves The Wire cause it’s so ”real”? We probably have some other things in common too (for starters, we’re not that poor ourselves). This may be a narrow way to describe a curiosity and interest in class - on the contrary it may become exploitation.

The song ‘16 @ War’ by Karina Pasian is not a song that primarily flirts with the phasing-out “ghetto culture”. Karina manage to describe a vivid spectrum of many factors at work simultaneously. The feeling of being sixteen, being a woman, being poor and being unfairly treated. Rather than many others songs with the same focus Karina simply document the brutal reality of many people. Her beautiful, yet massive, voice succeeds to capture the frustrating feeling of being powerless. Forget prior teenage-theme pop songs with contra-productive self-destructive feelings like “sixteen clumsy and shy”. The message Karina broadcast is extraordinarily strong in its own straightness. I hope she keeps on fighting next year.

Karina Pasian - 16 @ War (written by The-Dream, prod. by Tricky Stewart)

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I’m looking for a lover not a friend

Frankly, I thought she would be a one-hit wonder.

Somebody who can be there when I need someone to talk to

One summer of bliss, and that would be it. Read more…

The Internet has become a popular tool for up-and-coming songwriters to share their latest demos, sometimes with better results than the ”real songs” later performed by more established artists. Lonny wrote ‘Quickly’ for John Legend and Brandy, a great song but even greater with the writers own voice on it. ‘Read the Stars’ is better. It is, musically as well as lyrically, essentially a house record, and one of few dance-oriented rnb songs that hasn’t felt forced or gimicky (’Disturbia’ and ‘Closer’, I’m looking in your general direction.)

I can definitely see someone else recording ‘Read The Stars’ in the future, but I can’t imagine that that someone will perform it better than Lonny.

Lonny Breaux - Read The Stars

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Ok - so I have to confess two things. First off, I didn’t consider Joe to be my ideal rnb-artist. With a baggage of great records it’s just a few songs that really has stayed in my playlist, Joe has always somewhat combined the heartbroken gentleman with a banal martyr, nothing without a catchy melody. A bit boring, yet dramatic. My other admission is, however, that Joe has succeeded to make the most beautiful song of this year.

The new record Joe Thomas, New Man did not fail to have highlights. The single ‘E.R. (Emergency Room)’ contains some dirty wishes (authorized by the doctor-pun), and ‘We Need To Roll’ was a great co lab, featuring both Mario and Trey Songz. Compared to ‘I Will Again’, bonus track on the bonus edition, they both fade to mediocre. I didn’t understand this song at first. It all was a still, low profile ambush, kind of classy. Maybe it was the nice pop melody, maybe the rare, self-conscious lyrics. Joe proves however, that he’s far from the flawless idea of an American rnb-dream. To do such a thing with this melody is a great achievement. To borrow a phrase from Dave Eggers, it’s really a heartbreaking work of a staggering genius.
 And Joe, I’m sorry that I didn’t recognize you as a human before this song. I definitely will again.

Joe - I Will Come Again

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Even though the rnb year 2008 has been of great confusion, Lil Eddie manage to show the way with his pop piece ‘Now or Never’. The song which samples the Eurythmic classic ‘Here Comes The Rain Again’ is actually about love’s blindness to reason, but it’s dramatic catchphrase “now or never” could also be used to describe the world’s situation of today. In comparison to personal feelings, global threats are still taken quite lightly though. If the strategy against the world’s problems was filled with the same determination as a Lil Eddie in love, it would surely take a great leap forward.

Lil Eddie - Now Or Never

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This is a depressing example of a great song disappearing in the music industry shuffle. Wynter Gordon’s debut single ‘Surveillance’ is a natural hit, but to our great dismay, Atlantic Records hasn’t realized what a gem they’re sitting on. In January, Wynter announced on her myspace page that the music video for ‘Surveillance’ had been shot. It hasn’t been released yet, which by the way is true for her debut album Wynter Time as well. Wynters profile at the Atlantic Records website is void of any information.

That’s hardly the back-up this song deserves, when the thing is just beautiful. The production works brilliantly with the lyrics, the synths going up and down like an EKG under the vocals, and the horns acting like exclamation marks after each line. And then, for the chorus, the whole thing simultaneously doubles in power and takes off into the air. Then it comes down again, only to repeat at the next chorus. An exhilarating ride, to say the least.

Let’s all hope that Wynter Gordon’s 2009 will be all that 2008 promised to be. With songs like this, she deserves all the success she can get.

Wynter Gordon - Surveillance

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In the shivering years at the turn of the millennium, boy bands were everywhere. The Backstreet Boys, ‘Nsync, Westlife and many more - they all contributed to give male vocal groups a bad name, or at least a more narrow audience: young teenage girls and nobody else. But since the decline of the boy band hysteria, the genre has returned to its rnb roots. Enter Git Fresh, the most charming rnb boy band we’ve seen in a decade. Their ‘Booty Music’ is a tribute to the raunchy Florida style of upbeat hiphop - perhaps not an ideal soundtrack for smooth lovemaking, unless you’re energetic like Git Fresh! As the point out: “Everybody don’t like it slow / consider me one of them folks”. The kick-drum is as sharp as anything from the dirty south, the acoustic guitar accompaniment sounds like an enchanting river, and the vocal melody is pure pop; this is music of creative contrasts. To hear a young sweet voice sing lines like “don’t stop, get it, get it/ pop that coochie, I’m-a hit it” - lyrics one expects to hear on a 2 Live Crew record - is as refreshing as it is irresistible. Git Fresh hits the spot.

Git Fresh - Booty Music

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Trey Songz sophomore album Trey Day from last year was supposed to take his career to the next level and introduce him to the broader masses. Sadly it failed to do so, despite a number of strong tracks and hits like ‘Can´t help but wait’, ‘Wonder woman’ and ‘Missing you’, it ended up selling about 350 000 copies in the US. That’s about 50 000 less than his debut album and 1 550 000 less than Chris Brown’s sophomore album which was released at the same time.

You could have imagined that Trey would try to commercialize and change up his image after a blow like that. Instead, he went back to his roots as the mixtape king of rnb and released remixes and versions of almost every big thing coming up this year. He´s featured on more than twenty hiphop songs as well which makes him one of the most sought after singers in the rap game right now.

Trey has truly showed us that he not only has the looks and voice but also the strong will, individuality, and talent to become the next big thing in rnb. Probably it´s just a matter of one massive hit to change everything for him. It takes guts to stick to your own thing like that and hopefully Trey will get the payoff he deserves.

The song we have chosen for the countdown really shows the broad range of styles and versatility Trey has. He´s not just a “rapper ternt sanga” but more like a singer with the mind of a rapper.

Trey Songz - Crazy

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Charlie Wilson is one of the very few artists of his generation who’s still relevant in the business today, even for the new generation of rnb fans. The only other I can think of is Ron Isley, and with him locked up in jail there’s no doubt of who’s the current king of modern “grown-man-soul”.

“Uncle Charlie” didn’t release his new album Supa Sexy in 2008, but he did show us that he still got what it takes. Except from doing a great job with the hook on Snoop’s ‘Can’t Say Goodbye’, he did at least three songs of his own that all have been going on heavy rotation in our iPods throughout the year. When it came down to picking just one, we went for ‘Jump In’. Not only is it one of the greatest ballads of the year, it’s also sung by one of the scenes greatest voices. It’s both impressive and a bit touching to hear Charlie, today 55 years old, singing about being scared of commitment with such emotion.

Credit should also be given to The Underdogs, who reportedly produced the song. Their type of production fit Charlie’s strong, soulful voice perfectly and hopefully there’ll be of their tracks on Supa Sexy, whenever it hit the stores. Do we dare to hope for an early 2009 release?

Charlie Wilson - Jump In (written by J. Fauntleroy, prod. by The Underdogs)

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A welcome change of pace for the oft-miserable queen of hiphop soul when it first reached our ears in 2007. ‘Just Fine’ was a revelation of positivy that left me smiling, feeling reassured that Mary J. Blige was not in fact suicidal even after all those gloomy songs about heartbreak and generally feeling like shit.

Then, early this year, Swizz Beatz played the role of matchmaker when he took Mary’s uncharacteristically upbeat tune and introduced it to ‘Treat ‘Em Right’, an infectious 18-year old rap song with a beat resembling that Bmore stuff that the kids love so much.

The offspring from this pairing came to be one of the most magnificient beasts you could encounter on a dance floor in 2008, with Mary’s shouting, wailing vocals riding the frantic club music drums of ‘Treat ‘Em Right’ to an apex of ass-shaking awesomeness.

Mary J. Blige - Just Fine (Swiss Beatz - Treat Em Right Remix)

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With a voice sounding like a combination of Lloyd and Trey Songz, and with a great feel for hooks and melodies, combined with being a incredible dancer, Gphonics could go far with some vocal training and a good manager (today he’s producing, writing and releasing his music all by himself).

Trey Songz has talked about his own music as rnb with a hiphop urge, a description also fitting for Gphonics sound. In a matter of fact, Gphonics style does resemble “Trey in thug mode” quite a lot, which you’ll hear on ‘Check My Swag’, his best track so far.

The album Mind Of A Man from last year might have been mediocre, but you could definitely hear he was on the track of something. If that something was a permanent sound and quality matching the amazing ‘Check My Swag’ or his other club banger ‘Love Me’ from this year, I can’t wait for his follow up album.

Gphonics - Check My Swag (prod. by Gphonics)

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Sean Garrett, through his songwriting, wonderfully links aggressive hiphop beats with sweet rnb melodies. Without him, the futuristic sounds of Polow da Don, Lil Jon and Swizz Beatz would probably never have transformed into the smash hits by Ciara, Usher and Beyoncé. He possesses a unique talent, which is why our expectations for his debut album as a solo artist, Turbo 919, were set up high. To me, the album was a disappointment, but it still contains the gem ‘Grippin’’, the Ludacris-featured single. A jazzy chord progression, a melody as sweet as honey and an intoxicating tempo – Sean Garrett attacks the song like a rapper – lead to a chorus that lights up any dancefloor. Luda impresses also, with his teasing delay of the last words of every phrase, and the beat-synched “Bang! Bang! Bang!” shout at the end. A defining moment of 2008.

Sean Garrett ft. Ludacris - Grippin’ (prod. by Sean Garrett)

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It hasn’t been a very good year for R. Kelly. The child pornography case made it impossible for him to promote his new album 12 Play: Fourth Quarter. It was supposed to be released in the summer but was instead leaked in its entirety in july and hasn’t even come out officially yet.

On the other hand he was cleared from all charges and can finally put the 8 year long process behind him. He stated that “Bin Laden is the only one who knows exactly what I’m going through” a couple of years ago so this must surely come as a big relief for him. Hopefully he´ll be able to focus totally on what he’s doing best from now on - being the king of dirty rnb music.

You might argue that his ability to adept to the current sound is the reason that he still wears the crown today. On the latest single ‘Skin’ he´s sounding more like The-Dream than even The-Dream himself has been doing lately. No shame in that but for me he’s at his best when he´s doing his own thing; pornographic soul. Thats the reason why i chose ‘Go Low’ as my favourite track of 12 Play: Fourth Quarter. Others might try to challenge but Kellz is still the best at this. Sipping, licking, bumping and grinding.

Just one question; do you ladies get aroused by this? It’s ok to answer anonymously…

R Kelly - Go Low

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In the presentation of this countdown, Sebastian predicted that autotune was doomed to lose its position in 2009, since it’s already reached its climax. Kanye West has always had an interesting status in the business- being able to transform small trends or upcoming tendencies into easy listening mainstream hits that even your mother sings in the shower. Therefore the overuse of this robot-voice-effect on his record 808’s & Heartbreaks is a quite surprising. The all-pleasing, getting-hipster-kids-to-love-hiphop-hit-machine released a record with a hysterical narrow theme, both in music and subject.

Overall, 808’s & Heartbreaks is quite fascinating. It’s brave and pleasing at the same time. And yes, it’s too much autotune. And yes, it’s too much self-pity. This guy is confused. But in some of these songs, for the first time, between the non-human robot-voice and the all-human-frustrated lyrics, you really get him. ‘Heartless’ is a outstanding example. I really hope that everyone that found this track boring and pop-ish gives it another chance. Cause in the end, we’ll all sob and blow our noses in last year’s gucciscarf.

Kanye West - Heartless (prod. by Kanye West)

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Rodney Jerkins has been one of the best producers in the rnb-game for the last ten years or so. He’s been working with some of the most talented artists on the planet and kept on delivering hit after hit. Every time you hear the name Darkchild whispered in the beginning of a song, you know that it stands for a certain quality. Yet there is one thing we’ll never understand. How come a genius like Rodney keeps on giving some of his very best work to a mediocre singer like Ray J? Every time Ray J releases an album, the only songs worth checking for are the ones with Darkchild written all over them. And there is little doubt that these songs could sound even better in the hands of a good performer.

This year’s Ray J-album All I Need was no exception. The Final Fantasy-sampled ‘Jumpoff’ has been - more or less - the only reason to be looking out for Ray J this year, and one of the finest collaborations between the two, ever. And while I still have a lot to say about Ray J’s ability as a singer, ‘Jumpoff’ is the kind of song that doesn’t take the best singer in the world to be a nice standout track.

Ray J - Jump Off (prod. by Darkchild)

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Instead of reaching for the Frank Sinatra hair piece, Ne-Yo covers his receding hair line with different hats, proclaiming 2008 to be “The year of the gentleman”. His latest album is a mixed bag, better than last years extremely mediocre effort, but still light years away from In My Own Words. I liked the singles ‘Closer’ and ‘Miss Independent’ as well as ‘Single’ (minus Polow da Dons nauseating kick pattern), but the Ne-Yo song that we will remember is, without a doubt, the beautiful, Stargate-driven, ‘Mad’. Classic soul music.

Ne-Yo - Mad (prod. by Stargate)

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This year has not only been a great depression for the world economy, it’s been a disaster in a aspect of rnb as well. Sure we’ve heard some fantastic songs, but in comparison with the last couple of years the lack of strong albums and hits is getting very obvious as we’re closing in on 2009. I put the blame on an identity crisis. Read more…