Throwback Thursday Is Here...

I miss the R&B groups of the late 80s and 90s. They combined great music from producers that knew how to highlight and expose the talents of the artists with artist that blended their talents into timeless classics. Most of the groups didn’t have singers that could survive as an established soloist. But as part of a group, their sound blended perfectly.

Now everyone wants to be a solo act. I don’t know how or why the industry took such a dramatic shift and the R&B group faded away like a dinosaur. But imagine if some of these artists (a term I use loosely) got together and collaborated, without relying on a featured hip hop artist to carry the song for radio and club play. I love hip hop but at one point in the early 2000s I swore Ja Rule was on every song, then it was Lil’ Wayne and now it’s Drake or Nicki Minaj.

Think about it. How many soloist really have the talent to carry an album and release something with more than 2 decent songs in today’s music industry? I can only think of a few. I’d prefer to see Omarion, Chris Brown, Mario, Tory Lanez and Trey Songz perform as a super group than to have them release song after song that sound like remakes of their last radio release.

Just think of all the talent that we had to listen to in the late 80s and 90s when it came strictly to groups. I am probably biased but I consider it a really special time in R&B music. Besides the 60s and early 70s reign of Motown, I can’t think of a better time period of R&B music. Here’s the roster of “some” of the talent we had out there.

Boyz II Men	Color Me Badd	Xscape	Jodeci
New Edition	After 7	Silk	DeBarge
Guy	Ready For The World	H-Town	BBD
Troop	SWV	Blackstreet	Soul II Soul
Mint Condition	TLC	Shai	Tony Toni Tone
Force MDs	En Vogue	Zhane	Brownstone
Hi Five	Jade	Total	Changing Faces

So yes it’s Throwback Thursday and I’m sitting at my desk at work, digging in the digital crates on my mobile phone’s music app and enjoying the music I grew up with. Just wanted to share my thoughts with you. Anxious to hear your feedback. Peace!

The Power of Words

The Power of Words

                The other day I was driving and listening to Jimmy Evans. I have been trying to navigate through some pretty dark waters, waters that I am responsible for polluting, and I was guided to listen to him and his messages about love, marriage and positive and productive relationships. (Thanks Val)

One of his videos hit me right between the eyes, actually several did but one in particular resonated with me because I like to think of myself as a writer. He was talking about how what we say can have a profound effect on others. How the words we speak can build, give birth and nurture or tear down, stifle and destroy.

I have used my words poorly over the past few years. I love to write. It unlocks and taps into a part of me that I really believe is my gift from God. But it also allows me to escape, to disappear and to avoid life. I have used my words, spoken and written, to conjure realities that gave me a false sense of security, a false sense of connection and a false sense of self-worth. I see now that my words and the actions that accompanied them were creating and giving birth to a mask, to a false reality while it was also tearing down and destroying my connection to loved ones, to friends, to God and to myself.

I am on a new journey. I am dedicating my energy to being more genuine with my words and also making sure that my actions match those words. I want to be the best husband, father, friend, son, brother and man that I can be. But none of those things are realistic goals if I can’t first be the best Jermal I can be. I am not writing this to recruit cheerleaders, to search for sympathy or to initiate a dialogue among those that read it. I am simply writing it because my words will be the seeds of my actions. These words are words that I will measure myself against. These words are just the beginning…