.::theVault::.

.::The Vault::.

I'll let the newer skool setup the old skool, my preference (so I start things off old skool as we know/remember. But regardless.. these are the best of my entire library of love songs! Try to follow my messages throughout this playlist, it's in the titles through the lyrics in the music.

I share with you some of my fondest memories and experiences all summed in some of the greatest songs. I'm sure a lot of ya'll will relate and share the musical experience.

Roll yourself a nice one for this, and let your mind revisit through some of the greatest gems hard to find and sadly forgotten! Ya'll that have some of these same songs... u' feel me! Other than that, these are just handpicked favorites of albums to come I'll be sharing with ya'll if you don't already have it.

What you think.. Here's a list of the tracks:

THESE are some of the greatest records, both new and old that all of you should have in your libraries. If not, stay tuned for the entire albums and more gems from the Vault. lol

You WILL enjoy!

mrMrcs

::COMING TO THE STAGE:: What Hip-Hop Needs... a Divine Intervention

A Sunday Review

Every Sunday I'll be looking for powerful art(ists) and music to share with the world. As this is the debut of my blog, I'm happy to start off the series wit my little bro all the way from Ohio!

Hip-Hop is coming back... and stronger than ever! A musical masterpiece to enlighten the ignorant indeed, lyrically tailored to speak the many minds of our generation, and musically perfected to attract audiences of all genres|races|cultures. Perhaps all we needed all along was such an intervention. Ladies & Gentlemen, and infants, of hip-hop.. I present to you, live and all the way from Ohio...My mans Mike Amaddio and Jerrell Johnson, together forming a unique brand, otherwise known as Divine Minds!

After having this album on my iPod and damn near on repeat for about a week and a half now, I couldn't wait to share this with the world. Imagining myself being totally blind to how music has contributed to our cultures, Divine Intervention is a key gem in making it all crystal clear and putting things back into perspective!

Divine Minds is a hip-hop duo consisting of an MC and producer from Cleveland, OH. Black J, the MC, and Mike A, the producer, have been lifelong friends and lifelong music fanatics; however, it was not until after their graduation from Shaker Heights High School in 2004 that they joined forces to begin creating music of their own. Years later, with a great deal of recording and performing experience under their belts, Black J and Mike A are ready to take the world of music by storm with a divine sound and a heavy debut album, “Divine Intervention” (available to download at the following link). Keep an eye and an ear out for these gentlemen because there is plenty of great music to be heard from them for a long time to come.

I don't hesitate one bit in urging all of you to download the free copy of DM's debut album. In fact, I'm making it that much easier for you to download by simply clicking on the title above, which is a direct hyperlink to their download. Of course I'd say be sure to listen from beginning to end as it takes your mind on an intellectual adventure.. but maybe that was just my experience with cali bud! In all honesty, check out: Arms Reach, Quote This or That's Cool, which has been on repeat more.

If you can give me ONE good reason why this album is not hott or why it doesn't deserve the hype that it does, then I will take down the post and resign... SIKE... it aint happenin! Download it, hear it, love it, learn it and pass it!

click the above title for dwnld link. you WILL enjoy!

Johnnie Taylor - Your Love Is Rated X

Johnnie Harrison Taylor (born May 5, 1937, Crawfordsville, Arkansas; died May 31, 2000, Dallas, Texas) was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from gospel, blues and soul to pop, doo-wop and disco.

Taylor had one release, “Somewhere to Lay My Head”, on Chicago’s Chance Records in the 1950s, as part of the doo-wop group Five Echoes.Taylor was also part of the gospel group,The Highway QC’s also,replacing Sam Cooke,who had become the lead singer of the Soul Stirrers in 1951.Then,after Cooke left the Soul Stirrers in 1957,Taylor was hired to take Cooke’s place as lead singer.

A few years later, after Cooke had established his independent SAR Records, Taylor signed on and recorded “Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day” in 1962. However, SAR Records quickly became defunct after Cooke’s death in 1964.

In 1966, Taylor moved to Stax Records in Memphis, where he was dubbed “The Philosopher of Soul”. While there he recorded with the label’s house band, Booker T. & the MGs. His hits included “I Had a Dream”, “I’ve Got to Love Somebody’s Baby” (both written by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter) and most notably “Who’s Making Love?”, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Top 40 and No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1968. During his tenure at Stax, he became an R&B star, with over a dozen chart successes, such as “Cheaper to Keep Her” (Mack Rice) and producer Don Davis’s “I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)”.

After Stax folded in the mid 1970s, Taylor switched to Columbia Records, where he made his best-known hit, “Disco Lady”, in 1976. “Disco Lady” was the first certified platinum single. Columbia pigeonholed Taylor as a disco artist, however, and neglected his wide-ranging talent. Not surprisingly, his record sales slipped.

After a brief stint at Beverly Glen Records, Taylor signed with Malaco Records after the label’s founder Tommy Couch and producing partner Wolf Stephenson heard him sing at blues singer Z.Z. Hill’s funeral in the spring of 1984. Backed by members of The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section as well as in-house veterans like former Stax keyboardist Carson Whitsett, Malaco gave Taylor the type of recording freedom that Stax had given him in the late 1960s and early 1970s, enabling him to record ten albums for the Malaco label in his sixteen year stint. Taylor’s record sales were good but not enough for the singer to receive the measure of stardom he once had.

In 1996, Taylor’s eighth album for Malaco, Good Love!, made it to Number One on Billboard’s Blues chart (#15 R&B), the biggest record in Malaco’s history.
Malaco recorded a live video of Taylor at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas in the summer of 1997.

Johnnie Taylor’s 1999 album, “Gotta Get the Groove Back”, also reached the # 1 Position on the Billboard Blues Charts. This album which featured veteran songwriter, Lamar Thmas (Woman don’t be Afraid) was also a Grammy Nominated album during the same year that Johnnie passed.

Taylor was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1999. He died in Dallas at the age of 63.

In what would turn out to be a sad foreshadowing, Taylor’s final song was “Soul Heaven”, in which he dreamed of being at a concert featuring deceased Soul music icons Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, and MGs drummer Al Jackson, among others. In one verse, Taylor sang, “I didn’t want to wake up/I was havin’ such a good time”.

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Definitely one of those voices that just pierce right down to the soul. As soon as the needle drops... ya feel me? get a copy and let me know what you think.

click the above link for dwnld. enjoy!

Ann Peebles - Part Time Love

The title track was a masterpiece, and everything else on this dynamic early '70s soul session is a jewel. Ann Peebles may have been the most overlooked great soul singer, male or female, who emerged in the '70s. Hi couldn't strike crossover goldtwice, and Al Green was becoming a superstar. But Peebles deserved a better fate than obscurity, as this collection of soul wailers and weepers proves.

Click the above title for dwnld. enjoy!