Artist Spotlight: Musiq Soulchild

I drive a Hyundai Santa Fe (don’t laugh; it’s a good little SUV)…and in it is what they have named a Monsoon radio. That basically means that I have surround sound. What convinced me (well, one of the things) was when I test drove it, I popped in one of my Jay-Z CDs and turned up the volume and got the sounds that I liked…I like to play like I’m thumping as I ride along down the street and this little SUV gives me that feeling without breaking any sound barriers.

I tell you all that to tell you that my little car stereo has me in love with this song. I loved it when I heard it the first time, but you know how you hear a song in the car and it instantly sounds better? I mean, it gets into every pore in your body and you feel it from the inside out? That’s how I felt…I was sitting in the car waiting for my son to finish his basketball practice and this song came my mp3 player which I have hooked up to my Monsoon stereo system…in my Hyundai Santa Fe:

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In my opinion, the best music from Musiq is this latest CD, OnMyRadio. It is chock full of delicious ballads and tasty dance grooves. But more than that, he tests his limits on this CD. I feel his soul here…powerful stuff.

I recall his introduction to the music world. Something fresh and new was Musiq. He joined the plethora of neo-soul musicians hitting the scene back then, with a pure voice and a sound straight out of Philly. That first CD…you could hear the grind, the hustle in his music. You knew that he clawed his way to get to his music and it showed. Not that it was bad…no, it was good. That’s the point. His passion showed through. I will admit that “Love” wore on my nerves after awhile, because it seemed like every karaoke bar and every non-singing singer tried to sing it. I even went to a funeral once where some chick attempted it…it wasn’t good. But this CD held some gems…like this one:

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Jill Scott and Musiq make me wish I was born and raised in Philly…for real. And that I could pour my emotions into words and harmonies and music like them…just thought I’d throw that in there.

I hold on to these musicians who are true artists at the core, because they are surrounded by those who seemingly abuse the music and rape it like the criminals they boast about being on their songs, in their videos, with their personae. Give me a man at a piano any day over some dude with his pants hanging half off his ass and a big ass chain hanging off his neck that he spent all of his royalty check on. I am in love with the music…I appreciate someone who is too.