Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

In 1988, Don’t Be Cruel  hit the record industry  like Halley’s Comet, and for a brief moment in time Bobby Brown was R&B’s new king.  Cruel's  success established the former  New Edition member as a viable commercial act. The album followed in the footsteps of  Michael Jackson’s trilogy of ground-breaking long players  Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad —albums  that rocked back to back with no filler.  Like Off The Wall , Cruel was Brown’s triumphant coming-out party. Just as Thriller was Jackson’s crowning moment, Cruel was Brown’s greatest success, catapulting him into a global superstar and Jackson’s possible heir apparent .  While all roads leading to Jackson-like comparisons seem far fetched in 2014, twenty-six years ago, Brown’s career was off to a great start. Cruel bested producer Quincy Jones’ attempt to craft a tougher sound for Bad.   The commercial appeal of the third installment of the...

                                         “Reagan is the Prez /but I voted for Shirley Chisolm”                                                 “Nobody Beats The Biz” --- Biz Markie (1987) The Diabolical One’s conscious couplet wasn’t just a slick one-liner delivered nearly thirty years ago. It was a hip hop salute for a historical moment that wasn’t lost on the Long Island emcee who was only eight years old when Shirley Chisolm became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1972.   History shows little love for Chisolm’s defining moment despite the fact she predated Geraldine Ferraro’s addition to the ’84 ticket and Jesse Jackson’s consecutive runs in ’84 and ’88. Upper-echelon male-dominated politic...