Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      What's 2021's best-selling album? Here's a hint. It was released just weeks ago.   For a second straight week--- Adele's 30 sits atop the Billboard 100. Number one in nearly twenty countries, its first week numbers surpassed total sales of all music released this year. O ccupying every corner of consumer real estate from streaming platforms to CD/vinyl racks in retail store s, 30  is the only album in 2021 to sell a million copies.  Cannily released months before an already sold-out upcoming winter Vegas residency where she's projected to pocket 2M per show (there's 24 of them), Adele's uninterrupted trajectory continues after 13 years; surviving the transitional industry tidal wave of the late 2000s/early aughts capsizing the careers of many r

                                                     New Edition’s appearance with fellow Bostonians NKOTB on last night’s American Music Awards was a full circle moment, continuing the string of victories continuing to tip the scales in their favor after decades of career ups-and-downs. During NE's early years, one-sided management deals devoured their royalties and performance earnings. As NKTOB became millionaires, NE languished in financial purgatory. Group implosions grounded lucrative career take-offs. As the years came and went, others passed them by and reaped rewards that were always just beyond their grasp.   Fast forward to 2021.  A pair of TV biopics, a partnership with a high-powered Hollywood agency and a looming Vegas residency have rebooted R&B’s greatest entertainment franchise embodying lyrics to their 90s celebratory anthem Oh Yeah It Feels So Good:   Now the come has come/to return as one/ and its never been better.                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Cameo's platinum-selling Word Up! turns 35 this week. Casual fans and newcomers may consider them one-album wonders but longtime Cameo devotees recognize the record as the group's crowning achievement after over a decade of delivering hits.  In the 70s, Cameo was one of many funk bands on the horizon lodged between the twin pillars Parliament-Funkadelic and Earth, Wind and Fire.Featuring a fierce rhythm and horn section fronted by revolving lead vocalists from tenor Anthony Lockett, falsetto and the baritone growl of group leader Larry Blackmon, the band spun off initial hits between 1977-1978.  Hitting their stride with '79's Secret Omen, Cameo's first gold album saw them move away from the traditional sound of their contempo

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Six miles separates rough-and-tumble East Flatbush from gentrified Williamsburg. A short distance, yet many worlds apart. Through five mayoral administrations, a trifecta of crime, homicide and drugs swept through East Flatbush like a cyclone. At the center of it all were the Vanderveer Estates, one of the most notorious housing projects in NYC during the Eighties and Nineties crack era.   H ead north along Flatbush Avenue. A couple turns and some thirty minutes later, heavy traffic gives way to hip bars, trendy boutiques and pricey real estate. Peter Luger's Steak House, still in business after 134 years, anchors the area. Glassy apartment buildings sparkle like emerald-cut diamonds.  Behold the urban oasis that is Williamsburg. Michael K. Wi

                                                                                                                                             Biz Markie's low-profile final year shielded him from prying eyes and public pity. Occasional whispers and premature death announcements be damned--- Biz's eventual passing is a major blow for hip hop and reminder of rap's mortality. An overwhelming number of legendary artists are passing from this earth on the cusp or in the midst of middle age. Two words sum up his legacy: Biz Is. To the mainstream, he's the court jester tethered to a classic song that lives on thirty-two years after its release. To Biz's inner circle, he'll forever be that the mysterious drifter who turned up in Queens, Harlem, Brooklyn, Long Island and New Jersey during rap's embryonic moments. A traveling hip hop hologram of sorts, Biz's sense of timing is immaculate. While hanging at Wyandanch High in Long Island, he saw Kid Wizard spit rhyme

Verzuz' greatest moments occur when the spotlight shines on Black music legends of decades past. The recent Bobby Brown- Keith Sweat battle carries on that tradition. From viewer reaction and even without a major hit in years---the legend of both singers still burns brightly.  Brown enjoys a higher profile---thanks to  much-documented trials, tribulations, and hard-fought triumphs compared to Sweat's  flurry of press coverage (see September '92 Ebony Magazine  piece "Can A Mailroom Clerk from The Projects Find Happiness and Stardom in 2 Atlanta Dream Houses?"). The Harlem crooner's  pedigree lies not in a high-profile persona or across-the-board crossover moments, but in a catalog of durable hits standing the test of time.  Usually linked to fellow New Jack Swing arbiter Teddy Riley, Keith Sweat is more than a seminal architect of R&B's future. He's also a throwback to its past. Born in '61 (or '56 if you do the interview math), Sweat mode