Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

  Am I eternal or eternalist? Rakim's rhetorical reflection from 1988's Follow The Leader finds the God MC pondering his place in hip-hop history. While Ra's legacy is solidified, rap's historical highlight reel moves at the speed of light, omitting major players of the game. Jalil Hutchins is one of those major players. Many don't know the name but they know at least one of the classics that sprang from  his mighty pen and fertile mind that are part of the Great American Rap and Black Music Songbook.  To put things in perspective; to all the outsiders reading this essay---think Gershwin and Berlin. For those in the know--- think Sly Stone. Smokey Robinson. Gamble and Huff.  Many emcees had hot lines. Jalil had hot songs: " Friends". "One Love". "Freaks Come Out At Night". "Five Minutes of Funk". These songs inspired two decades of R&B and hip-hop samples,  remakes, and interpolations.  Go to whosampled.com  and sip from J...

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...

“From century to century/you’ll remember me/in history, not a mystery /but a memory.” The poetic value of these lyrics are uncontested but they would prove to be just as prophetic. Twenty-seven years ago this month, Eric B. and Rakim dropped Follow the Leader , the follow up to their debut Paid in Full (1987). Released on the heels of seminal two-sided single Eric B is President/My Melody (1986), Paid in Full was a departure from other mid-eighties Hip Hop albums like Radio and Raising Hell.   Instead of the booming b-boy anthems that sounded as if they were delivered from the heavens, Rakim moved mountains with a syncopated flow and intricate rhyme patterns, setting a new standard for lyricism catapulting him to the top of the heap of rap's elite emcees. Released on July 26, 1988, Follow the Leader continued the group's trailblazing ways advancing their brand of esoteric sophisticated street poetry. Souls of Black Notes does the knowledge and explores a bon...