Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

"You know what you need to learn/old school artists don't always burn/you're just another rapper who's had his turn" I'm Still #1 ---Boogie Down Productions (1988) In just four bars, BDP lead rapper KRS-One delivered a dead-on dissertation of rap music's stylistic changeover and constant turnover of its ever-evolving cast of characters. Early deejays and emcees were supplanted by seminal figures who delivered rap's first recorded hits. It happened again when Run-D.M.C---Joey "Run" Simmons, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and deejay Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell emerged in '83 with game-changing two-sided single "It's Like That /Sucker MC's". The record's big-beat sound abruptly ended the party-rocking Sugar Hill/Enjoy style. Now the legendary group was on the ropes as rap's Golden Age was approaching.  Part of the seminal class of '84 along with Whodini and the Fat Boys...

 In April 1986, Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All was rising fast on the charts. Released a few weeks earlier as the final single from her triple-platinum debut Whitney Houston album, it was looking to be every bit the success of her previous hits like You Give Good Love, How Will I Know, and Saving All My Love For You. Composed, arranged, and produced by Michael Masser and lyrics penned by Linda Creed, Houston’s thrilling rendition of the 1977 original is permanently lodged in the public consciousness but the song's history and lyrical inspiration have been lost with time.               By 1976, Linda Creed was looking to spread her wings. As a staff writer at Philadelphia International Records, she joined forces with producer Thom Bell’s to create some of the greatest songs in the Philly Soul songbook.  In just four and a half years they'd racked up over 20 platinum and gold singles and albums. Creed was just twenty-t...

                                                                                                         Songwriting credits in today’s music industry read like names of prestigious law firms. It’s not uncommon to list five or six names as co-writers. Factor in samples/ interpolations and the number grows---a far cry from the days when writing and production teams were crews who worked in twos (and threes).  Ask your typical music aficionado these days to run down their short list of great songwriting tandems and they just might stop at LA and Babyface or Jam and Lewis and overlook the prolific genius predating contemporary R&B.                   ...