J. Highsmith

The sequel to "My Life" comes 17 years later, December 28, 2011

I have been a fan of Mary J. Blige since What's the 411 was released in 1992. I was impressed by the hip hop samples that were made to make her uptempo and midtempo songs and I was also impressed by the slow jams like "I Don't Want To Do Anything" with K-Ci. In 1994, Mary J. released my favorite r&b album of all time, My Life. I was impressed by the way Mary J., Puffy, Chucky Thompson, etc. were able to channel all of what Mary was going through, which at the time appeared to be nothing positive and still be able to create an album that anyone, man or woman, could relate… Read more

Grown man music 101, October 18, 2011

After Little Brother's "Curtain Call" and the r&b flavor of Authenticity, I was definitely curious to see what Phonte's next move would be. Then I began to hear word that Phonte would be making a solo album and that him and 9th Wonder had reconciled and they would be doing some work together on Phonte's solo debut album. I figured that I would hear an equal balance between what Phonte did with Little Brother and what he has done on the 3 Foreign Exchange albums. Surprisingly, with a few exceptions, Phonte sticks to rhyming. "Charity Starts At Home" gets off to a good start with "Dance In The Reign". Phonte sets the stage for… Read more

"Watch The Throne" could have been better but if you take the release for what it is, it's pretty good., August 24, 2011

When I first heard that Jay Z & Kanye West were working on a collaborative album, I immediately thought of songs like "Never Let Me Down" from Kanye's debut, College Dropout, "Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)" from Kanye's 2nd CD, Late Registration, "Run This Town" & "Hate" from Jay Z's last solo effort, Blueprint 3, & "So Appalled" & "The Joy" from Kanye's G.O.O.D. Friday series, which were released prior to his last solo effort, My Beautiful Dark Twisted… Read more