With the Easter break etc, there has been a succession of ‘slow news days’ as of late. So I thought now would be a good time to introduce a new site feature I’ve had in mind for a while now. Set to be a once weekly feature, ‘The Best You Never Heard’ will showcase great songs that aren’t known (as much as they should be) to the masses. This week’s edition features Diddy, Janet Jackson, Craig David and Keisha White…
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Diddy – Special Feeling (ft. Mika)
Lifted from Diddy’s 2006 effort ‘Press Play’, this uptempo 80’s throwback cut is perhaps the best track I’ve heard from him as an artist. Not even Diddy’s lacklustre flow can take away from this top notch production.
Listen: Special Feeling
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Janet Jackson – R&B Junkie
Often overlooked due to the now-infamous ‘wardrobe malfunction’, Janet Jackson’s 2004 LP ‘Damita Jo’ is arguably one of her most solid efforts to date. ‘R&B Junkie’ is undoubtedly one of the set’s standout tracks. A funky R&B/Pop fusion, the track could easily have been a single then or even now. Good stuff.
Listen: R&B Junkie
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Craig David – Take ‘Em Off
UK star Craig David is oft criticized by the UK industry for for “selling out” to the US sound, hence his current predicament (struggling on the charts). I actually have no problem with Craig’s embrace of the US sound, considering it yielded the fantastic ‘Take ‘Em Off’. The Underdogs produced song, which was in heavy rotation on UK urban radio in 2005, sounds similar to Marques Houston’s ‘Naked’…just a whole lot better.
Listen: Take ‘Em Off
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Keisha White – The Weakness In Me
British R&B songstress Keisha White served up her best effort yet back in 2006 with her cover of Joan Armatrading’s ‘The Weakness In Me’. Sung beautifully, it’s a shame the track didn’t garner the attention it truly deserved.
Listen: The Weakness In Me
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Your thoughts: Hit(s) or Miss(es)?
I LOVE Keisha White soooooo much, i’ve met her several times and she is really nice. I have both her albums and Out Of My Hands is a really GREAT album!!!
The Weakness In Me made top 20, with no promotion what so ever. The song could have been Top 10 with promotion. I hope one day she will be noticed…her voice is beautiful!!!
“R&B junkie” certainly wasn’t the best I never heard, because I KILLED the song to death. I love it. I actually would’ve fit nicely on Discipline.
Damita Jo was an okay album, but it certainly wasn’t her best. But the songs that were good, were solid. “R&B junkie” and “SloLove” were my favourite songs. They would’ve made great singles.
This is awesome, I hope you make this a regular feature?
this has to be a feature weekly and i LOVED R&B Junkie, the other songs i’m ont familiar with, that’s why u put em up lol but THAT SONG WENT SOO HARD AND THE FOLLOW OF THE CD, IT WAS ‘ALL NITE, DON’T STOP’, THEN ‘R&B JUNKIE’, THEN ‘I WANT YOU’, THEN ‘LIKE YOU DON’T LOVE ME’, I LOVED THAT CD!!!
ummm… The Weakness In Me was first done by Joan Armatrading not Melissa Etheridge…and to think we rely on you 4 music knowledge
thanks so much for this…..r&b junkie is the business…..and i’ve been looking for this version of weakness in me for a long time. great feature.
R&B JUNKIE! What can I SAY? That has been me and my mother’s song since “Damita Jo” was released. The sad thing is “R&B JUNKIE” was a single and was just overlooked. Definitely a hot track!
OMG, I love R&B Junkie. It’s one of my favorite songs from the Damita Jo album. I agree with Random J, this song would have fit nicely with her new album.
Sung beautifully, it’s a shame the track didn’t garner the attention it truly deserved. I read this at http://www.blackwhitekiss.com **** for black and whit chat gossip..
I’m a huge fan of Craig David here in the states. His latest album has my all-time favorite song by him: Just A Reminder, plus a few other hits. As for Keisha White, I also loved her “The Weakness In Me” two years ago and put all my friends on to it. I think the UK has put out some of the best r&b music of the past 3 years with artists like Simon Webbe, Lemar, Keshia White, Nathan, Leona Lewis, Corinne Bailey Rae, Adele, Duffy, Amy Winehouse and many others. As soon as the dollar’s value recovers, I’ll be making a much needed return visit to the UK!
Yo,
That Diddy track is a jam, taken from a totally underrated album – while not musically his best – Press Play was a production MASTERPIECE!
Like the new feature
M@rk
http://www.urbanreview.co.uk
“Weakness in Me” is my jam! I love this song!
What about Jamelia? such an underrated artsist, especially with her last album, look out for her new album guys coming later on this year!
Diddy song was great with Mika but I could have done without Diddy’s so-called rapping.