The Best You Never Heard, this week, serves up little known gems by Rihanna, Amerie, Mario and LeToya. Do you have any suggestions for future instalments? Drop me an email at sam@thatgrapejuice.net ———————————————–
Rihanna – Music Of The Sun
Though seemingly a distant memory, the Rihanna that burst on to the scene just three years ago had yet to have her Bajan roots (musically) diluted. A great example of this is ‘Music of The Sun’ the title track of her 2005 debut. With its Caribbean flavoured production and laid back feel, the track still stands as one of my favourite Rihanna tracks – not that that means much LOL
Listen: Music Of The Sun
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Amerie – When Loving You Was Easy
I’ve made no secret of my belief that Amerie’s last effort, 2007’s ‘Because I Love It’, was criminally slept on. Serving up a solid selection of box-fresh hits, it’s shame things didn’t pan out as they should have with the record. One of the album’s best offerings IMO was the C-Note produced ‘When Loving You Was Easy’. Raw, impassioned and boasting a fantastic vocal performance by Amerie, the track was one of my personal highlight’s from what is an awesome album.
Listen: When Loving You Was Easy
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Mario – Lay In My Bed
As with Amerie (above), Mario delivered with ‘Go!’ – his third studio album – one of last year’s most underrated LP’s IMO. Solid from start to finish, one of the record’s standout cuts is the Polow Da Don produced ‘Lay In My Bed’. In an industry which sees its veterans boast about being the pioneers of ‘Baby Making Music’, Mario definitely shows, with this one, that the young’uns can hang too.
Listen: Lay In My Bed
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LeToya – All Eyes On Me (ft. Pall Wall)
There’s no doubt LeToya’s solo success was one of the biggest stories to emerge from 2006. Indeed, the former Destiny’s Child star silenced the naysayers and critics, delivering a very solid debut, which spawned the smash ‘Torn’. It was the JR Rotem produced ‘All Eyes On Me’, though, that stands as my highlight from the record. The high-octane production – which LeToya rides effortlessly – is overly infectious. This is how a club banger should be done. Good stuff.
Listen: All Eyes On Me (ft. Paul Wall)
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Your thoughts: Hit(s) or Miss(es)?
![Did You Miss It? Jennifer Hudson Stunned with Debut Performance of Original Holiday Song 'Santa for Someone' [Watch]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/jennifer-hudson-gift-love-thatgrapejuice-2024-santa-someone-1-464x260.jpg "Did You Miss It? Jennifer Hudson Stunned with Debut Performance of Original Holiday Song 'Santa for Someone' [Watch].")
That Amerie song is the bomb .. iloved that album
I like Mario and Amerie..
latoya is the s***. cant wait for her new album
LeToya betta come with it on the next LP. All in all LeToya whole album was the ish.
I LIKED AMERIES ALBUM, LETS HOPETHE MOVE TO DEF JAM HELPS HER
AND THE MARIO ALBUM IS BRILLIANT
AND SO ARE MOST OF THE SONGS THAT DIDNT MAKE IT ON THE ALBUM
i agree completely. “Because I Love It” was one of the greatest albums released (used loosely) last year, and it didn’t get the promo it deserved. “When Loving You Was Easy” was/is definitely one of my favorites off the album.
I agree w/ the Amerie comment; hopefully her move to Def Jam will help, and i can’t wait to listen to the song!
This site is famous for blasting hater words to RIRI. The last time I check out of all the four people you listed in this little square RIRI is the only one with number one hits, party’s being thrown by GUCCI, a COver GIrl model… Basically the rest are played and whatever your opinion of her as to what she should look like and sound like, SHE IS PAID!!!!!!! We love you RIRI keep Doing you and by the way DISTURBIA is number 3 on America Itunes Chart!!!! I smellanother number one hit!!!! That’s what’s up HATERS!!!!!
LeToya’s song is definitely a banger. It should have been a single. Well maybe not, because some ignorant messy people would probably end up comaring it to Naughty Girl. But anyway, I still bump that til this day as well as other songs on her debut album.
Amerie’s song is nice as well. She definitely has a good ear for hot material and how to arrange an album. Now all she needs is promotion. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that she will get it with Def Jam next year. Hopefully what she said in her song “Blow” will come true. lol 🙂