Not all American Urban Music is Vacuous Shit

Ever since I became a Soul Boy ...yeah yeah when Dinosaur's ruled the earth I know - at any given moment there have been a particular Paoduction crew who shaped the contemporary sound of their particular era
 From Norman Whitfield ( a genuine GENIUS)  with The Temptations ,Undisputed Truth etc through Willie Mitchell - Al Green ,Ann Peebles,Syl Johnson - through The Philly Sound onto Edwards and Rogers - Chic and Sister Sledge - to the might Jam & Lewis GOD I LOVE THEIR SOUND STILL - through our very own Jazzie B to Teddy Riley ( new jack swing ) Timberland ,Redone and beyond........twas ever thus.
 Once the Soul crowd found a sound they like everyone wanted it until one day a new sound arrived and everyone wanted that........it wasn't that they no longer like the old sound but we Soul boys and Girls LOVE a new beat,don't we ?
 About 15 years ago in the States it came to pass- with the proliferation of media outlets -that more music was required to feed the machine....now logic says that there just ain't that much good music to go around ,hence standards dropped and some real shit started to get played,and the decline has been steady and steep .What was the last decent album you heard from an American Soul artist ? Check the liner notes and you will see that the same writers and Producers at re on every album........what you won't know - coz you're not in the business like me- is that often the Producers assistants do all the work then the Producer takes all the credit....thats how they manage to make 15 records at a time ...Simples !
 An exception to this rule of diminshing returns is The-Dream aka Terius Youngdell Nash whose latest album - Love King - is an excellent modern American Urban album.
 I first heard of him when he and his partner Tricky ( NOT Bristol Tricky ) Produced Umbrellla for Rhianna and Single Ladies for the world's sexiest woman ........Oh My Lord she is HOT ! !
 His first album Love Hate came out in 2007 ,his second ,the excellent Love v Money 2 years later
 Cast your prejudices aside and listen
 This has been a public service announcement
The Soul Guru Loves YOU x