soul

CLEVELAND’S OWN AVANT RETURNS WITH NEW HIT SINGLE, NEW ALBUM…

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Avant

New album. CAN WE FALL IN LOVE, available July 10.

If you’re anything like us here at UGD, you been long awaiting the return of our very own Avant! It’s been a minute since this brother has hit us with a new jam, but we’re happy to report the wait is OVER!

Yes, Avant has a new single, AND a new album dropping.
"CAN WE FALL IN LOVE", is an open-letter with raw honesty and intensity. Returning once again to add his signature style, producer Travis Sayles (Dark Child Productions) joins forces with Avant's songwriting and lead vocals. The album will be available for release on Friday, July 10th, via the MO-B Entertainment/SRG ILS Group/UMG label imprint and is available for pre-orders now at CAN WE FALL IN LOVE. With the pre-sale download, fans are now able to exclusively download and stream to the new song, "EDIBLE"

A songwriter, producer, and label owner of MO-B Entertainment, Avant has traveled a long and steady path from being the first artist on Magic Johnson's record label to starting his own label. He is grateful to be in a unique situation in his career, maintaining control in business and creative freedom. Recently, AVANTachieved one of the biggest accomplishments in today's music industry as his catalog has been streamed over 1.8 Billion times on Pandora.

Featured songs such as "You Don't Love Me No More" reminds us of the challenges of maintaining adversities in relationships, says Avant. "I was having a spat with my lady," he recalls. "It's so many cell phones and distractions that take away your attention from a relationship. It makes you feel like, "Am I here for the kids, the bills--what is it?' I don't feel that presence of love anymore. I was going with that. I wanted to make sure it had a hip hop feel to it. I could've made it a full R&B song, but I didn't want to make another "Separated" either. I wanted to include old school R&B, with the harmonies and notes where they were placed with the horn. It gives you a feel of authentic soul music."

The Cleveland native steps back in time with "Not Gone Lose," a tribute to an era which Avant elegantly conveys bringing us back to when ballads were the cornerstone of bringing Black families together. He explains, "I'm speaking from our generation. If we want to go back to the Ray Charles or Smokey Robinson era, it had a pinch of the true soul to it. That's what I was going with on this album." 
With standout songs, "All In My Head," "Edible," and "Take It Slow," both written to appeal to a cross-generational audience--it drives home why Avant is a dynamic songwriter.

For nearly two decades, AVANT has blazed a trail with hits, "Read Your Mind," "My First Love," and "Separated". "It's a different time in the world today and I’m trying to get people back to what real R&B is about. Not just making love but being in love, what happened to that? I think it's important that we delve back into those kinds of things," mentions AVANT.

AVANT remembers talking to the legendary singer, Charlie Wilson, where he offered him the best advice. "You should always keep your mind fresh, but you also want to stay with the people who know you. It’s important to stay involved with our generation and younger followers to keep my mind open," remembers Avant.

When many artists have fallen to the wayside, AVANT continues to stay consistent in creating great music. "Can We Fall In Love" is a testimony to why his fan-base is so loyal to his craft.

"I can't change who I am, so I have to give you exactly who Avant is all the time. That's my main goal when I sit down to record an album. I want to give you that interpretation of what this life is about," he adds. "This album is about the work the work that it takes to make a relationship work. There are good things and there are bad things, but if there is love, then that is the beginning of fixing the issues".

EDIBLE Audio

R&B SONGSTRESS @PORCELANMUSIC DROPS NEW VIDEO FOR 'ACT OUT'...

You’ve heard the smash hit, now it’s time to see the visual that accompanies! Yep, R&B songstress Porcelan has dropped the visual for her new single ‘Act Out’, and you know it’s hot like fire! The "ACT OUTdont-mess-with-me music video was directed by Hotkey Studios and is available now on all streaming and download platforms, via the Made In Memphis Entertainment/Beat Root label imprint.

"The inspiration behind the music video for “Act Out”, was one of my favorite 90's movies “A Thin Line Between Love and Hate", mentions Porcelan. "I wanted to capture the intensity of how broken she was from her past and how he came along and made her think he was different, all while he was playing games the entire time," she adds.

Video

"Act Out" is the follow-up buzz single to PORCELAN's chart-topping hit song, "Lois Lane", which became a Billboard Magazine Top15 record. "Act Out" will be featured on PORCELAN's forthcoming debut album, "Mood Ring", to be released this Summer. The in-your-face single was written by PorcelanHamilton HardinDenarious Holmes and produced by Hamilton Hardin.

PORCELAN has just been announced as one of the Brand Ambassadors for PZI Denim by Lisa Raye. "I am truly honored and humbled for this awesome partnership with Lisa Raye. As a bottom-heavy girl myself, sometimes its a challenge finding the right denim that fits right and holds it all in and PZI by Lisa Raye does just that...so the product speaks to me," mentions Porcelan.

ABOUT PORCELAN 
Her name is PORCELAN!

Recording artist and songwriter, born and Raised in the Westwood area of South Memphis, TN. is today's contemporary urban/R&B “It Girl”.

PORCELAN couldn’t help but ultimately pursue her musical aspirations, having immediately absorbed her historic musical surroundings from a young age while growing up in a family of instinctively musical people. “I don’t really remember it being anything I heard on the radio; I really m remember it being my family, like my Mom singing,” recalls the breakout songstress, when asked about the source of her first musical impression. “My parents are singers and musicians, so at family reunions it was really like `a thing'.

Spurred by the encouragement of a fifth grade teacher who heard her voice early on, along with long car rides with her Mom listening and singing along to the likes of Bobby Womack, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, school-aged PORCELAN found herself auditioning and performing for school graduation ceremonies which soon thereafter uncovered another musical gift…writing. “I started writing poetry I middle-school and realized I was good at it,” PORCELAN recounts.

In keeping with that momentum, PORCELAN focused on building her reputation in music circles, doing everything from appearing on BET’s 106th & Park, collaborating on material with super-producer Timbaland, opening for Tank and gaining invaluable performance experience via a three-month tour of China with a cover band. “Doing show bands is totally different from being an original artist, so I had to learn how to entertain in that realm. Even though I was new to it, I started being around a lot of seasoned people who showed me the ropes."

PORCELAN soon found herself in the studio with David Porter and fellow Made In Memphis songwriters/producers Hamilton Hardin and DeNarious Holmes recording her smoothed-out adult R&B debut single “The Real Thing Don’t Change” (along with “The One” and “Can You Hear Me Now”), which soon thereafter facilitated notable and buzz-worthy live bookings at SXSW (South By Southwest) and Essence music festivals. Once audience members and radio programmers increasingly grew aware of her simultaneously promoted EP, response to her second single release – the infectiously sumptuous beat ballad, “Lois Lane” – PORCELAN found her dream unfolding as she made her way up the Billboard R&B chart straight into the Top 15.

While newfound fans await the forthcoming debut album, "Mood Ring", scheduled to be released later this spring, a steady-on-her-grind PORCELAN delivered her first Christmas album, "Joyful Hearts: A Season of Love", this past Holiday season. A most contemporary-sounding Christmas set which further displayed her knack for composing vibrantly soulful songs amidst thoroughly-pleasing, contemporary production.

@thedangelo NEO-SOUL MASTERPIECE, 'BROWN SUGAR', REMASTERED & EXPANDED FOR NEW DELUXE EDITION...

July 14, 2017  -- D'Angelo's platinum-certified debut, 1995's neo-soul masterpiece Brown Sugar, is newly remastered and expanded for a 2CD and digital Deluxe Edition to be released August 25 by Virgin/UMe. Remastered by GRAMMY®-winning engineer Russell Elevado, Brown Sugar's Deluxe Edition adds 21 rare tracks, including remixes by CJ Mackintosh, Dallas Austin, King Tech, Erick Sermon and Incognito, as well as instrumentals and a cappella versions. Of the 21 newly added tracks, 15 were previously available only on vinyl and seven will make their commercial release debuts on the new edition. 

Brown Sugar's 2CD Deluxe Edition is presented in a digipak with a 20-page booklet featuring an essay by noted author and filmmaker Nelson George, rare photographs, and lyrics for the album's 10 original tracks. Preorder Brown Sugar (Deluxe Edition) here:  https://UMe.lnk.to/BrownSugarDeluxePR

Released July 4, 1995, D'Angelo's Brown Sugar album heralded a new direction for soul music, bridging tradition and innovation. D'Angelo, then 21 years old, wrote, arranged, performed and produced most of the album himself, inspired by classic jazz, gospel, soul, and hip-hop and using a mix of vintage and new equipment to realize his creative vision. 

In the Deluxe Edition booklet, D'Angelo's Brown Sugar co-producer Bob Power writes: "D was one of those artists that came not just fully formed, but truly genre-bending; genre-creating is really more like it."

D'Angelo's Brown Sugar collaborators also included A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammadfor the title track and Raphael Saadiq for "Lady." The first album to be dubbed "neo-soul," Brown Sugarspent 65 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart and drew praise from music critics around the world. In his four-star album review for Rolling Stone, Cheo Hodari Coker wrote, "Brown Sugar is a reminder of where R&B has been and, if the genre is to resurrect its creative relevance like a phoenix rising from the ashes, where it needs to go."

"Young D'Angelo was duly anointed the new musical messiah, charged with leading the culture into a new promised land," writes Nelson George in his Deluxe Edition essay.

Brown Sugar received four GRAMMY Award® nominations. The groundbreaking album is featured in Mojo's list of 100 Modern Classics and in Rolling Stone's Essential Recordings of the '90s.

blackmessiah.co

D'Angelo:  Brown Sugar (Deluxe Edition) [2CD, digital]

CD 1 (Remastered album, plus bonus tracks)
1.   Brown Sugar
2.   Alright
3.   Jonz In My Bonz
4.   Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine
5.   Sh*t, Damn, Motherf*cker
6.   Smooth
7.   Cruisin'
8.   When We Get By
9.   Lady
10. Higher
Bonus Tracks
11. Brown Sugar A Cappella (released on 12" single)
12. Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine A Cappella (released on promotional 12" single)
13. Brown Sugar Instrumental (released on 12" single)
14. Lady Just Tha Beat Mix Instrumental w/Chorus (Mixed by DJ Premier; released on CD Maxi-Single)
15. Brown Sugar Alternate Version (released on 12" single)

CD 2 (More Sugar)
1.   Brown Sugar King Tech Remix feat. Kool G. Rap (released on 12" promotional single)
2.   Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine Def Squad Remix feat. Redman (Remixed by Erick Sermonfor Funk Lord Productions; released on 12" single)
3.   Cruisin' Cut The Sax Remix (Remix by King Tech; Released on 12" single)
4.   Lady Just Tha Beat Mix/featuring AZ (Remixed by DJ Premier for Works of Mart Productions, Inc.; released on CD Maxi-Single)
5.   Brown Sugar Soul Inside 808 Mix (Mix by DJ Dodge; released on U.K. 12" single)
6.   Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine Two Way Street Mix (Remixed by DJ Premier for Works of Mart Productions, Inc.; released on promotional 12" single)
7.   Cruisin' Dallas Austin Remix (released on 12" single)
8.   Lady 2B3 Shake Dat Ass Mix (Remix produced by Neville Thomas and Pule Pheto for 2B3 Productions; released on U.K. CD Maxi-Single)
9.   Brown Sugar Incognito Molasses Remix (released on "She's Always In My Hair" promotional 12" single)
10. Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine Dreamy Remix (Remixed by Erick Sermon for Funk Lord Productions; released on promotional 12" single)
11. Cruisin' Wet Remix (released on CD single)
12. Brown Sugar Dollar Bag Mix (released on U.K. 12" single)
13. Cruisin' God Made Me Funky Remix (released on promotional 12" single)
14. Brown Sugar CJ Mackintosh Remix (Additional production and Remix by CJ Mackintosh; released on the various artists CD collection Nu Classic Soul)
15. Lady CJ Mackintosh Mix Radio Edit (Additional production and Remix by CJ Mackintosh; released on U.K. CD Maxi-Single)
16. Cruisin' Who's Fooling Who Mix (released on promotional 12" single)

 

SOURCE: Universal MusicEnterprises, PRNewswire

[MUSIC] THE @BAYLORPROJECT: BRIDGING JAZZ & SOUL

The world of music is in for an amazing treat with the upcoming debut from the soulful Jazz duet, The Baylor Project. Even as a new addition to today’s musical landscape, their history will absolutely blow you away in many aspects. They would come together more than fifteen years ago, their history from there would be cemented in more than one way; musically, and through matrimony. Beyond their personal love for each other, their musical union is fueled but the strength they both carried on their own in the industry, and that strength has grown tremendously since then. Jean had spent her former years as one-half of the powerful, groundbreaking duet Zhane, while Marcus was already a world-class drummer who had been playing all his life. His experiences of playing with many Jazz greats like Cassandra Wilson, George Benson, and Regina Carter only supplement the musical union. Together, they would become a magical and untouchable force in music. They’re range and versatility is undeniable, which will be the very thing that sets them apart from the crowd. Even while they join the ranks of a number of other married couples in music, their legacy will undoubtedly be lasting. 

Take a moment to their video below from their forthcoming album, “The Journey”, via YouTube below, and make sure you pre-order on iTunes. The album will officially be available February 2017!