It's quite easy to place Roberta Flack near the top of the pile of singer/songwriters who changed the course of pop music, not only soul music, during the '70s. She was fortunate enough to deliver the velvet-smooth ballad "The First ...

Atlantic Starr's Ultimate Collection lives up to its name, gathering hits that span the group's two-decade existence. From early singles such as "Stand Up," "When Love Calls," and "Touch a Four Leaf Clover" to their later hits like "Always," "My ...

Trying a little harder than its generic packaging might imply, Playlist: The Very Best of Charlie Wilson kicks off with a 12" mix of the former Gap Band member's hit "Outstanding" before rounding up all the obvious highlights from the ...

There's probably a better way to celebrate "35 years of soul." This Greatest Hits, oddly enough, is a compacted edition (not advertised as such, for obvious reasons) of another Greatest Hits title released roughly seven years prior. It is that ...

LIFE AFTER DEATH was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. "Hypnotize" was nominated for a 1988 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. "Mo Money Mo Problems" was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best ...

Eighteen tracks, from the early '70s to the mid-'80s, including his early Top Ten singles, but also minor hits like "Grandma's Hands," "Kissing My Love," and "Lovely Day." Those who admire songs like "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine" ...

ME AGAINST THE WORLD was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. "Dear Mama" was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance. Forget everything you've heard and assumed about rapper/actor 2Pac and think only of his music, which has ...

The fact that Alice Cooper and Slash make guest appearances on THE GREAT MILENKO should be your first clue that we're not talking high art here. Insane Clown Posse are masters of the cheap laugh; the Howard Sterns of modern ...

Raised in the projects of Chicago's South Side, the young R. Kelly displayed an uncanny natural aptitude for the piano, and cut his teeth as a performer by playing a portable electric keyboard and singing with his homies out on ...

This generous two-disc compilation does an excellent job oftracing soul legend Marvin Gaye's career. It moves from hisearliest, most pop-oriented recordings ("How Sweet It Is", "I'll Be Doggone") to his famed duets with Tammi Terrell ("Ain't Nothing Like the Real ...

Recorded between 1956 & 1967. Includes liner notes by Fred Bronson. This is a superb single-disc distillation of the Platters' biggest hits, with all 15 of their first Top Forty hits, an astonishing run that went from 1955's "Only You (And ...

This is part of MCA's 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection series. 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Brook Benton gathers a dozen of the singer/songwriter's greatest hits, including "It's Just a Matter of Time," "Fools Rush ...

Considered by some to be the greatest MC of all time, the late Christopher Wallace had recorded just two solo LPs at the time of his death. Still, his mark on the genre has been indelible and his influence unending. ...

With few viable alternatives, this can be considered the ultimate O'Jays collection only by default, as it focuses exclusively on recordings from the years 1972-1975, cutting off some reasonable and sometimes very well-known singles from before and after that time ...

Be assured that the title here is not remotely hyperbolic; in fact, it's hard to imagine a better single disc Supremes greatest hits collection. Every Supremes song you could conceivably want is here in chronological order, beginning with their first ...

That's Nas' ex-wife Kelis' wedding dress on the cover: she's a fellow recording artist, the two have a kid together, and she wasn't consulted about the album cover or the album itself. Life Is Good is that kind of album, ...

Black Radio is the first standalone recording by the electric Robert Glasper Experiment. Glasper's keyboards are augmented by saxophonist/vocoderist Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge, and drummer Chris Dave. The album title is firmly aimed at its subjects. The band constantly ...

THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL won the 1999 Grammy Award for Album Of The Year and Best R&B Album. Lauryn Hill won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" was nominated for ...

"Guilty Conscience" was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance By Duo Or Group. "Forgot About Dre" won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group. DR. DRE 2001 was nominated for the ...

Unfortunately, Atlantic's A Donny Hathaway Collection, one of the few career retrospectives available (and basically the only one in print), isn't quite definitive; it presents a version of Hathaway's career inordinately focused on his commercially successful duets with Roberta Flack, ...

Additional personnel includes: Bobby Martin, Bert DeCoteaux, Teddy Randazzo (arrangers); James Mack (arranger, piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano); Norman Harris, Bobby Eli, Roland Chambers, Byron Gregory, Ira Siegel, Keith Henderson, Danny Leake (guitar); Chris Cioe (saxophone); Ron Kersey, Theodis Rodgers ...

Kid Rock's unique blend of Midwestern rock & roll, rap, and R&B gets another airing with COCKY, which features a plethora of road tunes, who's-the-baddest cuts, and straight-ahead drinking songs. The slow, greasy grooves of "You Never Met a Motherf**cker ...

Track Listing: Chronic, The; Fuck Wit Dre Day; Let Me Ride; Day the Niggaz Took Over, The; Nuthin' But a "G" Thang; Deeez Nuuuts; Lil' Ghetto Boy; Nigga Witta Gun, A; Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat; $20 Sack Pyramid, The; Lyrical Gangbang; High Powered; ...

THE DIONNE WARWICK COLLECTION was released a few years before the pop world at large gave the music of Burt Bacharach and Hal David a long-overdue reappraisal. Decades of Muzak versions of "Alfie" and "Do You Know the Way to ...

The fantastic batch of Gaye's early-'60s pop-soul singles, including "Stubborn Kind of Fellow," "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and his duets with Tammi Terrell ("Ain't No Mountain High Enough"), is alone worth the price of the ...