New music from the legendary Roots crew’s upcoming album, …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, hitting May 20th.

Produced by Face and Rai.

From Dwele’s Greater Than One LP, hitting August 28th.

Original Guesswhyld Records founder and indie hip-hop pioneer Matt Fingaz returns to the scene, with this new collabo with Raheem DeVaughn and Focus.

LISTEN: Focus – “I Can See It All” (feat. Matt Fingaz + Raheem DeVaughn)

Matt Fingaz + Raheem DeVaughn + Focus – “I Can See It All”

Directed by Tabi Bonney (Cool Kids Forever Films). The Love and War Masterpeace is in stores now.

Raheem Devaughn flips Lil Wayne’s mixtape track “Single” and turns it into an ode for all the single ladies. This song will be featured on 368 Music Group’s upcoming Winner’s Circle mixtape 368 FTW Vol. 1 available via DJBooth.net in October.

Raheem Devaughn remixes Lil Wayne’s “Single” (MP3)

DC reps it hard on this remix with Wale, Tabi Bonney & crooner Raheem DeVaughn. Chef Raekwon comes through to blow the doors off.

LISTEN: Phil Ade -”Hollywood (Remix)”- (feat. Raekwon, Wale, Tabi Bonney & Raheem DeVaughn)

A while back a friend proposed the question of who had the better catalogue, Curtis Mayfield or Gil-Scott Heron.  If there’s a modern equivalent to that question it might be Raheem DeVaughn (Curtis Mayfield) or Erykah Badu.  The album kicks off with an intro by Dr. Cornell West, who’s also later featured in multiple interludes and establishes the album as more than just a LP full of love ballads.

The first two tracks “Bulletproof” (feat. Ludacris) and “The Greatness” (feat. Wale) kick off the album on a good note.  While Luda is capable of stealing a verse on anyone’s album, here he comes in about twice and loud and seems to miss the complete vibe of the track.  It might have been a better fit to call someone like Black Thought or Talib Kweli, but a big name is probably what was pushed on DeVaughn.

When the album settles into the radio ready love songs it starts to falter.  “Black and Blue” and “Mr. Right” just don’t do anything different.  They are above average R&B songs and they’ll get the ladies to pick up the album, but they don’t hit as hard as something like “Bulletproof”.  Both “My Wife” and “The Bedroom” are worthy Al Green-esque ballads, however.

When he gets back on his political tip with “Nobody Wins A War”, the album gets interesting again.  Featuring everyone from Citizen Cope to Jill Scott, Bilal and Anthony Hamilton it’s a socio-political beautiful R&B church chorus and the type of thing that had it carried over to the rest of the album could have made it a standout this year.

Additionally, “Revelations” is another great track with a slow, horn assisted jam that features a guest spot by Damian Marley, who between this and his project with Nas. is making Hip Hop waves and welcome on any more albums he can get on.

This album is strange, part standard R&B and part neo-soul politics, it’s just hard to listen to a simple ballad on an album with four or five cuts that focus on the times.   Raheem DeVaughn is still one of the most interesting soul singers today and is capable of making interesting music if only he can carry it across a whole album.  While we’re aware it’s titledThe Love and War Masterpiece, he’s a better fighter than he is lover.

]]> http://www.hiphopsite.com/2010/03/24/raheem-devaughn-love-and-war-masterpiece-review-5/feed/ 0 http://www.hiphopsite.com/2008/04/01/raheem-devaughn-love-behind-the-melody-12/ http://www.hiphopsite.com/2008/04/01/raheem-devaughn-love-behind-the-melody-12/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:51:28 +0000 http://localhost/hiphop/?p=2481 [cont.]]]> What happened to neo-soul?  In the latter part of the 1990s up until sometime after the year 2000, neo-soul was one of the most popular new genres to hit the air waves.  Collectives were formed, commercials were made, and then out of nowhere the movement ended.   Was this because of the over sensationalizing of the genre, becoming mainstream in every aspect from advertising promotions to pseudo artists popping up all over the place with misrepresentations of the music?  Or was it because many of the famed artists who once embraced it left it behind in fear of becoming labeled or stereotyped?  With all the ups and downs that neo-soul has been through, it stood the test of times.  Musicians like Angie Stone, John Legend, and India.Aire are still holding it down, but there is a new crop of young singers who are emerging to take the mantel and expand upon it.  One of those artists is Raheem DeVaughn.  A native Washingtonian, DeVaughn worked his way up through shows performances and self promotion to help him land a recording deal with Jive that launched his critically acclaimed debut album The Love Experience.  Raheem has not skipped a beat with his follow up LP Love Behind the Melody, proving that it will be a while before anyone can say that neo-soul is dead.

What separates DeVaughn from his R&B counterparts is that he comes from an angle of simplicity, not trying to reinvent the wheel, but just improving it.  For example, the Grammy nominated and lead single “Woman” is a lovely song dedicated to the appreciation of the female gender, unlike many of the misogynistic tracks that we are used to hearing on mainstream radio.  Assisted by a smooth beat, DeVaughn sings about the importance of a woman in one’s life, not just intimately, but in a general sense as he whales, “You can have a big ol’ car and a big ol’ house/But next to God nothing else amounts…” He later shows his appreciation of classic R&B on “Mo Better,” a throwback track that over soft horns DeVaughn tells his loved one how much his life has improved by being with her.  This is an underlining theme on this album by that many of the songs are crafted in a classic soul fashion where the focus is placed on emotion and not just on physical attraction.  But the true contrast to other R&B artists is on “Marathon” featuring Floetry.  The exchange of love making rhetoric is tastefully done and is very descriptive.  DeVaughn seems to have a way with words that make you image just what he is describing, leaving the listener feeling fully engaged.

As well as DeVaughn walks a tight rope between classic and modern day music, he seems to stumble on his quest for perfection.  The poorly selected “My Girl” sample for “Friday (Shut the Club Down)” is obviously an album filler, but still comes off sounding lazy and uninspired.  This is culminated with his emphasis on the classic sound that can sometimes misguide him, most notably the R Kelly-esque “Customer” where DeVaughn steals the concept of comparing a woman to an inanimate object or idea by comparing his treatment of her as to the one of a patron.  Even the crooning on the track reminds you of Kells, that in one way or another takes away from originality and leaves DeVaughn cloaked in the essence of redundant cliché artists that this album helps him to escape.

Love Behind the Melody achieves exactly what it’s purpose was, to set DeVaughn out from his peers and launch him into the stratosphere of notoriety.  By the looks from the accolades that he has obtained, it seems like the mission has been accomplished. – Ryan Harrison