When Nelson George sat down to write about the state of R&B for The Village Voice in the late Eighties, two super-producers were frequently on his mind: Teddy Riley, who helped invent a vicious new fusion called New Jack Swing in New York City, and his rival Babyface, a melodic …
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There are few happy moments inWhitney, the latest documentary to chronicle the remarkable talent and tragic life of Whitney Houston. Her peerless voice made her famous, but her personal life was unbelievably troubled – mired by drug use, exploitative family members who were at once dependent and controlling, tension over …
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Big Von, a longtime Bay Area DJ, was nearing the peak of a six-hour club set at New Karibbean City in Oakland on December 15th when a regular named Fredy made a perplexing request: “Yo, you got ‘Boo’d Up’?” Big Von didn’t know the record, and he doesn’t like being …
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Earlier this month, the R&B singer Ty Dolla $ign stood in the middle of a small studio crammed with listeners in midtown Manhattan as his Beach House 3 album rumbled through the speakers. Flanked by two golden “$” balloons, he celebrated the new release by dragging on a joint, conducting …
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