Now this is what I'm talking about! Forget these Bobby Valentinos and Ne-yos and Mario's and all those other O's. You wanna hear some GOOD, some REAL R&B music then go back to the 60's and 70's. And if that's unvailable, then do what I did. Run out and grab you a copy of DJ LEx's R&B in the 90's Volume 2. Wow man, this took me back, I'm not gonna lie. Most people who know me knows I have no patience for what passes for R&B music these days.

Half these artists you can't distinguish one from another, and most don't intrigue you enough to want to even try. There are a few good ones like Emily King, but more times than not, you want good R&B, you need to wander onto the "neo-soul" side of the tracks, and then most likely you won't wanna come back.

But this right here just got me in the right mood. Starting me off with Destiny's Child's No, No, No. Now, I know what you're saying, that contradicts my above statement about these "artists" sounding the same. And I'm not a Destiny's Child fan, but that song was the first time I ever heard them and that beat got me more than anything else.

Then that dropped into Karen Wheeler's track featuring Biz MArkie called Like a Star which I had never heard before. Then Sweet Lord almighty I nearly passed out as Redman just ripped the track up on the Aaron Hall jam Curiosity. This shit not only had my head nodding, but then my shoulders were moving and before long I was damn near wildin' out at my computer desk where I was working on something else while listening.

Following that was Aaron Hall's doppleganger Horace Brown. Why has there not been made more of a thing about how similar these two dudes sound? I like them both, but man, I've never heard someone that sounds that identical to another singer since Jon B and Babyface.

And the hits just keep coming. There's a venerable who's who of the industry on this mixtape and I was just going crazy as each track came on. As I do with a lot of these I don't even look at the tracklisting, I just put it in and let it go. So each new track that came on I was like "oh shit, I remember that!"

The rollcall is impressive with names like Case, Foxy Brown, Snoop, Babyface, Groove Theory (a couple tracks I never heard of theirs), Jaheim, Yvette Michelle, SWV, Luther, Musiq and even Parle.

To me, there's almost no joy quite like a mid-90's R&B mixtape. You can have your Marques Houstons and your Beyonces and your Neyos and I'll keep my Aaron Hall, Mary J. Blige, and Groove Theory.

For you Old School heads out there like me that knows what it was like before "radio R&B" took over, go out and grab DJ Lex's R&B in the 90's Volume 2, and then go out and get Volume 1. This is the best mid-90's R&B tape I've heard since DJ L & Suss One dropped "Memories" on us some years back. (6/10/07)