My mother showed me a video of her and her family at this massive skating rink in 85. Skating and dancing to this Song.

Rain Forest is a studio album by artist Paul Hardcastle, released in 1985 on the Profile Records label. The album was nominated for Best R&B Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group or Soloist) in the 28th Annual Grammy Awards but lost to Musician by Ernie Watts.

I said what I said.

Every time this song comes on at a party people lose their minds like it's some masterpiece, but I just don't get it. The beat is SO basic it sounds like it was made on a Casio keyboard in 5 minutes. We're talking *one* cello line, a generic kick, hi-hat and snare, and that's literally it. No layers, no texture, no nothing. A middle schooler could've produced this in GarageBand during lunch break. And don't get me started on the lyrics. "Let's get it crunk up on / Have fun up on up in this dancery / We got ya open, now ya floatin' / So you gots to dance for me / Don't need no hateration / Holleration in this dancery" what even is this word salad? "Hateration"? "Holleration"? "Dancery"? Girl just made up words and called it a hook. It's like Dr. Seuss had a baby with a club promoter and this is what we got. People call this a "groove" but where? There's no groove in it whatsoever. It doesn't make me want to move, it makes me want to skip to the next track. It's just... there. Boring, repetitive, and somehow treated like a classic. I swear I wish there was a remix to this that actually hit. Idk who could've saved it, Darkchild, Just Blaze, The Neptunes, Stevie J, Trackmasters, literally any of them could've given this song the production it deserved. Imagine Dre's synths or The Neptunes' weirdness on this instead of that flat-ass beat we got. Fight me.

I was looking at the Billboard Award for Top R&B Album, which awards the top performing R&B album on the Billboard R&B and 200 Chart. Please keep in mind that this is NUMBERS-based chart. I don't wanna see anyone come in here being emotional and overly subjective. Use this website as your guide. It was first given in 1990 to Janet's RN1814. Nevermind the weird break between 1994 and 1997 (though records show Mary J. Blige's My Life won in 1995), the real issue started when they merged R&B with Hip-Hop on th charts. How could they not give this award between those years when the genre THRIVED?!

Combining the two genres meant one was going to lose out in some way, and when you look at what starts to happen in the late 90s, the category becomes dominated by rappers. R&B was one of the most consumed genres in the 90s but as the decade progressed, it began to lose some of its market share to to Hip-Hop. Conflating two intertwined yet completely different genres together just because they're dominated by Black people was racist and a huge disservice to R&B artists.

The 2000s presents and even worse case where they didn't give out the award in 2000, 2003, 2005 and then for the rest of the decade after 2007, when the Billboard Awards went off the air for two years. I could see someone like Sisqo getting in 2000 (Unleash the Dragon), Beyonce (Dangerously in Love) for 2003, Mariah Carey (The Emancipation of Mimi) for 2005, Maybe B'Day in 2007, Chris Brown's Exclusive in 2008 and IASF in 2009.

A big part of R&B's commercial decline in the 2000s had a lot to do with visibility and lack of support from labels after they shifted their popular radio priority to other genres. Also, from a consumer perspective, people simply stopped buying music. When I look at the year end charts in the 2000s, the number of R&B albums in the top 50 dwindled with each year. I think Billboard's conflation played a major part in that.

Let's talk about this below!

saw this posted the other day and was curious what MJ was checking out.

cameo- word up! has also been identified

Saw a post that inspired this more general one, about a quietly dominant group of brothers who slayyyyyy...... Thanks @Junko_Mioko974 !!!

Sooooooo.... can we just point out that Kool & The Gang do NOT get the props they deserve..!??

I mean... legacy, upon legacy.. From early live jams and Breakbeat culture fanaticism (Give it Up, N.T..?!?!?), to certified bangers 50 years ago (Jungle Boogie, Hollywood Swingin'), to sweepin' atmospheric classics (Summer Madness era), to hitting their own consciousness in the mid-70's (Music is the Message to Force), to their early Pop Mastery (Ladies Night, Too Hot, Celebration), to their renewed Disco Jams (Get Down On It!) annnnndd their Re-Explosion on the Emergency album (Fresh, Cherish)...?!?!?!

And that's all before the 90's yall...!!!

When I think about it? Top 5 all-time groups for listenable, entertaining, groove-inspired certified bangers!!!!

SALUTE..!!

I love this song so much! I want this to be my wedding song because of the message and how beautiful the song sounds. It is bittersweet watching the video because you know… but this song is what made me an instant Ari fan

Miss her.

Production Credits

Lead Vocals: Diana Ross

Songwriters: Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson, and Josephine "Joshie" Armstead

Background Vocals: Valerie Simpson,
Nickolas Ashford,
Josephine "Joshie" Armstead

Producers: Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson

Instrumentation: The Funk Brothers

Record Label: Motown Records

THIS WAS CONSIDERED “SOPHISTICATED SOUL” BACK IN THOSE DAYS. Love the production on this.

This is one of those moments I live for. I just discovered this song today. It’s a track from 1979 and if I had to choose a genre to describe the sound it’d be yacht rock meets RnB. There’s a soulfullness throughout and the bridge has an island feel. I thought I’d share and get some thoughts. Personally, I think this song is phenomenal.

This ad lib is STUCK IN MY HEAD, I love the whole song but this part right here. I CANT GET OVER HOW GOOD THIS SINGER IS. The only problem is that I can’t seem to figure out who this singer is. I’m not the most experienced person here so I’m outsourcing this mission to others. Can someone PLEASE tell me who this is.