The following is not a dramatazation. This did indeed happen.
TXT MSNGR 1 [1:05 PM]: You know what?
TXT MSNGR 2 [1:09 PM]: What?
TXT MSNGR 1 [1:10 PM]: I got this icebox where my heart used to be.
TXT MSNGR 2 [1:13 PM]: You're so cold, you're so cold, you're so cold...
TXT MSNGR 1 [1:15 PM]: I both hate and love that song.
TXT MSNGR 2 [1:17 PM]: It's the black man's my love.
TXT MSNGR 2 [1:30 PM]: Now I am blasting and singing along to Omarion. I blame you...
I don't know how, and I am not even 100% sure why, but sometime around the start of 2007, I got my hands on 21, the sophomore disc from former B2K frontman Omarion. When it comes to saccharine R&B, I ain't got much time for it. Plus, the scene is so cluttered with one name cassanovas treading familiar waters that I simply decide to take the easy way out and stick with the "established vets"; you know, the Ushers and the R.Kellys. And yes, every so often I let down my guard and let something fresh get in the mix; you know, the Chris Browns or at one point in time, the Ginuwines. But Omarion? Come on now. Yes, I loved me some Bump, Bump, Bump, but You Got Served? The Scream tour? The cliche ridden desire to go shirtless at the drop of a dime? Dance skills that my ignorance led me to believe were nothing more than a clever gimmick to hide the fact that in the lyrics and singing departments brotha was seriously lacking? Come on now.
But eventually I came around, and it's only because I, Tauwan Patterson, am not immune to the whims of a good pop single. It's like my goddamn kyrptonite. No matter the genre, if a single is does what needs to be done from the start of the track to the very last repeat of the chorus, then I am hooked. Now I don't know how, and I am not even 100% sure why, but sometime in the fall, a brotha fell in love with the lead single from Omarion's upcoming sophomore disc, Entourage. In fact, I think I said this:
"...Lazy, [nasal laced] vocals, subtle synth lite groove forever indebted to the grooving jams of the 70's pioneered by the likes of of Kool and the Gang and Co. [I like them barely there keyboards too] Yeah I know, it's Omarion, but that chorus, and that beat. Look, I grew up on the cookie cutter, sometimes avant garde and forward looking and/or nodding to the past flava of hip-hop and R&B. I don't buy all the albums, but I relish the singles. And I've opened my ears to all the 112s, Ginuwines, Profyles, Jahiems, Keith Sweats, and Chris Browns the industry wants to throw at me, so what makes you think I'm gonna stop now..."
Now that I think about it, Entourage is the reason why I went ahead and got my hands on 21. I was curious, and I'll give almost anything a chance, and you know what, the album ain't that bad. Like TXT MSNGR #1 above I was ready to both love and hate 21. Love the beats and a song or two, but hate the fact that I am allowing myself to like a batch of Omarion songs. But at the moment I got nothing but love O. We all know brotha ain't the best singer in town-singing with a confident nasal tone that suits him and his intentions well-but 21 succeeds because of it, because Omarion is simply doing him. At times, O recalls early era Off The Wall, Michael Jackson, particularly on tracks like the stop and go, hand clap bounce of Electric, where more than anything he sounds like he is genuinely having fun on the track.
Look the album ain't without its flaws. Press play and walk away, and you could easily think a song is nothing but hook, hook, hook [Though ain't nothing wrong with a good hook]. And vocal purists might not be able to get pass the low and average nasal tone that is Omarion's singing voice. [Hell it distracts me at the start of Made for TV. Not all pre-verse ad libbing is great. Yes, sometimes silence is indeed golden.] And though for the first six or seven tracks the sequencing is just right- the old school haze of Entourage bleeds into the arctic bounce of Timbaland's Ice Box, and things warm up significantly when Electric kicks into gear, and so on and so on- the novel begins to wear thin after the ba-boom-boom-clap of Obsession, and late night lament that is Midnight. I am sure there are flashes of SIDE A goodness on SIDE B, but even I find myself ready to move on to something else midway through the disc. But that's cool cause more times than not, 21 is a fine piece of ear candy that's nice to take in and easy to love.
Earlier...
"Not So Quiet Storm" b/w "Pennywhistles and Me"
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