Last year, I was doing the theme thing for my weekly music video post. Some of you responded accordingly and it helped me keep on track. There was mention of black rock artists and I thought this would be something special.
Still a work in progress but I was able to find a few times that we were allowed to express ourselves differently - no 3-piece suits or gowns, choreographed dance moves and babymaking music not allowed.
I bring you Nappy Cherry...
I was in the 7th grade when I first heard about this band. It was in an issue of Right On magazine with a cover that showed Prince in his Dirty Mind phase and the entire issue gave props to brothers and sisters doing it differently.
Unfortunately, this classic cover is hard to find online more than 35 years later. Even worse, my collection got jacked from my storage bin and has yet to be recovered since I moved nearly 20 years ago. But I'll give a recap.
Prince, Nappy Cherry, the Busboys, and I wanna say Fishbone, were featured and not long after, some traditional R&B acts began to incorporate the high-pitch synthesizers, fast drum beats, and quirky lyrics into their albums. Though some songs left a lot to be desired (like She's Only 17) and even marked the end of some acts like Ozone.
However, being different also worked for Cameo. Though known to serious oldheads for babymaking music (Sparkle, Why Have I Lost You), they decided to switch gears (and gradually losing members, remember when there used to be like 10 dudes on the album cover?) to something more fun that incorporated the essence of R&B music. This is my favorite track from that period.
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