The Five That Shaped My World

Last night, while bored, I browsed through the grocery store’s magazine section. Mind you most mag sections have a good variety for men as well as the female perspective. But my local HyVee needs to up its game. That’s a story for another day, another place.

It did however, have the most recent issue of VIBE with a “stunning” Keyshia Cole on the cover. Now if you know me, you know that there is about no way in hell that I’d use the words Keyshia Cole and stunning in the same sentence. Stunting? Sure. Stunning? Not hardly. But today, hardly was a reality.

She looked that good, so I picked up the magazine in search of the rest of her spread and, of course, the story. Considering that I write for a living, I do read and don’t just look at pictures.

But I never found the story. I got caught up in reading LeToya’s review of her new album, and a few others. Then I saw the section VIBE always has about the Five Albums that Inspired you. This month feature Donell Jones, who had a variety (from Songs In the Key of Life to 12 Play).

It got me to thinking, what five albums inspire me? In past, I’ve dropped what albums I thought were the best, but these are the ones that actually affected my life and my way of thinking and acting. Here they are and why. No particular order (ok, maybe chronological).

Boyz II Men - Cooleyhighharmony: I actually had the tape for this one, and wore it ragged. I loved this sound, the melody, the harmony, everything. I was a choir boy at the time, and all I wanted to do was be Mike McCray (minus the back problems) because I knew the Barry White voice got the ladies. Also, if there were a group that influence the style I wanted in high school and life, it was B2M. The preppy B-boy is me still to this day.

D’Angelo – Brown Sugar: First off, I don’t smoke. But this will make you want to and I’m not talking about cigs. But listen to seven and eight (otherwise known as Crusin and When We Get By) and you see how much of a groove theory this is. And Shit. Damn. Motherfucka, ha ha, yeah. I don’t know how many people saw something they didn’t need to see, and this was the track they played. But you felt real when you listen to this album. Kind of like, this stuff could, did or would happen to you.

Eric Benet – True To Myself: A lot of people sleep on this one. But it’s one of my all time favs. Why? Because dude seemed real back then. The song to his ex-wife who passed. The title track, and there’s much more. It’s kind of like Brown Sugar, but with more of a neo-soul feel to it. I guess this serves as my intro to Neosoul. Yeah, that’s it.

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill: It’s one of few albums that I can just play, and not stop, and groove to every track with the same fervor. But more than that, I feel like I’m being educated with each word on the truest matter of life, love. Tell Him is like my life’s anthem.

Musiq Soulchild – Aijuswanaseing: and another one. I copped this one from my boy HN, not even knowing what I was listening to. Another album I can play through in its entirety without pause. Love and 143 are tracks that would go on my life’s soundtrack without hesitation. Besides, this is just another groove album of sorts. To me it was a reintroduction to the neosoul vibe. For awhile, this is what music was missing. Musiq found it for us all.

If you've got a few, i'd be curious to see what they are ... out.