Bands That I Like

 144 James Blake James Blake U.K. dance music sub-genre's don't usually produce soulful singer-songwriters... but then again, there aren't a lot of artists like Blake. James Blake uses neosoul keyboards, blip beats & layers of heart-starved snippets into a sonically full yet empty space of melody. His cover of Feist's " Limit to Your Love " is what first caught my attention. James released 2009's 12" Air & Lack Thereof , 2010's The Bells Sketch (E.P.) , Klavierwerke (E.P.) and CMYK (E.P.) , before releasing his self-titled debut album in 2011. Blake is soulful, having one of the sweetest voices in modern music. Since then he has released 2011's Enough Thunder (E.P.) , & Love What Happened Here (E.P.) before releasing his sophomore effort & my personal favorite, 2013's Overgrown , with the amazing tracks " Retrograde " and the title track . Black has released two more albums since then: his third album, 2016...

 143 J Dilla J Dilla  James Dewitt Yancey, better known to the world as J Dilla, was born in 1974. He was raised on the east side of Detroit, where his mother was a former opera singer and his father was a jazz bassist. With that kind of family tree- it's easy to see how Dilla would go on to become one of hip-hops most influential producers. He first came to prominence when he formed Slum Village with two of his high school friends in 1988. Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest heard some of Dilla’s beats and soon helped spread the word. Dilla would go on to produce for the Parcyde (“ Runnin’ ”), De La Soul (“ Stakes is High ”) and A Tribe Called Quest (“ Stressed Out ”) as well as Busta Rhymes (“ So Hardcore ”), and an unaccredited remix for Janet Jackson in the ‘90s. He also did notable work with the Soulquarians , a loosely associated neo-soul collective with the likes of Questlove, Common, Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, Most Def and Talib Kweli. It wasn’t until 2001’s Welcome 2 Det...

 142 Isaac Hayes Isaac Hayes  Shades, dashiki, gleaming bald pate: Isaac Hayes cut an imposing figure during his early '70s heyday. The hulking auteur behind the ultra funky " Theme From Shaft " was actually a Barry White prototype, given to steamy bedroom raps and lush orchestrations. Or maybe he wasn't: The remainder of the Shaft soundtrack is rather mundane action-movie music, spiced by the occasional burst of streetwise syncopation or vocal color. A far cry from Curtis Mayfield's Super Fl y , to say the least. However, Hayes shouldn't be written off as a period oddity. His rambling soundtracks (two of which, Truck Turner and Three Tough Guys , are available on a single CD) and full-blown cover version had a big effect on soul music in general, broadening and softening the instrumental palette. Hayes paved the way for disco; whether he deserves credit or blame is a matter of taste. Hayes and David Porter made up one of the most successful songwriting and...