I really liked Love Behind The Melody, the 2008 album by Raheem DeVaughan, but it definitely fell into the vacuum of January releases when I was thinking of my favorite discs of the year (see also: Headlights). Apparently, Raheem is taking a new turn, if a recent surge of YouTube clips can be believed, releasing more mixtapes and loading them with covers… for the ladies, he says. There are also a few original tracks on his new mixtape The Love & War Experience (which doesn’t appear to be available in full yet), but if Raheem is going to keep putting out covers like the gospel rave-up take on “I Would Die 4 U” (above) and a welcome revisiting of Al B. Sure’s “Nite & Day” (below), he’ll have at least one satisfied customer (albeit one outside of his desired female demographic).
I really liked Love Behind The Melody, the 2008 album by “Nite & Day”:
“Mr. Right”:
Raheem DeVaughan [MySpace]
@Dan Gibson: Well, I haven’t had a chance to listen to these new tracks, maybe they are kind of something new if they’re straight-up covers, since before he was mainly singing new melodies/lyrics to familiar beats. I’m pretty curious to hear his take on one of my favorite Prince songs now.
@Al Shipley: Yeah, these are straight up covers. That being said, I am going to search out those mixtapes. I saw them on the side of his Myspace page before the ten Flash applications on there melted my computer.
Actually this is not a new turn for DeVaughn at all…he was really one of the first guys on the “R&B freestyle” bandwagon (before R. Kelly, Trey Songz, etc. made it a pretty routine thing), he started doing his Street Experience mixtapes (which I think there are 5 of now) back while his first album was still waiting on a release date. I think he’s kinda hit-and-miss with these, but there are some songs where his version is more popular in the D.C. area than the original.
@Al Shipley: Ah, my bad. One of the tracks references his switch to “Radio Raheem” and that he’s going to abandon his previous personas to give people what they want (covers, apparently). Hence, my confusion.