Idolator

Sad news for R&B fans today: Steve "Static Major" Garrett—close songwriting collaborator with Timbaland during his first creative flush, renowned producer in his own right, and member of Idolator fave Playa—died yesterday at 32. Causes are unknown at the moment, though AllHipHop is reporting "sources" as saying that Garrett suffered a cerebral aneurysm. Garrett would have earned his soul stripes if only for contributing to the creamy harmonies to Playa's "Don't Stop The Music" and penning the single-entendre lyrics to Ginuwine's indelible robo-slow jam "Pony," but he was also responsible (with buddy Timbaland) for a string of Aaliyah singles from "Are You That Somebody?" to "Rock The Boat" that stand as one of the most fertile urban radio runs of the last decade. In addition to his decade's worth of big name collaborations, Garrett had finally planned to release his first solo album, Suppertime, later this year, and hopefully the album won't disappear into the major label ether in a belt-tightening era when even artists who are alive to promote their records find themselves shelved indefinitely. [AllHipHop; HT: Al Shipley]

Now that it's been almost a decade, can we officially get nostalgic for the pop R&B of the late '90s? What a glorious time it was to turn on MTV after a hard day's work and realize that you were bound to see some ladies formation dancing inside of an ice castle or a spaceship's airlock while dressed in color-coordinated outfits, droping buttery three- or four-part harmonies on top of tricky rhythms that were either made by Timbaland (as here) or someone with a Timbaland statue on their Atari. And look, you could do it with guys too! (Even if their outfits were never as good. Especially because grown men shouldn't wear overalls.) More »