I feel like Amerie is one of the best artists that has never received the recognition she deserves! I used to jam to her albums and when I listened to my Amerie channel on Pandora this weekend, I realized that I need to but her 3 albums back in rotation. With a quickness, I listened to All I Have, Touch and Because I Love It today while working. I had a hard time deciding which album is my favorite, but I think Touch can win the award for “Amerie’s Best Album” because it displays her growth to include a playful mature sound. Although, All I Have comes in a close second with great ballads! The tracks Falling, Like It Used to Be, Why Don’t We Fall in Love Remix, and Not the Only One are some fire tracks! We need some more music and artists similar to Amerie, but I’m not disappointed as rumor has it that she is working with L.A. Reid for a new album to be released in 2009….

Touch

For some random reason, I wanted to listen to The Eminem Show this morning. Yes, The Emimem Show by Marshall Mathers, better known as Emimen or Slim Shady. I know I’m not the only person who used to listen to Em, but for those of you who won’t even admit to being closet Eminem fans…it’s ok! Knowing that I haven’t listened to this album in 3+ years, I was surprised that I remembered lyrics to his tracks. The more I listened, I was quickly reminded of how much of an impact Slim had on music. Pushing every boundary possible, he continually expressed his feelings around problems in his life and the relationship between his wife and daughter. Being the researcher that I am, it was absolutely necessary for me to get an update on Eminem. There are reports that he will release another album this year. No leak on a title or an expected release date, but be on the lookout! 

My morning routine normally consists of first checking my e-mail while listening to a randomly selected playlist as I get ready for work. There are normally recent songs played and as I heard “So gone over you, you, you, you. Yea. New Monica” I was taken back to the time when this single was the jam! I didn’t realize at the time, but this song was released FIVE years ago. I began to think about Monica’s recording history and she normally does not go too long without giving her fans new music. Sure enough…Monica has a new album entitled Lessons Learned scheduled to release around October. There has not been a single released, but you can follow the album’s production on Monica’s new reality show. The Single: Monica premiers August 5th at 10pm on Peachtree TV.

Mya’s song Ridin randomly came into my head just now. Of course, I began singing it from beginning to end because this was my JAM a few months ago. I thought about her album Liberation and assumed I must have missed the release date. A quick search informed me that I was wrong…Mya has been working on this album since 2004 and the first version, titled Control Freak, was supposed to be released in summer of 2005. This project has been pushed back numerous times due to Mya switching labels and adding more producers to the list. The new release date is currently scheduled for September 16 as a part of a two disc album with her upcoming Smoke and Mirrors. 

The BET Awards left me wondering where Maxwell has been hiding the last 7 years. No longer rockin the natural fro, but now sporting the low boy, he will always play an important role as an artist in the neo-soul genre. He hasn’t had an album since Now released in 2001. For some reason I knew that wonderful voice of his was not retired.  Although, there has not been much publicity around the subject, Maxwell will be releasing an album this year! Actually, he is expected to release an album every year for the next three years. It is part of his newest project entitled Black Summers’ Night. The first album, Black, will release in 2008, followed by Summers’ in 2009 and Night in 2010.  Here is a snippet of Pretty Wings, a single from Black…Gave me chills