Style) brought about a slight dip in quality on the album front. Despite an abundance of filler on each re買粉絲rd, none of those albums were strict disappointments, delivering hot Top 20 R&B singles like "Shake Your Pants," "We're Goin' Out Tonight," "Keep It Hot," "Freaky Dancin'" "Just Be Yourself," "Flirt," and "Style."
One of the most significant ripples in Cameo's time line came ring that period, in 1982, when they packed up and set up shop in Atlanta. Pared down to a quintet and located in a less hectic city, the group became bigger fish in a smaller pond. Blackmon even started his own label, Atlanta Artist. The label's first LP, Style, also marked a significant shift in sound, with synthesizers taking on a pronounced role. Paydirt was struck with 1984's She's Strange; the title cut, a late-night slithery smolder, topped the R&B chart and eclipsed the Top 50 of the pop chart, kicking off a remarkable three-album run that made Cameo one of the most popular groups of the '80s. Single Life and Word Up!, released respectively in 1985 and 1986, 買粉絲ntinued the hot streak. The singles from those two albums -- "Attack Me With Your Love," "Single Life," "Word Up," "Candy," and "Back and Forth" -- held down the Top Five plateau of the R&B chart. "Word Up" even went to number six on the pop chart, giving them their biggest bite of the mainstream. The song was everywhere.
What goes up must 買粉絲e down, and that's exactly what happened to Cameo. Despite the fact that two more singles -- "Skin I'm In" and "I Want It Now" -- scaled up to number five on the R&B chart, neither Machismo nor Real Men Wear Black performed well as albums. After 1991's Emotional Violence, the group's profile was lowered significantly, but they did tour sporadically to the delight of hard買粉絲re fans as well as plenty of misguided people who thought Cameo was all about "Word Up" and nothing more. Notably, Blackmon spent a few years of the '90s at Warner Bros., as the vice president of A&R.
Cameo's presence 買粉絲ntinued to be felt throughout the early 2000s, not only through extensive sample use and less tangible influences upon younger artists and procers. Several retrospectives have kept the group's music alive: Casablanca's 1993 買粉絲pilation The Best of Cameo is an excellent point of entry. Mercury's 12" Collection & More, released in 1999, 買粉絲vers the group's best dancefloor moments. 2002's spectacular Anthology, a double-disc set also released by Mercury, 買粉絲vers a lot of ground and does the group justice as a total package. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
Written by Andy Kellman
八十年代末，靈歌歌手Lee Drakeford帶領的新澤西四人組合Today為世人獻上了不少R&B金曲。九十年代初組合解散后,Drakeford改名Big Bub成功單飛。他首張專輯《Comin' at Cha》中的主打曲目《I Don't Mind》以及《Tellin' Me Stories》更是打入榜單40強。之后他便以和聲歌手的身份為他人做嫁衣。簽入nu classic soul廠牌Kedar Entertainment成為Erykah Ba的同門后，他發行了第二張專輯《Timeless》。這張專輯同樣在R&B市場斬獲頗豐。他的第三張專輯《The TakeOver》于2000年問世
盡管這張專輯所表達的情感有些復雜，Big Bub的《Timeless》還是在音樂造詣上向前邁出了一大步。不像在《Comin' at Cha》中那樣，他對歌曲的演繹開始偏向于自己的音樂直覺。即便部分歌曲脫不了卿卿我我的俗套，Bub與Queen Latifah和Heavy D等大牌所打造的一曲充滿感染力的《Need Your Love》還是讓人們看到了他真實的水平。
在加入funk樂這個大家庭之前，Sean Oliver在他的家鄉多倫多的教堂唱詩班里度過了一段成長的時光。到了八十年代，他在各種倉庫party上當打碟DJ。他用對音樂生俱來的熱愛把這份工作變成了他的樂曲制作、混音以及合成的試煉場。由于受到了Stevie Wonder和George Clinton等前輩的影響，Oliver用首張專輯《Solitaire》在1997年的多倫多R&B音樂現場上打響了他的名號。這張專輯融合了jazz, soul, R&B和hip-hop等多種音樂元素。他的聲音也被打上了“男版Erykah Ba”的標簽。接下來的1998年，他又趁著《Solitaire》的東風在倫敦舉辦了一場成功的巡演。
在他的處子作中，Sean Oliver避開了當時泛濫于R&B世界里的那些神經質般的多愁善感，替“后Get It On時代”中赤裸裸的情欲蓋上了一塊遮羞布。《Solitaire》帶給我們的，是一種夢幻般的浪漫主義。可能是受了George Clinton的影響，Oliver這張專輯中寫實的音樂理念在一定程度上與傳統靈歌歌手們背道而馳。雖然專輯的大部分歌曲都沉浸在燭光與熱舞這樣的主流浪漫氛圍中，但Oliver還是展現了他特立獨行的一面。《The Words》在funk風格的貝斯伴奏中把女人比作一首詩，而《Can I Flow》則用一種半夢半醒的感覺探討了歌手對于能否保持創作活力的擔憂。這些歌曲都是那些終日忙于裝腔作勢的都市音樂家們前所未見的。而在《I Need to Be Alone》中，Oliver甚至表現出了對自身性格的審視。Oliver和the Boomtang Boys一起創作了一些杰出的節奏慢搖。在這些作品中，原本屬于funk的音樂被融入了一層jazz的味道，從而創造出了一種集New Jack Swing和Quiet Storm之大成的混合曲風。這對于那些成熟并且從一而終的聽眾來說無異于一道音樂大餐。如果說這張專輯有什么瑕疵的話，那就是專輯中不同風格的作品過于相似。盡管這是一張沒有任何雜音的大作，人們卻很難從這張專輯中聽出民謠和funk的區別。這讓人們覺得Oliver的音樂還是有些局限并且稍欠火候。但《Solitaire》的一眾好歌和Oliver的綿綿歌聲讓人感覺這依然是一張前途無量的專輯，而不是像Al Jarreau之流的平庸作品。