Whatup fam, i just finished up an interview with Atlanta Music Review and though it wasn't asked this time a typical question i get is the "So who are your musical influences?" question. Anyway I wanna talk about three artists who are for me a musical holy trinity. I'm not going to say anyone of them are any better then the others either. Drumroll please........ Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Michael Jackson. To me the influence of these 3 artists is still being heard in artists to this day and probably always will. For me they're all so important because of their think outside the box, blaze a new trail, raise the bar higher than anyone ever took it approach to making music. Their talents, artistry, and respective bodies of work are in my opinion unparalleled in music. Thats the broadstroke here are the individual finer points.
Stevie Wonder is a genius who I feel has never gotten his just due. In his prime which would be the seventies he wrote, produced, performed, and played instruments on masterpiece after masterpiece including Talking Book, Innervisions, and Songs in the Key of Life just to name a few. Several of these albums won the most important grammy award 'Album of the Year'. Stevie has one of the greatest voices ever recorded we all know that. But he wasn't just a good sounding voice what he actually sung had a consciousness to it that took the listener deep into the emotion of the music which mind you sounded nothing like the typical r&b/soul tune of that day. Stevie's style of singing was also drastically different and it influenced almost the entire next few generations of singers and that influence actually still permeates the r&b landscape today. There aren't a lot of books on him, no movies, no scandal just unfiltered, unmatched greatness. I love Stevie for real. He was probably one of the first truly self contained artists that produced their own music. Discover or revisit his music and be touched and amazed for the first time or all over again. Salute!
to be continued....
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