29
Aug

Album Preview, New Music, R&B

Joy Denalane = The New Hotness

Written By : Stone // Comments (5)

joydenalane_albumcover.jpg

Joy Denalane -Change feat. Lupe Fiasco (snippet)
Joy Denalane -Let Go (snippet)
Joy Denalane -Heaven or Hell feat. Raekwon (snippet)

I heard about Joy Denalane early last week when I was trying to find another Lupe Fiasco collaboration. Of course, in that past week she’s got the internets goin’ nuts. I don’t really mess with R&B that much anymore, but I copped the album and….good lawd, this girl is good. Her bio says that she’s German, but with that voice you would think that she was raised in the backwoods of Tennessee.

Ms. Denalane’s playbook is really nothing new compared to other “neo-soul” artists like Leela James. She just does it better. In addition, she adds collaborations with Lupe (who verse isn’ it best work), Raekwon (that’s where he’s been lately?) and Govenor. The backdrop hearkens back to the old school, but with a more contemporary tone. And the lyrics are strong, powerful, and dare I say…..mature. (Ladies need to check out the lyrics to “Let Go” and memorize them)

Having that said, the girl sort of remains a mystery. OKP is promoting her in the States, but it seems like she’s going to be a Europe-only thing for a while. You can’t even buy it from US stores yet. Hopefully that will change soon.

Oh, and to my foreign readers, can you school me on German/European R&B. I know a lot of UK artists, and I’m down with Les Nubians (France), and Nichole Willis (Norway), but I wanna know what else is out there.

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5 Comments

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Simon on September 1st, 2006 4:54 am

“Oh, and to my foreign readers, can you school me on German/European R&B”

Joy Denalanes Husband Max Herre his Band Freundeskreis and Gentleman are a good start in the german R&B/Rap scenne.

Max Herre ft. Joy Denalane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1lRJneBmn0
(Maybe one of the “sexyest” songs ever writen in german)

Freundeskreis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puUctyngHx8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yck1uduuflw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmGXI2ki-N4

Freundeskreis & Gentleman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2zOGAeIeik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2zOGAeIeik

Gentleman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdVpLGXmZJo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC9wLqhQdHQ

Xavier Naidoo & Binita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXH5XQwIGYc

Xavier Naidoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Y1zreCQig

Seed from Berlin
http://www.myspace.com/seeed

No R&B but maybe my Favorite English/German song last summer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkqjWLQhc7k

mrkamoji on September 1st, 2006 11:36 am

Yo Stone I know these two aren’t international but check out Alice Smith and Georgia Anne Muldrow, if you haven’t already…

Stone on September 1st, 2006 4:08 pm

Simon…..big ups….that’s a massive intodution to German hip-hop. I’m diggin’ that Beatsteaks track too….

Kamoji…..gonna check out Alice and Georgia Anne over the weekend

MJ on September 10th, 2006 8:23 pm

I’m not gonna lie, German hip-hop is like a hand-full of quarters and the random dime piece.
It just plain ass sucks. There’s some good lyricists like Curse, but it’s on German so I tend to “meh” it. There’s Raptile who raps in English, but seriously who could fuckin like him?
Freundeskreis is like a friendly positive type of hip-hop.
Seeed is some weird hip-hop-raggae whatever mix, some of the shit is funny, but not that great. Gentleman actually has a fan base in Jamiaca, believe it or not, he’s pretty good (Germany’s secret so to say). Xavier Naidoo is aesome, some of his songs go under my skin, but again they’re mostly in German.
I believe the Beatsteaks to be the best rock band in Germany for about the last decade. Period.
We’ve also got the Fanta4 or Fantastische 4. I don’t really like them, but they were one of the first to do hip-hop style of music in gerMONEY.

Joy Denalane is the best we got. She’s real good, she did a german album before this one, but there’s more earlier english stuff from her from before that.

Mitsurugi on October 20th, 2006 5:07 pm

Hi Stone,
Simon already mentioned Xavier Naidoo,
I think you should also listen to this song produced by RZA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWnHB8gqu6o
I’m not so much into (modern) soul but I’d say that in Germany the best male soul artist is Xavier Naidoo and the best female artist is Joy Denalane.
I know you’ve asked about European Soul but since Hip Hop artist have already been mentioned I think you should also check http://www.saiansupacrew.com from France. (they have a bunch of Videos on their page(there’s one (La Patte) with Will.I.Am from BEP)

And maybe you also might be interested in soulful Reggae, so check out Patrice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp4pW0FCwYc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-tmd2Gm0AY

btw. I think Nicole Willis is from Finland (at least that’s where her label is from)




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