Let me say this first and foremost...Jodeci is the shit. And if you think differently, you might as well stop reading this right now. I've had drag down, knockout rumbles with cats who talk that Boyz 2 Men is better ish and on the real, that convo has actually ruined some friendships. And keep in mind, I'M FROM PHILLY and LOVE "Cooley High Harmony" to DEATH! Hell, that record is my entire junior and senior year of high school but ain't no way in hell is Boyz To Men a better group then Jodeci! I ain't even trying to hear that. Aiight...I just had to get that off my chest and after that lil siloquiy of chaos I'm sure you can tell that I'm a die hard Jodeci fan who's been feenin' for another Jodeci album for the past 19 years. Now over the years, I've always heard rumblings here and there about them linking back up to drop something and I'd always get hype just to get let down over and over. But after seeing that K Ci and JoJo detox reality show "Come Clean" and hearing the hoopla about DeVante trashing a Subways and looking like a crack head in the video on TMZ a BIG part of me was like "nah, I'm good. I'll just live with the 3 albums ya'll gave us" cause I didn't know what kinda album these dudes and the demons they're living with would give us. I'd rather just let their discography end with "The Show, The After Party, The Hotel" then to drop some ole subpar album just to say there's some new Jodeci on tap. Then word got to ear at the tail end of last year about some new Jodeci so I started getting hype again. That is, til I saw these fools lip syncing at the BET awards. And while the rest of the internets were going crazy over the performance, for me, that was the nail in the coffin. Even after hearing the first single for this new album "Nobody Wins" I was like, "that's it?" The first new Jodeci song we've heard in damn near 20 years and THIS is what they come with? Yeah, I'm good. But then something ill happened when I got my hands on the album. I listened to it once...and I never stopped listening.
"The Past, The Present, The Future" sets off with the only uptempo banger on the set "Too Hot" which samples the classic Dawn Penn song "You Don't Love Me" and dispels the urban legend that Jodeci can't make uptempo tracks. But once you get past "Too Hot" it's basically time to put the kids to bed and hit up the bedroom cause from here on out you're good money if you're trying to get some. "Sho Out" will mos def be the strip club anthem for 2015, "Checking For You" has the classic Jodeci harmonies and has K Ci sounding like he hasn't lost a step over the last 18 years. "Those Things" will have you reminiscing when K Ci goes into his classic line "I've been watching you for so very long" from "Come And Talk To Me" and you couldn't ask for more when it comes to the album's 2nd single "Every Moment" which encompasses the classic Jodeci sound to the point it could've been a gem they had stashed in the vaults from '96. I wasn't feeling the album's first single "Nobody Wins" when I heard it but I feel like that's because I was expecting a song like "Every Moment" and not a song about domestic violence but since I got my daily dose of the bedroom bangers with the previous 3 songs, this jawn has actually grown on me. "Incredible" freaks the melody from the classic SOS Band slow jam "Tell Me" and "Body Parts" and "Stress Reliever" keep the head board banging but my fav cut off the album is "Jennifer." Word on the street is DeVante wrote this song back in high school about a shorty he was feeling and that this is the song that actually got Jodeci together as a group and if that's true, you gotta tip your hat to DeVante cause this song sounds damn good for something that's 25+ years old.
It's CRAZY to me that the 2 folk who made me fall in love with modern R&B, D'Angelo and Jodeci both dropped albums this year after their Diamond D type hiatuses and not only were both albums dope but they both exceeded my expectations. Now I've peeped some reviews and chopped it up with folk who are saying there's really no BIG songs on "The Past, The Present..." like "Forever My Lady", "Come & Talk To Me", "Feenin" or "Love You For Life" and that's true but for me, I wasn't expecting that big song from these cats. Let me ask ya'll this...ya'll all seen the 5 Heartbeats right? Well, at the end when they're all together at the BBQ do these dudes REALLY look like that got another "A Heart Is A House For Love" left in them? Hell no! But ya'll expected Jodeci to have another "Come Talk To Me" in 'em? REALLY?!?!? Wow. See, for me I didn't know what to expect from these dudes after a 18 year lay off. I didn't know if DeVante still knew how to put the pen to the pad or even how to turn on a drum machine for that matter or if K Ci could still hold a note let alone belt out his classic K Ci riffs so I'm MORE then happy with what I got from these cats this go round. Is it a classic album? Nah. Is it a damn good album? No doubt. Oh yeah, and for all my Boyz to Men is better then Jodeci dudes out there, riddle me this...are any of ya'll waiting around for a new Boyz to Men album to drop? Yeah, didn't think so.
4 outta 5 mics
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