It started with Marvin Gaye and Al Green. Then Barry White and Issac Hayes took the reins and now Maxwell and D’Angelo carry on the tradition of turning love, desire and passion into music that’s sensual and sexual.
As R&B fans anxiously await Maxwell to drop his third album, a rookie has stepped into the spotlight. Twenty-one-year-old Jaheim is making a case to be included with these masters of setting the mood.
Jaheim has seen more tragedy than most folks twice his age. His father passed away when he was 12. Fifteen years later his mother died, leaving Jah to tend to his younger brother.
After making a name for himself in New Jersey, his demo tape caught the ear of Naughty By Nature’s Kay Gee. Gee signed the young crooner to his label, Divine Mill, and then helped him finalize a deal with Warner Bros. Two years later Jah has blessed us with his first album Ghetto Love. Just like his predecessors Jaheim fills Ghetto Love with all the different aspects of that powerful four letter word-love.
On “Could It Be” Jaheim gets a little sarcastic with the gold-digging girls out there.
He describes an intimate encounter with a random woman and why she’s so into him. Jah lists all the reasons he can think of, “Could it be the word on the block/ could it be the ice you see/ I’m thinking it’s all about me.”
He continues his ripping of scandalous females on “Lil Brotha Ain’t Mine.” After spending months with a woman who claimed to be carrying Jah’s baby, the child is born. But something is strange. “
He’s too yellow and your skin is darker than mine/ both his eyes are rough/ he ain’t got my eyes/ they aren’t brown enough/ I’m not that baby’s father/ what do I look like/ don’t answer that/ I’m probably a fool/ you know what/ you’re probably right/ like I’m probably his pops and I’m probably white.”
Jaheim takes on the jealous ex-boyfriend on “Finder’s Keepers.” “It was your show/ but you’re the one who pushed away/ should have handled your business before you went on your way.”
Missy Elliot’s prot?g?, Lil Mo, gives a guest spot on this track. She lays down the vocals for the woman caught in the middle.
Jah brings in rap-unknown Castro to guest on “Let it Go.” Jaheim takes a more aggressive stance in dealing with his girlfriend’s jealous ex-man. “My shorty keeps telling me you stressing her out/ you need to relax before I run up in your mouth .I’m `bout to start hooking off with jabs and uppercuts/ I think you should let be/ if you want beef I got the recipe.”
The horn-backed beat brings out the anger of Jah’s vocals. The lyrics are delivered so the image of facing down the ex-boyfriend and talking trash is vivid.
“Just In Case” has top-40 hit written all over it. Jaheim takes his carpe diem approach to life into the bedroom.
Behind the piano and drum backed beat, Jah croons, “Just in case I don’t make it home tonight/ let me make love to you for the last time baby/ want to cherish each moment like the last/ `cause baby you’re all that I have.” This track will surely be overplayed when it hits the radio, so pick it up now before it’s crammed into your ears.
“Remarkable” puts Jaheim and Terry Dexter together. Detailing how deep their love runs, Jaheim and Dexter go back and forth as to how horrible their lives would be without one another. “Without you I’d be so miserable,” Jah sings. “You’re so remarkable/ from head to toe/ I just had to let you know.”
Some tracks, such as”Anything” and “Waitin’ On You,” beg to be fast-forwarded. Being 21 tracks deep the album plays rather long. Barring these imperfections, Ghetto Love is an impressive debut.
The R&B tradition of setting the mood is safely intact.
