by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)
Many of our Spotify playlists on Good Black News celebrate the songs of years past – but today we’re going to twist it up a little.
With our “Surprise! We’re Still Making Great Music“ playlist, we’re going to spotlight 30 favorite artists from throughout the years who you maybe didn’t know had something new to offer.
[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:0X0ZZTJ6z2yxX5Uu7R7j3G”/]
With major record companies so focused on the youth/hip hop market, it’s often just part of the accepted path of a musician that after the hit-making years are over, an artist’s career shifts – sometimes concerts/touring, sometimes acting/performing in musicals, sometimes just retiring or changing careers.
But as the technology for recording gets less expensive, and the ability to distribute music electronically becomes simpler – more and more favorite acts are deciding to record new music. However, just because they’ve made new music, doesn’t mean its been easy for us to find out about it. Not many radio stations play new soul from veteran artists, and on the streaming services, these tracks are often not well-promoted – even to their likely audiences.
So we started exploring, and we’ve stumbled across dozens of fresh recordings from artists that we haven’t checked out in awhile, often in decades! Some artists have been recording all along – and we didn’t realize it. Some seem to be testing the waters – can they reignite their fanbase? And, this year in particular, with musicians stuck at home – and with news events and protests inspiring the artistic desire to say something, many are using their art to address the politics of today.
So, here are 30 favorite artists (+ one bonus artist) – a mixture of men, women, and groups with recent music from the last couple years you can check out now electronically. Let us know in the comments who you are happy to see back in action behind the mic:
In the years before hip hop gained a mainstream foothold on the charts, the ’80s provided many of the jams that would ultimately be sampled by rappers – so you can hear some of the underlying inspirations of Notorious B.I.G., Eric B & Rakim, and LL Cool J – along with LL Cool J himself, with the first enormous hip-hop slow jam, “I Need Love.”