Every now and then, she releases something that forces the proverbial guard to drop. "No One," for instance, was astonishingly shrill and clumsy. When the song peaked in November '04, it was flanked by Usher and Alicia Keys' "My Boo" and Lil Wayne's "Go D.J."Ħ. Within the span of three lines ("Damn the money, diamonds, and pearls/What about the hard day she had with the baby/All she needs is for me to love her"), the sound of Hamilton's voice shifts from rough-hewn resentment to a falsetto that is deeply, sweetly pained. Not merely an instant vintage, memory-triggering Southern soul classic. Happy music at its most infectious and hypnotic - a 20-minute mix would not have worn out its welcome.ĥ. Along with Bobby Valentino's "Slow Down," Lalah Hathaway's "Let Go," and Robin Thicke's "Lost Without U," "Step" kept the art of two-step alive while functioning as a modern anthem for the form. Who else could return from a nine-year absence with a song that begins with a regal trumpet and not come off like a clown?Ĥ.
Understated yet supremely suspenseful - crisp snare rolls, cold guitar stabs, staggering synth-probes, and at least a dozen other elements are deployed, ricocheting off one another as Sade Adu rewrites "Love Is a Battlefield" with scarred, assured defiance. When it hit the airwaves, in December '09, it sounded like Sade Adu and company were riding in to reclaim their land. Check the back half of the-Dream's "Veteran" for a sly reference.ģ. Lapping percussion, dancing synth spangles, slightly giddy guitar wiggles, blissed-out strings and, of course, Aaliyah gracefully gliding atop all of it with breezy, rousing whispers. No greater match between lyrics and production was made during the decade. It's impossible to hear "Rock the Boat" and not think about the plane accident that stole a tremendous talent - not when it occurred just after the filming of the video. Key point for sticklers with strict authenticity principles: in addition to knocking the beat out of the park with her ecstatic vocal, Amerie gets a songwriting credit.Ģ. It's just as exciting, flailing all over the place with unbound joy, but it produces a greater rush with fewer components (no horns or Jay-Z necessary). Like an earlier Rich Harrison production, Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love," it swings on a kinetic drum loop. When it debuted on the chart, in January '05, Amerie's dreamy, gold-selling debut was well over two years old, and nothing on it suggested that she had this in her. This tumbling, Meters-assisted masterpiece was something of a shock to the system. A list of equal length that covers non-charting singles and album tracks - Jill Scott's "Slowly Surely," Sa-Ra's "Glorious," Bugz in the Attic's "Consequences," the Foreign Exchange's "Daykeeper," and so on - might follow.ġ. Each song debuted on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart during the decade. This list consists of the top 100, ordered by preference. There wasn't any doubt that 2000-2009 was a good era for R&B - what era isn't? - but nothing could possibly confirm it like scanning the decade's charting singles.and realizing that over 300 of them are, on some level, enjoyable.