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Sometimes I get miffed at how it's
used as emotional blackmail, but it wasn't as if I had decided in advance
that I wanted to make my statement on religion for this album. It just came
out that way." On "Get It Right," Vandross reinvents a 1983 tune he penned
with Marcus Miller for Aretha Franklin as a boldly contemporary hip-hop
jam with the help of newcomers Precise (who also raps on "Nights in Harlem")
and Tramp Baby, who co-produced the track.
"My long-time friend, singer
Fonzi Thorton, was waiting to do a jingle session when he heard a track
with a rap coming through the door. He said, 'Luther, this groove was so
strong and so right -- and then I realized it was one of your songs!'" Vandross
approached Precise and Tramp Baby, who were ecstatic to work with their
hero, and had them rearrange the cut so he and his bevy of background harmonizers
could in turn make it their own. "You'll be hearing more from those two.
They have the goods." "Are you Using Me?" unites Vandross with house music
champions "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzales, known collectively
as Masters At Work, a pair that's also achieved jazz notoriety
as the architects behind the sprawling
dance collective Nuyorican Soul. The muscular four-to-the-floor rhythms
and energetic tempo recalls the singer's pre-solo work with such quintessential
disco acts as Change, Bionic Boogie and Chic as it brings Vandross back
to the dance floor. Hear the uplift and freedom in a voice that knows neither
musical boundaries nor emotional limits.
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