Luther Vandross - Page 5 -


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. LutherVandross3 "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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