English Songs
Listen to Kevin Michael Songs music.
Contemporary soulster Kevin Michael grew up making music, and the fruits of that journey are abundant on his full-length eponymous debut. Like his contemporaries John Legend and Jill Scott, Michael looks to the past for inspiration, drawing on Philly soul, Motown, early funk, and mainstream pop. Yet Michael synthesizes these elements artfully, coming up with a hybrid that's as unique and stylish as it is eclectic. A roster of heavyweight guest artists, including Wyclef Jean, Q Tip, and Lupe Fiasco, raise the album's already impressive standing.
Growing up, Kevin heard the music within, and he began recording as a teen. "At 16, I wrote my first song," he recalls. "I woke up in the studio one night and something literally clicked in my head! I really heard it, so I said, 'I better write this down.' For Kevin, music was the only option worth considering. He recounts, "I had the offer of a full scholarship to Hofstra, but I never seriously thought about it. I feel real strongly about doing what it is you want to do."
Kevin Michael's YaDig? EP, available only on Itunes, is an introduction to Kevin's unique sound and style in advance of his album release on August 28th, 2007. "We All Want The Same Thing" is included in two ways: the hip-hop inflected version featuring Lupe Fiasco, and the stripped-down acoustic style featuring guitarist and beatboxer Akil Dasan, who also also appears on the acoustic versions of "Vicki Secrets" and "It Don't Make Any Difference To Me" featured on the EP.
"We All Want The Same Thing," the EP's opener, is both a statement of purpose and roots for the artist who lived in worlds both black and white ("All my gangster friends/and all my skater friends/We all want the same thing/DJ's in the clubs/Jesus freaks and thugs/We all want the same things").
"Vicki Secrets" showcases Kevin's falsetto, and proves him as a singer with considerable sex appeal who knows how to communicate to the ladies. And then there's Kevin's ode to Michael Jackson, "Stone Cold Killa," which weaves a Latin percussive feel with snappy pop phrasing and layered vocal harmonies to conjure up a world of good times, beautiful women and smiles on the dance floor.
"It Don't Make Any Difference To Me" shows both the range of Kevin's songwriting abilities and the depth of his pride in who he is ("All you gotta do is look at me/Three generations of my family you see/People treat you different/When you're in between/He was black and she was white/You know that most people thought that it wasn't right/I can still remember what she used to say/It don't make any difference to me"). The song combines an irresistible pop feel with poignant lyrics, and what emerges is a trans-racial modern day anthem. The album version of the song was produced by and featuring Wyclef Jean, bringing a Caribbean flavor to the mix.
