Hidden Depths: Roska

Next up in our Hidden Depths series is Roska.

All these songs are memories from a certain time in my childhood. All these tracks are more authentic than R&B today, tracks today just don't feel right - it feels like more of a formula than someone singing or writing their heart out.

Bell Biv Devoe - 'Poison' (MCA Records, 1990)

This was definitely one for me that bridged the gap between r'n'b and dance. For the first time, I had a real connection between the grassroots of what I listened to when I was younger and another genre. Corrupted Cru and DJ Luck did a great remix of it in 1999.

Boyz II Men - 'Motownphilly' (Motown Records, 1991)

My mum had the album and used to play it quite a lot. When I was younger my mum used to play soul and R&B and that was it! That's all we listened to and from that album, this is the one that stuck with me. I remember this song because of the album cover - all four of them were wearing matching cricket jumpers and baseball caps. Songs like these are memories from a certain time in my childhood.

Zhané - 'Hey Mr DJ' (Flavour Unit Records, 1993)

You would always hear this track at house parties. I didn't know the name of the giner for ages because it used to just be all about the song, you didn't really care about who made it! A lot of tunes back then all came with the acapella version! A lot of the time, the remix would be a complete switch but would still be a banger. Or the remix would have an extra 16-bar rap.

Janet Jackson - 'That's The Way Love Goes' (Virgin Records, 1993)

This had the same vibe as 'Hey Mr DJ'. My parents used to play it so much and it would definitely get played at house parties. Janet Jackson was one of the iconic figures who was great at song selection and very good at writing songs. This had such a great video with it too, Jennifer Lopez is in it. She was a backing dancer before she became a singer.

Jodeci - 'Freek'N You' (Uptown Records, 1995)

It wasn't really about the lyrics with this one, it was more about the melody and the structure of the track. It was so good. They even used a vocoder at the end, without over using it. This came out in that period where music wasn't technical as such, it was about the actual singing. The singing was effortless, you can tell it was authentic. Especially with Jodeci, they're all such strong singers there wasn't a main one with the rest just doing back up.

Toni Braxton - 'You're Making Me High' (LaFace Records, 1996)

I remember seeing the video for this on MTV Base quite a bit and I had a teenage crush. Toni and the Braxtons were effortless singers. Later on, you've got stuff like that Lumidee Song "Uh Oh" which is so awful but because it's catchy everybody likes it. Toni Braxton could actually sing, and she came from a family of good singers too. They were a group called The Braxtons and they were really good too.

112 feat. Notorious B.I.G & Ma$e - 'Only You (Puff Daddy Remix)' (Bad Boy Entertainment - 1996)

This was at the time when Bad Boy were on fire. They had the right beatmakers. 112 were like Jodeci, in the sense that they could all sing. I don't think they were as strong as Jodeci, but they definitely had something about them that was really good. This was the remix version. They flipped it and that was the thing of bad boy. They always had the original of the track was always a banger, and then they'd remix it and take it ten times higher and just take the piss basically! With remixes now, it seems like you just do it because it makes sense. Like, "oh that person's big, let's get them to do a remix for us". Whereas back then it was like, "yeah we'll do a remix, but we'll take the original of the song and completely change it but still keep it as good as the original version."

Blackstreet - 'No Diggity' (Interscope Records, 1996)

The only thing with Blackstreet was they changed their lineup. They changed two of the singers. This was more for the beat than the actual song. This was kind of what got me into listening to Dr Dre, Snoop, Tupac and all the west coast stuff. I wasn't really much of a Tupac fan as such, I was more Biggie. But this made me go back and listen to more Tupac and pick up Snoop's Doggystyle and a few others. I'm still Bigge over Tupac though!. Tupac was really serious and made you really think about what he was saying. Biggie was more laidback. He had the 10 Crack Commandments which was a bit serious but that was great because you could put it into any context. You can understand Biggie's tracks a bit more, without having to think too hard.

Usher - 'My Way' (LaFace Records, 1997)

This again, was more for the beat. Jermaine Dupri produced this one. This was my entrance into hearing usher, and at the time he had a vibe of a young Michael Jackson. His songwriting was on point. With usher, he seemed more authentic then, than he does now. Up until 'Yeah' with Lil Jon and Ludacris, he hasn't been what he was. It was like a new breed of artists coming through, it was Jodecit, 112 and then Usher. There were a few others like Tyrese, but Usher was the guy in '97. There was a stage where it seemed like they wanted single male artists, but they wanted the full package. You HAD to be able to sing, dance and songwrite, and usher had all of that. There's a bit more to usher than the average performer.

Ginuwine - 'What's So Different?' (Epic, 1998)

This was my entry into Timbaland and that era of Missy aswell. The beat on this incredible, and that got me into what timbaland does as a producer, which ultimately spurred me onto becoming a producer. Being influenced by what he does and indirectly incorporating it into what I do. Funnily enough I started producing in '99. My uncle had a studio and I was always around there from about 99 to 2003. I think 99 was my favourite year for music, but that whole decade was dominated by males singers. There were a lot of female singers but the females singers stood out much more. without a lot of female singers, it seems as if they think sex has to sell but with men you cant really do that. We can only can take of off our top and that's about it! Females can take it further, and for us, that makes it a bit more of a challenge to market yourself.