Nanci O Is Hip Hop

One time for Raleigh marketing and social maven S. Dionne. We were at a private birthday dinner for a business associate last month and the conversation turned to music. She adamantly exclaimed that Columbus, Ohio's R?§H?Ð (Rashad) Museum was THE best R&B project she'd heard in a long time. Her reasons were pretty convincing so I had to check it out myself. (Y'all might be surprised to know that I listen to a lot of R&B and pop). Long story short, Dionne was right.

Rashad sings, produces, and mixes his own material. He also produces for others, notably Stalley's Lincoln Way Nights: Intelligent Trunk Music in it's entirety. After multiple, back to back listens of Museum, it dawned on me one reason why it's so good: variety. I hear the styles of The Dream ("Make Love 2 This"), R. Kellly ("How I Feel", on the reprise), Trey Songz ("Let It Be Known"). However the songs on Museum aren't R&B knockoffs. The production combined with variety really sets it apart. "The Life" featuring Styles P has the most eloquent sample of Project Pat's "Chickenhead" I've ever heard.

Museum has lots of what I call "layers". Layers is when you can really hear the different instruments in a song. I'm sure layers may not be the best music journalistic description so just check out "Goosebumps" and listen how the sounds blend together while also standing out (gee I hope that makes sense).

Anyway, for my last Feature Night Thursday of the semester on WXYC 89.3 FM Chapel Hill, Rashad called in to the night's show. Hit the jump to read and listen to our chat, where we talk about Ohio's funk roots, his creative process when producing for others, the importance of "black music", envisioning his legacy and much more.

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