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The RESET of RES..
“Industry rule No.4080, Record Company people are SHADDYYYYYY..”… Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, “Check The Rhime”
It’s a quasi Industry statement. Artists get it, and understand it. The quote is at this point almost 35 years old. Yet People STILL want in!! With a warning like that from a successful artist, one has to wonder why kids keep lining up in “Thank You Sir may I have another ” Formation.. This has been instilled as well as Many, many, MANY horror stories and documentaries that detail the many misgivings and misdeeds of the Music Industry. Having the Convo Mambo with Philly Vocalist RES, who came to the game and Fame in 2001, with her debut Album “ How I Do”, featuring singles “Golden Boys” and “They Say Vision”. She recently came to Detroit to perform as a part of the 20th Anniversary of her debut album. And I was given the Golden Boy opportunity (Shameless Plug of a RES song!!) to kick it with her. She can testify to the actual factual of Music Biz 101. “ I didn’t know I was gonna know it first hand!!”, Says RES, of the Notorious dealings of the Music Industry. RES, who is currently promoting her latest EP, Bare, and prepping for the release of her long awaited full-length album, RESET. It’s these very industry tactics and politics that the vocalist has seen and has been a victim of on her journey as an artist, that she attests to about the Industry .. “The Industry is Shady. And it sucks because whether you’re Shady or not , If you’re in that music business and you wanna be a part of it and you wanna work in it and you wanna be successful. You’ll find yourself working with Shady people. And You’ll know it. It’s a part of the Game. Whether you’re that way or not. You are definitely gonna work with somebody, On Your Team!! That you may have to hire. Or whatever, that’s that Shady Dude!!, ”
Please excuse my gushing as I write this, as I am a Huge fan of RES. Since discovering her music in the early 2000’s, I have always coveted her sound as a personal discovery for kids who didn’t subscribe to the everyday and stereotypical sound of Black Music. It was very inspiring and freeing to hear her and see her cross and blur the lines on musical genres. So to get to kick the Convo Mambo with her is not far from a bucket list event for me!! As one of those kids that grew up on John Hughes movies in the 80s. It was always Duran Duran, or The Latest White Pop Rock act that filled the movie soundtrack with this kind of sound. To see and hear a Black artist, a Female no less, Rock. And do it well and with confidence. Unapologetically, it was my own scale tipper and it felt good!! Okay back to the Convo.. Being from Philadelphia, of course RES was lumped in with the Neo Soul scene that dominated music, specifically R&B in the Mid 90s and early 2000s. Speaking on her Philly Roots, RES reveals she didn’t get a chance to participate in the legendary Black Lily Female showcase created by the Roots and was a launching pad for the likes of Jill Scott and Jaguar Wright among other talents like Kindred Family Soul. Not due to lack of talent by no means. It was simply a matter of age. “ I was a lot younger than them at the time. If I did go to the Black Lily I just went and watched. Like you can tell from my album (“How I Do”) even though I was marketed as a Neo Soul artist from Philadelphia. I still was not in the crew with those people in the late and mid 90’s.” speaking on her links to the era influenced by the Souliquarian era. She does however have a slight connection to the Legendary Institution that is Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International. “I grew up around the corner from Kenny Gamble and his kids. We had a relationship. We were the only Black kids in the suburbs. At 14, I met his two sons and later on met him and got to work in his studio.” Which no doubt had an effect on RES, when she began to make her own music and her mark as an artist.
Philadelphia as a city, has made Major contributions to modern music. And This Philly native was of a different breed. I feel like she was both ahead of her time.. And simultaneously, a generation or two, too late. Which is what drew me to her music as a fan. I hear the Post Psychedelica of the 70s with Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell (One of Res named Favorites) and Carole King.. and During Stevies “Superstition” era and Labelle, As well as Maybe a little Pop Rock of the 80s with David Bowie, and 90’s Lenny Kravitz. She is a musical disciple and Chameleon. Her style is more boundary busting versus assimilating. During her era, You had the likes of Macy Gray, Dionne Farris , Des’ree and other Black artists, who began to more freely explore sounds and experiment with vibes outside of the expected norm of R&B/ Soul or Hip Hop. And RES was one of those artists as a forerunner in Alternative Soul if you would. Traditions be damned , these kids were now charting the paths that led to the Frank Ocean’s, Jhene Aiko’s, Childish Gambino and even Tyler the Creator being able to do their thing unapologetically. And to be heralded because of their bravery with creation. In talking up her own sound and creativity, RES offers her experience as an example..“I think what led to my sound being more Eclectic was the producer and writers I was working with. And the fact that I was open to doing something that I’ve never heard before versus doing something that I’ve .always heard before, The Best part of making my album was that I was working with people that did not want to make something that we never heard before. If someone brought in even a familiar melody we would all say, no.” Clearly she had a plan and stuck to it. The end result was a welcome respite in a music scene that was becoming very cookie cutter and showed that not all Black Girls were sweating Janet Jackson or swooning to be Whitney Houston. Some just wanted to Rock. “It wasn’t exciting for me to make something I already heard someone else do. And do it well. Like Really Well. The best part about making my album, Was that I was working with people who did not want to make something that we already heard before. We said If we’re doing stuff that sounds like anybody else’s stuff. That ain’t it.”.. according to the Vocalist who cites Stevie Nicks as an inspiration and bears an obvious vocal influence to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inducted Vocalist. In my opinion RES music displayed a Non Restrictiveness, not heard at the time. And make no mistake. It was the goal, or by design that they went about it in such a way to get to the end result.. “It was by design and those people wanted to create something by design and wanted to create something that had never been heard before. And I was with it.”
And here we are some 20 years later, and her audience is still with it. Once RES touched the stage it was with Power. The Power of knowing herself as an audience and embracing an audience who embraced her and never let go. Starting off with “They Say Vision” RS came to go there and judging by the audience reaction we wanted to go there with her. My favorite RES song (And I am sure I am not alone) naming “Ice King” as my joint!! It still rides the same as when I first heard it. With a Hip Hop Kick and a rising arrangement that builds along with her vocal. You simply must see it Live to appreciate it. I mean it’s still an awesomely constructed record. But LIVE it’s intensity is undeniable, encompassing and pulls you in with her vocal telling the story. Given the circumstances she’s been through, Amazingly, she has managed to keep her effervescence and stay positive in the face of many delays and broken promises that probably would have broken a lesser artist let alone person. In the time since her debut she has released a follow-up album called “Black Girls Rock ”, in 2009 that picks up from “How I Do” and builds her sound to a fuller blown Rock Sound.. Favorite joints on there “Leave Here Tomorrow” and “So What Am” as well as a Fleetwood Mac inspired cover EP called “Refried Mac” featuring covers of Hit Fleetwood Mac songs. The plan was to drop her official 2nd album to her called “RESET”. But like Dr. Dre has been promising “Detox” for almost 2 decades, RES has been looking to drop her album for almost as long. Due to label politics, Producer parlays and all around Shady Biz.. “DETOX” , when you’re a Billionaire? Is one thing. “RESET” when this is how you make a living.. Is another. I probably give a shit more!!” Says RES on her continued efforts to drop her often delayed opus.. The album known as RESET.. took on several incarnations in its lifetime as a project.. ” I recorded a second follow-up to “How I Do”, that was supposed to be called just “RES”. But it never came out from Geffen Records. in 2006. I took it and bootlegged it myself. I got a new cover and sold an autographed picture with the CD and named it “Black Girls Rock”. I then made a follow up to THAT album, with the same producer of “How I Do” and called IT, RESET.”
But, in her continued persistence to get the album done. She ran up against a whole new set of issues from a producer/ artist standpoint. It was never mixed by the producer who then leveraged for a larger amount to finish it after promising to do it for less and on conditions. And in the end just never delivered the finished product. Stalling the album progress with only demos and unmixed versions of the songs. Ever the trooper, she decided to record yet another album sought to call THAT album “RESET”. Unfortunately she ran into issues between herself and Talib Kweli. Who’s then label, Javotti Media, RES worked with and had her appear on numerous Kweli tracks, as well as formed the duo Idle Worship with Talib. These issues led to the holding up of her own projects up to, another planned album that she thought was finally going to see the light of day in an all new form of “RESET”. Which leads us to the present where free form label Drama and broken promises, RES finds herself able to finally release the “RESET” album on her own thru her own created entity called RESET Society. Where she also plans to re – release a Vinyl Version of “How I Do” as well as market NFT’s in connection with the music. ” I never thought I would ever want to own a label. But now I’m all into that and NFT’s” emotes RES on the immediate of her positions in music and business. SO glad to have been able to sit down and see the light at the end of the tunnel for her. And I am excited that her path is clearer and booked.. She has become an in demand performer on the indie Soul Scene with shows in Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago and more. Looking forward to the future and grateful for the past, RES is finally RESET and Free At Last.. – Terry Martin for RnBInTheD.com
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