Jones makes waves in the ocean of his lover on “Deep N2u,” a steamy, bedroom banger. So, my whole idea with this was to really make some great music and just giving some love back to the world because I think we’re really in a time where we need to focus on that and come together.”Įarly single “Karma (Payback)” makes the cut for 100% Free. Sometimes we over-consume a lot of alcohol. I just felt like sometimes we over-consume drugs.

Through slamming slap bass, masterful slow-grind and clear-cut self-obsession, Lyrics is a unified hip hop-tinged RnB mainstay, familiar without the distasteful nostalgia, and heavy on infectious beats.“That name resonated with me because there’s a lot of things we need to be free from, like negative thinking,” said Jones to Ryan J. Whether it's touches like the soaring harmonies on Just a Little's chorus, the decided lack of big-name guests or the idea of a lothario being occasionally crushed, Jones is clever and sleek enough to pull this album off. But to criticise Lyrics for being unsubtle would be to miss the point - this is an album styled on caricatures, with strong tunes. His 'type' swings the pendulum between heinous chauvinist (see Blackmail's flat-lined sneaking-out-the-mistress bragging) and changed man (on Love Like This). When the Chicago-born singer does take centre-stage, he juxtaposes overconfidence with shyness to great effect - each through the microscope he's created.

The song's incisive Timbaland-style verses are brilliant, a tease for what can be achieved with a more liberal mind on production but he's gone too far on being benevolent. More unfittingly, Jones selflessly gives away one of Lyrics' 13 songs to Breeze - he isn't even present on You Can Burn ('I usually don't do this but I got to introduce y'all to Breeze). What's Next, for example, sounds like the trajectory Usher should've followed - and the production is warm and luxurious. Jones' impressively suave soft touch, soulful backing and bedroom vocals don't require these self-justificatory mixtape-style intros.

Jones / The rebirth of hip hop and RnB' foreword. The spoken pre-ambles recur too, but less humorously - it's entirely unnecessary to introduce the album with a 'Yo, it's your boy D. But that's comforting rather than not, apart from when Jones' mother introduces Your Place with the immortal words 'Give them some of that Chicago-style RnB I brought you up on' - before the chorus strikes with its 'Can we do it in your place baby' refrain. Subject-wise, it doesn't stray too far from blush-inducing, unadulterated filth. The signature silky vocals are consistently come-hither, and the subject is so elementarily sex-focused - but rather than a soulless recreation of what he's been doing since late-90s hit U Know What's Up, it's an enticing and still-current LP. Donell Jones's self-produced sixth album, Lyrics, has a lot to treasure.

Just a little donell jones lyrics