If you ask any of my fellow sharks they will tell you I can typically be found at my desk at the front door with my headphones in, jamming away while typing something up. I love music and I try to keep it playing at all times during the day. It keeps me productive and makes my day really fly by!

My music taste has so much variety so you can never really tell what I’m listening to without asking me. I mean it makes sense especially when you consider Billy Currington, Luther Vandross, and Young Dolph is all in the same playlist! I feel my music is the soundtrack to my life and the diversity of my selections is a true reflection of my personality.

Old Soul

I consider myself a very old soul, which is evident with the classic artists on my playlists like Luther Vandross, Bobby Caldwell, Bill Withers, Rose Royce, and The S.O.S. Band. I am obsessed with R&B music from the 80’s from bands like DeBarge and Shalamar and artists like Anita Baker and Michael McDonald. I’m almost convinced I was born in the wrong era.

R&B Music from the 80s has some of the most discreetly sexual music you will ever find. Artists like The S.O.S. Band had lyrics like, “Baby we can do it, take the time, do it right, we can do it baby, do it tonight,” which is a far cry from the overtly sexual music my generation calls R&B.

R&B Music back then also had some of the most heartfelt lyrics, both literally and metaphorically. Below you’ll find some of my favorite lyrics from the songs from my playlist:

“We look for love, no time for tears, wasted water’s all that is and it don’t make no flowers grow. Good things might come to those who wait, but not to those who wait too late”  Bill Withers- Just the Two of Us

“I can’t fool myself I don’t want nobody else to ever love me. You are my shining star my guiding light, my love fantasy. There's not a minute, hour, day or night that I don’t love you. You're at the top of my list ‘cause I’m always thinking of you” Luther Vandross- Never Too Much

“In my world only you make me do for love what I would not do. My friends wonder what is wrong with me, well I’m in the daze from your love, you see. I came back to let you know, I’ve got a thing for you, and I can’t let go” -Bobby Caldwell What You Won’t Do For Love

Music like that makes you hopeful that love one day will find you and when it does it will consume you and compel you to feel the way these artists describe in their music. What can i say I’m a hopeless romantic. Even the newer music I listen has that old school vibe whether it’s Bruno Mars’s Straight Up & Down or Kendrick Lamar’s Blow My High from one of his earliest mixtapes Section 80.  

The Unobvious Choices

Maroon 5 has always been my favorite band of all time. They can do no wrong in my eyes. I could do a whole playlist of my favorite songs from them, but my 2 very favorites have to be Sunday Morning and This Love. Their music sounds like a mix of pop, R&B, and rock all wrapped up into a classic sound. What more could you want from a band?

As much as I love Maroon 5 it only makes sense that I like music that has a similar sound and feels to it. A great example of that is Train’s Drops of Jupiter. That song gives me chills every time! And who could deny the dreamy voice of John Mayer as he sang about Gravity?!

The most surprising songs on my playlist probably come from Billy Currington with Good Directions and Josh Turner with Your Man. I am a really big fan of country music! Not necessarily what's on the radio right now, but more like George Strait and Johnny Cash. I love when I listen to any music and you can visualize the story that the artist is trying to tell with the lyrics. Old school country music is the genre that has captured how to do this perfectly.

The Music You Hate that You Love

I hate the state of Hip Hop in 2017. Mumble Rap has taken over, and the days of using rap as a way to get your message out and uplift the community are over, and discussing how many drugs you sell, how much money you have, and having sex with other people’s significant others are here. It started with the Migos and has only gotten worse. BUT with that being said, I can’t bring myself to turn some of it off!

The new wave of hip-hop includes intoxicating beats, heart throbbing 808s, and catchy hooks. One great example is rapper Moneyman with songs like Cardi B and THC. I heard both of these songs two times and was able to sing the hook. Now that’s good marketing! Throughout the verse his voice floats over the beat almost like his voice is an extension of the beat. Kodak Black is another artist that is very good at this.

One artist that does not care about being on beat or his raps rhyming is Memphis rapper Young Dolph who is currently taking the rap game by storm. His southern drawl makes him very interesting to listen to and he also tells a story you can see through his raps like in the song Foreva.

I realized when putting together this playlist of 20 songs doesn’t even scratch the surface of being able to gage all my favorite songs of all time. Now that you have a good idea of what my musical taste is like, you may be able to pick out the songs that I added to our Red Shark Digital community playlist.