'Diq Seeks Transcendence

So, I was this close to snatching Nelly's new exploitapalooza, Nellyville, from the shelf last night.

Dope, bitches and switches are cool, right? Well, I suppose so if you're into that sort of thing, but that still doesn't mean that I haven't heard every rapper this side of Lil' Whoever-Made-an-Album-This-Week play that trick out years ago.

Instead, I made the right choice, exited Nellyville and picked up Raphael Saadiq's Instant Vintage. While Vintage is far from perfect--too often the silky tracks melt into each other--Saadiq's self-dubbed "gospeldelic" style actually attempts to evoke more than an erection out of the listener.

Saadiq is far from a newcomer to the industry, starting out in the O80s as a touring bass player for Prince and Sheila E. As if that weren't sweet enough, he then went on to become Toni from Tony! Toni! Tone! (Or was he Tone!? One can never be sure.) After several years producing R&B heavyweights like D'Angelo and Lucy Pearl, Saadiq finally stepped to the forefront with his very own Vintage.

As he announces on the string-heavy opener "Doing What I Can," Saadiq lost three of his brothers and a sister at an early age. Bearing deep emotional scars, he uses this album as an opportunity to grapple with his still-unresolved anguish and somehow stumble upon redemption.

On the slinky, O70s bassline-infused track "Tick Tock," Saadiq knows that he has spurned a former lover, but instead of reveling in his infidelities, as Nelly might do, he is simply asking for a chance to prove his hard-won maturity.

Throughout Vintage, and most notably on "People" and "Blind Man," Saadiq craves nothing short of transcendence--away from the hip-hop cash cows and toward his departed siblings. Halfway between Nellyville and the stars, Saadiq bursts to a strong start.