Managing Friendships in a Global PandemicI had the pleasure of being a guest author for Wear Your Voice Magazine where I wrote a short piece about how to manage our friendships during COVID-19, pulling from some of my research on friendships. I hope you check it out!
Sunday Morning SingleCheck out my new single "Sunday Morning," produced by J Grooves. It's lifted from my forthcoming EP Qualifying Exam, coming this fall!
Click here for a link to all the places it is streaming and for purchase. My Mind SingleIt is my pleasure to announced my buzz single "My Mind." Produced by J Grooves. A smooth song about having a little crush, "My Mind" captures the breezy spring vibe. I hope you enjoy it!
Click here for a link to all the places it is streaming and for purchase.
Midnight Musings: Explorations in Public SpeakingThe second book in the series Midnight Musings entitled Midnight Musings: Explorations in Public Speaking (2019) was released on October 18, 2019.
Midnight Musings: Explorations in Public Speaking shares a holistic communication approach developed from years of research, teaching and professional experience. It is your public speaking playbook. You will discover how to understand your audience, overcome communication apprehension, create memorable presentations, and develop a will to plan and practice that will enhance your value as a communicator -- forever. With Midnight Musings: Explorations in Public Speaking you will learn to: (1) Overcome stage fright and anxiety, (2) Merge the basics of rhetoric with the principles of design thinking, (3) Maximize the power of persuasion with storytelling, (4) Motivate, inform and inspire your audience, (5) Recognize and confront gaslighting, (6) Craft and receive constructive critique, (7) Communicate online and in diverse contexts, & (8) Leverage emerging technology and prepare for the future of public speaking. Midnight Musings: Interpersonal Communication & Social MediaI am pleased to announce that my first book Midnight Musings: Interpersonal Communication & Social Media has been released.
Midnight Musings: Interpersonal Communication & Social Media traces how social media impacts, changes and evolves common interpersonal communication practice. Throughout this text, Shepard explores foundational theories and expands the scope of these theories to introduce new concepts (indirect definitions, preference/prejudice continuum, illusion of perspective, & amiendships) for a greater understanding of interpersonal communication. “On & On”: Erykah Badu and Neo-soulMy third post for the National National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) is live on their site. Go check it out!
When Erykah Badu first appeared on BET’s Planet Groove in 1997 to promote her then forthcoming debut album Baduizm, it was clear that a shift in the musical landscape had arrived. Through her interview with Planet Groove’s host Rachel Stuartfarrell, it became more apparent with their brief interview where Badu stated, “I feel like this is where I need to be right now because music is kind of sick… it’s going through a rebirthing process and I find myself being one of the midwives aiding in that rebirthing process.” This rebirthing process would soon be labeled by Kedar Massenburg as neo-soul and the moniker Queen of neo-soul would forever be connected to Erykah Badu. While the genre term was retroactively applied to D’Angelo’s debut album, 1995’s Brown Sugar as well as Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite (1996) and artists such as Omar, The Fugees, Dionne Farris, Jamiroquai, and Me’Shell NdegéOcello laid the groundwork sonically and lyrically for the musical movement of neo-soul to exist, Erykah Badu’s breakthrough debut album solidified the neo-soul movement’s commercial visibility in the mid to late 1990s. The set’s accompanying singles “On & On,” “Next Lifetime,” and “Otherside of the Game” shaped and defined what a neo-soul aesthetic was and with the subsequent releases of Lauryn Hill’s debut The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), Jill Scott’s debut Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1 (2000), Badu’s Mama’s Gun (2000), as well as India.Arie’s Acoustic Soul (2001), it became apparent that mainstream neo-soul was a predominantly Black female led music genre with Erykah Badu at the forefront. Click here to read more! |
D'Angelo's "Second Coming"
My second post for the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) is live on their site. Go check it out!
Last night, I had the pleasure of witnessing the “second coming” of D’Angelo during The Second Coming Tour when it touched down in Los Angeles at Club Nokia. Fresh off of this leg’s first show in Oakland, D’Angelo and his band The Vanguard are clearly a well oiled machine and the 14 year gap between D’Angelo’s landmarked sophomore albumVoodoo (2000) and his critically acclaimed third Black Messiah (2014) feels like a distant afterthought after his over two hour set filled with new songs (“Ain’t That Easy,” “Betray My Heart,” “The Charade,” “Sugah Daddy,” “Another Life”) and some fan favorite classics (“Brown Sugar,” “Left & Right,” “Chicken Grease,”).
While D’Angelo has been making the touring rounds the past few years including a co-headlining The Liberation Tour (2012) with Mary J. Blige, as well as his European Occupy Music Tour (2012), The Second Coming Tour marks D’Angelo’s more official return to the stage here in the States after releasing Black Messiah and was filled with several master classes taught by the legendary musician. Not only were D’Angelo’s vocals as crisp as they were at the height of Voodoo, but his musicianship on both the guitar and piano were in fine form as he fronted The Vangaurd (a 10-piece band that included three background singers, two guitarists, a bassist, a saxophonist, a trumpeter, a percussionist, as well as a pianist).
Read more here
Last night, I had the pleasure of witnessing the “second coming” of D’Angelo during The Second Coming Tour when it touched down in Los Angeles at Club Nokia. Fresh off of this leg’s first show in Oakland, D’Angelo and his band The Vanguard are clearly a well oiled machine and the 14 year gap between D’Angelo’s landmarked sophomore albumVoodoo (2000) and his critically acclaimed third Black Messiah (2014) feels like a distant afterthought after his over two hour set filled with new songs (“Ain’t That Easy,” “Betray My Heart,” “The Charade,” “Sugah Daddy,” “Another Life”) and some fan favorite classics (“Brown Sugar,” “Left & Right,” “Chicken Grease,”).
While D’Angelo has been making the touring rounds the past few years including a co-headlining The Liberation Tour (2012) with Mary J. Blige, as well as his European Occupy Music Tour (2012), The Second Coming Tour marks D’Angelo’s more official return to the stage here in the States after releasing Black Messiah and was filled with several master classes taught by the legendary musician. Not only were D’Angelo’s vocals as crisp as they were at the height of Voodoo, but his musicianship on both the guitar and piano were in fine form as he fronted The Vangaurd (a 10-piece band that included three background singers, two guitarists, a bassist, a saxophonist, a trumpeter, a percussionist, as well as a pianist).
Read more here
Brown Sugar & Neo-Soul
I recently joined the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) as a Content Contributor and my first post on the NMAAM's website is live.
After what felt like an eternity since his critically acclaimed sophomore album Voodoo (2000), D’Angelo returned with his highly anticipated third album Black Messiah (2014). This year’s growing popularity of Black Messiah not only marks the fifteenth anniversary of D’Angelo’s landmark sophomore album, but also the twentieth anniversary of his debut album Brown Sugar (1995). Brown Sugar (1995) along withMe’Shell NdegéOcello’s Plantation Lullabies (1993), Joi’s The Pendulum Vibe (1994), and Dionne Farris’s Wild Seed – Wild Flower (1994)took popular Black music to the next level during the early to mid 1990s by mixing innovative musical scores with eclectic musical stylings and lyrical content that stretched beyond the seemingly endless R&B love song.
Released on July 3rd, 1995, D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar would soon usher in the new genre neo-soul. And while D’Angelo has an ambivalent relationship with the generic term, Brown Sugar’s artistic impact cannot be underestimated. While Kedar Massenburg, former Motown president and executive producer of both D’Angelo and Erykah Badu’s first forays into the music industry, is often credited with coining and creating the genre neo-soul through his discovery of D’Angelo and Badu, it truly is D’Angelo’s debut that aids in the shifting of music and the creation of a neo-soul culture.
Read more here
After what felt like an eternity since his critically acclaimed sophomore album Voodoo (2000), D’Angelo returned with his highly anticipated third album Black Messiah (2014). This year’s growing popularity of Black Messiah not only marks the fifteenth anniversary of D’Angelo’s landmark sophomore album, but also the twentieth anniversary of his debut album Brown Sugar (1995). Brown Sugar (1995) along withMe’Shell NdegéOcello’s Plantation Lullabies (1993), Joi’s The Pendulum Vibe (1994), and Dionne Farris’s Wild Seed – Wild Flower (1994)took popular Black music to the next level during the early to mid 1990s by mixing innovative musical scores with eclectic musical stylings and lyrical content that stretched beyond the seemingly endless R&B love song.
Released on July 3rd, 1995, D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar would soon usher in the new genre neo-soul. And while D’Angelo has an ambivalent relationship with the generic term, Brown Sugar’s artistic impact cannot be underestimated. While Kedar Massenburg, former Motown president and executive producer of both D’Angelo and Erykah Badu’s first forays into the music industry, is often credited with coining and creating the genre neo-soul through his discovery of D’Angelo and Badu, it truly is D’Angelo’s debut that aids in the shifting of music and the creation of a neo-soul culture.
Read more here
The BackBeat Podcast on iTunes
My biweekly podcast on music with my friend Kyera Singelton is now on iTunes!
Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-backbeat/id1000037944?mt=2
Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-backbeat/id1000037944?mt=2
Featured on Annenberg Radio New's Segment
Discussed what is neo-soul and why it is important to listen and study this music.
Link: http://www.annenbergradio.org/segments/2013/10/neo-soul-far-dead#showembed
Link: http://www.annenbergradio.org/segments/2013/10/neo-soul-far-dead#showembed
Featured on Henry Jenkins' "Confessions of an Aca-Fan
Wrote a piece for Henry Jenkins' blog entitled Revisiting Neo-Soul about the importance of reorienting ourselves as listeners to the genre neo-soul.
I concluded that neo-soul is a genre that is still alive and well though the glare of mainstream press and platinum selling singles and album sales has wavered. Before one engages with the theorizing of “alternative R&B,” it is important to revisit and reengage with the visual and musical discourse that is the genre neo-soul.
Read more here
I concluded that neo-soul is a genre that is still alive and well though the glare of mainstream press and platinum selling singles and album sales has wavered. Before one engages with the theorizing of “alternative R&B,” it is important to revisit and reengage with the visual and musical discourse that is the genre neo-soul.
Read more here
