![]() ![]() “A lot of singers around town would hire musicians and we ended up playing in gigs together as the backing band. “There was a performing arts class that we were all in,” says Lawrence of that fertile period. The young men knew of one another peripherally, but the collaborations didn’t fall into place until they united under Central High School’s performing arts program O’Dell and Stokley, who had a steel drum class together, absorbed the musicians after practicing sessions in Stokley’s home basement. ![]() Paul &Minneapolis) and were inspired by Prince’s electrifying hybrid of funk, soul and pop (now known as “The Minneapolis Sound,”). Every member of the band, including keyboardists Lawrence El and Keri Lewis, guitarist O’Dell and keyboardist/saxophonist Jeffrey, came of age in the Twin Cities (St. “You will or won’t embrace the song, depending on your mindset.”Īnd it’s that sort of ingenuity keeping MC alive and thriving in the music biz. “It’s very straightforward, with a futuristic Euro sound,” says lead vocalist Stokley Williams. Its sound is quite a departure for the band and illustrates their willingness to stretch their artistic boundaries. Other songs expressing such struggles include the wistfully edgy “Wish I Could Love You,” the angst-filled “Somethin’,”, featuring Little Brother’s Phonte, and the CD’s most intriguing cut, “Why Do We Try,” showcased by a haunting backdrop of sparse beats and eerie scratches by none other than A Tribe Called Quest’s “sound provider,” Ali Shaheed Muhammad. I didn’t want the song to be only about me though, so I included other situations that I’ve watched my friends go through as well.” ![]() “You’ll go through all kinds of relationships, but your kids are the only ones who will be there in the end. Although the celebratory song hits home for the musician, Rick says that its message is a universal one. In fact, the perpetual balancing act is what inspired eLife’s opening track, “Baby Boy Baby Girl” (featuring Anthony Hamilton). Everybody’s said ‘in a minute’ to their kid, stayed on the computer and watched it turn into three and four hours later. “People text-message, use MySpace and e-mail, so it’s about having relationships in the context of our world today. According to their bass guitarist, Rick Kinchen, those are issues that nearly everyone’s encountered before. The recurring theme: filtering the challenges of family and relationships through the murky cosmos of the internet. And it’s their classic, yet contemporary approach, combined with Stokley’s agile and emotive tenor, which fuels their sixth studio CD and the second release from their independent label (Cagedbird Entertainment), eLife. It does not store any personal data.Modern, infectious soul grooves fringed with Latin and jazz, buoyed by fiery dashes of rock and funk when musicians create-as well as sustain-that level of quality for nearly two decades, they are more than an average group or band….they become, in fact, Mint Condition.Īfter five successful studio albums, over a dozen hit singles, multiple world tours and collaborations with some of the biggest stars in the genre (Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Janet Jackson, Charlie Wilson of the Gap Band and Maurice White of Earth, Wind &Fire, to name a few), Mint Condition is a rarity in today’s R&B, their generation’s lone example of ‘old school’ bands that now serve as templates for many of their peers. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. ![]()
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