"you're never too fly to pray" (c) anthony hamilton

so i'm chilling listening to music right? i get this urge to listen to some anthony hamilton because i heard a track on someone's myspace the other day and i've been wanting to listen to him ever since.

anyways, anthony hamilton is a r&b/soul singer that sounds like he's been smoking for 128 years. he has this dope tenor raspy voice that i love. and he has sould that you CANNOT learn. raw, powerful, his timing is impeccable. he used to sing backup for d'angelo back in the day. if you ever get any bootlegs of the voodoo tour you'll hear him in the background.

he put out a live EP of a show he did a while back. i hadn't listened to the tracks real well, so i put on a 25 minute version of "comin' from where i'm from", his first single.

he took me to CHUCH (not church, CHUUUUUCH!)

he went off for almost half an hour basically telling his story of how god helped him make despite his struggles. "sitting here, guess i didn;t make bail, got time and a story to tell.......started when i was 9 years old, woke up and daddy was gone..."

he was singing a prayer to god. it didn't really rhyme all that well after a while, and there was not much to it. but it was amazing.

in the beginning he talked a little. he was having people say out loud that they love themselves, etc.

some exerpts:
AH: "women - say "i love me". say "i love me, therefore my skirt will get longer and most of my breasts will sit on the inside of my blouse"
AH: "men - say "i love me". say "i love me, therefore i won't go out to play basketball with tim and dave and come back and give my wife AIDS."

he starts to sing with this unabashed emotion and praise, completely unchartered waters for secular artists of his circle. it was really cool.

near the end, he starts to sing "you're never too fly to pray". i get the feeling that every person in the house dressed up in their pimpest outfits heard that loud and clear.

i love it when secular artists go out on a limb like that...maybe the limb is a little stronger than say, one of the dudes from Slipknot. nonetheless, i'm proud of him.