Brigette McWilliams - Take Advantage Of Me (1994)

Fusing R&B with hip-hop and acid jazz, Brigette McWilliams showed a lot of promise on her debut album, Take Advantage of Me. This CD is a perfect example of what critic Nelson George calls "retro-nuevo, " an approach that unites a healthy appreciation of classic 1960s or 1970s soul with the hip-hop and urban contemporary production styles of the 1980s or 1990s. On "No Groove Sweating," "Cherish This Love," "Blankets of Playboys" and other inviting selections, one can tell that the big-voiced McWilliams is well aware of soul goddesses like Chaka Khan and Phyllis Hyman. But the high-tech, hip-hop-minded producing of Jermaine Dupri, Meech Wells, Def Jef (a talented but underexposed rapper), Domino and others is pure 1990s--and the hip-hop terminology that McWilliams uses in abundance isn't something that she heard on an old Rufus LP. Like Mary J. Blige's best work, Take Advantage of Me is relevant to the 1990s hip-hop/urban contemporary scene but doesn't forget about R&B's rich history.