Musiq (Soulchild): AiJusWanaSeing : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

As D'Angelo, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu continue to blaze new trails in R&B, newcomer Musiq Soulchild is happy to settle in the grooves left in their wake. Aijuswanaseing, the Philadelphia crooner's debut, shimmers with neosoul staples -- driving bass lines, stuttering drums, melted organs -- courtesy of Jazzy Jeff's A Touch of Jazz production crew, among others. Like any soulologist worth his weight in incense, Musiq spends most of his time trying to get the girl ("Just Friends [Sunny])," please the girl ("My Girl") and keep the girl ("Poparatzi"), and crying when the girl decides to leave ("Mary Go Round"). He separates himself from the pack on "Seventeen," letting the girl go because she's too young, and on "You and Me," where he pledges love to the girl despite her shady past: "And even my sister said you scandalous/Said that you're known to go from one man to the next/But I don't care what she say/'Cause you're going to forever be my lady." (RS 864)

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