Rawb-en Th-ik

Robin Thicke, son of famous Growing Pains actor Alan Thicke, is a popular white R&B artist(oxymoron) who perfectly mixes falsetto-filled blue-eyed soul with contemporary hip-hop beats. His latest album, The Evolution of Robin Thicke, is jam packed with head-bobbing joints packed full of melody. Primarily piano-driven, Thicke loves to switch into “Earth, Wind and Fire” mode, causing girls everywhere to take off all of their clothes. Thicke is also heavily influence by Prince, exemplified by the track names, where he switches words like Two to 2 and You to U, which was fairly commonly seen on old records made by the little one(Prince is like 5 feet tall).

On bangin tracks like “All Night Long”(featuring New Orleans born Lil’Wayne on a few verses, where he manages to send a shout out to “all the girls who ain’t got no panties on”) and “Shooter”(also featuring Weezy), Thicke features heavy hand claps with tons of ethnic percussion and dramatic synths to create the effect of a huge party that yo ass ain’t be at. Thicke also manages to throw in some salsa on one track, entitled “Everything I Can’t Have”

 

You probably are most familiar with the track “Lost Without You”, written for his wife, actress Paula Patton (super-fine). It oozes sexy. Anybody that can use a tabla and triangle in the beat and make the song funky-sexy gets tons of respect in my book. On another note, Oprah heavily featured Thicke on one of her “Favorite Things” show, having him perform the song live on air. Anybody who can make Oprah get all googly-eyed is doing something right. Of course, as with anything featured on Oprah’s show (Dr. Phil, throw-up), The Evolution Of Robin Thicke blew up and went on to sell a gazillion records. But this is all beside the point, as this album is the real deal.

Thicke is fairly confident in creating fairly suggestive lyrics. Take the song “Teach U A Lesson” for example:

“You feel so good / You smell so good / You feel so warm / Just like I knew you would / I can’t let you go / You were late to school / I’m gunna have to see you after class / You been a bad girl / Someone’s gunna have to teach you a lesson”

Two words. Damn boo.

I had the opportunity to check out Robin Thicke live this summer when he opened for Beyonce (don’t hate, girl got moves), and ya boy can put on one hell of a show. He’s got some pretty smooth moves full of crotch grabbing and finger-pointing that drive the ladies crazy. He also isn’t afraid to let his ultra-talented band turn it loose and rock the house, which is a refreshing deviation from the sick R&B drummers stuck playing to a plethora of loops. He also was perfectly in pitch all night long.

My favorite track on the record is the 6-minute “2 The Sky” that goes from slow and simple to almost out of control back to an outro full of smooth harmonies. You can really tell that there are no loops or drum machine on this track and that a live drummer is actually playing the whole song. Gasp!

Also, if you like this record, check out his first record, entitled Beautiful World, that is almost equally funky. You won’t regret it.

Keep doin yo thang, Robin.

Until Whenever,

BD