For some reason, people are looking at Kanye West’s switch from rapping to singing on his new album 808s and Heartbreak released this week, albeit layered with Auto-tune effects, like it’s something new for rappers to do. Rappers have seen “singing” the hooks to their own songs for a long time. Ja Rule was criticized like mad for doing it even though some of the rappers who flamed his name for it jumped on the bandwagon eventually.
Sure Ja’s singing voice could have used a little Auto-tune. The deep rasp always made me clear my throat just listening to it. But one rapper who did it and actually did a good job is Nelly. No effects needed. Nelly demonstrated his singing skills in 2002 when he ripped a performance of his hit “Dilemma” with Kelly Rowland on Saturday Night Live, full on singing with runs and all (trust me I tried to find the video online, but no luck).
He must have been inspired by the rave reviews from fans because on his album Suit (the companion album to 2004’s Sweat), he started to sing more and more. He doubled his talents with country singer Tim McGraw and ended up having one of the surprise hits of 2005 with “Over and Over.”
Remember the moistness with me below:
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