R. Kelly - Your Body's Callin' 12" (1994)

Today is my birthday. To celebrate the occasion, I thought I would stay home and write a blog. I kid, I kid - to celebrate my birthday, I wanted to share some music that expresses all the freaky thangs we do to make births possible in the first place. And who better to express those freaky thangs than Mr. Robert Kelly himself?

In 1993, R. Kelly left his group Public Announcement to fly solo and burst onto the scene with his nasty-and-proud debut album 12 Play which pretty much changed the tone of R&B forever. This album is known best for spawning the mega-hit single "Bump N' Grind" which probably caused a boom in the population for the next 5 years.

Pants unzipped, with steampunk rearview-mirrored cane in hand

A year later, Kells released the slinky Caribbean-tinged slow jam "Your Body's Callin'" as a single (which was later sampled by DJ Premier for Biggie's single "Unbelievable"), along with 3 other stunning tracks (including a "His & Hers Mix" of the single which was completely re-written with more explicit lyrics, a sleazy 808 track, and an uncredited appearance from a then-brand-new Aaliyah, and is featured below).

Also featured, are the chill-inducing "Prelude," which starts with a sparse arrangement of keys and the crashing waves of (I like to assume) Lake Michigan. Just as it begins to build a sexy funked out bass groove, the song fades away into nothing. Finally, R. Kelly provided an instrumental of the "His & Hers Mix" which features some Jazz piano in place of the vocals and trust me - this beat still hits hard 20 years later.

ENJOY

Viola - Little Girl [Club Mix] (2001)

This is a special Mother's Day edition of Dollar Bin Radio. For this occasion, I would like to present a song that has been stuck in my head since I first heard it years ago.

This very soulful New York Gospel House track, "Little Girl" by Viola Sykes, was released in 2001 by the reliable Nervous Records label. This song is wonderful for not only being lush, musical, and extremely catchy, but for capturing a certain motherly nature in its lyrics.

Viola does not approve of your outfit.

Here, girls are reminded by Viola (or insert your Mom's name here) that they are beautiful and strong, and that they should put some clothes back on and win a man's respect. This might not be my philosophy 100% (people with less clothes on deserve some respect too) but hey, mother knows best.