Raheem Devaughn - “Love Behind The Melody”

How R&B crooner Raheem DeVaughn worked past his Love Experience to get a Grammy nomination.

Raheem DeVaughn calls himself the “R&B hippie neo-soul rock star.” Listening to his sophomore release, Love Behind the Melody (Jive), it’s hard to dispute his claim. From the opening piano bounce of “Woman,” a song so infectious with its repeated chorus and DeVaughn’s soulful, sincere vocals that it garnered a Grammy nom for best Male R&B Vocal Performance, to the tender closing click-clicks of “Four Letter Word” (that’s “love,” people), DeVaughn channels everything from classic pop croons to breathy R&B whispers. When pressed, he cites his biggest influences in no particular order as Hendrix, the Beatles, Gaye, Marley, Badu and the Roots. “And you know I’m a diehard Prince fan,” he says unabashedly. “You mix all that up and you have the elements of the R&B hippie neo-soul rock star.”

Just like the Purple One–to whom he paid tribute last night, singing “Adore” and “Kiss” as a surprise guest at a special gig–DeVaughn knows that putting together a solid album is hard work. He came from the street tradition of making mixtapes, still available on his MySpace page and indie stores. (”I love indie record stores, man,” he says. “I love anything that’s about independence and preserving the brand of good music.”) After releasing 2005’s The Love Experience, he stated working on new songs. When the time came to record, he had over 30 planned. His record label, though, had other thoughts. Based on the fact that The Love Experience was a Billboard Top 10 R&B Album and has sold over 200,000 copies, doors had opened to allow DeVaughn to work with new producers. And not just any producers.

“You have what you call A-list producers and B-list producers, and I had the opportunity to work with a lot of A-list producers that may not have known about me before we got in the studio,” says DeVaughn, en route in his native Maryland to pick up his kid on a Saturday afternoon. “But now we have a friendship for life.” It was like Christmas. Not only would he work with Mariah Carey producer Bryan-Michael Cox and 50 Cent associate Mark Batson, but he could work with Chucky Thompson, P. Diddy’s old cohort, who has produced the likes of Mary J. Blige and Usher, who would preen him to award worthiness on “Woman.” And if that wasn’t enough, Scott Storch, known for updating Christina Aguilera and Daddy Yankee, helped perfect “Energy.” “That’s my mama’s favorite record right there,” says DeVaughn. “I could be at, like, Madison Square Garden, and she’ll stand up and be the only one dancing if nobody else was feelin’ it.”

It was everything he could hope for. With name producers onboard, DeVaughn was writing in ways he wouldn’t have otherwise. Since he doesn’t play any instruments, he would shut himself in the vocal booth with a stereo mix and a microphone and just rewind and record, building his vocal presence until it was perfect. Working with the industry elite was opening other doors for him, too. He met Dr. Dre and Alicia Keys through Batson, hitting it off. DeVaughn also worked on an as-yet-unreleased collaboration with Too Short (he intends to release three albums in 2008). And it was Storch who would produce his collaboration with OutKast’s Big Boi, who contributed a seat-of-your-pants flow to “Energy.”

DeVaughn had previously met Big Boi under more emotional circumstances: at a memorial in Atlanta for an artist named Peaches who had recently died of cancer. There was an open mic and, not knowing what he had gotten himself into, DeVaughn found himself onstage delivering a soulful performance that struck a chord with the mourners. When all this happened, the album was already done, but he badly wanted OutKast on there and invited both Big Boi and Andre 3000 to perform; the latter declined but the rest is history. “We hit it off,” reports DeVaughn. “The record hits. People love the record, man.”

The R&B hippie neo-soul rock star worked his magic again on the album, getting British soul duo Floetry to perform on “Marathon.” Having toured briefly with the band, he felt fine approaching them, even though he thought highly of them. “I’ve always been a fan of what they do,” he says. “I have a group [the Crossrhodes] that I’m part of. It’s a similar situation with an artist in D.C., his name is W. Ellington Felton. They reminded me of the female version of what we do.” When they recorded it was Floetry member Marsha Ambrosius’ birthday, and they all went out celebrating afterwards. “I probably recorded the last songs that they may have done in the studio together before this breakup,” DeVaughn says, laughing.

With all the work DeVaughn has put into the project, he was elated but not surprised to have garnered the Grammy nomination. The album was supposed to come out in late 2007, and the “Woman” single, notable for its unconditional and inoffensive praise of the fairer sex, was released in its anticipation; now that the album is out in 2008, DeVaughn is just more excited. “It was very humbling,” he enthuses, still giddy from the news. “It was the first phone call I got of the morning… I expected it, definitely. I’m the type of artist that deserves accolade, but honestly I didn’t expect it so soon in my career. It’s all panning out. And from what I’m hearing, I might have a good chance of winning.”

Not bad for a second album. Not bad for an R&B hippie neo-soul rock star.

This entry was posted by RNYK on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 5:43 pm