Duets to do it to

Happy February, lovers.

Y’all said no one yearns anymore? I’m so sorry for the kiddies. Truly I am, because if you look up the word “yearn” in the dictionary, you will see the phrase “90s RnB” written as the definition. All we DID was yearn FAWTHA GAWD. You would spend an entire school year yearning just to maaaaaaybe get a dance with your crush the NEXT year at homecoming. It was a wonderful era. Hard to explain the perfection of it now; you really had to be there.

Back in 9th grade, a sweet and innocent young man named Michael Jay walked me to Mr. Femer’s 3rd-period science class every day for a few weeks while carrying my books, just like in the movies. I was yearning for my crush at our rival high school across town, so things didn’t work out between us, but I will always remember how crushingly sweet he was back in the day.

No where is the culture of the day more reflected than in the music. Much of today’s music, and therein culture, is full of sarcasm, lick backs, identity politics, attitudes, irony, drugs, hateration, and a lot of weird whisper singing for some reason, save a few hit makers whose names y’all know. Not saying we didn’t have these same things in the 90s, but RnB music wasn’t focused there.

90s RnB it was about two things– having fun with your crew and freakin’ (our word for fucking because we had a smidge of decorum). Our parents grew up in the Civil Rights era for crying out loud. There were just certain things that weren’t going to be said, even if you did have a hit single on the radio.

This February, as we gear up for the deliciously silly fun and traditions of Valentine’s Day, I’d like to take you on a little trip down Yearner’s Lane to re-live the music dedicated to yearning, lusting, loving, and straight freaking. Before we get into the goods down below, I want y’all to have some fun with me.

Text your lover or crush right now (only if they’re single!): “do me baby” (if you prefer the 80s lingo. This one was composed by none other than the king of doing “it” PRINCE) or “freak me baby” (if you want the authentic 90s lingo) and share your screenshot replies in the comments. Can y’all do this for me?

Next time y’all link up, press play on this playlist and let the 90s RnB yearners of yesteryear take you and your boo downtown! #AuntieGotChall

Listen now → Do ya thang on Yearner’s Lane

Track list:
Doin’ it - LL Cool J + Lashaun (1996)

Nothing Even Matters - Lauryn Hill + D’Angelo (1997)

Loveeeeeeeee Song Rihanna feat. Future (2015)

If This World Were Mine - Cheryl Lynn + Luther Vandross (1982)

Get Me Home – Foxy Brown + Blackstreet (1996)

Fire We Make – Alicia Keys + Maxwell (2012)

Best of Me – Mya + JAY-Z (1997)

Slow Jam – Usher + Monica (1997)

Can We – SWV + Missy Elliot (1997)

Spend My Life With You – Eric Benet + Tamia (2009)

Hello – Erykah Badu + Andre 3000 (2015)

My First Love – Avant + KeKe Wyatt (2000)

Crush On You Remix – Lil’ Kim + Lil’ Cease (1996)

Nobody – Keith Sweat feat. Athena Cage (1996)

Doin’ it – LL Cool J and Lashaun

Even without the incredible conversation between two soon-to-be lovers about their first freak, the video could honestly stand alone. It’s done in a peep show style (about halfway in) and features two astoundingly beautiful lead characters Lashaun and LL, teasing and turning each other on with all manner of dancing, lip licking, and apple eating in the club (lmao) while they tell each other about the kind of sex they wanna have together. This song and music video do a lot right, but if there are any main takeaways they are:

• A) Say what you want when it comes to sex

• B) The buildup to the buss down is just as important.

My favorite part of the song is near the end around 3:50s where Lashaun’s ooooooo’s and ahhhhhh’s are getting more and more intense and LL chuckles a little, it just feels so real and unplanned. Real and unplanned is a metaphor for the 90s honestly.

“I’ma call ya big daddy and scream ya name matter fact I can’t wait for ya candy rain…” IKTR.

Nothing Even Matters – Lauryn Hill + D’Angelo

You all know how I feel about D’Angelo. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is a perfect album that won her a well-deserved FIVE Grammy’s at the tender age of 23. To be coming of age during this moment when her music hit the airwaves was so lucky.

“It’s funny how money change a situation. Miscommunication lead to complication.” ← This line right here is a guiding life principle, and this album was FULL of these kinds of bars. The album more or less is taught to you via interludes (we hear a black teacher asking his students questions during the interludes related to the track that follows).

Before Nothing Even Matters plays he asks the kids, “What do you think about love?”

The kids laugh when the first student says, “Love…well love is just a feeling, when you like somebody and you wanna fall in love with them, and you just hope they feel the same way like you do.” It really just that simple.

This song is honestly what falling in love feels like. It’s push and pull– the vocals circle around the instrument’s main melodies. There’s a very present tick tick tick underneath that keeps the tempo throughout and moves this love song ever-so-gently and soulfully forward. And isn’t that what love feels like when you finally find it – the right rhythm, alignment, and energy; moving with someone else at the same pace? Deep sigh, this song takes it.

Loveeeeeeeee Song Rihanna feat. Future

Now this is a wild card selection, and is not from the 90s, but I love me some RiH RiH and I definitely love a thug in love. When is the last time you heard someone just plainly say they need love and affection? So simple. So powerful. Again, state your needs. Watch the universe return them to you.

If This World Were Mine – Cheryl Lynn featuring Luther Vandross

Raise your hand if you came up to this movie??!

Hearing this feels like finally getting that first slow dance with your crush at HoCo. It actually came out in the 80s, but is included in this list because it’s a central to the classic soul foundations of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, that led to the 90s RnB that we all know and love. Luther Vandross practically carried 80s RnB on his back for a good part of the decade, as he was in a vocal class of his own until Whitney showed up in 1989.

When I listened to this song while writing this I thought back to my middle, high school, and college crush. We never got to dance to this at prom or homecoming, but we did dance to it in his dorm room at Florida State before our first kiss. Awwwwww.

Get Me Home – Foxy Brown + Blackstreet

Foxy Brown simply DOES NOT get enough credit for her contributions to 90s hip hop and rab. Despite only her first studio album reaching massive success and appeal, she was right there with Lil’ Kim, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and the other women emcees of that iconic era of 90s RnB and hip hop music. One of my favorite things about her, was that her first studio album was also her descriptor “Ill Na Na,” and in the 90s only the coolest of the cool could be described as ill.

This song tells the tale of a very sultry encounter with a complete stranger at a club where Foxy spots a guy “across the room throwin’ signals” and she’s throwin’ ‘em back. After some sexy glances he “sends her a Crown Royal with a note attached that says you look like the type that know whatcha like,” and he then instructs her to meet him by the VIP so they can “pow wow”. His advances seem to work as planned because as the song continues on, Foxy eventually finds herself cruising the metro on premium petrol with this man. We can all take a guess where they are headed, but this track is a reminder to shoot your shot, be open to the chance encounter and to sometimes let passion pave the way.

Fire We Make – Alicia Keys + Maxwell

This song dropped two years after Alicia and Swizz got married in 2010. The rumor mill had a lot to say about these two, but as someone who recently crushed super duper hard on an unavailable person that referenced the energy between us as feeling like a “fire”, I just want to say we’re all only human. And sometimes you meet someone, circumstances be damned, and y’all have the hots for each other. Fire We Make is hot and yearny; there’s a desperation in the way both Alicia and Maxwell deliver the vocals. Maxwell sings his entire part in falsetto (we see ya boi!). It’s begging, it’s needing, it’s wanting, it’s steamy, it’s building up to something. It’s also not a 90s joint but an early-ish 2000s one that hits all the notes.

Best of Me – Mya + JAY-Z

To pick up the tempo a bit, I included this absolute banger. It’s sexy and very New York hip hop circa the early 2000s. Mya defined the desired aesthetic for a generation of black boys who grew up during her reign.

My cousins were OBSESSED with her, I mean like in a way I’ve not seen them obsessed with any celebrity since. Mya may be our low-key, chill, vegan queen now, but don’t let the veggie spreads and sunset shots fool you. She was THEEEEE one to beat in the early 2000s RnB and hip hop scene.

Even though the video is completely unhinged and all over the map, this little love bop is the best of a sultry and sexy duet. You’ve got Mya’s sweet and soft vocals over a classic hip hop beat where she basically says, I definitely wanna see how you put that thang on me, but I’m not tryna get sprung, or in her words, “I can’t let you get the best of me.” And you know what, Mya’s right. Before giving yourself over entirely to love and lust, it’s only right to make sure you are 100% certain.

Slow Jam – Usher + Monica

A-town STAND UP! Now THIS song encapsulates 90s Yearner’s Lane totally. Like, if you could only have one song on this playlist to define the era, it would probably be this one. The beat, the production quality, and the lyrics…”we danced and fell in love on a slow jam,” that’s it folks. That’s what a slow song was called back in the day, a slow jam.

With the vocal chops that these 90s titans have, they were essentially made for a lover’s duet. Hearing this feels like pinning the corsage onto your date’s lapel before rolling up to prom in your rented limousine.

Can We – SWV + Missy Elliot

If Weak had been a duet, it would’ve been at the top of this list because it is one of the most yearning songs of all time. The song is called Weak for crying out loud; do you know how deeply you have to be yearning for someone to admit to being weak over them?! Ya, the 90s didn’t play on the yearning front. Since our Sisters With Voice, Coko, Taj, and Lelee bodied that one without needing assistance, I present to you this very sultry 90s bop, that again, is asking in a very direct way for the thing that we all want with that someone special.

Missy kicks off by asking the target of her affection to put their hand on her thigh and take it super high, so you already know what time it is. The chorus here gives it to you straight

Can we get kinky tonight?

Got so many things on my miiiiiiind

Never seen a guy so fine

I like it when you do me do me

Case closed.

Spend My Life With You – Eric Benet + Tamia

Black people don’t play about Tamia. You know why? Because she never really got her flowers in the mainstream, and has one of the most incredible voices of her era. Also, she’s married to Grant Hill, who was seemingly one of the nicest guys in the NBA. I remember watching him during the Orlando Magic’s heyday when Shaq, Nick Anderson, Penny Hardaway, and Grant Hill were all teammates. WATTBA.

Eric Benet now, he gets a side eye because he screwed over our girl Halle Berry, and we just can’t let that slide. They were married from 2001-2005 but divorced after Halle uncovered his infidelity. For shame. More and more, this life is asking us to separate the art from the artist and I guess we’ll make an exception here.

This song was a grown and sexy slow jam of the era, meaning when it came out, it had a more mature edge to it, like this was a song your parents might play slow dancing in the living room after a hard week. You knew it word for word on the radio, but the song’s main promise felt too heavy for a young, innocent love. These folks were talking about spending a life, commitment, and seeing your lover every morning when you opened your eyes. The grown folks in the era felt that. This song also made the 90s/early 2000s wedding first dance song list for many, many couples, and for good reason.

My First Love – Avant + KeKe Wyatt

Speaking of weddings (!) now this joint here? Baby…you were ready to get engaged hearing this blast through your radio speakers. It also topped the list for lots of couples exchanging nuptials as it talks about choosing your first love for life. Keke belts out “a tarnished ring on a tarnished chain,” as a symbol for how long her first love has been hers. And as the song declares, this first love will be hers for as long as she lives.

Hello – Erykah Badu + Andre 3000

“It’s important to meeeeeeeee that you know you are freeeeeeeee. Cause I never want to make you change for me babe.”

These two. Weren’t they beautiful together? I mean from the outside looking in at least, you never know what goes on in someone’s relationship honestly, but they seemed like a match made in heaven. Which is why, when this song came out in 2015, almost 15 years since they’d dated, many of us finally realized just how spiritually elevated and grounded Erykah and Andre really are.

I included this one because it’s more about a real relationship with love and another person as opposed to just the butterflies and feelings at the beginning of something. These are two people deeply in love considering the continuation of their love or perhaps its imminent end.

Crush on you – Lil’ Kim + Lil Cease

When you fr have a crush crush, you are definitely doing the most to catch their attention. You’re dressing the part, playing the role, and trying to be in their orbit at all costs. And this joint describes it in the flyest 90-iest way that only Lil’ Kim and Lil’ Cease could deliver. Kim basically comes right out and tells you she’s going to be dressed in the bra, all see through. And since she really is feelin’ the vibe, tells Cease he can also slide on her ice like the escapades. She’s not in this alone though, cause Cease also has the hots for her. Some of the things on his agenda for her? CDs with crazy bass, keeping his lady laced, wanting an interlude in the nude, to name a few.

Nobody – Keith Sweat feat. Athena Cage

THE OG SONG OF FREAKING. Only a few songs are successful enough to know them immediately from the sound of the first downbeat. This ladies and gents, is one of them. I slow danced to this song with my friend Jamal Grimes on a riverboat cruise down the Potomac River on the last night of our 8th-grade trip. I had an amazing BeBe dress that I would honestly still rock today (if I could find it and it fit) and a fly and fresh 90s SWV haircut. My mom also let me get my nails done for the occasion. A hilarious and inappropriate hot mess if I think about it now, because this song and that entire scene is inappropriate for children!

I digress. Mr. Sweat’s business has always been making the ladies sweat in the bedroom. I’d say if you are lusting after someone hard and get the lucky chance to be alone with them, and this song comes on, y’all will either burst out laughing together or end up fucking or maybe both tbh, depends on the time and place.

Off rip, Keith says, “I want to tease you. I want to please you. I want to show you baby, that I need you….I want your body til the very last drop. I want you to holler when you want me to stop.”

OH? Bet.

Don’t play with Keith. If you gone talk tough around The Sweat, you better be ready…

Hope you all enjoyed this one as much as I enjoyed writing it! Big love to you all darlings!

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Chow for now,

xC