Jalylah Burrell

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Seattle-bred, Brooklyn-based cultural critic Jalylah Burrell riffs on anything and everything.

For the cool in you

Posted 05/22/2007 at 9:45 AM | 5 comment/s

Johnny Gill

As video footage of Beanie Sigel's homophobic hate mongering surfaced, the chorus of Johnny Gill's "Fairweather Friend" embedded in my head ("I won't be no fair-weather friend. I'll be there 'til the end..."). Appropriate since Sigel's debut single soared thanks to Sigel-slurred Kanye West's signature sonics. Funny since Gill, who turns 41 today, was rumored to be a regular Lady Eloise to Eddie's Maaaarcus. Stranger still since gay, bi or straight, Johnny Gill boasts one of the most masculine voices of the past two decades. A trait shared by none other than equally suspect nineties R&B'er Sisqó. I find this as trangressively illustrative as ironic. If either singer were to come out as gay and therefore disentangle sounding like a man from heterosexuality then maybe, just maybe, we could further disrupt heterosexuality's monopoly on manhood. But wherever Gill resides on the sexual continuum, he's an underrated vocalist with a solid catalogue dating back to 1983.

Johnny Gill

Like Sam Cooke, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Teddy Pendergrass, K-Ci and JoJo, D'Angelo, Bilal and every other soul singer worth their weight in carats, Johnny Gill got his start in the church. If allmusic is to be trusted, Gill sang with his family's gospel group, Wings of Faith, from the age of 5, which armed him with the technique lacking in so many contemporary R&B singers. Gospel is about hitting notes and gripping hearts; even some of the best voices can't induce the Holy Ghost. Daniel Wolff's biography of Sam Cooke noted how it took some time for the sweet voiced singer to ply tears and hallelujahs from congregations as he traveled with the legendary gospel quintet, the Soul Stirrers. When his solo's garnered polite applause to the raucous foot stomping and hand waving wrenched by the senior members of his quintet, Cooke meticulously adapted his approach. I don't think it presumptuous of me to call Wings of Faith Gill's Stirrers, just listen to "Boys To Men." Gill's got a powerful baritone and wields it purposefully.

I have no memory of Gill pre-New Edition, which is just a factor of age, but once I heard his voice ring out in the context of my favorite group's best album, Heart Break, I was riveted. He certainly wasn't the cutest, that was my heart Ralph Tresvant, and he didn't have the most memorable voice, that was Ricky Bell, but he didn't leave anyone wanting for his predecessor Bobby Brown who had just exercised his prerogative and snagged solo success. Two of Heart Break's singles, "Boys To Men" and "Can You Stand the Rain" allowed Gill to shine not to mention his ominous adlib ("You better beware") on "N.E. Heartbreak." After Heart Break, New Edition disbanded giving way to Bell Biv DeVoe and the return of Johnny Gill, the solo artist. While he had flopped on his first solo outing in 1983 and returned with a more respectable showing in 1985, it took the platinum selling Johnny Gill (1990) featuring the classics "Rub You The Right Way," the aforementioned "Fairweather Friend," and "My My My" to certify Gill a star. "My³" might be the most well known of his songs but I've always been partial to "Rub You The Right Way." The Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis track just had a crazed quality to it. Gill sounded like Teddy P. on crack (or crank) and danced like no one before. He also didn't slouch when it came in the area of lip sync enunciation. This may be a factor of his generous lips but Johnny's music videos seem made for lip readers, a point that could not have been lost on the hearing impaired community. I also loved the instructional quality of this song (a structure also employed in "My³", "Put on your red dress..."). It's a lesson in feeling good: (1) Feel the magic in Johnny's hands (2) Allow Johnny to touch and rub you the right way (3) Notice his stroke, applied with tenderness (4) Revel in the way Johnny holds and rubs you the right way. Anyway, check him grunting and skidding across the stage on our beloved Arsenio's show way back when:

"Fairweather Friend" benefits from that same vocal vigor exhibited in "Rub..." with Gill sounding credibly captivated and devoted despite the cliché lyrics. The video follows:

I don't remember 1993's Provocative or really much of 1996's Let's Get the Mood Right as I was entrenched in hip hop in 1993 and was living abroad in 1996 but I do remember Gill's resurgence with supergroup LSG. Other than "Casanova," I had never much cared for the music of the late Gerald Levert but Keith Sweat was pretty on point and the simple and suggestive "My Body," which also featured directions, certainly satisfied. Gill effectively referred to himself in the third person and fostered a fervor for Gerald Levert to exploit and Sweat to whine upon. The background dancers' outfits were pretty sick too:

Since then Johnny Gill's stayed active with LSG, New Edition reunions, Tyler Perry's productions and clarifiying his relationship with Eddie. According to his MySpace page, he's got a handful of dates line up for the summer. Although he isn't scheduled to come my way, I am confident that I will one day hear "Rub You The Right Way" live. And so it is.

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