Donnie "The Daily News" (#33 R&B DEBUT!)

[busyboy]

Damn, I just found the album online and discovered it was released last month in Europe and Japan...

Some 5 years after The Colored Section here's the follow-up!



01. Impatient People 03:49
02. 911 04:50
03. Over-The-Counter Culture 05:24
04. Classifieds 04:17
05. Suicide 04:18
06. If I Were You 04:06
07. Robot 05:05
08. Atlanta Child Murders 04:59
09. For Christ Sake 05:21
10. Mason Dixon Line 03:22
11. China Doll 03:53
12. The Daily News 03:46

[SHOOTER]

I want this!

[busyboy]

Well, since it isn't out in the US yet... The album leaked! ;)

[SHOOTER]

*goes to listen*

[busyboy]

I don't like the album much, I prefer his debut. That said, I think "Robot" is a great song, I love it!

[reception]

Reviewed by Steve Jones
USA Today

Donnie, The Daily News: * * * 1/2 (out of four) Soulful reports on the news

Four years ago, Donnie’s The Colored Section was the most provocative soul-fueled social commentary since the days when Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway routinely offered biting analyses of current events. These days, the real daily news continues to give him plenty to talk about, which he does with wit and insight. It’s nice to be reminded that there is more to R&B than preening and pickup lines.

[busyboy]

Debuts at #33 on the R&B albums chart.

[SHOOTER]

So he must've sold about 2,000-2,500 copies or so. Not bad.

[WotUNeed]

Been hearing "If I Were You" occasionally lately. I'm really digging it. But y'all don't recommend this album?

[busyboy]

^ The few reviews I've seen are positive, even very positive, I guess it's not really my cup of tea.

From All Music Guide:



Review by Andy Kellman

It's just as well that Donnie's connections with Motown were short-lived. If the label didn't know what to do with The Colored Section, how would they handle an album that is more modern gospel than it is throwback soul -- one with a complete lack of songs for the bedroom and club? They might've refused to release it anyway, what with song titles like "Suicide" and "Atlanta Child Murders." Listening to the whole thing reveals a marketing nightmare: songs about the war on drugs and the pharmaceutical industry, Hurricane Katrina, unemployment, slavery, pedophilia, and the weariness that comes with the inevitable daily bombardment of bad news. You really can't spin that into something resembling a good time, or something to passively enjoy while waiting for the bus. A frustrated, mad, and at times flat-out pissed-off album, The Daily News nonetheless has the ability to make you glad you are alive. What prevents the lyrical content from being a drag is that it is razor sharp, cloaked in funky modern gospel grooves that are advanced and vigorous. The choruses, typically featuring Donnie and only one other voice, are probably massive enough to fill out a superchurch, but they are never bulky or overcooked. "Impatient People" is a cyclonic opener, containing squelching synthesizers, sliding Slave-like bass, and scratching guitar, all twisted into a ball of dumbfounded frustration: "I'm not a refugee/I'm an evacuee/I'm just a citizen/Can I get some assistance?" Working itself into a similarly taut rhythm, "Atlanta Child Murders" is the album's most moving and pointed song, introduced with the sounds of flowing water and playing children before developing into a gloriously infuriated stomp that glistens and whomps: "The Atlanta child murders conspiracy/Was a modern-day lynching like Tuskegee/A political prisoner Wayne Williams is/Scientific experiment on our kids." "Over-the-Counter Culture," sounding like a strutting cross between Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and "Black Man," draws a thick circle around a great double standard: "Every time I go to the doctor/He be puttin' me on prescription/He don't be hangin' out on no corner/He's a professional pusher and America is his supplier." As with The Colored Section, Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder parallels still apply, especially if you can imagine them collaborating with Eugene McDaniels, Gil Scott-Heron, and Les McCann. Despite the lack of flag waving and ass kicking, this is as American -- and progressive -- as modern music gets.

[George]

R&B Singer Donnie on Being "Out" and Gays and the Black Church

from Rod 2.0
-----

There is a substantial buzz around Donnie, the velvet-voiced R&B singer/songwriter formerly signed to Motown and now going the independent route. Much of the talk is around his newly-released sophomore album, The Daily News, whose messaging is evocative of Donny Hathaway or Marvin Gaye in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Even more people are responding to Donnie's refreshingly honest discussions of his sexuality and social perceptions around black gay men. Jasmyne Cannick and John Polly at New Now Next just scored fabulous interviews where an emotional Donnie opens up on many topics—including being out in the industry, black gay men, and, the black church. He has substantial experience in the latter department—being a pastor's son and growing up in Pentecostal.

On being out in the industry:

I think it’s helped my career tremendously. I am not trying to be seen on tv just to sell millions and get Grammy’s. That’s not my goal...I’ve never been this vocal about about my sexuality. It’s liberating. People can’t handle us. I know men that call me a male who is into other malesgot but are attracted to me. Calling me a sissy and wanting to go home with me after the show.

On the black church and homophobia:

They do not think homosexuality is right. I don’t think it’s real with a lot of my people. Most of the church choirs you see on TV, the tenor section is a bunch of queens. And it’s the truth! And in the alto section and the soprano section, it’s a bunch of dykes. You have some straight women, but in certain choirs, the whole choir is gay. But you’re sitting up singing, "Oh Jesus!" to people who hate your very existence—and you hate your very existence.

And on the "down-low":

I had a friend, I went to his funeral because...He was a married man who would get these little thug boys, you get what I mean? He’s married but he would get these thug boys and get with them. And he was murdered...he picked up a little thug boy [who] had a gun, and they probably fought. People aren’t saying a bunch of stuff, but I know what happened. It’s like you have to do that, instead of being you, and it gets you killed.

As you can see, Donnie is most outspoken and refuses to be quiet about his sexuality and problems within the black community. At times during his rather emotional interview with John Polly, he touched upon issues surrounding abuse, mental illness and low self-esteem. The conversation probably became much more revealing than expected he abruptly ended the Q&A.

Posted by Rod at 10:30 in California

[busyboy]

Thanks for posting!

[SHOOTER]

Was I the only one who knew he was gay when he released his 1st CD?