tha rayne - didn't you know

no, i had no idea! for real, i didn't know who tha rayne were except for the very witty and bizzare remake of "juicy" they did with next last year, (next run out of biggie-style namechecks so they just drop boyz II men twice!) but now here they are fully fledged with beautiful voices but no picture cover (fuckers!). if you were going to put this in a state-of-r'n'b report it could go with "never leave you" for its scaled down crispness and clarity of emotion. there's something about the producer, rich harrison (he did crazy in love and the whole amerie album!), that fits with r kelly too - like, not hating r'n'b and trying to fuck it up so your jaded older brother likes it; they're not trying to trick you, even if they can come up with forward-thinking sonics. r'n'b will still be there when you leave and it will still be great!