★★★★★
Poetic, passionate and prolific: separately and collectively, those words describe the musicianship and the marketing strategy of Raheem DeVaughn. A renaissance-level soul provider with a velvety tenor, lyrical skills and a classically-conveyed approach, the performer has amassed an impressive resume in his first ten years as a pro, including three Grammy nominations, BET & BET J Awards and a reputation for songs that adore, rather than objectify, the opposite sex ("Customer," "Woman," "You,"...
- www.soultracks.com
2013-09-03
★★★★★
Once upon a time, there was this cool thing called "music." Then outside forces got involved, and started categorizing everything in sight. From there, groupings like "Neo-Soul" came into the picture. One such act that has been placed into that box is Grammy-nominated Raheem DeVaughn, as he returns with his third album, Love And War Masterpeace.Staying in the same vein as his previous work, the Washington D.C...
- www.streetlogik.com
2010-12-14
★★★★★
He refers to himself as "Radio Raheem" and the "R&B Hippie neo-Soul Rock Star," but the titles don't matter as much as the talents that Raheem DeVaughn can lay claim to. He combines the best of both worlds, constructing lush, ethereal contemporary R&B with a classic musician's touch (thanks to growing up under the influence of his father, jazz cellist Abdul Wadud); wooing the ladies with the sweet while keeping his promotional skills street...
- www.soultracks.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Maryland's Raheem DeVaughn doesn't sound much like a contemporary R&B; star: His second LP, Love Behind the Melody is almost devoid of oversexed squeals and strobing synths. Instead, he wraps his tenor around unusually sincere ballads like "Friday (Shut the Club Down)" ? a riff on the Temptations' "My Girl" ? and Grammy-nominated teaser single "Woman." Had he been born a few decades earlier, he could have been a major pop sales force...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Singer-songwriter Raheem DeVaughn celebrates the title of his sophomore effort, Love Behind the Melody, with an unexpected exuberance. He indeed has an abundance of love propping up his music -- but it's all for sale. Each of the album's fifteen songs and two interludes detail that elusive "four-letter word" as a commodity that can be purchased, used, in some cases abused, and replaced...
- www.prefixmag.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
He calls himself an "R&B hippie" (as well as the "neo-soul rock star"), but Raheem DeVaughn's not much different from any other male artist who has taken a ride on the neo-soul (damn it, I hate that term, let's just say "traditional soul") train in the past fifteen years or so. The man studies at the altar of Marvin and Curtis, and it would be pretty easy to lump him in with artists like Musiq Soulchild and Dwele.
This is not to say that Raheem is a mere clone...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-20