Who”s kickin” it old school with the T. Camp in the “01?
Riiiiiight … Me neither.
Nevertheless, Tevin Campbell has recently released the requisite Best Of Tevin Campbell record, for all the hard core fans that have been hanging on since the early “90s. Which, coincidentally, is about the same time that his last song was released and the last time that he scored anything that resembles a hit.
For those of you who need a refresher course, (which I”m guessing is most of you), Tevin Campbell is a former teen R&B phenom, discovered by legendary producer Quicy Jones, and whose talent and performance skills have been honed through countless mall tours and teen “zine interviews. A more recently-applicable example, following in Campell”s footsteps, is pre-adolescent crooner and Backstreet brother Aaron Carter only he”s whiter and lacking in the silky smooth groove department.
And yes, folks, Tevin Campbell has soul, which manifests itself in the suave jam entitled “Shhh…,” a libidinous shout-out to his special lady, coaxing her into his mom and dad”s pad for some action. In the course of this song, 15 year-old Tevin delivers the line “I wanna do you after school like some homework,” to convey just how much he wants to get busy with his junior high princess. Gross.
Departing from the kiddie soft porn of “Shhh…,” Tevin treats us to the radio-recognizable, sugary-sweet tunes “I”m Ready” and “Can We Talk.” In “Can We Talk,” an earnest plea from a pseudo-stalker to their stalkee, Tevin touches on the issue that plagues us all at some time or another actually “establishing contact” with our crush. The song”s not that bad. I”ll admit it, I had the single when I was 13.
The Best of Tevin Campbell is a bit unnecessary, especially since it has been roughly seven years since he has charted anything remotely recognizable. The good news? We now have Aaron Carter”s Greatest Hits to look forward to in about eight years.
Grade: C