After the unbiased launch of 1994’s Ardour Play, Teena Marie spent a lot of the last decade performing in smaller golf equipment, nurturing her core fan base. She additionally started engaged on a brand new album, Black Rain, giving occasional updates on her web site. She shopped the album to main labels, offered t-shirts with the album’s cowl picture at performances, and even carried out one of many songs in a visitor look on a TV present. Regardless of the extraordinary hustle, she didn’t safe a deal till 2002 when she joined Money Cash Information because the premiere artist on their Classics imprint.
There was an issue, although: Black Rain had leaked to the general public through the years she’d spent procuring it. Copies circulated amongst followers on CD-Rs and cassettes, so when the deal was signed she started re-imagining the album. In October 2003, she cryptically posted “What do you do when the rain has stopped” on her web site, signaling that some adjustments had been afoot.
Take heed to Teena Marie’s La Doña now.
In March of 2004, the long-awaited first single from the re-titled album, La Doña, “Still In Love,” hit the airwaves. Co-produced by Money Cash’s Mannie Contemporary, “Still In Love,” which peaked at #23 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart, was based mostly on an Al Inexperienced pattern, however the lyric and melody had been basic Woman T with coy references to Curtis Mayfield, Gamble & Huff, and herself.
She maintained Ardour Play’s romantic fervor with attractive tracks like “Honey Call,” “My Body’s Hungry,” and “I’m On Fire,” and catered to youthful listeners with the hip-hop infused “Off The Chain,” and the role-playing “The Mackin’ Game” with MC Lyte and Medusa. She reunited with Rick James on “I Got U,” and duetted with Gerald Levert on “A Rose By Any Other Name,” however it was the jazz, blues, and funk of “Black Rain,” “Baby I’m Yo Fiend,” and “Hit Me Where I Live,” nonetheless, that delivered what Teena’s followers liked most. Tunes like “Makaveli Never Lied,” and “Recycle Hate to Love” spoke to her religious, political, and cultural considerations: international warming, capitalism, drug abuse, gun violence, and the lack of human connection.
“They call me La Doña and I sing like a thunder,” she proclaimed within the liner notes’ signature poem, dramatically reclaiming her place on this planet of R&B. The album introduced her highest placement on the Billboard 200 at #6, a gold certification, and the final Grammy nomination of her profession for “Still In Love.”
Take heed to Teena Marie’s La Doña now.
