Fusing R&B with hip-hop and acid jazz,
Brigette McWilliams showed a lot of promise on her debut album,
Take Advantage of Me. This CD is a perfect example of what critic Nelson George calls "retro-nuevo, " an approach that unites a healthy appreciation of classic 1960s or 1970s soul with the hip-hop and urban contemporary production styles of the 1980s or 1990s. On "No Groove Sweating," "Cherish This Love," "Blankets of Playboys" and other inviting selections, one can tell that the big-voiced
McWilliams is well aware of soul goddesses like
Chaka Khan and
Phyllis Hyman. But the high-tech, hip-hop-minded producing of
Jermaine Dupri,
Meech Wells,
Def Jef (a talented but underexposed rapper), Domino and others is pure 1990s--and the hip-hop terminology that
McWilliams uses in abundance isn't something that she heard on an old Rufus LP. Like
Mary J. Blige's best work,
Take Advantage of Me is relevant to the 1990s hip-hop/urban contemporary scene but doesn't forget about R&B's rich history. ~ Alex Henderson