It strikes me some kind of odd that at least three of the promising talents on the Hidden Hits compilation already had released albums before. And hearing their new tracks it really makes me wonder why they don't have a record deal right now. Take Kipper Jones for example. He released his debut Ordinary Story in 1990 on Virgin and then became more known as a producer/songwriter for Vanessa Williams, Brandy or the Five Heartbeats Soundtrack. So it's been over thirteen years since I have heard Kipper singing himself. Judging from his song Better, he's, er, better than ever. It's one of the best midtempo soul cuts at the moment and if this is what we can expect from a hopefully upcoming album than we'll have a sure winner.
Another artist, whose debut album (Destiny on Island 1998) was very good, is Myron. So Fly or Destiny were more or less successful single releases from Destiny but somehow he failed to make a greater impact. In 2000 Myron produced I Don't Know Why for LV and then nothing...but now he's back with Free, a very pleasant finger snipping midtempo soul groove, that's one of the standout cuts here besides Kipper Jones Better. Plus he also produced I Ain't The One by Quinn on Hidden Hits. The good news is that there's already a new album by Myron available from his website.
The third artist we all know is Rosie Gaines, whose I Can't Get You Outta My Mind has a nice retro feeling to it.
But there are also some artists I've never heard of before, like jaMal, who is featured with two songs: Oh No, a nice downtempo soul song done in the tradition of vintage Stevie Wonder/Donny Hathaway, and Playa, a hip hop track...and since I'm not into rap, I'm really not the right one to judge it.
United Soul are Aziz and Joshua Collins who hail from Philadelphia. He Don't is a fine example of modern Philly soul.
Carmen (Rodgers) is another newcomer and her Ain't No Time is reminiscent of N'Dambi/Erykah Badu's style and another good piece of neo soul.
7Destinee7's C'est Durs has the exotic bonus of being sung in French, otherwise it may have sounded a bit too repetitive musicwise.
Another fine singer is J.R. (Jadzin Reddy) who is featured with two songs, the ballad I Choose You and the swinging Wonderful and Special with Mike Phillips on sax.
There are more songs on offer on Hidden Hits but since these tracks are more or less hip hop and - like I said - I'm not into rap, I really can't say if these cuts are good, mediocre or bad. But there's enough soul music here on offer to keep regular visitors of jazz-not-jazz more than satisfied.