R&B / Soul

SOS is the second studio album from GRAMMY award winning singer SZA, and the follow up to 2017’s major label debut album Ctrl. The genre-blending album contains elements of pop, R&B, soft-rock, gospel, and hip-hop. SOS features guest appearances from Travis Scott, Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers, and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard. SZA worked with a variety of hitmaking producers including Ctrl collaborators ThankGod4Cody and Carter Lang, along with Jeff Bhasker, Rob Bisel, Benny Blanco, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Emile Haynie, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Jay Versace, and more.

Cited as “one of the most exciting young artists in Nashville’s burgeoning soul scene” by Rolling Stone, Love You Anyway is the second full-length LP and brand-new album from the Philadelphia-born Devon Gilfillian. With an incisive eye and unassuming swagger, along with Devon’s deep knowledge and love of vintage soul, R&B, rock and hip-hop, Love You Anyway re-imagines modern soul music. First vinyl pressing will be on limited edition milky clear vinyl.

This 1965 collection from The King of Soul™ is as fresh and urgent now as ever. Featuring “That’s How Strong My Love Is” and “Mr Pitiful” among this beautifully curated collections of soul ballads, this is a foundational record in any collection.

Following the worldwide success of Steve Lacy’s critically acclaimed album Gemini Rights, this collection is now available on vinyl beginning 11/4/2022. The album features Steve’s chart topping global hit, Bad Habit.

Steve Lacy is a Grammy nominated singer-songwriter, producer, and musician who was born and raised in Compton, California. Steve was introduced to the music industry initially in 2015 as a member (guitarist) of R&B group, The Internet. His previous solo work includes his debut EP, Steve Lacy’s Demo (Feb 2017), his debut album, Apollo XXI (May 2019), and The Lo-Fis (December 2020). Steve has production, writing and feature credits with artists like Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Tyler, Mac Miller, The Internet, Thundercat, GoldLink, Solange, YG, Vampire Weekend, and Kali Uchis to name a few.

RENAISSANCE is the highly anticipated new album from global icon Beyoncé. Packed with rousing anthems that resonate with everybody, RENAISSANCE is a culmination of freedom and escape that encourages unimaginable jubilation, agency, and movement with abandon. The singular intent of RENAISSANCE, a reinvention of four on the floor, is to showcase music that stirs you from the soul and encourages your dancing feet.  It is a celebration of a club era when anyone who felt like an outsider sought each other and formed a community of freedom-seekers to express themselves creatively through the rhythm, which we still celebrate today. 

When you think of R&B in the 21^st century, romance, sex, love, and Tank instantly come to mind. With vocal fireworks lit enough to heat up any bedroom and an instantly recognizable presence, the nine-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated multiplatinum singer, producer, actor, comedian, and R&B Money label founder has defined two decades of the genre with one seminal record after another. Along the way, he has gathered hundreds of millions of streams, picked up platinum plaques, and sold out shows around the world. However, he leaves the game with one more magnum opus, delivering his tenth and final full-length offering, R&B Money [R&B Money/Atlantic Records], in 2022.

“For me, I’ve adjusted and lived through the changes with R&B,” he explains. “R&B is back in an amazing place. There are so many R&B artists who have incredible careers. The title R&B Money speaks to how lucrative the R&B business is and how expensive the music is. However, relationships and love are expensive in terms of how much you have to emotionally and spiritually invest. The investment is worth it though. R&B is about relationships. Nothing gives you the blues like a relationship when it goes wrong. Nothing gets you more excited than a relationship when it goes right. It’s never changed for me. I’m still making R&B.”

Throughout 2021, he assembled what would become R&B Money as his most ambitious body of work yet. “I’ve got more songs than ever,” he says. “I wanted to give it all I’ve got. For the first half of the album, it’s a vibe. You’re either making up or making out. There’s a song for any groove you’re in. It’s a ride, so pack a lunch.”

Love & Algorhythms is an interstellar synthesis of astral Soul, R&B, and sci-fi Funk. Working with producer Paul Butler (The Bees, Micheal Kiwanuka, Caroline Rose, Hurray for the Riff Raff), Seratones have taken the invitation to knock at the door of the cosmos. A.J. Haynes’s voice dances with soul-stirring devotion at the altar of Black Feminisms: weaving the words Toni Cade Bambara, Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis multiverse, echoes of bell hooks, and Audre Lorde’s Power of the Erotic. With drummer Jesse Gabriel’s machine-like precision and the transcendental touches from guitarist Travis Stewart, the album oscillates between Alice Coltrane-inspired bliss & Giorgio Moroder’s ecstatic release. Each song hovers and pulsates in the wide, dark matter—constellations guiding a journey through the subtle body, the vast fullness of the human experience and the irresistible potential of liberation.

Robert Glasper’s highly anticipated third installment to the Black Radio album series. Black Radio III, much like both of its predecessors, is a cultural moment that celebrates black love and resilience, features an eclectic group of talented collaborators, and is composed by Glasper who the New York Times proclaims is “probably the most prominent jazz musician of his generation”. An innovative and essential addition to Glasper’s seminal Black Radio series. Limited Edition Indie Exclusive Chartreuse 2 LP.

Stro Elliot (of The Roots) puts his spin on ten James Brown classics. The remixes draw upon a variety of inspirations, from Afro-Beat to electronica.

Big Crown Records is proud to present Piece of Me, the sophomore full length offering from Lady Wray. This is something of a homecoming for Nicole. Where her 2016 solo debut Queen Alone leaned more towards Soul and R&B with tinges of hip-hop, this record changes the mixture. It's still R&B with the textures of analog Soul, but there is a heavy Hip Hop influence that brings the sum of Nicole's career together in a new sound that will dene her future. Boom-bap drums and chunky bass lines are front-and-center creating a perfect head-nodding backdrop for Lady Wray to take on the good, the bad, the difficult, and the joyful on her most personal collection of songs to date.

The title track, "Piece of Me," which has already become a classic since it's 2019 release is about the people in your life who need more than you are willing to give. This tune and the B side of the 7” “Come On In” were the first songs put to tape for this album and they were recorded with Nicole sitting in a chair 8 months pregnant with her daughter. Her voice is so powerful, so raw, so thorough on these initial songs—it's wild to think that they were recorded this way. And even wilder to know that she knocked them all out in one take.Long time collaborator and producer Leon Michels keeps the musical backing restrained and expertly executed, setting up Lady Wray for the full spotlight and setting the tone for the rest of the album.

While the upbeat energies of “Under The Sun” and “Through It All” are sure to become hits that reconnect Lady Wray with her 90s R&B fanbase, “Where Were You” offers a behind the scenes look at what those days of stardom in her youth were really like. Nicole takes on the racial tension in America with her poetic and powerful “Beauty In The Fire” and leans heavy into her faith and church upbringing on the showstopper, “Thank You”. She gushes about the profound love she’s come to know for her daughter on “Melody” and celebrates life’s ups and downs on “Joy & Pain”. In 2021 it is rare to hear a varied yet cohesive album with no “skippers”, but that is what you have herein spades. The tried and true chemistry between Lady Wray and Leon Michels has undeniably found a higher level and this album stands as a testament to conviction and dedication for all of us to enjoy and be inspired by.

With this in mind, when talking about this record, for Lady Wray, it's about a larger purpose. "My goal is always to help and to heal people with singing," she explains. "Part of that is to try and bring back real music, real singing, so people can feel something again." Now, she's not dissing anyone here, to be clear. It's just that Lady Wray cannot sing without tapping into something deeper, searching for that shared compassion between all of us. Perhaps it comes from her church upbringing, or maybe from her years of trials and tribulations in the music industry. Either way, Lady Wray is looking to bring that "Good Sound" back and the good feelings that come with it. She calls it "those inner hands," and she always means to stir them up, grabbing your attention from within.

ALPHA is an eleven-song project of metaphor and earnest declarations, recollecting Charlotte’s inner struggles of love, growing, and breaking that she’s finally speaking to in a greater way. Self produced, the album shines a light on her prodigious skills of which are deeply admired by her peers including Toronto’s jazz-funk trio BADBADNOTGOOD, Mustafa, Syd and Daniel Caesar who all appear on ALPHA. Charlotte has continued to make wonders with the ALPHA era showcasing her impressive instrumental repertoire of guitar, bass, drum pad, and piano talent.

The 5^th Dimension’s “Greatest Hits On Earth” is being issued, featuring 11 of their most beloved hits including “Last Night I Didn’t Get To Sleep At all,” “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In,” “One Less Bell To Answer” and more!

$ (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 1971 movie of the same name. The soundtrack was composed and produced by Jazz legend Quincy Jones and includes performances from Roberta Flack, Little Richard and Doug Kershaw. This version will be the first repressing since 2002, and will be pressed the color of money on mint green vinyl. SIDE A 01 Money Is (feat. Little Richard) 02 Snow Creatures 03 Rubber Ducky 04 Redeye Runnin' Train (feat. Doug Kershaw) 05 Shady Lady 06 Money Runner 07 When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You) [feat. Roberta Flack with the Don Elliott Voic SIDE B 01 Do It - To It! (feat. Little Richard) 02 Candy Man 03 Passin' the Buck 04 Kitty with the Bent Frame 05 Brooks' 50c Tour (Main Title Collage) [feat. Little Richard and Roberta Flack]

The 1976 Warner Bros Motion Picture “Sparkle” features a soundtrack created by two Soul giants – Aretha and Curtis. Whilst the movie stars - Irene Cara and Lonette McKee (primarily) - sang the songs on the film, “Sparkle (Music From The Warner Bros. Motion Picture)'' features the Queen of Soul herself 'Aretha Franklin', accompanied by composer and producer Curtis Mayfield recorded at his Curtom studio in Chicago. It will be pressed on LP - for the first time since its original release in 1976 - on a Crystal Clear vinyl. SIDE A 01 Sparkle 02 Something He Can Feel 03 Hooked on Your Love 04 Look into Your Heart SIDE B 01 I Get High 02 Jump To It 03 Loving You Baby 04 Rock with Me

Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 is a career-spanning, 31-track collection of music pioneer Sam Cooke’s greatest works. This collection presents tracks from Cooke’s gospel and early R&B career, pop/soul hits from the Specialty and RCA labels and combined them with the cream of the masters that are part of his own company, Tracey Records. Includes comprehensive liner notes by Peter Guralnick as well as detailed musician credits. Limited Edition Indie Exclusive 2 LP on 180-gram clear vinyl.

There’s A Riot Goin’ On, Sly And The Family Stone’s influential masterpiece of darkly psychedelic funk turns 50 in 2021 and to celebrate, there will be a new limited edition version on red vinyl. The album marked a shift in the band’s tone, striking a more political and militant vibe while showing Sly Stone’s disillusionment with the promise of the 60s. At the same time, it was also a big commercial success, hitting #1 on the album charts while the single “Family Affair” topped the singles charts. Its influence rang throughout the 70s as all of the funk innovators took their cues from this seminal album, and its songs became a favorite for hip hop artist mining sampling gold decades later. It came in at #81 on Rolling Stone’s  Greatest Albums Of All Time and besides “Family Affair,” the album features the tracks “Just Like A Baby” and “Africa Talks To You (“Asphalt Jungle”).”