I Love Soul Sisters, Top 10!

The staff of www.Soulsummer.com tackled the task of constructing a list of today’s top 10 soul sisters, a chart we call “I LOVE SOUL SISTERS TOP 10”. After several days of combat and heart felt emotional warfare, we decided that the task at hand could be a lot less emotional and chaotic if we treated it as business and apply guidelines for our selections.

The sexy chick, decent actress with sexy legs simply couldn’t qualify for having nice legs. The smooth skin honey without much vocal skill, the sister with the body of a goddess on TRL every other day and the sister who can dance but can’t blow simply could not make the cut. The voices and music had to be amazing…simple enough…right?

Not so fast, the personalities in the SS office rival a den of lawyers so the technicalities came into play. The skinny graphics guys popped off with; “what about the pop chick, she is popular but is she technically soul”…good question; SoulSummer.com defines soul as “heartfelt R&B influenced music laced with significant emotions, quality story telling and delivered by voices that are undeniably divine”… see Arthea Franklin.

The Production Guy had his two cents…”what about country girls? Like Faith Hill she is soulful?” The editorial guys shouts, “ dude…Faith Hill is as far from R&B music as Whitney is to a comeback”… The quiet, tech girl added to the argument; “Which brings us to another point; can Whitney qualify for the top 10 since we’re dealing with “today’s” soul sisters, you know ones who are actually active in the music business?

GOOD POINT, a bit harsh to single out Bobby’s ex wife but they are correct…no yesterday stars without current hits.

After two full days of back forth, I laid down the selection constitution; “ok people, we are selecting by the following parameters:

• Must be active with an album less than two years old
• Must have an amazing voice (by anyone standards)
• Music must possess R&B influence
• Consistent body of work (more than one album to her credit)

The debate went on for a few more intense days so we decided the only way to be fair is to continue with our top ten series…next up “Top 10 soul sisters of the future” and “Soul sisters of all times”…submit your picks and please let us know your thoughts on our “I love soul sister top 10”…Peace & Love, The office manager

Here is the TOP 10

1. Mary J Blige: (the original soul sister of the hip-hop generation; now she is the modern day Aretha Franklin)

2. India Arie: (consistent, soulful, fearless and original-our #2 pick simply because Mary at the #2 spot in blasphemy)

3. Erykah Badu: (a true artists, #1 on the creative baby names top 10…)

4. Tamia (Amazing voice, underrated… ME, Stranger, in My House, Put a Move… perfect example of a rule #2..AMAZING VOICE)

5. Alicia Keys (beautiful voice and has knack for great songs…plus AK is sexy as hell…#1 on the SEXY SOUL SISTER chart)

6. Keisha Coles (raw and heart felt, The Mary J for the 18 year olds, did we mention ghetto as hell? That is why we love her…)

7. Amy Winehouse (Honest artists, unique singer and songwriter, crazy as hell!!! Gaining a few lbs wouldn’t hurt her far below average sexy rating!)

8. Jill Scott (a poet, hated that she got divorce but maybe it resulted in another great album…)

9. Angie Stone (We need more of Angie, the voice is undeniable…Angie is the slept on!!!!)

10. Mariah Carey (most controversial pick but she can sing her ass off (not there was much to start with)…a tad bit vain but her voice won her the #10 position)

Perhaps many of you will argue Beyonce Carter should have held down a spot in the count down but come on people, B makes me wanna dance and pat weaves not delve into my inner, tumultuous being and cry like a heart broken teenager…now Mary! She made me cry on several drunken occasions… Lauryn Hill was another one we battled with but ultimately she had an album out in some years…too bad she is top-5 material for sure.