All I want to hear is Slow Jams.
Recently I’ve been dipping my toes outside as summer is fast approaching. My favourite type of an event is a Slow Jams/r’n’b event and trust me when I say, I am always ready to yearn in the club like I’ve never yearned before.
It does sadden me to say that what me and my peers have been experiencing, is not what has been advertised, nor what we’ve been used to over the past years. Now, I’m not going to name any event as that would be distasteful, but one that I recently went to had only one DJ that adhered to the genre - the rest played as if they should have been on a Dankie Sounds stage (great event for amapiano), it honestly grinded my gears and made me completely lose faith in an event I loved, and would set alarms for in order to get a ticket.
The Black community has moved away from the clubs, as they were never really a welcoming environment for us and we now have our day parties and curated events, which I love - coming home at 11 or 12am? Yes, please! However, it often feels like jumping through a ring of fire to get the tickets for an event that is going to be sorely disappointing. I want to leave an event/day party and say to my girls “debrief in Mac Ds?”. Now we leave and want to go straight home because we’re over not being promised what we paid for. We have big girl jobs, but £30+ for a ticket where we are only hearing TikTok songs, DJs don’t have the skills to mix, DJs are playing the same songs as the previous two DJs (love Cleo Sol down, but if I hear that Know That you Are Loved remix for a third time, I’ll switch the electricity off - party done).
It’s honestly not good enough.
In a world full of slow jams/r’n’b songs and everyone is sticking to the same thing? It’s giving Groundhog Day but let’s call it groundhog hours. DJs are meant to make you take your phone out and Shazam in the middle of the club, they are meant to put you on, they are meant to make you look at them like “you’re mixing the hell out of those decks”. If any DJ reads this or anyone with anyone influence at all reads this, I’m going to give you an extensive list of song suggestions - take note for your business’s sake:
Jon B - They don’t know
Marcus Houston - Clubbin
Keri Hilson - Slow Dance
Summer walker - ANY DAMN THING
Ari Lennox - Get Close
Jhene Aiko - Living Room Flow ( and various other songs)
Raven lean - Light Me Up
Brandy - Put That On Everything
Arin Ray - The Mood
TeaMarr ft SiR - Tick
Jazmine Sullivan - On It
Muni Long - Hrs & Hrs
Cleo Sol - When I’m In Your Arms (the bloody original)
Victoria Monet - F.U.C.K / Touch Me
Jill Scott - All I
Amaria - Lose Control
Usher - Can U Handle It
TLC - Diggin on You
SZA - 2AM
Latto ft Coco Jones - Ear Candy
Ginuwine - In Those Jeans
Teyana Taylor - Dreams
Beyonce - Signs / Rocket
Destiny’s Child - Game over
PND - PICK ANYTHING!
SWV - Weak / Rain
Destin Conrad - MR E.
Dru Hill - How Deep Is Your Love / Tell Me
Seven Streeter - In common, Wet Dreams, Feelz
I can go on - don’t tempt me AND I want all the credit. Thank you!
You can pick other genres of songs that might be able to sneak into the category, but do you see where I’m going here? MAKE ME YEARN. It is such a disservice to not only your event, but to your core audience, your fan base that know what you have done and can do.
Side note: This is a plea! Please don’t play for the younger crowd (24-). TRÈS DÉSOLÉ.
I understand wanting to keep up the hype around an event and expanding - I truly get it. On the other hand, the reason why half of us were waiting by our phones for the shiny time of 7pm, 12pm, 6pm was because we knew the event would be great and we’d leave feeling satisfied. We would go and tell our friends who didn’t come, on how much they missed out and that we should all go to the next one. Now I’m seeing people I know and telling them that I would never go again. I don’t want to do that to black events, I really don’t.
To wrap it up, not all the events are a disappointment. There are many music events/parties that are doing what they’ve been doing and are thriving - but if someone has to say something, then I guess it was going to be me.
Elle