Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s, combining elements of African American gospel music and rhythm and blues.
According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying." Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the soloist and the chorus, and an especially tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds.
Soul music has its roots in gospel music and rhythm and blues. The term 'soul' in black American parlance has connotations of black pride and culture. Gospel groups in the 1940s and 1950s occasionally used the term as part of their name. The jazz that self-consciously derived from gospel came to be called soul jazz. As singers and arrangers began using techniques from gospel and soul jazz in black popular music during the 1960s, soul music gradually functioned as an umbrella term for the black popular music at the time. The term "soul music" itself, to describe gospel-style music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961.
Brandon McCartney (born August 17, 1989), known by his stage name Lil B or "BASEDGOD", is a rapper from Berkeley, California. He has recorded both solo and with The Pack. In addition, Lil B is noted for his extensive use of social media websites such as MySpace and Twitter to build an online following.
Lil B began rapping at age 16 with hip hop group The Pack. After two locally successful mixtapes, and at the peak of the Bay Area's hyphy movement, the group's song "Vans" became a surprise hit. The song was ranked as the fifth best of 2006 by Rolling Stone magazine. The strength of "Vans" led the group to release Skateboards 2 Scrapers, featuring a "Vans" remix with Bay Area rappers Too $hort and Mistah F.A.B.. In 2007, Lil B and The Pack released its first album, Based Boys.
Aside from his involvement with The Pack, Lil B garnered popularity through the use of social media Web sites. He created over 155 MySpace pages in order to upload all of his music. He recorded over 1,500 tracks as of July 2010, including hits "Wonton Soup," "Pretty Bitch," and "I'm God."
Jay Wayne Jenkins (born October 12, 1977), better known by his stage name Young Jeezy, is an American rapper. He is a member of the hip hop group United Streets Dopeboyz of America (USDA) and a former member of BMF (Black Mafia Family). He began his career in 2001 under an independent label and joined Boyz 'N Da Hood in 2005, the same year his solo major label debut Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 was released. Its single "Soul Survivor", which featured Akon, became a top-ten hit in the US.
The Inspiration followed in 2006, and The Recession followed in 2008; both albums yielded chart-topping singles. Jeezy has also appeared on numerous other rap and R&B singles such as "Say I" by Christina Milian, "I'm So Paid" by Akon, "Hard" by Rihanna, and "Love in This Club" by Usher, the latter being a number one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 2008.
Jay Wayne Jenkins was born in Columbia, South Carolina and relocated to Atlanta, Georgia when he was a toddler. Because his parents were separated, custody of him transferred between family members frequently. In an interview with XXL magazine, he described his childhood as "empty". In 1994, he spent nine months in YCA (Youth Challenge Academy), a boot camp in Fort Stewart, Georgia, for narcotics possession.
-You came into my life
-I don't have to wonder no more, I can feel it all in my soul
It's Soul Music
-It's deep down in my soul
Feel the Burn
I can see I got a good foundation deep down in my soul
-Its deep down in my soul
It's Soul Music
I feel the need for contemplation deep down in my soul
-It's deep down in my soul
Yo, I first took breath in Hemstead, Long Island
Born in American ancestry from Ireland
You ain't knowin me, you'd better stop smilin'
Aint nothin funny once my dummies start whiling
You talkin loud now all of a sudden it's silent
Your premonitions say it's about to get violent
You want permission just to blink your own eyelids
I got my soldiers, everywhere they go, I win
No stick moves, aint no cap peeling
Where I come from real men don't catch feelins
We don't rhyme about fake jacks or drug dealin
The shit I drop will leave all your brains on the ceilin'
Mass appealin, done it since the '80s
Rock rhymes for my dogs, sing songs for my ladies
Spend money like crazy, aint got no babies
If I don't make it in heaven I'll run shit in Hades
Now I can see I got a good foundation deep down in my soul
-Its deep down in my soul
It's Soul Music
I feel the need for contemplation deep down in my soul
-It's in my soul
Soul Music
And I can feel a dark sensation deep down in my soul
-It's deep down in my soul
Soul Music
Tryin to find an explanation deep down in my soul
-It's deep down in my soul
Yo I shit on competition
Spit on percussion
Beats are bonecrushin
One deep I'm bum-rushin
Guns they get stuck in
Someone starts buckin
The jewels that I'm truckin got pimps upchuckin
You can't hold me down
You can't hold my hand
A full grown man with the one God plan
I represent the colors that never run
God bless DMC
God bless Reverend Run
R.I.P. for the J.M.J.
Tell Big and Scott LaRock that we all say hey
Be like Tupac or be like Kid 'n Play
Do you wanna burn out or just fade away
I can rock the mic with no delay
With my head to the ground every time I pray
You can catch a heart attack or get blown away
Cause this type of shit happens everyday
Feel the burn
-I can feel it all in my soul
It's Soul Music
-It's deep down in my soul
Feel the burn
-It's in my soul
It's Soul Music
-It's deep down in my soul
Feel the burn
Now I can see I got a good foundation deep down in my soul
-Its deep down in my soul
It's Soul Music
I feel the need for contemplation deep down in my soul
-It's in my soul
Soul Music
And I can feel a dark sensation deep down in my soul
-It's deep down in my soul
Soul Music
Tryin to find an explanation deep down in my soul
-It's deep down in my soul
Lyrically shape me
Melody embrace me
Soul music
Give me my Father's direction
Heavenly affection
Soul music
Music for my soul
My heart makes a beat
Then my soul sings along
A song that encourages me
Still tells me when I'm wrong
It exposes where I am
But it shows me how to grow
Helps me see the love that my Father shows
Teach me, reach me
Music for my soul
[Chorus]
My soul longs to hear
Your word through a melody
So that my mouth can sing the words that will make me free
Now my life can only reflect
What my heart has received
Causing my once blinded eyes to see
Direct me, correct me
Music for my soul
[Chorus]
Sing a new song to my soul
Sing all night long
Dance to a new song to my soul
Dance all night long