So in the past, I may have mentioned that after Chris Brown's assault on Rihanna in 2009 and his justified career slump, there was a rush by the music industry to find the next big Usher-wannabe and push them into the spotlight. And in 2009/2010, we got a slew of acts getting major promotion in this area, like Taio Cruz, Jeremih, Iyaz, and two I've talked about before, Jay Sean and Jason Derulo, the latter of which managed to stick around and somehow get worse.
And among that group was Trey Songz, although he had been in the industry a little longer than most of his contemporaries and drew much more of his inspiration from one of the most influential figures in modern R&B: R. Kelly, who at the time was coming off of a string of mostly forgettable albums and one unforgettable video series. Now this isn't the first time R. Kelly has spawned artists who tried to mimic his style - acts like Ginuwine and B2K and who you likely forgot existed from the early 2000s fell into this vein - but Trey Songz managed to stick around even as R. Kelly moved into old-school R&B and soul and Chris Brown's career bounced from a resurgence to one of the worst albums released in 2012.
Now going back to Trey Songz, I'm mostly positive on him as an artist, but he's always been the act who I would consider quite good without ever being great. Yeah, his voice is amazing, but it hasn't always complimented the icy production that tends to dominate his albums. It doesn't help matters that the dawn of Autotune in R&B really hasn't aged well, especially from between 2007 and 2010, and that can hurt some of his older material. On top of that, while I will definitely give him points for making some pretty damn solid love jams, his sleazier material has never really had the insane wit or creativity that characterized R. Kelly's work, and while he has a lot of charisma, he has never really had the soul or boundless presence that has defined Usher's best work. Both of these have meant that he tends to positioned as a B-lister - which honestly strikes me as unfair, because I'd take him over Jason Derulo or Chris Brown any day of the week.
But now he's got a new record out, and in the wake of R. Kelly's return to convention with Black Panties being less than stellar and Chris Brown continuously delaying X as long as he possibly can, I figured Trey Songz's newest record Trigga was worth a look. What did I find?