What's Going On

RAHEEM DeVAUGHN doesn't like to be compared to other R&B singers, unless it's Marvin Gaye

It's a challenging time for R&B and soul music. Though singers like Usher and Ne-Yo have found success on the charts, more than ever the genres are having trouble distinguishing themselves from their more-popular step-brother, hip-hop. It's not just about sales, it's about personalities. Who today approaches the genius of Al Green, Curtis Mayfield or Marvin Gaye in their prime? Where is that soulful, seductive crooner with a silky voice, mass appeal and something to say?

Raheem DeVaughn says he's our man, and he makes a compelling case. "I'm not like everybody else," he says. "I make message music."

Born in New Jersey and raised in Maryland near Washington D.C., DeVaughn calls Gaye a major influence, and notes that he modeled his most recent CD, Love Behind the Melody, after Gaye's 1976 album I Want You. "I wanted to have a classic romance type vibe," he says, adding that the material has more bite than typical urban contemporary fare because it takes on not just the sexy side of love, but the spiritual and emotional sides as well. The album debuted at number five upon its January release and has sold about a quarter of a million copies.

Standout track "Woman" is an homage to ladies around the world, and serves as an answer to the misogynistic raps in vogue on MTV and BET. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2007.

But DeVaughn doesn't want to be known solely as a smooth jam specialist, which is why he constantly refers to himself as an "R&B hippie neo-soul rock star." As you can imagine, Prince is a major influence – although it was a bit bittersweet moment when the "Purple Rain" mastermind beat him out for the Grammy with his song "Future Baby Mama."

Expressing his politics musically is important to DeVaughn as well. He says he has been inspired by conscious urban artists like The Roots and Erykah Badu, and adds that he often looks to the '60s and '70s flower power artists as well, like Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles.

And, of course, Gaye. DeVaughn says his next album is going to borrow from the more political side of the late singer's work. Tentatively entitled The Love & War Masterpeace Project, it will be a "socially conscious love album," DeVaughn says. "I will be trying to cover what we've been through in the last eight years with George Bush in office, versus hopefully the next eight with Obama." He has grand plans for the work, hoping to either put it out as a double CD or else an extended single disc. "We're going to push it to the limits," he says, adding that it should be out in the second quarter of 2009.

The 32-year-old son of a well-known jazz cello player named Abdul Wadud, DeVaughn toiled for years without the support of a major label, building up a grassroots following in the D.C. area and pegging himself the "underground king."

But after signing with Jive Records in 2002, DeVaughn showed he could take his act national. Word quickly spread about his highly personal, compelling live shows, partly due to DeVaughn's savvy marketing.

His studio projects have been successful as well, with his debut CD, The Love Experience, also selling about 250,000 copies — not bad for an album that includes political tracks like "Catch 22." For Love Behind the Melody he began securing increasingly high profile musical collaborations, recording tracks with Outkast emcee Big Boi, hip hop group Floetry and super producer Scott Storch, among others. DeVaughn says a song with chart-dominating rap hooksmith T-Pain is currently in the works, adding that he regularly collaborates with former Fresh Prince partner DJ Jazzy Jeff. "We've got a great working relationship and we've become really good friends," he says of Jeff.

DeVaughn recognizes that there has been pressure on some R&B artists to raunch-up their songs in an effort to appeal to younger audiences, but insists he's been largely left to do his thing. "[Jive is] the type of label that always deals with artists who are self-contained. I've got a formula now, I make tasteful music, and I stick with that. It can be sexy, but it's still always tastefully done. I'm a little before my time; I kind of got an old soul."

He says he was almost surprised that a song off Love Behind the Melody called "Customer" has gone over well with the 106th And Park crowd. "It's interesting that the record has been embraced by a younger audience," he says of the track, a seduction story set in a fast food restaurant. "It's cool, but at the end of the day it's not me compromising what I do."

He says too often R&B artists allow themselves to be "pigeonholed," but that he has no intention of falling into that trap himself. "You've got to mix it up," he concludes. "More important to me than being branded as R&B and soul is letting people know that I make timeless music."

—Ben Westhoff