Davie Rodriguez: Serious Baby Makin’ Music

Davie Rodriguez: Serious Baby Makin’ Music

We Speak The Truth/Hablamos La Verdad

By M. Alberto Rivera

I put this CD on for a friend and after 3 minutes of just listening, she turned to me and said, “This is some serious baby-making music.” She said she wanted a copy, then later said, “No, forget it, I don’t need another kid.” And three days later she thanked me when I handed a copy to her. Typical.

Davie Rodriguez is responsible for some of the smoothest, most enticing and freshest R&B to be produced in a long time. His 2011 CD We Speak The Truth/Hablamos La Verdad is stone cold seductive and chock full of laid back hip hop beats with plush production and tender vocals. The songs are tastefully and unexpectedly colored with Spanish guitars and are served up as smooth as 20 year old scotch.

The song Clouds (Nubes) sounds like Led Zeppelins Over the Hills and Far Away reworked by PM Dawn. The track appears twice on the CD; once in Spanish and once in English. Clocking in at less than three minutes, it leaves the listener wanting more.

Rodriguez, a Cuban-American, embraces his heritage in his art. Dropping Spang-lish rhymes and owning every word. He’s at his best when he allows his voice to float effortlessly over the rhythm, and works with the melody, weaving in and around the instrumentation; as on the stand out track “Ravishment.”  There’s a shy, timid quality to his vocal delivery and it makes the music irresistible. The listener gets the feeling Rodriguez will get what he wants, not because of any bravado or macho posturing, but because he deserves it.

Hopefully we can expect to hear more from Rodriguez in the years to come. Nothing on We Speak the Truth seems overly calculated. Just a man saying what’s on his mind and making the kind of music he wants to hear. Davie Rodriguez is not available to babysit should his music take you there.

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