Album - Do You Wanna Ride?
Song - Freak Like Me
Date - 1-25-95
Status - Aquired
Freak like me stands out for two reasons. One would be the Hip-Hop influenced backing track. The trend in R&B had been towards the more up-beat, danceable sounds of New Jack Swing. In comparison Freak's sound is heavily influenced by G-Funk and the work of Doctor Dre. It's slow, its slinky. Its not a song to dance to. Its a song to bob your head (and likely several other body parts) to.
Second, its sexual, aggressively so. Howard, and many other female R&B singers and rappers in the mid 90's actively (and appealing to young men who buy records) adopted blatantly sexual imagery that had previously been the domain of men.
Was this good or bad for relationships between the sexes? That's not really the point? The point is, she's a freak, and she's looking for a freak who can bump-bump to the early morn' and really when you're eighteen its hard to see though that to anything else. Even at 28 and 38 the song still has that affect.
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