Happy 25th Anniversary to Kenny Lattimore’s eponymous debut album Kenny Lattimore, originally released May 14, 1996.
[Read Mark Chappelle’s interview with Kenny Lattimore here.]
In 1996, the slipstream of Black culture was dealing out films like cards from a deck. Set It Off, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Sunset Park, and The Preacher’s Wife all immortalized facets of the culture on screen, and largely Black music fell right in line—with the exception of Washington, DC-born singer Kenny Lattimore.
Once known for his high energy as lead singer of soul band Maniquin in 1989, he left the group to lean into songwriting. However, the songs he endeavored to place were getting upstaged by his versatile voice. Columbia Records made decisive moves to sign him, but had no real plan to market the classically-trained troubadour in the mid-‘90s. The entertainer existed then in the uncharted retro-soul space that Leslie Odom Jr. and Leon Bridges occupy now.
The genre was still pretty segmented then. D’Angelo made music to get high to. Maxwell made music to have sex to. Lattimore though—he made music to get a six-figure job, go to church more often, and be a responsible spouse and parent to.
Culture is almost always driven by sex and drama, but this solo effort elevated the conversation. Where naïvete assumed relationships had to have the same turmoil heard in hits on the radio, Lattimore offered an alternative. Real love didn’t have to hurt, but it did require truth, vulnerability, humility, and emotional availability. This made “Never Too Busy” the perfect first single to establish the crooner vocally and artistically.
Producer Dave “Jam” Hall (Mariah Carey, Silk, Joe) provided the song’s ample thump and gave it just enough swing to energize without compromising its cool. An all-grown-up Lark Voorhies played his leading lady in the romantic, metropolitan music video. The total effort left a nice mark on the Billboard charts, peaking at #19 R&B/Hip-Hop and #2 Adult R&B.
At the time, popular misogyny was gaining a foothold also, a side effect of projects like Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle (1993) getting major airplay across the board. When they had everyone chanting, “We don’t love them hoes,” it was nearly revolutionary to hear, “Just so you know it / You have my attention / Anything you need at all / I'll be there when you call.” This is how Lattimore would stand out.
Second single “Just What It Takes” boasted more bounce than its predecessor. Producer Keith Crouch and master lyricist Kipper Jones dressed the singer down in suave funk there, but saved their more potent work for the bass and moody brooding of “Forgiveness.” It tackles the falsehood that a man’s strength lies in never apologizing or making amends (“I made a mistake and I wanna know / Can you ever forgive me or do we go / Down in the flames of a broken love?”).
Lattimore is teaching here. Back then, male singers were most concerned with good lovin’, body rockin’ and “Knockin’ Da Boots,” but if you break up over a petty argument, no love gets made that night. “Forgiveness” throws back to when R&B wasn’t afraid to beg. This combination of tenderness and honesty is his sweet spot. He delivers these lyrics in earnest without the sentimentality turning cheap or forced.
The classic he’ll forever be known for though is his third single, “For You” (R&B #6, Pop #33, Adult R&B #1). High school friend Kenny Lerum penned it for his fiancée and asked Lattimore to perform it when he married her in 1993. Lattimore was so taken with it that he asked to record it when he finally signed a solo deal.
The flawless love song was produced by Barry J. Eastmond who would return to recreate an album’s worth of the “For You” magic on Lattimore’s fourth solo album Timeless (2008). The energy for that project started with this definitive exhibition of Lattimore’s range and nuance as a vocalist. It established him as a top-tier balladeer, and gave him the biggest hit of his career to date.
“For You” had notable crossover appeal, but to a certain extent Lattimore was a genre purist. When Mary J. Blige hit the scene, she fused R&B with hip-hop such that it was hard to tell the two apart. Some of that flavor gets drawn into “I Won’t Let You Down” through a savory sample of “Love TKO” by Teddy Pendergrass, but it’s an outlier. By and large, straight-ahead R&B is the main dish served up on Kenny Lattimore.
Producer Herb Middleton garnishes “All I Want” and “Forever” with the type of sexy slink that glossed up his previous work with Bad Boy-associated artists like Blige, Faith Evans, and Usher. The inspirational bump of “Joy” finds Lattimore singing with the fire of a preacher in revival over a youthful track Dallas Austin would’ve pitched to Monica for Miss Thang. And nothing is more traditionally R&B than featuring gospel as the last track on the B-side. The singer-songwriter also wears the producer hat on the deeply personal “I Won’t Forget (Whose I Am)” and fuses his devotion with harmonies that echo Earth, Wind, & Fire’s “Brazilian Rhyme.”
One of the best moments on the disc is hidden toward the end. On “Climb the Mountain,” Lattimore shapeshifts his airy tenor into a chorus of majestic backgrounds that float like cirrus clouds. Its kind of swing is less New Jack and more bebop. A discerning ear will pick up the jazz complexity tucked neatly under the song’s edges, but it’s so well-crafted all most will hear is classy soul music that makes you want to ask for a raise.
Ultimately, Kenny Lattimore was certified gold and charted as a Top 20 album on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. “For You” even earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. The beauty of this project was that it wasn’t trying hard to avoid D’Angelo’s raw and base appeal or Maxwell’s lofty, neo-hippie vibe. Lattimore merely showed up as himself and brought his life with him. Singing about it just happened to be what R&B was missing.
His sound is simply a necessity. He was the right messenger for the right message. And he would continue the conversation this album started on his critically acclaimed follow-up From the Soul of Man (1998). Personally, I wasn’t big on male R&B vocalists until he came along with his specific do-no-harm way of being in the world. Gerald Levert, Luther Vandross, Boyz II Men, and Brian McKnight are all spectacular vocalists. Still, none of them could connect with me the way Kenny Lattimore did.
He is an anachronism, like a modern-day Sam Cooke. He definitely came from another time. If this eponymous CD were a film, perhaps it would be Lillies of the Field starring Sidney Poitier. It’s the only title that comes to mind as understated, sincere, dignified, and likely to be important for a very long time.
LISTEN: