Friday 1/20
Our globe-trotting homeboys have been busy, opening shows for Prince, touring with Jill Scott and Anthony Hamilton, and being the house band on TV One's "Way Black When" series. Twenty years into its career, Mint is stubbornly old-school, and we're better off for it. As "7," its seventh disc since 1991, demonstrates, Stokley Williams has a creamy voice, and the band is impressively versatile -- getting funky with the classic Minneapolis Sound, soothing with midtempo numbers or seducing with ballads. While radio hasn't paid much attention to Mint in years ("If You Love Me" was its last Top 10 R&B single, in 1999), at the least the Grammys are. Williams has earned two nominations for "Not My Daddy," his collaboration with Kelly Price: best R&B song and best R&B performance. With the BoomBox featuring Laura Bell and Solomon Witherspoon.
