They are supposed to sing (sell?) catchy melodies and bouncy rhythms and shoot artsy videos, but not exhibit artistic growth - “how dare he leave us?” Maxwell’s latest release is aptly titled Now as it finds Maxwell neither looking back or forward for that matter, but rather statement about accepting his audiences’ most basic assumptions about his art.
![r kelly you remind me of my jeep prince r kelly you remind me of my jeep prince](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DHkN_03O3B8/maxresdefault.jpg)
“Saviors” are not supposed to be obtuse, ambiguous, inaccessible and unnecessarily artistic. Then came “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)” and regular views on MTV and suddenly the “secret” had become the “savior” of soul music and with it came comparisons - expectations really - to Marvin, Curtis and a host of other “dead” legends who would themselves have collapsed at the weight of expectation and triple-platinum projections. R&B’s little secret - secretly cultivated by a small cadre of listeners (many of which who initially peeped the joint at places like Circuit City on sale for $7.99), who wanted to protect Urban Hang Suite and the man behind its genius from over-exposure (we can use Alicia Keys as a reference) and the filthy hands of over-promotion and commercial expectations. At the time of its release Urban Hang Suite was little more than a sweet slice of retro-soul, the kind of thing that was always gonna be in the changer, but was never gonna be in regular rotation on anybody Hot-100 station. Blessed with bohemian good-looks, with the requisite wild hair and an enigmatic and self deprecating personality, Maxwell was not quite prepared to be the poster-boy for the next generation. He is without question the crown-prince of the Neo-Soul movement.