Raphael Saadiq f/ Stevie Wonder and CJ Hilton - "Never Give You Up" (mp3)
Back over the summer, I was on Raphael Saadiq's MySpace page, looking into the new album he was getting ready to release, when I heard an impressive song on his page by someone named CJ with a voice that was strongly reminiscent of Marvin Gaye. So I clicked over to CJ's MySpace page, and realized that he was this amazingly talented teenager from Baltimore signed to Capitol Records who I'd somehow never heard of. Then, Saadiq's album, The Way I See It came out in September and it's pretty fantastic, one of the best R&B albums of the year, and CJ is featured on one of the best tracks, singing lead on half the song and playing drums and piano on "Never Give You Up," which also features Stevie Wonder on harmonica. I haven't been able to find much more info on the dude, but this 2006 article from The Urbanite says that he was 17 at the time, and was signed to Capitol Records in '05, so he's probably 19 now, which is still really amazingly young for someone with his kind of talent, who gets to record with people like Stevie Wonder. I sent him a MySpace message months ago requesting an interview and never heard back, so if anyone knows him and can let him know I wanna do a feature for the Baltimore City Paper on him or something, let me know how I can get in touch.

Labels: CJ Hilton, mp3