By Angel Richard<\/p>\n
There was a time when R&B was moving to machines \u2014 drum pads, programmed everything. And then you had Mint Condition, out of Minneapolis, walking on stage with real guitars, real keys, real horns, and a drummer who sings lead like it’s nothing. Stokley Williams behind the kit singing “Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)” is one of the coldest things R&B has ever produced.<\/p>\n
Mint Condition came up in the Twin Cities scene and dropped Meant to Be Mint<\/em> in 1991. “Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)” took over the radio and never really left \u2014 you can still play it at any function today and watch the whole room sing. Then came From the Mint Factory<\/em> in 1993 with “U Send Me Swingin’,” and Definition of a Band<\/em> in 1996 with “What Kind of Man Would I Be.” That title said it all \u2014 they were the definition of a band, in an era when groups were trading their instruments for tracks.<\/p>\n They kept releasing music and touring into the 2000s and beyond \u2014 “If You Love Me” is another one that still cuts deep \u2014 and Stokley went on to a solo career that shows exactly why the musicianship never gets old. Ask any R&B singer who the real ones are, and Mint Condition comes up every time.<\/p>\n Mint Condition proved you could be young, Black, from the Midwest, playing your own instruments \u2014 and still dominate. No gimmicks. Just chords, horns, and a voice that means every word. If you’ve never sat with their catalog front to back, fix that this weekend.<\/p>\n Watch: Breakin’ My Heart<\/a> Watch: U Send Me Swingin’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Real Instruments, Real Voices, Real Love By Angel Richard There was a time when R&B was moving to machines \u2014 drum pads, programmed everything. And then you had Mint Condition, out of Minneapolis, walking on stage with real guitars, real keys, real horns, and a drummer who sings lead like[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[333,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddusee.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why They Matter<\/h3>\n