New York has been described as the spiritual home of Soul music. With the upsurge in the fortunes of Atlantic Records in the 60's, it was the then president of the company, Jerry Wexler, who altered the face of black music forever when, in his column for Billboard magazine, changed the archeic tag from Race Music to R n' B and made the world see the music for what it was - not as a creed or colour but as the most important and inspiring music known to man! Soul music had arrived and New York became the threshold of contemporary music. With Philly, Washington and New Jersey as close neighbours, the musical influx (as well as all the big decision makers) were flooding into the Big Apple.

The city has a rich history of innovation and open mindedness to music, from the awesome disco power of Salsoul and Prelude all the way to the ground breaking Strictly Rhythm and Nervous labels, added to the prolific hip hop output of the Rawkus label, New York has soul by the crate load.

New York Soul is the third release in the Soul series and sees a host of talent gathered on a set that spans all the usual genres - where Philly Soul was organic and Detroit was tech hungry, New York Soul offers a more 'street' sounding album, offering up a hybrid of genuine soul stirred into gritty beats (jus' check the production on Pete Rock's 'A Little Soul' !) Add a dash of jazz, funk, latin and all else in between. From Q Tip to Pete Rock all the way to the lesser known gems of Mckay and Cooly's Hot Box, New York Soul once again proves that there is more to urban