Ready Now

Personnel: Truth Hurts (vocals); Raphael Saadiq (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, keyboards, bass guitar, drum programming); Alonzo Jackson (various instruments, guitar, strings, bass guitar, drum programming); Gene Duarte (guitar); L.J. (strings, keyboards); Tim Riley (Wurlitzer piano, organ); Kelvin Wooten (keyboards, vocoder, bass instrument, drum programming); Brian Wilson (keyboards, bass instrument, drums, drum programming); Battlecat (keyboards, drum programming); Taura "Aura" Jackson (background vocals).
Producers: Raphael Saadiq; Kelvin Wooten; Alonzo Jackson; Brian Wilson; Battlecat; Truth Hurts.
Sultry singer Truth Hurts started her career in enviable style. With the support of Dr. Dre and his Aftermath Records, her 2002 debut, TRUTHFULLY SPEAKING, was a grandly produced album, featuring a top-10 hit in the unique, Indian music-sampling "Addictive." Two years later, Truth returns on a smaller label, minus Dre's production, with the understated READY NOW, and she benefits from the more subdued style.
Truth possesses a deep voice that was often overshadowed by the heavy beats of TRUTHFULLY SPEAKING, but on READY NOW, particularly the melodious Raphael Saadiq song "Knock Knock," she is able to explore the silky nether-regions of her singing. Even when the tunes are more ornately adorned, as on the thumping title track or the Eastern-flavored "Love U Better," she finds a way to transform the song into a smooth seduction.