La Dona

Personnel include: Teena Marie (vocals); Gerald Levert, Rick James (vocals); Common, Lady Levi, MC Lyte, Medusa , Birdman (rap vocals).
Producers: Teena Marie; Doug Grisby; Mannie Fresh; James Allen; Mooxs.
Recording information: 2004.
Over the course of more than 20 years, Teena Marie has led a career full of unusual twists and turns. Taken under the wing of Rick James while working for Motown in the late 1970s, this fair-skinned California girl sang soul deeply, vibrantly, and truthfully. After hitting the R&B charts repeatedly, Marie suddenly crossed over to the pop charts with the genre-defying "Lovergirl" in 1984. Two decades later, her comeback record, LA DONA, released on the predominantly hardcore-rap label Cash Money, proved to be both a surprise and a success.
LA DONA is mostly vintage Marie--sweet, dark, and sultry. Tracks such as "I'm Still in Love" and "My Body's Hungry" are steeped in the kind of '70s soul perfected by the Delfonics and the Stylistics. Many tracks open with modern hip-hop-flecked beats, as on "Honey Call" or "I Got You" (featuring her mentor James), but a jazzy sort of funk prevails, bringing with it a more timeless quality. Even "Makavelli Never Lied" with its opening calls of "thug life," mixes references to both '90s stars (2Pac and Lauryn Hill) and '70s icons (Marvin Gaye and Chaka Khan). On LA DONA, Teena Marie returns, sounding like she's never been away.