Amerie

On her second LP, Amerie continues to turn heads. With a sleek but hard feel that jumps out of the speakers from the moment Touch begins (and even continues through the ballads), the D.C.-bred R&B up-and-comer offers a strong entry into the hip-hop/contemporary R&B scene. Some pretty leggy videos don't hurt, either.

Currently booming from jeeps in a neighborhood near you, Amerie's "1 Thing" is an early
front-runner for song-of-the-summer status. The minimalist ass-shaker is really just a classic
Meters riff left on repeat -- rattling drums and intermittent guitar bursts, with Amerie's thin,
pretty voice dancing overhead. "It's this one thing that got me trippin'," she sings about a
young woman's weakness for love. "It's this one thing you did." Elsewhere, Touc... More >