Enigma
Okay, I'll be the first one to say it since either (1) nobody's thought about it or (2) nobody's paid attention. Maxwell is not, I repeat, he's not a real person. Maxwell is a product of spontaneous combustion, beyond human even…… he is a being. I'm being serious! This cat is a complete mystery that came from nowhere. It was like he was created from particles gathered from outer space and just appeared on earth one day. I mean, who really knows anything about Maxwell for real? In my Katt Williams voice, "I'll wait". Nobody, that's who!
One day in 1996, my cousin and I were preparing to entertain some lady friends and he rolled a L, got a bottle of Cognac popped in this CD. It was some cool, fly, groovy isht without being too sexy for the occasion. It was the first time that I'd heard it, but it felt like something that I'd grown up on. Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite didn't even have a photo on it because he's not real! It appropriately had a picture of a pair of women's shoes on the cover. Appropriate because that album was the way for cool dudes to make the ladies comfortable for the evening. If you got that part right, the rest of the night was gravy.
The guy makes incredible music, when he's around. He'll be on the scene for a bit and then POOF! He's gone like a thief in the night. A couple of years later, out of nowhere he's back and I know no more about him than I did in the 90's. I suppose that might not be such a bad thing because with all of the media exposure nowadays, I tend to get to a point where I don't care for the artists' personality and it gets in the way of the music.
In any case, I'll continue to enjoy the music and mystery of the "being" that we call Maxwell and I encourage others to do the same. As always, tell somebody!
