Ex-Dope Jams duo Slow to Speak presents a [dope] Valentine's playlist

You can be sure you have never and will never find The Mad Lads on Ghostface’s Annual “Softest Niggas In The Game” list. This is one of the toughest grooves of all time! Ghostface actually sampled it on “Black Out,” his joint with M.O.P and Pharoahe Monch, and RZA included it on his amazing Shaolin Soul compilation of early Stax releases. This is a true heartbreak jam, the empty space in the groove signifying the desperation as he pleads for his lover's forgiveness.

When Blaze were in their prime, there was no touching them! This is part of a pentalogy with Cassio that also includes “Paradise,” “Never Thought I’d See You Again,” “Fantasy” and “So In Love.” All masterpieces in their own right, but the line “she never leaves till we do it twice” may make this one the finest.

By far my favorite Model 500 track, “I Wanna Be There” was when the Model 500 project was really in its prime. The simple but heartbreaking vocal hook and the off-kilter edits throw you right into the feeling of longing for someone and hoping for their return—but knowing that it ain’t gonna happen. The keys and bassline creep back in after the drum break so imperfectly, it really is the sonic embodiment of lost love. And beyond that, it's engineered by Moritz von Oswald—thankfully prior to the formation of his smooth jazz trio.

You need the full 12” version where the vocals resolve themselves with the “Everything's gonna be all right” chant at the end to get the full effect of this monster. The perfect send-them-home-on-a-cloud end-of-the-night jam. Nothing is better than walking out of a club at 7am after hearing this and being blinded by sunlight and feeling like everything really is going to be all right.

Simply one of the best love songs that almost never came out. I can't really thank Bruce Thompson enough for hanging onto those tapes all these years. Without them, this masterpiece never would have revealed itself. Truly an amazing story for one of the best and most unrecognized soul groups of the Stax era.

Marianne takes the anger of infidelity from a man's point of view, and turns it into one of her best songs: a perfect blend of pure rage and reggae-influenced ’70s rock. Hearing this song [recalls] one of my favorite moments in Brooklyn: About a half hour after we closed the store, I walk out of the studio to see our good friend, Cookie, ripping this song on the crossover with a nice, fat joint hanging out of his mouth and a tall boy by his side. A perfect moment in time…

The perfect song to be stuck in traffic to, on a hot summer day in NY. I can hear Michael Baisden's voice over it as I listen to it. How in the hell did KISS-FM cancel his show? It was one of the last radio shows that actually played good music in NY. No Mister Cee and no Michael Baisden. Radio in NY is officially dead.

So I come home from work one day being a total maniac. Probably stressed out about a bunch of things that don't really matter. My girlfriend grabs me by the hand and says, “Sit down, shut up and listen to this…”

How can you go wrong with Curtis Mayfield and Leroy Hutson producing the Voices of East Harlem? This song plays on the idea that the Bad Boy is Satan, but for these purposes it's a warning about falling in love with the wrong person.

Okay, a pretty obvious choice, but one of my top five Larry Heard records. I hadn't listened to this in a couple of years but recently pulled it out and was brought right back to the first time I heard it. There are songs about love, and there are songs that make you believe in love. This song makes you believe in love.

Classic party-rocking Isley madness! Not quite as good as contemporary R&B like Bruno Mars, but great nonetheless.