Singer/songwriter/producer Tank has the top R&B album in the country right now with Sex Love & Pain (well, until R. Kelly's Double Up numbers come out next week) and he's been in the studio lately with Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Rowland, Jamie Foxx and Chris Brown, as well as gearing up for his supergroup trio TGT with Tyrese and Ginuwine. For straight-up listening pleasure in addition to inspiration, he takes it back.

"I always listen to Jodeci, Babyface, Kim Burrell, and try to come up with new music," the man behind the hit "Please Don't Go" said. "Babyface and Jodeci are my roots. That's a lot of what created me. As well as gospel like with Fred Hammond and John P. Kee. But being really introduced and molded into R&B was [listening to] Jodeci and Babyface. That's my heart. To hear those things keeps me in tune with my direction.

"It was love, it was love songs," he continued. "Babyface did beautiful love songs and DeVante did dirty love songs. Every woman in the world wanted to hear a DeVante or Babyface song. They talked about the same thing and got the same point across but Jodeci was hard and Babyface was a little more tender."

Labels: Tank