Tamar Davis returns with the tantalisingly sexy “Imagination”

Casey Rain
The Violet Reality
Published in
3 min readMay 5, 2020

For Prince fans, Tamar’s legacy is undeniable. As his muse during the “3121” era, Tamar made significant contributions to the chart-topping album and landed a well deserved Grammy nomination for their duet, “Beautiful, Loved & Blessed”. Prince was so impressed with Tamar’s voice and live performance skills that he stood back and let her take the limelight whilst he simply played guitar for the joint tour they launched, which was labelled as “Tamar — Featuring Special Guest, Prince”. For one of the most legendary and successful music artists the world has ever seen to give that level of co-sign to a young artist tells you everything you need to know about her incredible artistry.

Unfortunately, tension between Prince and Universal Records meant that Tamar’s long awaited debut album, “Milk & Honey” was pulled from release at the last minute. And we do mean the very last minute — an early release in Japan meant some fans were able to grab copies from there before the cancellation, and those copies regularly sell for hundreds of dollars on the Discogs marketplace.

Prince and Tamar on Good Morning America

Since then, Tamar has stayed on her grind, with memorable performances on The Voice, joining Prince’s band The New Power Generation for some tour dates — including an absolutely phenomenal performance last year in Minneapolis at The Fine Line — and of course dropping new music! And so it is that Tamar is giving us all some sweet, Minneapolis Sound inspired freshness right here in 2020, with her new single “Imagination” which features a guitar solo from none other than Minneapolis legend Jellybean Johnson from The Time.

Over a slinky, synth heavy dance groove produced by Michael Nocny, Tamar sings “Hope Is Rising, Can U Feel it 2Nite? Or is it Just My Imagination?” — Her ability to emote and walk a line between uplifting and sensual lyrics shows you exactly what the Purple One saw in her, and by the time Jellybean Johnson lands with an epic guitar solo, the track begins to feel like a modern take on everything that we love about the Minneapolis Sound. The lifts and synth driven bounces in the hook combined with Tamar’s endlessly soulful vocal tones offer a glimpse of a pop music future that could be — one where artists look to the work of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis just as much as they do to contemporary beats. In fact, there’s something about this song, especially when the solo lands — that make you feel as if Mary Davis and The SOS Band got picked up in 1983 and warped to a new galaxy of sound.

Do yourself a favor, and check out “Imagination”. If Tamar continues to drop bangers to this level, we’ll be ecstatic. Be sure to follow her on Facebook and Twitter, and check out our exclusive “Uncovering Prince” interview with her below!

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Published in The Violet Reality

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Written by Casey Rain

Things I write: Songs, Blogs, Tweets / Things I make: Music, YouTube Vids / What I love: Prince, Michael Jackson & Video Games / You should: Follow Me! /

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Eye. Love. You Guys. From the bottom of my heart. Stay encouraged and safe during these uncertain, yet, faith-filled times.

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