NPR Music is continuing to celebrate Black Music Month with a special lineup of performances for their Tiny Desk Concert series. The first two performances featured heavy hitters Charlie Wilson and Babyface as they dug into their decades-deep catalogs. Next up in the series is sexy soul man Tank, who also has a deep bag to reach into when it comes to his own songs and those that he’s written for others. He brings all those and more with his signature sex appeal and charisma for the Tiny Desk audience.
The first half of the show is dedicated to some of his more well-known cuts, including “Slowly” and “Coldest” (the song from which his third album Sex, Love & Pain derived its title). He then delves into “Do What It Do,” “O,” “Naked” and “Regret,” hits he wrote for the likes of Jamie Foxx, Omarion, Marques Houston and LeToya Luckett, as his stacked crew of backup singers — Lonny Bereal, Brooke Valentine and Luke James — help him out on lead vocals.
It’s soon time to go to “nasty land,” as he calls it during the performance, with “When We” and “Dirty” before he takes a slight respite from talking dirty with “Can’t Let It Show” (though he’s right back there again with “Slow”). He then shifts to more serious matters of the heart with “See Through Love,” “Maybe I Deserve” and “I Deserve” as he and the band show off their skills. Last up is “Please Don’t Go,” his 2007 track that landed him at the top of the Billboard R&B charts for six weeks when it was released.
Tiny Desk will be bringing more musical greatness as the month continues, with Adam Blackstone up next and others waiting in the wings. Watch Tank serenade the Tiny Desk crowd like only he can when you press play below.
