One of Roy Ayers' most slept on albums, this is the literal template for all things 'deep' in house and techno. The lineage from the jazz fifths in the album's 80s boogie-vocoder funker "Fast Money" goes straight to Carl Craig and Henrik Schwarz. It is only natural that the latter covered "Chicago", and here the track sits right in its original 1988 glory.
Not only do you get these furious, cold 80s jazz vamps, you also get Roy the Family Man here: humane, warm tracks like "Lots of Love", the jubilant but slow "Everybody" and the sublime afrobeat opener "Black Family".
And "D. C. City", one of the most crushing paeans ever to the racially divided U. S. capital. Peers like Gil Scott-Heron were lamenting Washington D. C. at this sad time in U. S. history as well, and Roy's sentiment here is similarly solemn, yet uplifting. Deeeeep stuff: It deserves 'classic' status just as much as "Chicago".

Is this one of the best soul albums ever? In a similar way to how Weldon Irvine is criminally overlooked in comparison to Stevie Wonder, Eddie Kendricks is criminally overlooked in comparison to Marvin Gaye. One could choose perhaps the most obvious cut from this LP, which in Kendrick's catalogue stands equivalent to Gaye's What's Going On: the stormer track "Girl You Need a Change of Mind", or the irresistibly romantic "Day by Day" (which I'm actually quite sure Eric Clapton has been bitin'!). But discover also "Date With the Rain", and the title tune "My People...Hold On", which is a key milestone in Black music's celebration of consciousness, heritage and pride.