Ok, so the great debate this time is between Angela Bofill vs. Phyllis Hyman. There was always talk in the industry that there was some kind of friction between Phyllis Hyman and Angela Bofill. I once heard someone from Angela’s camp say that Phyllis started it…LOL. Apparently our girl Phyllis didn’t like that people were comparing Angela (the newcomer) to her. People would say that there’s a new singer on the scene and she has a deep alto voice like Phyllis and she’s tall and gorgeous just like Phyllis. Phyllis on the other hand, wasn’t trying to hear that, so she wasn’t too accepting of Angela in the beginning. From what I understand she would be cordial to her, but she definitely made it known that she wasn’t going to necessarily be chummy chummy with her…LOL. That’s one thing I always loved about Phyllis, she never hid who she was…you either loved her, or you didn’t.

Now Angela was a sweetheart about the situation and never tried to go at it with Phyllis, she was always nice to her.

In terms of the comparison between the two, their ballads are some of the best ballads ever created. Angela’s “I Try” is a true classic. She didn’t try to over-sing the song, or compete with the music, she just set in the track and let the music guide her. The lyrics Angela wrote for her songs as a whole all felt like perfect matches with her music. Phyllis’ music was timeless to me. “Living All Alone” was one of my favorite songs by her and I think her style of singing was totally different from Angela’s.

I’m not going to lie, when I look at them, from a physical standpoint, I see similarities in terms of them both being beautiful women, but other than that, that’s it. As far as artists, these two are very different to me. If I had to choose between these two phenomenal artists I think I would go with Phyllis Hyman for her vocal skills and her delivery of the songs; and Angela Bofill for her ability to not just create a song, but to create a mood through a combination of her writing and delivery. So in other words, I’m saying that it’s a draw…I can’t choose just one because in my opinion they both contributed something very different to soul music. Which one would you choose?