Featured pop show: Gap Band's 'Uncle Charlie' Wilson comes to Boardwalk Hall

Charlie Wilson, known as "Uncle Charlie" to his hip-hop collaborators, such as Snoop Dogg and Kanye West, has just released

Forever Charlie

, another of his tough but romantic R&B albums. It's fitting he'll be at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City for Valentine's Day.

"I'll always miss my brothers," says Wilson. He's referring to Robert and Ronnie Wilson, his brothers and bandmates in the Gap Band, with whom he made hits like "Outstanding" and "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" before going solo in 2000.

"I missed them when I first went on my own," he says. "I always had to look for their confirmation, one to the left, the other to the right. On stage, one would be spinning, the other would be bobbing. I always found myself ducking lest I get hit in the head with a bass."

When Charlie first made his own music, he was uncertain of his way, looking for his brothers' affirmation. "It was my dad who made me realize that I had to go my own way, that the door was closing on the Gap Band's brand of R&B," he says. "Being he's a preacher, I believed him. 'Don't look back - your blessings are that way.' "

Respect for others and reverence for family have been instilled in him, he says, by his mother, his wife, and just good old common sense and decency. Thus, Wilson's lyrics often concern the need to treat women well. Look no farther than his newest album and songs such as "Touched by an Angel" and "My Favorite Part of You."

"You know, when hip-hop first hit," he says, "it was nothing but disrespectful. Now, I have some very famous 'nephews' and they were amongst the ones degrading women." By "nephews" he means those in the music world who have worked with him and call him Uncle Charlie. He told them, he says, "I didn't like the b-word. You need to curb that. Now, there are some rappers who think I'm out to make everybody soft," he says, laughing. "I figured that we need to move on. Figure something else to say."

Instead, Wilson says, we need to celebrate women, praise them, love them: "They deserve it. We should remind them of that every day. And I know guys take lines from my songs. I had a woman tell me that her man quotes my lyrics like Scripture. That was cute." What to tell a woman? Wilson echoes lines from "My Favorite Part of You": "It's not their eyes, it's not their legs, it's them, all of you. Tell her that."

Wilson expects a crowd of people in love at his Valentine's Day show at Boardwalk Hall. "Look, any man who doesn't bring his woman there - it's a shame," he says.

What does Wilson think of R&B as it makes new inroads on the charts beyond hip-hop and dance pop? "I think people, young people whose ears are more attuned to rap, are latching on to R&B," he says. "You have Kanye doing a vocal thing with Paul McCartney playing. If you got a guy trying to sing who is known for his rap, you can tell R&B is back. It's a wonderful thing having everybody bump and grind to that sound. Besides, you need something to calm you down after the thump of hip-hop."