|
A revival of soul music, updated to the technology of the hip-hop era,
was heralded by Texas-born singer-songwriter
Erykah "Badu" Wright's Baduizm (1997), although her tormented
vocals were more reminiscent of blues and jazz singer Billie Holiday.
On And On made her a star, but the album deserved more because it fused
hip-hop's street culture, soul music's spiritual anxiety and psychedelic-rock's arrangements.
She confirmed her inspiration with Mama's Gun (2000), that contained the
hit Bag Lady, the funk orgy Penitentiary Philosophy
and especially the ten-minute elegy Green Eyes;
and Worldwide Underground (2003), ostensibly an EP containing the single
Danger, the nine-minute Bump It and the eleven-minute I Want You; although both collections were less compact and visceral than the debut.
New Amerykah Part One - 4th World War (Motown, 2008) revisits
soothing soul music, digital glitches and intense hip-hop,
blending live instrumentation and samples in a fluent and never discordant
manner. While nothing is as ambitious as the previous records, she achieves
a sort of classical elegance in
the brooding Madlib-produced The Healer,
the exuberant 9th Wonder-produced Honey,
the jagged Shafiq Husayn-produced The Cell,
the Kariem Riggins-produced sociopolitical sermon Soldier
and the eight-minute elegy Telephone.
|
(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx) Se sei interessato a tradurre questo testo, contattami
|
