Critical Noir: The 2007 Playlist (ver. 1.0)
Rahsaan Patterson--"Oh Lord (Take me Back)" from Wine & Spirits
It's been a decade since Rahsaan Patterson broke through with his debut recording for the MCA label. For those up in corporate though, Ronnie Dyson, one of Patterson's primary musical influences, or the image of a sanctified little Jimmy Baldwin (I always loved how Amiri Baraka simply called the legendary writer "Jimmy" during his eulogy for him, 20 years ago this month) simply didn't register; Patterson has long been off the mainstream radar. Wine & Spirits, Patterson's latest offering, is his second independent release and "Oh Lord (Take Me Back)" is brilliant riff on the sanctified world that birthed him.
Jill Scott--"How's It Make You Feel" from The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3
Admittedly, I've never gotten over the Jill that I fell in love with after the release of Who is Jill Scott?: Words and Sound, Vol. 1 in 2000. There was just a magic--an innocence about Jill and the music "they" called neo-Soul--that was embodied in those bright eyes that peered out on the album cover. Seven years later the bitterness of never really breaking through to the mainstream, a failed marriage and the apparent invisibility of fully grown--and fully formed--black women in the popular realm, stick to The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3 like honey on Formica. It's hard to know if the Rutgers' Women's basketball team, Meagan Williams, or the victim in the Dunbar Village gang rape were on Scott's mind when she wrote and recorded "How's It's Make You Feel". In a moment though, when it is so difficult to locate the subjectivities of black women in popular culture and media (and let's be real Oprah and Condi have never been simply "black women") Scott ups the ante by daring to ask, what if my ass--and those of every black female in this culture--disappeared?
Pharoahe Monch--"Welcome to the Terrordome" from Desire
Desire won't get love that Lupe Fiasco's The Cool will on most year-end assessments (and indeed most read like an accountant's index rather than a measure of artistic merit) and that probably has to do with Pharoahe Monch outgrowing the "hip-hop smarty-pants," to quote my man Bakari, that drive the marketplace of so-called conscious rap. Whereas Fiasco can't remember lyrics to the music of some of the genre's true geniuses, Monch dares to remake Public Enemy's "Welcome to the Terrordome," rendering the song more politically relevant than the original was when released in the spring of 1990. And let me clear, there was nothing more politically relevant for the black, the young and the proud crowd in the late 1980s and 1990s than Public Enemy.
4Hero featuring Darien Brockington--"Give In" from Play with the Changes
For years Darien Brockington has toiled along with Carolina's Justus League, in relative obscurity and unfortunately, Brockington's solo release Somebody to Love did little to change that. Leave it to North London's 4Hero to give a brotha a reprieve. With fellow Justus leaguer and remaining Little Brother member Phonte in tow, Brockington's "Give In" is a sweet taste of cosmopolitan Soul--much like the work of the woefully forgotten Charles Stepney (somebody get Maurice White, Richard Rudolph, or Terry Callier on the phone) whose legacy 4Hero continues to celebrate.
Stephanie McKay--"Rainbow" from the Soul-Patrol Digital/Virtual Album
Culled from Stephanie McKay's self-titled EP, "Rainbow" is one of those beautiful tracks that will never find its way onto the playlist of your local urban station--even the ones that claim to play classic soul and adult R&B. And if it we're not for internet innovator Bob Davis, founder of the influential listserv "Soul-Patrol" I would have been oblivious to McKay's solo work. "Rainbow" appears on the Soul-Patrol Digital/Virtual Album, a spirited attempt to undermine the corporate gatekeepers, providing the platform for independent artists to be heard at a fraction of the cost ($.15 percent per song) that the evil apple--I mean empire--offers songs for. McKay is among the 20-something artistz that contribute to the virtual album which features new music from legends like The Dells, Mandrill and Public Enemy.
Keite Young--"E.N.S. (Everybody Needs Somebody)" from the Rise and Fall of Keite Young
Keite Young somehow manage to escape damn near everybody's attention and rightfully so--The Rise and Fall of Keite Young is not a great recording. "E.N.S. (Everybody Needs Somebody)" is a winner though --a throwback of sorts that channels mid-career Prince ("Insatiable") and the only D'Angelo we've known (more "Heaven" than "Untitled"). Give Young some seasoning, stronger song writing, and more crisp production and Mr. Archer may have to remain on that now 7-year sabbatical since Voodoo.
Me'Shell Ndgeocello--"Elliptical" from The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams
Apparently the man of Me'Shell Ndegoecello's dreams is an emo/hardcore punk star, 'cause that is what we get throughout her latest recording. As always give Ndegeocelleo credit for accepting the challenge, even if she leaves her core audience grappling in the dark. That said, "Elliptical" is a succulent piece of computerized f*ck funk that feels like Octavia Butler dreaming 40-years ago about a world that she couldn't then write about--and be taken seriously. And perhaps that's Ndegeocello's point.
Chrisette Michelle--"Your Joy" from I Am
Chrisette Michelle's I Am stole my heart at the beginning of the summer, but by the fall it was an ordinary love. Not a comment on Michelle's considerable talents or Mr. Carter's faith that Def Jam could break into the world of adult R&B. Indeed Anita Baker's first album for Beverly Glen was forgettable (so forgettable the label apparently forgot to pay her for it), but she left us with "Angel"; Chrisette Michelle left me with "Your Joy", a love song for her father and every father who has loved his little girl(s). As long as I'm thinking of my own little brown girls, "Your Joy" will always be the perfect song.
***note: (ver. 2.0) will upload on Friday, December 21st
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