At worst, Jamilia Woods made a lovely Chance the Rapper album.
That's dismissive, but when you look at the component parts (an extremely Chicago album, topped tip to tails with Chicago's neo-soul prizefighters, reflecting the national moment of higher awareness of black lives and the black experience filtered through one of America's most segregated and blackest cities... you've guessed it, Chicago), it's hard to ignore the Donnie Trumpet of it all.
We can debate (but please, let's not) the pros and cons of surfing a Chance-forward wave, but that would be a tremendous disservice to Woods, whose voice and frankness tower over whatever textual or stylistic tics are at work, and to HEAVN, which is a work of everyday black power that is close but not cloying, of the moment but not defined by it, cemented in the now and as eternal Jazmine Sullivan, Tracy Champan, Queen Latifah, Erika Badu, or whoever you want to put up as the neo-soul champions of whatever age you happen to be in. Hers is a proud legacy, one she earns swiftly and convincingly.
Also, shout out to Incubus.
That's dismissive, but when you look at the component parts (an extremely Chicago album, topped tip to tails with Chicago's neo-soul prizefighters, reflecting the national moment of higher awareness of black lives and the black experience filtered through one of America's most segregated and blackest cities... you've guessed it, Chicago), it's hard to ignore the Donnie Trumpet of it all.
We can debate (but please, let's not) the pros and cons of surfing a Chance-forward wave, but that would be a tremendous disservice to Woods, whose voice and frankness tower over whatever textual or stylistic tics are at work, and to HEAVN, which is a work of everyday black power that is close but not cloying, of the moment but not defined by it, cemented in the now and as eternal Jazmine Sullivan, Tracy Champan, Queen Latifah, Erika Badu, or whoever you want to put up as the neo-soul champions of whatever age you happen to be in. Hers is a proud legacy, one she earns swiftly and convincingly.
Also, shout out to Incubus.
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