[Shuffle 28] Foot on neck
5, SAULT
LEGACY! LEGACY!, Jamila Woods
New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), Erykah Badu
Rhythm Nation 1814, Janet Jackson
To Be Young, Gifted and Black, Nina Simone
Thanks for SAULT, NPR. Immediately, the jammy up-do’s and funkadelic bops I went to, waiting to grapple with Foot on Necks’ fro. Felt the album’s blackness tho, aiding and adding to a series of shuffles I dealt early in the year solely focused on the voices of black women. Plenty of new-to-me Jamila and Tasha, too (both Spotify rec’s I binged). Gifting my dad Alone at Last at Christmas: “I’m trying to shut up and just listen to women of color as often as possible.” Took me a while to fully hear HEAVN before I could handle LEGACY! LEGACY! My heavens. Jamila’s channeling hangs around my neck and punches me in the gut. Good. God. This week deserved more explicit attention on the tradition of black women musicians stepping the eff up. This isn’t the Erykah album I listen to 3rd most-often (guess: Worldwide Underground). Or fourth (Mama’s Gun). Yessiree. Janet coulda written Rhythm Nation yesterday. Or tomorrow. It will be. It will always be. And Nina will always rise up higher, belt louder, hit harder, rip faster. Like a vocal chord. Or the jugular.
Heard this go’round: June 3, 2020
“Livin’ in a world full of hate where grown ups break the rules.” Ain’t we all, sister. “Black,” Janet hits and bumps before “B.A.B.E” sends me all space walk and stoned grin. Spit it, spit it, some SAULT on the wound. “I’m a free man now,” “MILES” sez, but not for me. Not me. “I’m not your typical girl,” she wails. She wails. Interludes keep us from breaking: haunting ambience, crickets and radio hum, TV news and broken hearts. Change the channel, please. Something new, not the news, anything but... no no no no no more dreaming. “When you have real change…” then what? Nina told Langston she’d keep stepping up. “Who do you think…?” No no no no no. “There must be a reason why” this is how it’s “always been.”
Interlude: Race
Interlude: Hey Baby
Livin’ In A World (They Didn’t Make)
Black Cat
B.A.B.E.
Think About It
MILES
BETTY (for Boogie)
Wild Hundreds, Pt. 55
Alright
My People
Backlash Blues
We Are the Sun
GIOVANNI
Foot on Necks
a way to listen