Gone are the yesteryears of R&B when no one sang with a machine and talent wasn’t reduced to Instagram likes and follows. Just listen to the radio - no one can seem to capture that classic R&B sound, while also making it fresh and current.
The sound was the soundtrack to our Saturday morning childhoods watching Soul Train.He sang the line like he meant what he was singing. He felt it, he believed what he was saying. It was coming from his heart. It was real. He had lived it. You could feel the urgent, vulnerability firm, and clear in his delivery, “I gave my heart to you, look what you’ve done.”
A simple phrase. The emotional call to take responsibility caused me to pause.
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I just wrapped the first season of my TV show. I fulfilled a lifelong dream and I pretty much did it on my own. I’m sitting with that. During the last three days of filming, there was this energy on set that I’m still trying to process. It wasn’t bad. As a matter of fact, it was positive, uplifting and affirming. All of the guests were essentially giving me the same message during or after their interviews at some point. I kept looking over at my camera guy giving him the, “Did you hear that?” look.
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I’m usually annoyed as fuck first thing in the morning. But when I woke up this morning, I was in a better mood than usual and I didn’t even notice it until I started cleaning out my toilet, after my morning business. Who cleans out the toilet after they use it? (Somebody with time).
Then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror when I walked past. The glimpse stopped me dead in my tracks. When I looked in the mirror, I smiled at myself. I took a good deep look into my own eyes and smiled. “I look good today.” I thought to myself.
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The pain you experience from people is weird, especially when you consider them friends and your reverence for them is in the highest of regards. Even when you don’t think about it, moved on from it, the effects of it still linger. It shows up in your interactions with other people. It haunts your thoughts. The pain keeps you from living sometimes. It debilitates you in moments when you least expect it to. There is a resolve for it though.
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When I watched Insecure last night, the episode was titled, “High-like” and what stood out the most to me is when Kelli was high off an edible at the Coachella party, while looking around she was pointing out all of the guys she was attracted to. Then she included a woman, her next line was something along the effect of, “What? Janelle Monae made it okay to be gay.” That perpetuation will eventually, maybe trickle down to some popular, DL, presumed heterosexual Black man and make it cool or okay to be gay…Bi. Which makes me think, here we are 14 years after I released my initial book and we’re still having the same conversation. Black and gay can’t even be in the same sentence, unless it’s fetishized between two women. Why are we still talking about any of this? I have grievances and questions.
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27 years ago when Lalah released her eponymous, highly acclaimed debut album in 1990, new-jack swing was at its height and the only artists that stuck to the contemporary soul sound were older established artists who were at least a decade plus into their careers. Stepping out of her Fathers famous shadow, Lalah successfully blended the elements of soul, jazz and gospel while placing herself at the forefront of contemporary soul among legends.
After a string of collaborations with everyone from Joe Sample to Robert Glasper, a slew of solid R&B hits, a Grammy sweep, reviving several R&B classics to modern covers, and her lauded Live album, we arrive at Lalah’s latest offering, Honestly.
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