Erykah Badu, Cleo Sol, SAULT, Ben Frost & Swans. Unpopular Options? Probably.
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It’s been a minute since I’ve just talked about some stuff thats been on my mind in a general way, so here we are.
Erykah Badu and the trolls.
I get the feeling that Erykah Badu is gearing up to release some new music after a layoff of more than ten years, as always running alongside this the stories from within the male side of the hip-hop/r’n’b podcast bro community of her “witchyness” and bordering on occult “powers over men” have started to gather force again.
Due to her singular way of going about her business, her love life, (ex boyfriends André 3000 who she has children with, and rapper Common)her deeply eccentric image and personality, she’s an easy target for such talk.
IE : she’s different thus she’s a witch.
Or to reinterpret that : she’s doing things unapologetically the way she wants to so she’s culturally dangerous.
It’s hard to express how ridiculous this sort of 5th century attitude is, but it’s real and it’s a point of view constantly levelled at women, trans people, black people, queers or anyone else who dares to be successful in a unconventional way.
Her ascension in the mid-nineties and that flawless clutch of albums in the 00’s were also a showcase of cutting edge black musical talent.
She gave huge props to Thundercat providing him with one of his earliest and most high profile breaks as a session musician, Questlove is and was a regular collaborator and the great J-Dilla produced huge amounts of her most visible work.
These are just a few examples of the sort of exposure she’s given people by association, but still the “she’s a witch” stories refuse to stop drawing focus over these accomplishments.
Fortunately for us Badu seems to give not a shit, and regularly calls out the hip-hop podcast bros that wheel this rubbish out every time she decides to do anything.
Her popularity is in spite of it all and it is undeniable.
There’s a long history of deeply psychedelic female black soul singers.
Minnie Ripperton, Betty Davis, Ann Peebles to name a few, all of whom had huge struggles within the industry at large and their own musical community.
Any sort of success was thown major amounts of shade, any stories of their personal life were exaggerated, any political standpoint was misinterpreted and read as being ungodly, bordering on the satanic in Davis’s case.
Standing apart is bad for the cultural hegemony and must be punished it seems.
Comparing Badu’s career trajectory with her most direct generational counterpart Mary J. Blige is I think interesting.
They both came up at the same time, and hold a similar influence over modern soul/hip-hop/r’n’b but have obviously followed their own creative pathways.
Both have had some pretty high profile relationships with known rappers, but as far as slut-shaming goes Badu gets the worst of it by far.
Both are the same age and were in fact born only months apart from each other, but as far as age-shaming goes, again, Badu gets far more of it.
This disparity is seemingly for nothing more than Badu following her own vision, being eccentric, forcing culture forwards on her own terms and still getting what she wants…traits celebrated and actively encouraged in her male counterparts.
Personally I think we need supposedly “scary” people out there doing their stuff, and these differences need celebrating not vilifying.
Badu IS scary, she DOES hold a deep sexual power and she is certainly a genius, so she doesn’t need me to defend her, but I’m doing it anyway because the treatment she gets on occasion really boils my piss.
Judging by recent interviews her tastes are as unpredictable as they are inspired, citing bands such as Deerhoof as a favourite and very excitingly The Alchemist seems to be in her creative circle now, which can only lead to great things.
Here’s looking forward to whatever comes next.
Cleo Sol’s new record and my problem with SAULT.
There’s a certain type of very influential British reggae/soul/Hip-Hop/dance music crossover that I don’t like at all, and I never have liked it.
I know that I am firmly alone in this opinion, but I’m well used to this lonely position of mine.
It all started with Massive Attack for me and their seemingly instant crossover popularity that still firmly stands to this day.
Like everyone I loved, and still do love “Unfinished Sympathy” but as far as “Blue Lines” went, that was it for me.
I found the beats dull and the emceeing even worse, borderline embarrassing.
But people who I’d credited with way more taste and perspective love them and everything in their associated universe.
The more unsurprising fans are that crowd who seem to need a diluted representation of street culture in their record collection, what I have branded the “Camp Bestival” type, or even more judgementally on my behalf, liberal musical tourists who need to at least be seen to be listening to some kind of underground homegrown black music.
Folks naturally want that street sound in their lives; the breaks, the bass, the emceeing, but they quite certainly do not want the more difficult lyrical content and high BPM’s of say hardcore hip-hop, dancehall or techno.
This has created a scene, an industry, a huge revenue stream and a cache of leading artistic lights, none of whom I like.
I know this makes me sound like a gatekeeper, but in this case I just don’t care.
Somewhat unsurprisingly this whole thing and my belligerent attitude towards it has confused many of my friends.
You will then not be surprised that I did not get on board with that ghastly Mark Ronsining / Amy Winehousing of British soul music that completely took over during the 00’s.
After it all wound-up so, so badly for Winehouse the dialogue around fame and how its actually managed in real time rightfully became a major concern for the creative people within it.
The musical academies that helped propel her to that huge popularity reframed their wisdom, forging a newer approach by wisely encouraging a much more enigmatic image thus creating another much needed layer of protection for the often young, potentially vulnerable talent from the industry sharks and a frankly shameful national media, hungry for gossip at whatever cost.
SAULT and their myriad of award winning creative projects, tightly controlled social media philosophy and those essential crossover underground/overground possibilities, for me, completely embody this new approach to British “urban” music.
Full to bursting with wildly talented session musicians, industry savvy producers and a seemingly bottomless work rate, I really wanted to love them, but it became clear to me after spending some real time with their music that they are a group who have done basically a few really good songs but are on the whole wildly patchy as far as consistent quality goes.
As with Massive Attack, Tricky and Amy Winehouse, active critical dialogue around SAULT and their creative universe doesn’t seem to exist.
Some of their quite frankly outrageous excesses like the 11(!) albums since 2019, and a 4 hour long, wildly high concept debut gig, have mainly been greeted with hysterical praise from not only the underground but naturally from the broadsheets too.
I really do not resent their success but I do question if it’s actually based on anything of real quality or if its just at some level a shrewd marketing plan.
I’ll be super interested to see how it all plays out for them and I really hope that they eventually release some music that I actually like, they certainly have vision and talent to burn.
All this said I LOVE the new Cleo Sol album “Gold” that dropped about a month ago.
Sol is the mastermind behind much of what SAULT do and with this solo jawn she offers me some hope for their collective output in the future.
I wasn’t a fan of her first record, but this one really blew me away from the very first listen.
Wonderfully ambiguous, beautifully stripped back arrangements, the music here leaves the listener with genuine emotional space, a thing I think the SAULT project does not consistently do.
Ben Frost’s new record and what’s up with Swans these days.
I’m a big fan of Frost’s work, his amazing score for the tripped out horror, crime series “Dark” being my in, he’s now someone I actively follow, so when he joined the lineup for the current incarnation of the iconic, wildly uncompromising band Swans it was cause for celebration around here.
Alas even his influence can’t seem to rectify my issues with “The Beggar.”
Swans are a huge presence in my musical life and have been for over 20 years, their sound has evolved into something almost entirely hymnal over the course of their last three records, but for me this new joint just doesn’t, as yet, work and is even dare I say it…boring.
The edge and terror I so associate with them as a band has been replaced by more of a general air of slow motion smothering, but not in a good way.
Naturally Swans and Michael Gira do NOT care about my feelings which is why I love them so much, but thankfully fortune has smiled on me as far as brutality goes with Frost’s amazing new set “Scope Neglect.”
Composed and preformed alongside avant-metal guitarist Greg Kubacki, this is power-electronics at its most organic and spacious.
In fact its that space that I’m finding most satisfying on repeated listens, this is the sort of music that scares your pets and neighbours,
I really hope Micheal Gira is listening to “Scope Neglect” and thinking how much he misses making music that is the sonic equivalent to hand-to-hand combat.
We can but hope.
Thanks for reading.