10 Years of D’Angelo’s Voodoo: He Done Worked A Root
It’s been exactly 10 years since Voodoo, D’Angelo’s sophomore album, hit the top of the US Billboard 200 in the day of its release (25 January 2000). In some ways, Voodoo is the reason Soul Culture exists.
It opened a conversation. Voodoo’s often ambiguous lyrics – when they can be heard at
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One-to-Watch in 2010: ROX [Feature - SoulCulture]
Roxanne Tataei’s musical journey began in church, encouraged by the choirmaster (“He’d make me go at the forefront [to sing] every week and I’d be shaking… It was the best thing that he could have done”). Primary school performances soon led to tours around England with the National Youth Music Theatre,
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Paving The Way: Speech Debelle Interview [SoulCulture]
South London’s Speech Debelle snuck in the back door this year with alternative Hip Hop album Speech Therapy. This time last year, many of us had never heard of her. Then in September, having developing a media buzz surrounding the album’s June 1st release on Big Dada (British home to Hip
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Asher Roth: The Hangover [Interview - HipHopDX]
April 2009 was a poignant month for 24-year-old Asher Roth. His debut offering, Asleep In The Bread Aisle (Universal Motown), peaked at #5 in the charts boasting features from the likes of Busta Rhymes, Chester French, Cee-Lo, Beanie Sigel and more recently Keri Hilson. The Eminem comparisons were easy
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Coming Full Circle: Beverley Knight Interview [SoulCulture]
“I don’t know a single big successful black artist who hasn’t had the finger pointed at them from their own community at a given time in their career, to say ‘you’ve left us behind, you’ve sold out’ or whatever, who hasn’t then come full circle and suddenly is totally respected…”
With a
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Marsha Ambrosius: The Flow Goes On [Interview - HipHopDX]
Grammy-nominated repeatedly from 2003 to 2006, Floetry were a soulful R&B duo out of London comprised of poet Natalie Stewart and songstress Marsha Ambrosius. “Butterflies” – an Ambrosius-penned song from their debut album – caught the ear of Michael Jackson who immediately commissioned a version of the song for himself; a
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Independence Is An Advantage [Jesse Boykins III Interview - BlackSheepMag]
Late 2008 saw the release of an impeccably-produced R&B/soul album which could quite possibly be classed as the sexiest soul album unleashed in recent years – The Beauty Created. You may well not have heard of it, or the artist behind it – Jesse Boykins III – due to its very
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Innervisions: Raphael Saadiq Interview [BlackSheepMag]
Despite describing The Way I See It as “probably some of the best material I’ve ever toured with,” one gets the feeling Raphael Saadiq is still waiting for the peak in response to his latest album.
“Still, for me, the best promotion is going out playing your record,” he tells me. “You know
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A New Day For McKnight [Interview - BlackSheepMag]
With an evening show on “42 radio stations nationwide, all the way down the Eastern seaboard” (US), a role in the current American series of Celebrity Apprentice and a TV show launching in September along with a brand new album, Brian McKnight is on a mission to squeeze everything he can out of 2009.
On his
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Dready: Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop [Feature - Flavour Magazine]
In Flavour Magazine.. www.flavourmagazine.co.uk
Chilling in London for a few months after spending Christmas with his son, Flavour magazine caught up with versatile producer and former So Solid Crew affiliate JD aka Dready. Why is he racking up so many air miles in Richard Branson’s favour? What has he been up to
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Cosmic Conductor: AFTA-1 [Dazed & Confused]
“It seems like everybody who’s grass-rooting it is really doing some real shit,” says Manuel Moran, an emerging 21-year-old explorative beatmaker causing sonic ripples under the name AFTA-1. “It’s getting to the point where it’s not about who’s getting signed and who’s getting played on the radio, it’s ‘Who’s under the
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Joe: Who? [Interview - Blues & Soul]
Joe Thomas is throwing his last name out there in a conscious bid to join the ranks of first-and-last-name soul legends whom we lovingly refer to as Marvin, Stevie, Luther; because Gaye, Wonder, and Vandross helped to pave the way. The influence of Marvin Gaye is apparent in Joe’s ad-libs and he cites “I Want
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Make It Drizzle: Guru & Solar [Interview - HHNLive]
“This is a scenario when the champ comes back and knocks the other dude out, and then he’s the champ for all time and he comes back with a new team. Solar’s my new team – we’re the new team.”
Guru is known for his partnerships: most notably with DJ Premier to complete
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The “N-word”: Bhavna Malkani [Feature - HHNLive]
The elephant in the living room, otherwise known as the word “nigger”, became a high talking point when comedian Michael “Kramer” Richards let loose a spray of the N-word with a lynching reminder at black audience members of the Laugh Factory last November, when UK Big Brother contestant Emily Parr (white)
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The Rise Of The “Video Girl” In The UK [Feature - HHNLive]
There has been a phenomenal rise in demand for ‘video girls’ in the UK’s ” black music” industry, with the rise of Channel U encouraging more wannabe rappers to whip out their home recorder and knock up a video. Cue crop tops, batty riders and quivering un-toned flesh bulging through tight-fitting micro-dresses,
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Robin Thicke Interview [SoulCulture]
It’s the day before he performs at London’s prestigious Jazz Café, and Robin Thicke is cooped up in a plush hotel in West London doing press interviews on this sunny April afternoon. The charismatic singer relaxes on the sofa; a suave and polished contrast to his former grungy self (check out
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Life, Love & Musiq Soulchild [Interview - Blues & Soul]
Musiq Soulchild, born Talib Johnson, entered the airwaves as an accessible gateway between modern RnB and the more soulful end of the scale – much like fellow Philadelphia soul artist Dwele. The comprehensible simplicity of his lyrical phrasing is his trademark feature, and since the release of his debut album Aijuswanaseing
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WHAT’S HARDCORE? [K'Naan Interview - Blues & Soul]
“Don’t pre-judge, I don’t want anyone dismissing me as another thug. I’m poor, a refugee, been in prison and survived the war. I come from the most dangerous city in the universe – you’re likely to get shot at birth.” These are lyrics from The Dusty Foot Philosopher (BMG), the album of
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