Song: My People Artist: Erykah Badu Album: New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
hold on my people (chant) thru the thunder and lightning oh the weather gets rough now ooh ya got to hang on now girl when it gets real rough, rocky and windy hold on on and on and on now when they start throwin fire chant chant chant you down now oh you got to hold on and on ooh you got to hold on now oh you got to climb/ closer now who wants to survive, now awww you gotta hold on love is on the way love is on the way love is on the way dont let it go now oh even when your heart starts bleeding hand on the trigger, now ya’ll right now my brothers and sisters keep on moving keep on moving keep on moving on…
Glasper’s new opus is an admirable pastiche of original material and imaginative interpretations of tunes by David Bowie and Sade, a vocoder-laced version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and guest features from and impressive line up of soul stars (Lalah Hathaway, Erykah Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello), heavy spitters (Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco), and rookies (KING). Can’t wait till February? Here’s the track-by-track lowdown on this spectacular new album that should keep you till 2012:
Erykah Badu needs little introduction. Her seminal works like ‘Baduizm’ and the ‘New AmErykah’ series have successively upped the ante in terms of what can be done within the soul spectrum. Erykah fuses cosmic b-girl bravado with the forward-thinking sounds of producers like the Soulquarians, Madlib, and more recently, Academy grad Flying Lotus, to create a sonically varied body of work – selling millions of albums in the process. She also heads up her own record label, Control FreaQ, and has even been caught on the ones and twos recently, under her moniker DJ Lo Down Loretta Brown. Watch her tell the story to Eothen ‘Egon’ Alapatt at the Red Bull Music Academy 2011 in Madrid
