LET THAT BITCH BREATHE!
THREE/AMERICAN GANGSTER/JAY-Z
One of my favorite singles [and Prince songs] of all time is Adore. This is due mostly to the fact that it just so happens to be one of the first songs I heard booming throughout my house as a child that stopped me dead in my tracks and just made me listen. This mostly occurred on the weekends, post 8PM. The back of house? Darkness. Kids nestled in bed, pajamas with the footies. Front of the house? Alive. Constant. Grown folks enjoying the party life; drinks, smokes, and old soul records. Peering through a crack in the hallway door is me, wide eyed and in awe of all the things that I hear and see. The words and conversations shared over Marvin Gaye's Soon I'll Be Loving You. Ooh wee. This soulful, invigorating Party Life is, for me, a manifestation of the American Dream. Constant. Grown. Minute after minute, track after track I remain wide-eyed with open ears. Seeing this, hearing that.
"And if Al Sharpton is speakin for me, somebody get him the word and tell him I don't approve. Tell him I remove curses if he tell me our schools gon be perfect. When Jena Six don't exist tell him that's when I'll stop saying Bitch... BITCH!"
"I missed that part where it stopped being about Imus. What do my lyrics got to do this shit? Scarface the movie did more than Scarface the rapper to me. Still that ain't to blame for all this shit that's happened to me."
Damn. And the way in which these lines are delivered. Pauses. Breaks. Fast. Slow. Clear. Pointed. Grounded. Phrases [and phrasings]played with, chewed, and spat out in ways I thought was privy only to those we call singers. Yes, tonight I can sleep easily, for my heart, mind, and soul have been invigorated by the stories I just heard, the sounds and the beats underlying it all, and everything in between. Sweet.
KEY TRACKS: American Dreamin'/Ignorant Shit/Blue Magic
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