Music
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 26: Michael Jackson's Off The Wall (1979)
Ain’t no way in the world this monthlong series would pass without a nod to one of the greatest albums ever that also happens to feature Michael Jackson at his Blackest. 1979’s Off The Wall is a certified classic. It’s the album that launched Thriller. But the cover let’s you know it’s about to be…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 25: Sonny Sharrock's Black Woman (1969)
The cover for jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock’s debut album, 1969’s Black Woman, could have easily doubled as a movie poster for the 1970s version of Queen & Slim. The photo taken by Ray Gibson (with design by Haig Adishian) features Sonny and his wife and frequent collaborator—until their divorce—Linda Sharrock lookin’ like Black love goals.…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 24: Leon Thomas' Full Circle (1973)
The cover for Leon Thomas’ 1973 album, Full Circle, does not look like what it sounds like, to me at least. The album cover looks like some “diamond in the back, sunroof top…” vibe jams. But Leon Thomas is both a jazz and blue vocalist and this album is rich with both. Thomas was also…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 23: Ohio Players' Honey (1975)
There is no discussion about Black album covers, iconic or otherwise, that doesn’t include the string of album covers the Ohio Players put together in the 1970s. I could have included any album cover from 1972’s Pain to 1981’s Everybody Up and it would be a worthy inclusion to the conversation. But 1975’s Honey is…
-
'Get Your Hand Out of My Pocket': Dr. Dre References Divorce Proceedings and Aneurysm in New Song
Dr. Dre is back in the studio—and it looks like he is intentionally using art to imitate life. According to Complex, DJ Silk recently previewed an unreleased song on Instagram Live by Dre featuring Long Beach rapper and former Slaughterhouse member KXNG Crooked. One particular set of lyrics appears to reference both his divorce proceedings…
-
Mic Drop: Let's Take a Genre Trip
Whether it’s personal growth, stories of the past, love or jealousy, music has a way of pulling us in. From pop-rock to hip-hop to soul and R&B, this week’s releases explore a variety of emotions, voices and unique points of view on multiple important topics. Lava La Rue, a British hip-hop/R&B artist takes us on…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 22: Max Roach's We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite (1960)
Max Roach was a famed jazz drummer and composer who has countless albums with various configurations of artists. His career spanned decades and if you are up on jazz at all, you know Max Roach even if you don’t know that you know Max Roach. One thing that stands out to me about him is…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 21: Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)
Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly (all parts of it) has been think-pieced to death, so that’s not what’s going to happen here. Plus, I probably already did that and am too lazy to look it up. And this series is about Black ass album covers anyway. To Pimp a Butterfly is one Black ass…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 20: Dee Dee Bridgewater's Afro Blue (1974)
I love the album cover for multi-hyphenate Dee Dee Bridgewater’s debut album, 1974’s Afro Blue. Dee Dee is a Grammy-award winning singer, actor, philanthropist, etc. She’s bad bad. Just like this album cover. It is art. I’d hang this album up in if I owned a physical copy of it. The photo, credited to Abe…
-
28 Days of Black Joy: The Imminent Return of D'Angelo
He’s not always there when you call, but Michael Eugene Archer—better known by his stage name D’Angelo—is sure as hell always on time. We first became acquaintances back in 1994 when he penned the anthemic “You Will Know” for the Jason’s Lyric soundtrack, but we truly established our unbreakable rapport with the 2000 release of…