7.The Social Consciousness and Artistic Integrity of The Roots
The hip-hop collective Native Tongues reunited in 1996 to produce the Jungle Brothers single How Ya Want It We Got It (Native Tongues Remix). The album that includes this single also features the track “Brain”, written by the hip-hop band the Roots.
The Roots came to prominence in the mid-1990s as a rare flower on the hip-hop scene: a live band. It brought together elements of jazz and hip-hop with a high level of musicianship, and gained a legendary reputation as a jam band. Later on, it would also incorporate more “traditional" elements of hip-hop like sampling and scratching. In terms of lyrics, the band is about socially conscious themes (also known as “conscious rap") and the idea that accumulating knowledge was the way to transcend the problems plaguing Black America.
The Roots’ mainstream breakthrough was its fourth studio album Things Fall Apart, released in 1999. The album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios concurrently with D’Angelo’s Voodoo and Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun. Compared to the jam session feel of the band’s work up until that point, this album took a tighter approach, helping the Roots reach a wider audience and turning its style of music into a movement.
Things Fall Apart (1999)
The Roots’ fourth studio album was its mainstream breakthrough.
This album took jazz rap in a more psychedelic direction, allowing the band to tap into its full potential and pave the way for neo soul artists like D’Angelo.
The Roots are currently the house band for the late-night NBC talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Whether that’s a promotion or a demotion is debatable, but there’s no denying the significance of a singular band like the Roots being broadcast into homes across the U.S. on a nightly basis.
8.D’Angelo, the Savior of Soul
D’Angelo was born the son of a Pentecostal minister in Richmond, Virginia, and sang in a church choir from a young age. He taught himself how to play the piano, bass, guitar, and the drums. His musical roots are in the gospel sound and spirituality of the black churches in the South; he combines that with the sensuality of soul music, the groove of funk, the spontaneity of jazz, and the vibe of hip-hop. And thus neo-soul was born.
His second studio album Voodoo, released in 2000, is considered one of the timeless classics of contemporary R&B.
Voodoo (2000)
D’Angelo's second album is considered his magnum opus. Seeing that contemporary R&B was skewing further and further away from the roots of black popular music, he based his sound in the classic R&B of the 60's and 70's, and went back even further, incorporating the kind of spirituality found in African culture and voodoo(*12).
Voodoo is the product of four years of studio jam sessions with first-rate jazz and R&B studio musicians at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios. D’Angelo enlisted Roots drummer Questlove to be his “co-pilot”, and the pair watched bootlegged videotapes of classic R&B artists like Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone, and George Clinton. Especially strong is the influence of Prince, whom D'Angelo has said is his idol. His sweet, sensual voice would inspire a generation of modern R&B artists to make heavy use of falsetto.
The song "Untitled (How Does it Feel)" became notorious for its sexually charged video, which consisted of nothing but close-ups of D’Angelo's face and naked upper body. As many hip-hop and rock music videos at the time depicted male teenage fantasies, hypermasculinity, and bikini-clad women, a video more suited for the female gaze was groundbreaking, as was the gentle, tender treatment of the black man’s body. Unfortunately, the video drew more attention to D’Angelo's body than to the music itself. At concerts, female fans would try to grab his legs and crotch, and yell out for him to take off his shirt. A shy person by nature, he was deeply uncomfortable with being labeled as a sex symbol, and he would subsequently take a long hiatus from the music industry.
D’Angelo fell into alcoholism and drug use, and was arrested in 2005 for the possession of cocaine. He began touring again in 2010, and released Black Messiah, his first album in 14 years, in 2014. The album features more of D’Angelo’s guitar work and is characterized by a heavy, funky atmosphere reminiscent of Sly & The Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On. He originally planned to release the album in 2015, but moved the date up following the shooting of Michael Brown and the death of Eric Garner.
Black Messiah (2014)
D’Angelo’s third studio album and his first release in 14 years was a much-heralded event.
9.The First Lady of Neo Soul, Erykah Badu
Texas-born Erica Wright aspired to become a rap MC and started using the name Erykah Badu as a teenager. She has said in interviews that she changed the spelling of her first name because she believed her original name was a “slave name;" “Badu" is her favorite jazz scat sound.
Badu was signed to a record company in 1994 after a record executive saw her opening for a concert D'Angelo held in Fort Worth, Texas. Her 1997 debut, Baduizm, won a Grammy for Best R&B Album, and helped established the neo soul genre along with D'Angelo’s Brown Sugar. She became known for her spiritual lyrics, urban sensibility, and bold fashion sense—including her signature headwraps. In an interview with CNN, she explained the album title: "‘Izm’ in hip-hop culture is marijuana, and izm gets you high. So ‘Baduizm’ is supposed to be a natural high -- my way of lifting everybody."
Baduizm (1997)
Erykah Badu’s debut album.
Badu had a son with Outkast’s Andre 3000 in 1998, but by the time she had started working on her sophomore album, the couple’s relationship had already broken down. Mama's Gun captures the vague anxiety that hung over American society and the black community around the turn of the century. It was recorded at Electric Lady Studios at about the same time as the Roots' Things Fall Apart and D'Angelo's Voodoo. As many of the same musicians played on these three albums, they share a distinctive sound and vibe.
Mama’s Gun (2000)
Erykah Badu’s second studio album.
The single “Bag Lady" became Badu’s first top ten hit on the Billboard charts, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. The song begins as follows:
Bag lady you gone hurt your back
Draggin all them bags like that
I guess nobody ever told you
All you must hold onto, is you, is you, is you
Bag lady is a slang expression for a homeless woman who carries around all of her possessions in plastic shopping bags. In the U.S., the percentage of homelessness among minorities is significantly higher than the percentage among the total population. But Badu is singing not only about homeless people, but also about the excess baggage that women feel like they have to carry because of social pressures. It could also be interpreted as a song about materialism—about being overly attached to things. It seems Baduizm shares some commonalities with Buddhism.
10.The Avant-Garde R&B of Frank Ocean
Ocean was born in California and relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana with his family when he was five years old. He frequented jazz bars from a young age and became inspired to pursue a career in music. In 2006, he dropped out of college, moved to L.A., and began his career as a songwriter. He wrote songs for a number of pop and R&B artists before he was signed to Def Jam Recordings in 2009. However, he grew frustrated with his label for not giving him freedom in developing his first album, and decided to self-release a mixtape, which received critical acclaim.
In 2011, Ocean contributed to Beyonce’s album 4, and Watch the Throne, the collaboration album between Kanye West and Jay-Z. In 2012, he released his debut album Channel Orange from Def Jam Recordings. The album received rave reviews for its avant-garde R&B sound—a distinct blend of hip-hop, rap, soul, R&B, psychedelic music, and funk. It reached #2 on the Billboard charts and was nominated for six Grammys, winning Ocean Best Urban Contemporary Album. In the U.K., the album was released digitally a week ahead of its physical release, and it reached #2 on the charts based on digital sales alone.
Channel Orange (2012)
Frank Ocean’s debut album.
A few days before releasing Channel Orange, Ocean posted an open letter to his Tumblr that recounted his unrequited feelings for a man—his first love—when he was 19. Several months later, in an interview with GQ, he revealed, “The night I posted it, I cried like a fucking baby.” Coming out as bisexual was a big deal in the hip-hop world, especially at a time when hypermasculine behavior was still rampant among black male artists, and homophobia pervaded black communities. Despite the album’s positive reception, Ocean would become disillusioned with the rise to fame, the L.A.-based music industry, and his relationship with his label. He deleted his Twitter account and withdrew from public life for several years.
In August 2016, Ocean released a video album exclusively on Apple Music, which fulfilled his contractual obligations to Def Jam. Less than 48 hours later, he released another studio album, Blonde, on his own label, Boys Don’t Cry–completely overshadowing the video album and excluding his former label from profits. The album features a laid-back, atmospheric vibe, introspective lyrics, and an experimental sound. Critics compared it to Brian Wilson’s work with the Beach Boys. As for his record label drama, one can’t help but draw a connection to The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.
Blonde (2016)
Frank Ocean’s second studio album.
Following the release of Blonde, instead of making the promotional rounds or embarking on a tour, he traveled around the world for about a month. He decided against submitting the album for Grammy consideration. In an interview with the New York Times, he explained his decision: “That institution certainly has nostalgic importance,” he said. “It just doesn’t seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down.”
11.Janelle Monae and Her Android Alter Ego
The artist who has carried the mantle of psychedelic music and neo soul in the 2010s is singer-songwriter Janelle Monae. Monae was born in Kansas, and grew up singing in her local church choir. She attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy as the only black woman in her class. However, fearing that she could lose her sound and edge, she dropped out and moved south to Atlanta, Georgia. There, she enrolled in a local college and started writing songs and performing around campus. She released a demo album and some other music, and caught the attention of Big Boi from Outkast. After appearing on a few songs on Outkast’s sixth and final album, Idlewild, he was signed to Sean Combs'record label, Bad Boy Records.
In 2010, Monae released her debut studio album, The ArchAndroid, a concept album inspired by Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis. It introduced her alter ego Cindy Mayweather—a messianic android from the future. The elements of afrofuturism and sci-fi evoke the work of P-Funk and David Bowie. The blend of psychedelic soul, alternative R&B, and funk was a critical success, and she received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album.
The ArchAndroid (2010)
Janelle Monae’s debut album.
In 2013, she released her second studio album, Electric Lady, which featured guests such as Prince and Erykah Badu. Her collaboration with Badu, “Q.U.E.E.N.” is a song expressing Monae’s views on a variety of topics, including women’s empowerment, LGBTQ+, immigrants, and minorities. In the music video, she appears in a variety of costumes that blur gender lines, including a classic tuxedo.
Electric Lady (2013)
Janelle Monae’s second studio album.
Monae continued to collaborate with Prince until his death in 2016. Her 2018 album, Dirty Computer, is heavily influenced by the Purple One, especially the single cut "Make Me Feel." Prince was known to have been a mentor to many musicians, and in that sense Monae was arguably his last protégé (Prince also produced such artists as Vanity 6 and Sheila E, and also wrote songs for many other artists).
Dirty Computer (2018)
Janelle Monae’s third studio album.
12.Epilogue
As we’ve seen over the course of this series so far, the psychedelic music that developed out of the (predominantely white) hippie movement in the late 60s has had a significant influence on black musicians. While Jimi Hendrix was not embraced by the black community in his time, his music has been sampled by many black hip-hop artists over the past thirty years or so, and the recording studio he created has been the birthplace for a number of classics of contemporary R&B.
In the late 60s and early 70s, psychedelic music was about freeing minds and expanding our consciousness. It was meant to bring people together and make society a better place. Alternative hip-hop in the 90s was self-affirming and carried the message that knowledge is power—the one tool that could help disenfranchised people rise above the obstacles society had placed in front of them. In the 2000s, neo soul injected people’s lives with a much-needed dose of sensuality and spirituality. And in the 2010s, artists have become much more open about their mental health issues and sexual identity.
Over the years, psychedelic music has shifted its gaze inward, from the world around us to the world inside of us, from outer space to our inner soul. It’s interesting to see how lyrics have become more introspective.
That being said, the psychedelic music of each decade has consistently been part of a counterculture movement in opposition to the mainstream (often translated into Japanese as 売れ線). And its purveyors have always been outsiders in one way or another. Likewise, black music in general has long been considered an “alternative” genre of music, and black musicians have been seen as outsiders in a mainstream music landscape dominated by whites. And even now, in an age when contemporary R&B has become part of the mainstream, the artists I’ve introduced in this article were seen as alternative, either in style, aesthetic, or place of origin.
The major caveat is that all of this only holds true from the standpoint of the mainstream. After all, the American South is where the blues and jazz were birthed; the outsiders are actually the real thing, and it is the mainstream who are the imposters. History tells us that at the root of all American popular music is black music—spirituals and work songs, or the music that was developed by black musicians being made to perform for their white masters. In many ways 90s hip-hop reminded us that the white mainstream was slyly attempting to rewrite history. And it was neo soul that sought to rekindle the spark of life inside of increasingly hollow popular music.
Interestingly, one commonality between many of the artists in this article is their affinity for otaku subculture. The cover art of Outkast’s ATLiens was done in a comic book style. Kanye West had the contemporary artist Murakami Takashi design the cover of his seminal album Graduation. D’Angelo is an introvert and a massive fan of video games. Frank Ocean and Janelle Monae have plenty of otaku cred. These last two in particular are able be open and vulnerable, and sing unabashedly about topics like mental health and sexual identity, partly because they are part of the digital native generation, but also because their musical forebears freed the minds of the black community.
With the new coronavirus pandemic forcing us to retreat into our homes, the topic of mental health has become more relevant than ever. The alternative hip-hop and neo soul artists I’ve talked about in this article provide just the medicine we need in these trying times.
