Black Music (album)
| Black Music | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 14, 1998 | |||
| Genre | R&B | |||
| Label | V2 | |||
| Chocolate Genius chronology | ||||
| ||||
Black Music is the first album by Chocolate Genius. It was released on V2 Records on July 14, 1998.
Track 5, "My Mom", is about a return visit to his childhood home and the mother he was losing to senility ("My mom, my sweet mom/She don't remember my name.").
Background and recording
[edit]Just prior to recording Black Music, Chocolate Genius had finished reading The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.[1] In an email interview with Cleveland Scene, Chocolate Genius explained the meaning of the album's title: "As long as my skin is this color, race will be an unavoidable and hindering label for people that are stuck in that archaic mindset. Of course, I take a special pride in the achievements of people that look like me, but I am foremost a citizen of the planet. Calling the first record Black Music was my way of challenging the people who have to file, sell, and categorize music by genre."[2]
Critical reception
[edit]| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Pitchfork | 9.0/10[4] |
| Portland Press-Herald | B+[5] |
| Rolling Stone | [6] |
| Spin | 8/10[7] |
Spin called it "a relentlessly somber, wryly confessional avant-folk-funk rebuttal to popular notions of what constituted African-American pop."[8] Many other critics have also highlighted the album's morose and starkly autobiographical sound.[6]
Track listing
[edit]- Life
- Half A Man
- Don't Look Down
- Clinic
- My Mom
- Safe And Sound
- A Cheap Excuse
- Hangover Five
- Hangover Nine
- Stupid Again
- It's All Good
- Half A Man (Acoustic Version)
References
[edit]- ^ Johnson, Martin (1 December 2010). "The Assorted Flavors of Chocolate Genius Inc". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
- ^ Saller, René Spencer (2002-05-16). "Minstrel Tension". Cleveland Scene. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
- ^ Raggett, Ned. "Black Music". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
- ^ Bang, Nathan. "Chocolate Genius: Black Music". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 2001-06-29. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ^ Plouffe, Matthew (1998-08-30). "Snoop's newest album dogged by earlier success". Portland Press-Herald.
- ^ a b Brackett, Nathan (2004). "Chocolate Genius". Rolling Stone. p. 163. ISBN 9780743201698. Retrieved 2014-05-25.
- ^ Green, Tony (July 1998). "Chocolate Genius: Black Music". Spin. pp. 126, 128. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ^ "The Greatest Bands You've (Probably) Never Heard". Spin. 27 July 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
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