Album Picks, Needle to the Groove

ALBUM

Isaiah Rashad

The House is Burning (TDE) Release date: July 30, 2021 Written by Taran Escobar-Ausman

It’s been five years since Isaiah “Zay” Rashad’s 2016 breakthrough, The Sun’s Tirade, a long wait for fans but an even longer journey for Zay as he navigated addiction, rehab, and his mental health. The realization of that journey comes to us with his aptly titled new project, The House is Burning. As Zay says, “You can either lay down with the flames or get out before it burns down.”

In true fashion, Zay comes back humble as ever, rhyming and singing in his inimitable sly, rhythmic-speech style. There is no hard flexing here, no looking for any sympathy or praise. His mom relates, “Even when he f**ks up, it so casual.” With The House is Burning, Zay looks to create his own brand of music, finding a space between hip-hop, neo-soul, crunk, and trap. No matter what style he flirts with, Zay is still a master at taking care of the technical details while sounding as if he happened to be passing by the studio to lay down a verse.

The single “Headshots (4r Da Locals),” with its throwback beat and infectious chorus, is a therapy session about the changes he has been through: “Peep me in the scope, if I’m gone, don’t trip, baby, / Bringin’ back the strong, up to bat, all hits, baby.” Zay integrates more soulful singing throughout, including most notably on “Claymore,” “Wat U Sed,” and “Score.” While Zay himself is worried die-hard fans won’t be down with the more R&B vocals, it doesn’t distract from the overall flow; instead, it frames his creative pivot and artistic growth.

The House is Burning is a reflective and intimate collage of Zay’s current state of mind and a record of a person taking control. On the title track, “THIB,” he takes full responsibility for his actions before it segues into the top-down, sun-in-your-face soul beat of the closing track, “HB2U,” where he accepts himself, faults and all. The track ends with him singing the beautiful refrain, “You are now a human being.”

Favorite Track: “True Story” Social media: isaiahrashad

PICKS

Curated by Needle to the Groove Instagram: needletothegrooverecords

Cleo Sol

Mother (Forever Living Originals) Release date: August 20, 2021 Written by Taran Escobar-Ausman

Out of West London, songstress Cleo Sol and long-time collaborator Inflo created a classic and timeless soul album, Mother. It is a sublime, peaceful album that plays through with an ebb and flow dancing with the iridescent rays of the late-afternoon sun. The sound harkens back to the sweet and soft glow of early ’70s R&B and singer-songwriter albums.

Since last year’s release, Rose in the Dark, Cleo became a mother herself, an experience that fundamentally changed her. While the aptly titled album is a meditation on her new role, she also reminisces about the frustrations and resentments of her own mother while looking inward on how we can all be better people to each other.

On the beautiful eight-minute opus, “One Day,” she seems to sing to herself over an upbeat groove. “I know you fell from your mother’s tree, but you / just started to live your life.” The song then pivots and slows to a measured synth bass, where Cleo speaks directly to her newborn. “My angel born in June, / The sunshine follows you, / Your love helped me push through.” And while you know she is singing to her own child, you can’t help but feel she is also singing to you.

There is a daydream-like quality to the sequencing and pacing of the album. Songs fade only to start once again as vamped reprises before crossfading into the next track or transitioning into new, unexpected directions. “We Need You” opens with a nod to Phil Upchurch’s guitar work for Curtis Mayfield before building into an uplifting chorus. “We need your voice, speak your truth, we need you.” While Mother is a deeply personal album for Cleo, it speaks to a universal yearning for self-love and acceptance in a seemingly connected, yet disjointed world. Cleo has definitely created something special and timeless.

Favorite Track: “One Day” CLEO-SOL.COM Instagram: gyallikeclee Twitter: cleosol

All the Brilliant Things (Mello Music Group) Release date: June 11, 2021 Written by Demone Carter

Gentrification is defined as the process whereby wealthier people, moving into a poor urban area, typically displace current inhabitants in the process. Gentrification is not only changing the skylines of America’s great cities, but cultural landscapes are being altered as well. Brooklyn-born-and-bred rapper Skyzoo speaks to this tension with his latest album, All the Brilliant Things.

Skyzoo, born Gregory Skyler Taylor, grew up one block away from rap legend Notorious B.I.G. Although he was too young to have rubbed elbows with the great Christopher Wallace, Skyzoo cites Biggie as one of his primary musical inspirations. The Brooklyn that birthed Skyzoo and a slew of other rap giants (like Mos Def and Jay-Z) is rapidly changing, with gritty streets being transformed into playgrounds for the affluent.

All the Brilliant Things is a love letter to the Brooklyn Skyzoo once knew. He laments about the changes that have taken place in recent years. On the song “Humble Brag,” he opines, “Word to all the condos coming to tell us vamonos.”

This is a masterfully executed concept album, from the production to the artwork. Skyzoo has a gift for painting nostalgic scenes that don’t feel overly sentimental. Skyzoo doesn’t pummel us with punchlines; instead, he slyly layers double— and sometimes triple—entendres to get his point across. This approach allows the album to move along at a digestible pace and not buckle under the weight of its own concept. This album is an exercise in well-crafted subtlety, guest vocalists, wry trumpets, and poignant vocal samples blended together to create a cohesive listening experience.

The album’s thematic crescendo is the track “Bed-Stuy is Burning,” where Skyzoo asks, “My neighborhood gave you life, but was you here when it died?” The chorus implores other cities, “Don’t let this happen to you.”

Dealing with such a heavy topic leaves room for pedantic preachy tropes, but Skyzoo gracefully sidesteps these pitfalls, and that is part of the reason why All the Brilliant Things is a strong album-of-the-year contender.

Favorite Track: “Bed-Stuy is Burning” SKYZOOTHEWRITER.COM Instagram: skyzoothewriter Twitter: skyzoo

King’s Disease II (Mass Appeal Records) Release date: August 6, 2021 Written by David Ma

When Nas announced he was making a sequel to King’s Disease, it seemed like another unnecessary blunder in the long, divisive career of Nasir Jones. Teenage Nas was prodigious; his debut, Illmatic, cast a long shadow over hip-hop and continues to do so. It has remarkable depth, bound with poignant stray observations that give way to angst, worldviews, politics, and race—all of it couched in era-defining beats. A masterwork out of the gate, it was a high watermark Nas would spend the rest of his career chasing. On King’s Disease II, we find him reinvigorated, flexing in ways we’d only heard glimmers of in recent times, notably (and semi-recently) “The Black Bond” from Life is Good, for example.

Even the schismatic release Nasir from a few years back, an EP entirely produced by Kanye West, had memorable moments like “Adam and Eve,” a song about responsibility and shifting life stages. It is these same themes that we find on King’s Disease II, an intersection of newfound vigor and self-analysis, coupled with age and the wisdom it brings. Once a young firebrand, Nas is now at the Sinatra stage of his career, sage-like and revered, toasting himself while dissecting his unthinkable life stage. On “Rare Form” he claims: “Empty glass of Pinot. Cigars and casinos. / What they especially praise is the ethos.”

The production here is by Hit-boy, who also produced the first King’s Disease, a predecessor of missteps that somehow won a Grammy—to the chagrin of the current rap coterie. Hit-boy and Nas are in lockstep here, the songs are well-conceived, the sample palette fits, and the beat changeups welcomed. Ear-catching moments are dotted throughout, like “Nobody” with Lauryn Hill. Not only is this the two’s first pairing since 1996’s “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That),” but Hill’s voice is ever intact—smoky, smooth, emotive. “If I’m a messenger, you block me then you block the message. / So aggressive. The world you made is what you’re left with. / Pride and ego over love and truth is fucking reckless,” she says.

Despite an insufferable Eminem feature that nearly unravels the whole thing, King’s Disease II stands as a sterling showpiece in the long catalogue of Nasir Jones. To do some of your best work thirty years into any career is no small feat.

Favorite Track: “Store Run” NASIRJONES.COM Instagram: nas