This week, the Song of the Day features ACL Fest 2017 artists.
Jamila Woods made her first big splash on hip-hop’s mainstream with her lush, harmonious contribution to “Surf Candy,” a song by the Social Experiment, a self-described bohemian group of musicians that, at the time, included Chance the Rapper among its ranks. Born and raised on the southside of Chicago, Woods garnered an early love for a wide array of music, everything from jazz to the Cure. She found a fostered a newfound love for poetry after a passive decision to take a high school poetry class, marrying her two loves and using them as a way to, “check in with [her]self.”
“VRY BLK” is from Woods’s debut album released last year. As the title suggests, the song is a declaration of her pride and identity as a black individual and a damning of the brutality experienced by African-Americans in our country. Her poetic prowess nimbly braids the hard-truth and real-anxiety with a popular children’s poem, juxtaposed with her chorus which trades message for mantra. Fellow poet, artist, and Chicagoan Noname lends a verse on this track too, clenching the song’s powerful communiqué. All these lines laid on a bed of spokenwordesque rhythms and sexy, pregnant synth swells.
“VRY BLK” appears on HEAVN, out now Jagjaguwar.
Jamila Woods at ACL Fest 2017:
*Sunday, Oct 15 // Tito’s Vodka Stage // 1:30 p.m.
-Taylor Wallace// host, Thursdays 8P & Saturdays 2P; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli and SoundCheck Music News
