I’ve always loved the rain. Always. I grew up in Seattle, so growing up in the rain, you spend a lot of time indoors. You can get into a lot of shit as a kid when you’re stuck inside for 300 days out of the year. You get stir crazy. That feeling doesn’t go away as an adult. About a year ago we went through a bit of a monsoon here in LA. I found myself getting into stuff that I never would have, if I had not been sidelined by rain. This time around, I took up sangria. I found myself shopping for supplies and concocting different recipes, not willing to stop until I had found the perfect one. This may sound like a strange activity, but ever since my lone Eurotrip to Spain, the flavor of a good sangria has eluded me. The trouble with making multiple batches of sangria is that they need to be consumed. Being the chef I volunteered myself, and being a man who likes to drink, my roommate Brooks also enlisted. We were on batch two when we received a series of cardboard animal heads for the wall.
We were pumped because we finally had an activity for the afternoon. Putting these things together. We decided to throw on HBO’s failed series How To Make It In America for background. Turns out it failed for good reason. To boil it down the best I can, it’s basically Entourage 2.0. The story is paper-thin, the characters are mostly unlikable, it’s shot in a recognizable city, and there are scenes of brief nudity throughout. You would think I would just turn it off. Not me. I kept watching for two reasons. One: the rumor that Lake Bell was in fact topless at one point. Two: the opening sequence. Rarely when watching a TV show do I not fast-forward through those pesky opening credits, but damnit, the opening to this show is perfection. It features one of the best theme songs since Good Times.
The theme song is by Aloe Blacc tilted I Need A Dollar. It’s on of those R&B/ Soul songs that you can’t help but start dancing to, even if you are a white guy from Seattle like me. You just start moving. The beat is infectious, the lyrics are catchy, and his voice is entrancing. He and Lake Bell are the reasons I watched every overly mediocre episode of that show, and that is why he is now the ARTIST OF THE WEEK. Let’s do this.
Aloe Blacc (born Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III) got his start making music in 1995. He joined up with DJ Exile and the duo 
formed Emanon, Exile on the beats while Blacc handled the hooks and MC duties. Emanon has some solid stuff. It really stays true to that late 90’s hip-hop vibe. Those were my favorite years for rap. Back when rappers were rappers. Method Man, Nas, Dr. Dre; these days it’s turned to shit. Now we’ve got Kanye all over the radio, talking about how he’s got “so many aunties, we could have an auntie team.” Fuck you dude. You can’t rap and you just got a girl pregnant who became famous for having Ray J stick it to her on camera. Emanon pieces together some great tracks. Their album Waiting Room is exceptionally catchy with songs like Pseudo and Four Square standing out. Up beat and fun. Blacc’s voice is silky smooth.
After five albums, Exile and Blacc parted ways in 2005-2006 after Blacc decided to focus more on strictly being a vocalist. He then signed to Stones Throw Records where he began dabbling in “various genres”, not focusing on any singular one. This comes across in his first record released titled Shine Through.
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To be completely honest, Shine Through is a messy audio collage. There is no clear idea of what the album is trying to be. Upon listening to it all the way through, I felt like I had thrown on the local college radio station for the 2-3am hour. No theme. No flow to the tracks. It’s more a mixtape than an album. It shows off what Blacc is capable of in his vocal abilities, but there is nothing cohesive. The record isn’t bad but it certainly isn’t good. It just…is. There are elements of hip-hop, R&B, funk, folk, soul, and “world music”. Sure the beats are all right, but I know I’ll never throw the album on in the car or anything. That’s not to say that it’s entirely without merit. There are some great songs, moments where Blacc makes you stop what you are doing and really listen. As I’ve said before, I am a sucker for moments like that.
Busking and Shine Through are low-fi, nearly a cappella tracks that I can’t get enough of. They highlight Aloe Blacc’s extraordinary vocal ability with minimal backing, leaving him alone to wow you. While this type of no-tech recording won’t give you the club banger that record execs seek. It gives you something honest that can create a stir in emotion that you don’t get out of most R&B these days. Busking is a track that when played, puts the listener at ease. It possesses a certain reality that listeners can’t find in modern R&B. It’s obvious that if the song had a funk back up that many of Blacc’s tracks do have, that it could be a fun yet soulful song, the producer “let it be”, which gives it a richness that many albums don’t have. It’s a song that glorifies the flaws. I can appreciate that. Hopefully you guys can too. I’m Beautiful and One Inna are great throw back R/B songs too. It reminds me of those D’Angelo tracks that were all over the radio in the mid 90’s, just a dude belting it out. Aloe Blacc can sing. This record is a testament to his vocal abilities. He is the real deal. But these good tracks are lost on the record. Many songs meander without a real chorus and feel entirely over produced.
Aloe Blacc’s next record didn’t come out for another four years. It was titled Good Things. This time it was an entirely different 
approach. There was no more “various genres”. He had constructed a straight up throwback soul record through and through. This is an “album” in every sense of the word. The songs string together. There is a central theme. He didn’t try to do too much. Blacc may have taken a page out of Raphael Saadiq’s playbook. Saadiq’s earlier work was a bit convoluted but then in 2008 he focused on the vintage Motown sound. The result was very pleasing to the ears.
We’ve already touched on Good Times’ opener I Need A Dollar, the catchy urban anthem that it is, but don’t think this is a one hit record. It’s chock full of catchy tunes like Hey Brother which features a 70’s style funk guitar with powerful bursts of horns and drums; the perfect backing for Aloe’s velvety voice. It’s definitely enough to get the squares dancing.
The track Loving You Is Killing Me is the baby making music for the modern era. We as a population have been missing it in these stressful times. It fills rooms with the music for which to make love you guys. Seriously. It reminds me of the days of Stax, when soul hit hard and felt like it meant something. It’s good to have back.
Not only is the sound vintage, check those dance moves, so many kicks.
It’s great hearing an artist hit stride the way Aloe Blacc has. When you hear an artist with potential you do nothing but hope for the best. Nothing is worse that watching talent wander, never capturing their moment. As I said before, I always loved the rain. It’s a rejuvenating force of nature both for the outside world and for me as a person. It forces me to slow down every now and again. It’s a gift. If not for being stuck inside on a rainy day, I may never have found Aloe Blacc. Hey rain. Thanks. I’ll leave you with this. I hope that I was not the only person who got something out of How To Make It In America other than a view of Lake Bell boob. Aloee Blacc. Got get it you handsome devil.
Big Hugs,
Kelly
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