NEW AMERYKAH, POLL 1 (4th World War)

the healer is a huge standout for me.

I love the hell out of "The Healer," but I have to admit preference for some of the album's denser, Sa-Ra-ian tracks.

love that dilla/sa-ra drunken 8th note thing

Every time this thread gets bumped, I start humming "The Healer". Sometimes I follow that with "The Cell", but I always default to "The Healer".

i think i voted for 'the cell' or 'soldier' here but it's one of those rare albums which makes such sense in its totality that picking individual peaks feels sort of wrong...what blows my mind is how stellar its components are, but the whole is somehow even more than just the sum of them.

I had a bit of a slow uptake, too, but at this point I can't identify an album released this decade that means as much to me. I just posted this in the other thread last night.

yall have no idea how much this record speaks to me... I might even say it feels like its ABOUT me

― mr. mayan end times guy (The Reverend), Thursday, November 13, 2008 2:53 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I feel like, amazing new developments aside, this record perfectly encaptures how it feels to be black in america in 2008

― mr. mayan end times guy (The Reverend), Thursday, November 13, 2008 2:55 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The album it reminds me most of is Curtis. While the makers of both records are quick to detail our social ills, neither sounds, for even a second, like they don't believe we can overcome them.

― mr. mayan end times guy (The Reverend), Thursday, November 13, 2008 3:35 AM Bookmark

Another thing is, despite all the social commentary, it's never didactic (not that there's anything wrong with that, I mean Public Enemy were didactic), the whole thing feels so personal at every level.

And there are so many easter eggs, lyrically and sonically! I always discover something new when I listen to it. It's a complex motherfucking work. Just about a week ago, I first noticed that "My People" ends with the words "Good morning. Did you have a Dream?" And I capitilize Dream intentionally, because whether she was referring to the American (Amerykahn?) Dream or, I think more likely, MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, she intends to load the word with more meaning than its M-W definition would indicate.

yeah absolutely - i get annoyed when people overuse adjectives like "meaningful" but it absolutely applies to new amerykah in the sense that every word, note, inflection, every last detail in the arrangement is there for a reason, and even the most minute element of it can spark off these chains of thought just like yours

Yeah, even things in the sequencing. It's no accident that "Me" is followed by "My People". She's already claimed her people as her in the former song. "I salute you [insert your name here] because you are me". It's also no mistake that she goes from grown folks acting all niggerish and not taking responsibility for their kids in "The Cell" to lamenting how those same kids "don't know their language...don't know their god" in "Twinkle" to the epiphany of "wait....what if there were no niggers, only master teachers?"

there's some amazingly subtle towards Dilla on the album, too, like how 'My People' is based on the Eddie Kendricks track 'People Hold On' that Dilla sampled on Donuts. There's snippets of Badu singing on Madlib's new Beat Konduktah tape too, which is a Dilla tribute.

subtle nods towards

The sirens at the beginning of "Telephone" cribbed straight from Donuts!

egggggsactly! god, i love this album. i highly reccommend the dil cosby suite album too; its really strangely moving.

dil cosby suite album?

sure. but so what? the main difference between the two, for me, being that SotT has at least ten GRATE songs on it; whereas, New Amerykah... has what esactly??? i mean, i keep waiting for the damn songs to sink in, but it just ain't happening. yet.

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― Ioannis, Thursday, November 13, 2008 5:47 AM Bookmark

I'm getting at this above, but a marked difference between Sign O the Times and New Amerykah is that the songs on SOtT are very discrete, whereas the songs on NA heavily rely upon each other for contextual clues and inferences, building upon each others' ideas. So, while both albums are very rich experiences, they operate in different ways.

Onomatopoeia of the police's shotguns: "BANG BANG" ["The Cell"]
Onomatopoeia of Erykah's shotguns: "BLLLLACK" ["Soldier"]

Little touches like ^^^ make this album.

dil cosby suite is the new madlib beat konduktah album, on stones throw...

I'll have to check that out, even though I'm not generally a huge fan of Madlib's solo work.

there's not a lot of erykah on there, just little glimpses and slivers, but she's there. makes sense, what with them working together, and both being friends of dilla's.

aaaarrrggg! see, this is exactly why i feel like i'm somehow being left out by not "getting" the damn thing; you all make it sound like it's the best album to come along since There's a Riot Going On (or Maxinequay maybe). still, truth be told, i'd much rather read what Rev has to say about New Amerykah than actually listen to it. (ok, preferably, i'd like to do both simultaneously...but whatever.)

Can I mention how much I love ?uestlove's drumming on "Telephone"? Between that and "75 Bars" and "Lay It Down", dude has done all my favorite drumming this year.

"I got love for my folks/ Baptized when the levy broke"

"MORE ACTION. MORE EXCITEMENT. MORE EVERYTHING."

^^^otm

"I got love for my folks/ Baptized when the levy broke"

and THEN the spooky backing vox come in

the sudden burst of emotion on "to my boys in iraqi fields/this ain't no time to kill", too

also the incredible amounts of righteousness and compassion in equal measure - "to my girls on prescription pills", you wait for the advice but it's just that tender "i know how you feel", but ultimately she's still got the shotgun on everyone's back

That whole bridge is incredible. It just keeps going and building higher through several points when it might end. Even though she repeats the mantra of "Get your money, dollar bill y'all", she warns to stay vigilant even once you've attained that Amerykan Promise, because this is Amerykah and it could all come crashing down at any moment, expecially with a little bit of help. And that shotgun on your back: not a threat; a promise. Btw, Erykah is quite good at the use of spooky background vox.

I'd never thought I might describe drum programming this way, but the unadorned, static beat somehow seems kind of......stoic.

here's a taste of "Real Thang" for all y'all Amerykahns:

i uploaded it upthread! http://www.sendspace.com/file/d94lbq

naughty

hmm, that's odd, Rev says he still hasn't heard it.

xp

yahhh, I think I just forgot to check it out earlier... this is alright I guess, seems kinda repetitive

Yeah, if this had been on the album, it would've been my last-placer. But it's still pretty good.

honey underrated

yeah, it's a total jam... ends the album on a real keepin' it positive note

No votes for honey???

This album is so fucking great, btw.

I adore Honey, but I think that for whatever reason it feels like a separate entity from the album as a whole. It really is a bonus track, in the truest sense of the word. So when I'm picking a favourite track, or thinking about New AmErykah at all, Honey just doesn't figure in.

re-poll. how did the first track not get a vote?

Alternate versions of "Master Teacher"

http://www.soulbounce.com/soul/2008/11/sara_bilal_georgia_anne_muldrow_breathe_new_life_into_badus_master_teacher.php

re-poll. how did the first track not get a vote?

'cause it's such a beatjack i'm guessing

who cares if it's a beatjack? the reason it didn't get any votes is because it fundementally functions as an intro

the part i love about that song the most is the dude in the background. makes me smile every time. the little girl at the end, too

I'm pretty sure that all those voices are Erykah's sped up or slowed down.

I wonder about that myself; I haven't heard the original Ayers track and had kind of assumed some of the voices had come from it, but maybe not.

Part 2 is apparently due Feb. 17--day before my birthday! 8-D

The backup voices ("Promise promise"..."Give you my eyes", etc) are on the original track, the rest is Badu being "THE MAN" and "THE LITTLE GIRL".

Matos:

Yeah, I figured I'd like Erykah's version better, and I do. Thanks, Rev!

thx for the info