Jill Scott
I absolutely adore the talents of Jill Scott she is one of my favourite poets and vocalists of all time, her passion for her art is so contagious. For my birthday last year I was given her book of poetry called The Moments, the Minutes, Hours and completely fell in love with it, although a lot of the poetry in the book is quite mature and I do prefer to listen to her self-written songs. The rawness of her poetry is what inspires me the most, she doesn’t sugar coat things, she writes it how it is but in the most clever way. She is also a phominoal vocalist with a unique soulful voice which brings her poetry to life.
A Long Walk- Jill Scott
The Lyrical phrasing in this song is genius it's a complete different type of love song, more intellectual and mental than physical, its biblical references and grouping of words such as Conversation, verbal elation, stimulation Share our situations, temptations, education, relaxations
Elevations’ have been so well thought out. I would definitely say that my experimental track “A Love Sublime” was inspired by this song lyrically after my ears were blessed listening to it for so many years. This was the first Jill Scott song I heard and instantly fell in love with.
Still Blue- SiR feat. Jill Scott
This is a song that features and is mostly written by Jill Scott. I literally cannot stop listening to this song at the moment as it is completely captivating and lyrically genius. My favourite lyrics from the song have to be “Jumped out a plane and we both landed right where we started“- this lyric really got my imagination reeling and expresses the reality of some situations.
“Take a dive, still alive, love it” This lyric can be interpreted in so many ways and thats why its one of my favorites, to me it's saying live your life as it is short and don’t be afraid of a challenge.
I love the vocal arrangement of ' Still Blue' and the way the vocals have been mixed only adding effects in certain parts of the track.
Erykah Badu
Erykah badu is my biggest Neo Soul inspiration along with D’Angelo who basically birthed her when she supported his show in 1994. She is so quirky and unique her style to lyrics to her vocals and stylistic choices that complement her timeless music and and that's what I love about her, she is completely iconic and will go down in history.Erykah Badu released her debut album in 1997, Baduizm, which sparked a shift in music and went multi-platinum. The album led her to the incredible accomplishment of winning two Grammy Awards, one for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and another for Best R&B Album and was definitely well deserved. Her next album was Mama’s Gun which came out in 2000 and I must say is my favourite album out of the two as I relate to it more.
Didn’t Cha Know- Erykah Badu
This song is a complete work of musical art, I cannot help but feel the groove whenever I hear it. The song features one of the best basslines ever written and the production elements are perfect. I love how the drums sit in pocket throughout the whole song and let the bass and percussion move around it. I love the repetitive lyrics and then the verses being so detailed.
Erykah's vocals definitely do the song justice, I love her stylistic choice of singing through her nose. Erykah is one of those artists who prove that you don’t need lots of vocal effects for the vox to sound good in fact she uses little to no effects at all.
... & on- Erykah Badu
…& on is a sequel to her most famous song On & On. I love the off beat piano chords and hip hop inspired electronic drum beat, and most of all the transition from electronic drums and elements to a real drum kit playing jazz swing which completely makes the song so timeless by combining two genres of music into one. Again the lyrics are completely quirky and personal to erykah herself which makes them so iconic as not many artists would get away with her mismatch lyrics these days.
On & on - Erykah Badu
On & On is probably my favourite Erykah Badu song to cover.
The groove and rhythm really sells the song for me. I love how the bass and drum pattern are so syncopated and using a double bass instead of an electric bass works so well for this particular song. I also love the simplicity of the song only having 2 chords and then having them change in the bridge section for 8 bars.
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Myself and my keys player decided to add the song to our sets as we felt it brought something a bit different to the table and as it is quite an upbeat and has rhythm in the vocals it works nicely with just piano and vocals.
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Although we both love the we feel now that we are getting quite bored of performing it because without other musicians the song is the same tthough-out, it literally goes On & On *inserts laughing face emoji* so we will be saving it for our function band set which I am really excited to do.