Music

free download: jamila woods’ debut solo album ‘heavn’ celebrates black girl magic #soundcheck

July 15, 2016

It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from Jamila Woods, singer for the alt-soul duo Milo & Otis. But clearly the past 2 years have been a time of creative flourishing. On her debut solo album, the poet, singer, and activist crafts an album-length ode to the concept of Black Girl Magic. There’s a mixtape logic to the album, with tracks weaving clips of Jamila Woods talking about loving her blackness in between riffs and allusions, and most poignantly a group of children reciting Assata Shakur’s famous mantra. Intimate, passionate, and powerful, Jamila Woods establishes her voice as a solo artist about as strongly as its possible to on HEAVN.

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK contributor

Both Assata Shakur and Erykah Badu loom large on an album Jamila Woods has explicitly dedicated to radical self-care, explaining:

“HEAVN is about black girlhood, about Chicago, about the people we miss who have gone on to prepare a place for us somewhere else, about the city/world we aspire to live in. I hope this album encourages listeners to love themselves and love each other. For black and brown people, caring for ourselves and each other is not a neutral act. It is a necessary and radical part of the struggle to create a more just society. Our healing and survival are essential to the fight.”

Standout tracks “VRY BLK,” which riffs on schoolyard games, and the haunting “Blk Girl Soldier” both search for hope and meaning in the face of pain and oppression. Name checking revolutionaries and activists over the end, “Blk Girl Soldier” especially is a celebration of refusing to give up. “she’s telepathic / call it Black Girl Magic / yeah she scares the government / deja vu of Tubman.” The features are well chosen and add a new voice to the mix without ever stealing the show. Both Chance The Rapper and Donnie Trumpet’s appearances work as odes to Chicago, who along with producers Nate Fox and Peter Cottontale mark the project as a step-sibling to The Social Experiment. While “Holy” declares Jamila Woods’ intent to love herself and not wait for someone else to justify her existence, the album closes with the cathartic “Way Up,” where she floats over all the bullshit of this world singing “just cause I’m born here / don’t mean I’m from here.”

Jamila Woods is currently offering HEAVN as a free download: www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/8pk4dt

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