Black Music (album)
1998 studio album by Chocolate Genius
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Black Music is the first album by Chocolate Genius. It was released on V2 Records on July 14, 1998.
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| Black Music | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 14, 1998 | |||
| Genre | R&B | |||
| Label | V2 | |||
| Chocolate Genius chronology | ||||
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Track 5, "My Mom", is about a return visit to his childhood home and the mother he was losing to senility ("My mom, my sweet mom/She don't remember my name.").
Background and recording
Just prior to recording Black Music, Chocolate Genius had finished reading The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.[1] In an email interview with Cleveland Scene, Chocolate Genius explained the meaning of the album's title: "As long as my skin is this color, race will be an unavoidable and hindering label for people that are stuck in that archaic mindset. Of course, I take a special pride in the achievements of people that look like me, but I am foremost a citizen of the planet. Calling the first record Black Music was my way of challenging the people who have to file, sell, and categorize music by genre."[2]
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Pitchfork | 9.0/10[4] |
| Portland Press-Herald | B+[5] |
| Rolling Stone | [6] |
| Spin | 8/10[7] |
Spin called it "a relentlessly somber, wryly confessional avant-folk-funk rebuttal to popular notions of what constituted African-American pop."[8] Many other critics have also highlighted the album's morose and starkly autobiographical sound.[6]
Track listing
- Life
- Half A Man
- Don't Look Down
- Clinic
- My Mom
- Safe And Sound
- A Cheap Excuse
- Hangover Five
- Hangover Nine
- Stupid Again
- It's All Good
- Half A Man (Acoustic Version)
