Aloe Blacc: Shine Through

By Jamilah King, WireTap
Posted on November 21, 2006, Printed on November 21, 2008
http://www.wiretapmag.org/arts/42867/

"I don't just want to create albums," Aloe Blacc says, hunched over a microphone speaking to a Pitzer College sociology class in early November. "I want to create movements." Aloe Blacc is one of the artists who have somehow found a comfortable way to navigate the treacherous terrain of the modern day music industry. Digital distribution, he says, is perfectly fine and represents a growth in technology, an obvious progression of the music industry. "Artists have just got to adapt and become more creative."

A feat that isn't hard for someone as artistically diverse as himself. Aloe Blacc is more widely known on the independent hip hop circuit as the second half of the group Emanon. He, along with DJ Exile, released their first album "Imaginary Friends" while they were still sophomores in high school. Back in 1997, the two took 500 homemade cassette tapes to the annual Bboy Summit being held in Los Angeles and sold 400 tapes over the course of four days. After gaining a surprising amount of clout in the LA hip hop scene, and then making some waves on the international circuit, the two began amassing a catalogue of songs that over the next eight years would lead them from stages in Anaheim, Calif. to Australia. It was a long journey, which for Aloe meant intervals of studying business at University of Southern California and short stints in corporate America. Nearly eight years later in 2005 the two came together again to release the long anticipated LP "The Waiting Room." The album sat atop independent hip hop playlists for weeks.

Now, Aloe is back with his first solo album and a new sound that has surprised critics and friends alike. The main difference: he sings. Long known as an emcee with a "flow that's smooth like lotion" (Hence the name Aloe), the new album "Shine Through" (Stones Throw) doesn't have any rapping. Instead, Aloe sings on each track in a sound that's luring and soulful. Some critics have made comparisons to John Legend and Mos Def, the first for musical dexterity and the second for artistic creativity, which are both fair comparisons. But with production by some of the most hard hitting juggernaut producers on the indy circuit, including J. Rawls, Madlib and executive producer Peanut Butter Wolf, Aloe Blacc brings his own unique sound to the game.

Each track is as diverse as his upbringing. Born to Panamanian parents in Southern California and raised in a predominately white suburb, Aloe Blacc never quite felt at ease with either the white or Black communities around him. The album serves as a musical representation of this tension, a harmonious fight between genres and influences. The first track, "Whole World," is rhythmic, futuristic, and even eccentric beats of Peanut Butter Wolf with Aloe's sultry voice in the background paying homage to Jazz icons like Nina Simone and Miles Davis. The vocals throughout the album shift between English and Spanish, a carefully crafted balance of Latin funk and Jay Dee-style Detroit Lounge.

Yet Aloe is quick to point out that the album is much more than just its sixteen tracks. One of the movements that he's trying to build is one where graphic design and art are visual representations that add another element to the album, one that often gets lost in downloads. "I want listeners to experience the other elements of the music, to realize its scope is often something that the words and melody don't completely capture."

Jamilah King is the assistant editor of WireTap.

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