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jamila woods celebrates black excellence on stunning new album ‘legacy! legacy!’

May 10, 2019
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Bow down to a queen. A goddess. An epic singer-songwriter, Jamila Woods and her brand new project, LEGACY! LEGACY! A spiritual awakening via musical sound, LEGACY! LEGACY! is a joyous celebration of Black Excellence and Black history that pays homage to the greats. Greats like Muddy Waters, Betty Davis, Eartha Kit, Jean-Michele Basquiat, Nikki Giovanni, and so many more. Each track offers a thank you to these figures for their artistry and their profound contributions to the African diaspora and our shared culture. “None of us are free/But some of us are brave.” It’s stunning.

“I thought of it not so much as writing songs about these people, but thinking of the songs as self-portraits,” Jamila tells Pitchfork. “I was looking through the lenses of these different people, their work, things they said.” Here, she shares that view.

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