Feel the Beat
Growing up I had been surrounded by music my whole life, from when I would be at my family home as a child we would have Bill Withers - Lovely Day as our answering machine song from there I had a love for the sounds of that generation, you could say I Love Music (The O'Jays).
William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me" (1972), "Lean on Me" (1972), "Lovely Day" (1977) and "Just the Two of Us" (1981). Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for six more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. Withers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. Two of his songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
After Enjoy some Bill Withers I had stumbled onto Curtis Mayfield (Superfly), only because of the references I had read in the manga written by Hirohiko Araki, who uses musical groups and artist using them as either characters, designs, and sometimes personality in his writing.
Mayfield started his musical career in a gospel choir. Moving to the North Side of Chicago, he met Jerry Butler in 1956 at the age of 14, and joined the vocal group The Impressions. As a songwriter, Mayfield became noted as one of the first musicians to bring more prevalent themes of social awareness into soul music. In 1965, he wrote "People Get Ready" for the Impressions, which was ranked at no. 24 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song received numerous other awards, and was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, as well as being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
Recently I had recently had the pleasure of attending Kendrick Lamar's live tour in Manchester, I have been following his music since his EP and Overly Dedicated, so I can say that I am a die hard fan of his work and seeing the evolution of his sound, each of his album tell a specific aspect he chooses to share with us, take To Pimp a Butterfly; an album that deals with materialism, racism, oppression, and above all else, self-love. The album's title To Pimp a Butterfly, while a clever nod to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, is also a metaphor for the literal pimping of something as beautiful/free as a butterfly. or DAAMN tells a different story, instead, it focuses on morality, faith, and the consequences of disobeying god., and finally Mr Morale and the Big Steppers; thematically, the album depicts Kendrick’s rocky road through trauma, breakthrough, and spiritual consolation, presented in a scrapbook format. The double album is split in half: Side A is Mr. Morale, and the last nine songs are Side B, The Big Steppers.
Last Last (Get it) is afrobeat my life blood, lets start of with my favourites Burna Boy, Mr. Twice as a tall has been making music at just ten years old when a fellow classmate at school gave him a copy of the production software FruityLoops. Afrobeats had been On the Low for awhile only before the 2010's, Burna Boy made it a duty to emphasise that 'Twice As Tall' is a continuation of the mission he started with 'African Giant' last year – putting on for African pride and raging against colonial structures but Burna Boy wasn't Alone, there have been multiple artist coming from Africa, Ye chile you know about the Kid of the Wiz, also know as WizKid, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, known professionally as Wizkid, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. A prominent figure in the modern day Afrobeats music scene, Wizkid is regarded as one of the biggest and most influential African artists of all time.
