In recent years D'Angelo's Black Messiah and Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, albums that undeniably pull from the rich past of black music, genres like funk, soul and jazz, but at the same time feel fresh and contain socio-political commentary ("The Charade", "Alright"), have been released to wide mainstream and critical success. Each album performed extremely well on the charts, with D'Angelo and Kendrick Lamar reaching number five and number one on the billboard charts respectively. If these albums are continuing any relatively recent musical lineage, it is that of the Soulquarians, an eclectic collective of instrumentalists, singers and rappers of which D'Angelo himself was apart of. The Soulquarians, which consisted of Erykah Badu, Bilal, Common, D'Angelo, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Pino Palladino, James Poyser, Roy Hargrove, Q-Tip, Questlove, J Dilla and Raphael Saadiq, created a number of beautiful albums during the late 90s and early 2000s, that were full of soul (be it the expression or the actual genre), jazzy, funky and at times contained socio-political - pro-black - commentary (e.g: Common - Like Water For Chocolate). 2014 gave us Black Messiah, 2015 To Pimp A Butterfly and 2016's gift is Solange's A Seat at the Table, the latest, Soulquarian-descendent to take the charts by storm.
Solange's last full length, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams was released in 2008, with the singer's only release since then being a 28 minute EP in 2012 (True). Whatever your opinion on those releases may be, one thing is certain, those projects were much more pop and upbeat and not political at all compared to A Seat at the Table. Of course, there is a reason for this - one's art often reflects one's reality. A lot of things have happened in the United States that have undoubtably influenced Solange in the creation of this album: Alton Sterling, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Walter Scott - unfortunately the list can go on. Despite the fact that #BlackLivesMatter, Black America has continued to see state-funded killings with nothing even resembling justice following them. Solange has taken the pain, joy, frustration and pride that comes with being a black woman in the United States and has made a great album, one that she describes as "a project on identity, empowerment, independence, grief and healing".
On A Seat at the Table Solange is joined by a number of talented collaborators, most notably Raphael Saadiq, with the Soul/R&B veteran having a co-producer role on the majority of the tracks. The result of the marriage of Saadiq and Solange's talents is a cohesive album that is full of tracks that contain elements found in both Neo-Soul and more contemporary R&B. In addition to the musical consistency brought by the albums producers, it is also tied together by interludes, with Solange enlisting her parents and Master P to tell stories or share wisdom that fit perfectly with the theme of the album. These interludes are generally used to introduce themes - musical and topical - of an upcoming track or to supplement an idea that was just addressed in the track before. An example of this being the transition between "Dad Was Mad" and "Mad", which features a surprisingly good verse by Lil Wayne. Over the piano lines which eventually form the musical base of "Mad", in "Dad Was Mad", Solange's dad describes the anger and danger he grew up in as one of the first black kids to go to an integrated school where he grew up ("I was just lost in this vacuum between integration and segregation and, and racism...I was angry for years"). "Mad" is Solange's musical manifestation of the famous James Baldwin quote: "To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time". As a result of this, although some may not understand it ("Why you always blaming? Why can't you just face it"), Solange has a lot of things to be mad about.
Even with how strong the instrumental backing is, the aspect that, more than anything, may draw many listeners back to this record time and time again is how well written it is. All written by Solange, the lyrics are thoughtful, carefully worded observations, criticisms and commentary on things like America's interaction with black culture ("You want to be the teacher/Don't want to go to school/Don't want to do the dishes/Just want to eat the food") and racial profiling ("When a nigga tryna board the plane/And they ask you, "What's your name again?"/Cause they thinking, "Yeah, you're all the same."). As a result of the irritation that comes from these and other experiences that come with being black in America, part of the "healing" aspect of the album is expressed through tracks that have a distinct sense of escapism. This escapist theme is most notable on "Cranes In The Sky" and "Borderline (An Ode To Self Care)", two of the albums stand out songs. On "Cranes In The Sky" - arguably her best vocal performance - Solange sings over a gorgeous string arrangement about various things she has turned to in an effort to avoid stress and pain, which include alcohol, sex and travel. On the other side of the album, "Borderline (An Ode To Self Care)", produced by Q-Tip, is "Cranes"'s jazzy, upbeat cousin. "It's war outside these walls" Solange sings, after making a suggestion to "take it off tonight" - a reference to the fact that, with all of this black death, injustice and racism in the media, as a black person, sometimes it's healthy - and necessary, to just take a break from it all to keep your sanity.
Black pride and identity are just as important as healing on A Seat at the Table, with two tracks in particular, "F.U.B.U" and "Don't Touch My Hair" addressing these issues in spectacular fashion. On "Don't Touch My Hair", she tackles a micro-aggression that most black people, especially black women, can directly relate to. The song starts sparsely, with just keys, slowly adding on drums and other elements before reaching the catchy, defiant, horn filled chorus ("What you say to me?"). Throughout the track, Solange depicts her hair as her "feelings", "crown" and "soul" - in other words, it's not something that exists for public consumption. Another thing that is not necessarily made for the entire public is A Seat at the Table in general. Despite the fact that people from all kinds of backgrounds will be able to enjoy this album and should definitely pick it up, this is an album that Solange made for Black America in particular, a sentiment she clearly expresses in "F.U.B.U."("All my niggas in the whole wide world/Made this song to make it all y'all's turn/For us, this shit is for us"). Over a gorgeous combination of keys, piano and horns, Solange creates a pro-black anthem, singing verses that convey pride and irritation from racism:
"When it's going on a thousand years/And you pulling up to your crib/And they ask you where you live again/But you running out of damns to give, oh/I hope my son will bang this song so loud/That he almost makes his walls fall down/Cause his momma wants to make him proud/Oh, to be us"
Named after the black owned clothing line which stands for "For Us, By Us", "F.U.B.U.", like A Seat at the Table in general, is a song that has the potential to be remembered as another high-quality addition to the slew of socio-political tracks that have come out in black music of recent years.
A Seat at the Table is an extremely well done piece of work, however, that is not to say that it is perfect. Despite its quality (and the fact that comparison may be almost unfair), it doesn't consistently reach the high bar set by it's predecessors (e.g: Erykah Badu - Mama's Gun). The album does have its lows, particularly "Don't Wish Me Well", one of the few non-Saadiq co-produced tunes, notably lacks the soul and groove he brings to the table, making it feel bland compared to the rest of the album. That said, between fun, funky tunes like "Junie" and subtle, beautiful tracks like "Weary", it's hard to focus on the missteps that are present here. Even though Solange does have her limits vocally, her soft, pretty voice is well suited to the often low-key aesthetic of the record and the quality of the lyrics and production does more than enough to make up for the lack of show-stopping vocal highs. With A Seat at the Table Solange has created a great album that speaks to the past, present and future of her people - it also happens to be her finest work to date.
