Photo: Press
Alicia Keys is music. She’s way more than the pop princess that some have labelled her over the years. She’s a whirlwind of musical styles in tune with the arts whose soul steers the direction of her creative output. Drawing inspiration from many different sources, hip-hop is one in particular that has always stood out when listening to the multiple Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter.
Born in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, in 1981, just a year before Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released their landmark single ‘The Message’, Keys had a front row seat to witness the cultural explosion known to the world as hip-hop. Running the streets of New York as a child and then being lucky enough to be a teenager during the golden era, hip-hop was embedded in her DNA and helped mould her into not only the artist she became but also the woman and mother she is today. And while she has always incorporated hip-hop into her music - never more evident than on her breakthrough debut album Songs in A Minor - her last couple of outings have been more R&B and less hip-hop. Here, her latest album, changes this.
Returning to her hip-hop roots from the word go, on the album’s intro Keys explains she feels like history on the turntables and boldly claims she’s “the mystery of what’s inside the speaker cables”. Offering a beautiful slice of poetry that sounds like crack to a music fiend, over a delicate piano backdrop - something we never tire of when Keys is at the helm - she closes off by saying, “I’m the dramatic static before the song begins/ I’m the erratic energy that gets in your skin/ And if you don’t let me in/ I’m the shot in the air when the party ends.”
Immediately jumping into ‘The Gospel’ over the same piano arrangement just with an added triumphant-sounding snare, Keys takes listeners to church. Paying homage to the New York she knows and highlighting the problems experienced in the ghetto while using pop culture references to deliver her message, she explores a blend of singing and rapping. She spits: “Poverty is a pain, like you pulling a tooth/ Told the streets don’t let me go like I’m Bishop in Juice.” With a sense of pride about being from where she’s from it sets the scene for the rest of the album.
Laying her all out on record, honesty is another of the album’s key messages. Even the album title represents Keys being Here, a place where she’s willing to look at herself in the mirror and understand who she is and what she represents. Addressing family growth and the drama that surrounded her when she and now husband Swizz Beatz first got together involving Swizz’s ex-wife Mashonda, on ‘Blended Family’ she talks to Swizz’s son, Kasseem Dean Jr., about loving him regardless of not being his biological mother. The same song also hears a usually flashy and objectifying A$AP Rocky tone it down and address matters of the heart - it’s pretty refreshing.
The album’s lead single, ‘In Common’, steps away from the hip-hop influence for a moment but continues to ignite the soul inspiring people to step onto the dance floor, while ‘Hallelujah’ plays like an anthem of hope for those in need a bit of a lift from a more spiritual place - with a louder drum accompaniment and a bit of bass this could so easily be a huge festival singalong song for next year.
Gritty and aggressive with a stripped back raw feel to it, Here is as organic as they come. There’s no moment on the 18-track album where it feels forced. While sonically she deviates from the edgier path on a couple of occasions - ‘Kill Your Mama’, which follows a skit that hears pioneering civil rights activist, musician and former Black Panther chairwoman Elaine Brown recite a poem, and ‘Holy War’ - her passion remains strong.
‘Where Do We Begin Now’ and ‘Pawn It All’ stand out as two of the album’s finest moments but ‘She Don’t Really Care_1 Luv’ is by far the star of the show. Sampling popular 1973 drum loop ‘Fool Yourself’ by Little Feat - the same one used by A Tribe Called Quest on ‘Bonita Applebum’ - and merging into Nas’ ‘One Love’, which in itself samples The Heath Brothers’ ‘Smilin’ Billy Suite Pt. II’ and Parliament’s ‘Come in Out of the Rain’, it’s as New York as you’re going to get.
Alicia Keys has made a lot of songs that touch upon her love of New York, and while ‘Empire State of Mind’ is the biggest she actually had the underground on lock with her ‘Streets of New York’ remix well before she and Jay Z took the world by storm with the modern day ‘New York, New York’. Featuring Nas and the God MC, Rakim, it was the perfect combination of hip-hop and R&B. ‘She Don’t Really Care_1 Luv’ is the 2016 version of this. Even featuring Nas in skit format at the end of the song after it blends into his version of ‘One Love’, the song tells the story of a girl growing up in New York and how this coming of age could mirror that of any girl around the globe. Beautifully sung with mass helpings of soul vocally and sonically, this is how music is supposed to make you feel.
Unrefined soul that organically comes together to tell the true story of who she is while shining a spotlight on the city that raised her and the music that moulded her, Here is by far Alicia Keys’ best and most passionate work since her first two albums. It’s a semi-autobiographical offering about being black, beautiful and from the streets of New York from a humble individual who loves her family, loves her music and loves her life.
