Jamila Woods - Legacy! Legacy!

Pitchfork 85

The Chicago artist marries political commentary with deep introspection, resulting in a richly composed R&B album about the echoes of the past and the promise of the future.

The Guardian 80

(Jagjaguwar)

On her 2016 debut Heavn, musician, teacher and activist Jamila Woods crafted an ode to her home town of Chicago, and a new kind of protest music. Her contemplative, modern style of soul is built both for marching, and for recuperation, when you need to recover from the fight.

The Guardian 80

(Jagjaguwar)

She might be an up-and-coming soul singer, but US poet and activist Jamila Woods is a team player. Her second album is also a showcase for other people’s work. Each song on this engaged but accessible record memorialises a figure from the African diaspora – often lesser-known poets, or figures like Miles and Basquiat.

Woods’s first album, 2016’s Heavn, benefited from co-signs from Chance the Rapper and the Roots. This time she is purposefully showcasing newer talent – such as Chicago rapper Saba, whose furious lines contrast with Woods’s clear, calm manner on Basquiat, which is about anger as much as it is about the artist’s work. Woods’s fellow poet-activists get a welcome hearing: Giovanni is a banger that celebrates the Black Arts Movement wordsmith, Nikki Giovanni, and suggests Woods has even bigger melodies up her sleeve than those on Heavn.