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.
As indicated by its title, her follow-up, Legacy! Legacy! is a loving testimony to black artists. Each track title explicitly names a historical figure, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat or novelist Octavia E Butler, while the credits are full of contributions from contemporaries such as rapper Saba and producer oddCouple. The result is a free-spirited and joyful record, infused with a sense of community and full of affirmations you can repeat in the mirror. (“Who’s gonna share my love for me with me?”, she asks over the rumbling beat of Eartha. On the psychedelic Miles, she offers, “I’m better than your best” in a dizzying refrain.)
Full of dust-shaking beats, layered vocals and sticky melodies (the lead single Zora is an earworm), the record is every bit as rousing as Heavn, with even more intricate production flourishes. But as ever with Woods – who is also an acclaimed poet – her words hold the greatest weight. The opening track, Betty, connects her historical theme with her deeply personal lyrical style, explaining over uplifting piano how she hears the greats speak inside her mind. “I am different, I am, I am”, she sings in a soaring a capella – and it’s easy to agree.
