In the wretched of the earth, Frantz Fanon's landmark work of revolutionary theory, the famed psychiatrist and social critic states that "the colonized man who writes for his people ought to use the past with the intention of opening the future, as an invitation to action and a basis for hope." Fanon, who published his treatise in 1961, intended his words to apply to Third World artists struggling to shatter the psychological and metaphysical shackles of European domination. How could he have predicted that, 37 years later, his writings would succinctly summarize the raison d'etre of a new musical movement in R. and B. and hip-hop?
Musical genres, like city streets, need names to make things navigable. Artists rage against categorization, but it's a useful tool to define the boundaries of a given phenomenon. Neo-soul is the best name to call the latest emerging genre. Simply defined, neo-soul describes artists--like song-stylist Erykah Badu--who combine a palpable respect for and understanding of the classic soul of the '60s and '70s with a healthy appetite for '90s sonic experimentation and boundary crossing. Neo-soul artists tend to create music that's a good deal more real, a good deal more edgy than the packaged pop of, say, teen-oriented groups like the Spice Girls and Cleopatra. And they tend to write lyrics that are more oblique and yet more socially and emotionally relevant than those of gangsta rappers.
Neo-Soul is not an entirely new musical category. The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, for example, has been creating experimental R. and B. for two decades. And remember Terence Trent D'Arby? No? Well, he was that guy...never mind. The point is, in the '90s, the face of cool in R. and B. has been the face of a gangsta. Puff Daddy, Dr. Dre, Master P and the like dominate the aesthetic space in black music. Boyz II Men may sell more albums, but when you think of what's hot, what's hip, what's real, what's representative, gangsta rap has symbolized the cutting edge of R. and B.
Now there's another way to be cool. Last year Badu, with her Afrocentric head wraps, sensuous grooves and searingly beautiful voice, captured the attention and imagination of record buyers, selling more than 3 million copies of her debut album Baduizm; this summer she's a headliner on the Lilith Fair tour. Other new neo-soul artists such as Maxwell, with his enlightened ladies'-man charm, and laid-back auteur D'Angelo have also managed to garner critical and commercial success.
In the next few months there will be a flood of neo-soul releases. Maxwell's quietly mesmerizing second CD, Embrya, is out this week; D'Angelo's second release, Voodoo, is due out this fall; and neo-soulman Rachid's assured debut, Prototype, recently arrived in stores. Tony Rich and Des'ree also have CDs due out soon, and Seal--a veteran who could be considered the godfather of neo-soul--is coming out with an album this September. Lastly, Lauryn Hill, a singer-rapper-songwriter with the hip-hop trio the Fugees, is releasing in August her solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Her album is the kind of galvanizing work neo-soul needs: unabashedly personal, unrelentingly confrontational, uncommonly inventive.