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#3 | SAULT | Untitled (Black Is)
Forever Living Originals | Bandcamp
According to Patrick Corcoran: “A glance at the titles on SAULT’s Untitled (Black Is) reveals the narrative at play and the scope of its ambitions. Ambitions that are fully realized through a dazzling distillation of the constituent elements of soul and hip-hop music. From the mesmerizing, stripped-back call and response chanting of opener “Out The Lies,” through the spoken word, Malcolm invoking “X,” to the closing “Pray Up, Stay Up” that is steeped in gospel-soul stylings and an irrepressible positivity, it navigates from righteous ire, through love for God to a point somewhere unspecified in the future when Black people are freed from subjugation and equality is a living, breathing being to be cherished and nourished. The sequencing alone is genius….Just as D’Angelo’s Black Messiah (2014) landed at the perfect time, so this monumental piece of work arrives with a bible in one hand and balled fist in the other to demand equality and freedom for all at exactly the right moment.”
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