After having swam for hours, months and years in an ocean of neo-vintage soul, Raphael Saadiq is back with a more “modern” and above all personal agenda. The title of his fifth album (his first after eight years of silence) holds the name of a deceased brother, Jimmy Lee, who died of an overdose in the 90s after having contracted AIDS. Death is an occurrence the Oakland Californian and guru of 90s nu soul has danced with since his childhood, it prematurely claimed the lives of his brothers and sisters. His older brother Alvie was murdered in 1973, Desmond took his own life in 1987 before Sarah was ran over by a police car in hot pursuit in 1990…
At 53 years old, Raphael Saadiq has released a sort of musical introspective examination with this record. A soul record through and through that he hopes will finally eradicate an injustice – that he had never acquired as many awards as D’Angelo – despite his explosive work throughout the years producing for the likes of Solange, Miguel, Joss Stone, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, Kelis, Whitney Houston, John Legend and Trombone Shorty. What’s more, the ex-member of Tony! Toni! Toné! and Lucy Pearl displays here what he knows best. A Marvin Gaye/Curtis Mayfield rhythm’n’blues mixed with a more contemporary sound, all in a post nu soul spirit with very nineties sounding rhythms. Saadiq fuses various decades and grooves in order to give birth to music suited to him. He also knows well not abuse features (Kendrick Lamar on Rearview and Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest on Riker’s Island), so as to render Jimmy Lee all that more personal… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz