A Few Little Things
Yesterday, this new Elle feature dropped with the queen Beyonce, and she's a queen. I need to get this issue, but in the meantime I'm obsessed with these photos and the Ivy Park ones as well.
That was a tangent, but 2019 has been a great year for music.
There were so many releases and one of my personal favorite music moments of the year was when my favorite group turned duo ever, Little Brother reunited and made a surprise album, May The Lord Watch.
Since the year is coming to an end, this is the time when people start crafting their ideal end of the year lists and I’m following suit because they make me happy. I’ve put together a playlist of my favorite songs over the year, and it’s pretty subjective and the things I could remember I really enjoyed.
Also, since I spend a lot of the year listening to podcasts, I added that in the fold too. Let me know what made your list this year:
One of my favorite songs of the whole year was Charlotte Day Wilson’s “Let You Down.” Granted, this song wasn’t released in 2019 but because I haven't been creating playlists as much this year, I rediscovered it while in a meeting on shuffle. This song is everything - and I love how effortless Charlotte looks when she performs here.
Close second favorite song of the year was PJ Morton’s “Say So,” featuring my all time boo JoJo. I will admit, I’m a little late on the PJ train, but once I got on it, I’ve been crip walking down the aisle. His album is so good and this is the definite stand out from the album. Perfect duet. Not heavily produced so you can hear the lyrics. Not to mention, the lyrics are great and I feel them way hard — don’t play games.
My favorite albums of the year were a toss up between Snoh’s and Rapsody’s. So let’s start with Snoh Aalegra -Ugh Those Feels Again. This album is beautiful from start to finish. I mentioned in a previous newsletter that I loved how this album flows like a story and journey of a relationship and that stays the same. I go through all the emotions that she goes through while listening and still months later to this day, I haven’t been able to stop listening to it.
Rapsody’s album Eve is a close second for me in terms of my favorite albums of the year. I’ve followed Rapsody for years, and I’ve always loved her music but this album took my love further and deeper. This album is perfect, and makes me feel multiple things: proud, confident, strong and ultimately proud to be a black woman. I think also this album connects with many.
Brittany Howard’s solo album Jamie is love. Like seriously, who hasn’t listened to Alabama Shakes and been like I wish Brittany had a solo album? I know I’m not alone. She has one of my favorite voices ever - I often say I would want her or Joss Stone to follow me and sing while I go through the day. I wasn’t sure what her solo album would sound like — all Alabama Shake-y like or something else, but thankfully, it’s very uniquely her. Her Tiny Desk was epic, you should watch it here because sis can sing.
Emmavie’s album, Honeymoon, entered my favorite albums of the year list when I first listened to it but it’s love. Emmavie is my favorite Soulection find — I heard her on ROM’s “Murder,” a few years ago (listen to it, it’s a bop like the kids say) and her voice is crazy. This album is so good from start to finish and I can’t wait to hear what she has next.
When highlighting my favorite music of the year, I can’t forget my boo Mahalia and her album LOVE AND COMPROMISE.
One of my favorite podcasts I discovered this year was the Kneading Dough podcast. I’m all about financial literacy and enjoy hearing people talk about their finances - and this podcast gives me those two things. In addition to just highlighting some of my favorite topics, this podcast speaks with athletes about their finances. My favorite episodes have been the Draymond Green and Klay Thompson episodes — see the theme? Warrior love! But in addition, I also love the Serena Williams and Simone Biles episodes.
The episode “Hi, it’s us your 30 long-long siblings,” on The Cut on Tuesday’s podcasts was one of my favorite podcast episodes of the year. So interesting. Sperm and sperm banks are always interesting topics.
No end of the year list would be complete without including something that gave me life for a good chunk of the year - Elizabeth Holmes and the scandal that is Theranos. I was hooked on much of this--The Dropout podcast which makes the list of one of my favorites of the year, Bad Blood book by John Carreyrou, and both the HBO documentary and ABC expose about the scandal. I think the thing that is so fascinating about this is - many things: the fact that she changed her voice, the fact that she had tons of investors but none that worked in health but also that no one seemed to raise an eye that none of her key investors were in the health industry. Also, she looks scandalous to me.
That's all for my favorite listens of the year - I was tempted to put Dua Lipa "Don't Start," in there because I'm actually astonished at how many versions of the live version I watch on YouTube, but I decided to keep it mild. Here are a few of my musical/podcast hopes for the new year:
- Corinne Bailey Rae will finally return with a new album
- Same with my friend Lianne La Havas ---- proof of friendship below
- That Lady Lovin Podcast comes back
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