Black Music (album)

Black Music is the first album by Chocolate Genius. It was released on V2 Records on July 14, 1998.

Black Music
Studio album by Chocolate Genius
Released	July 14, 1998
Genre	R&B
Label	V2
Chocolate Genius chronology
Black Music (1998) GodMusic (2001)

Track 5, "My Mom", is about a return visit to his childhood home and the mother he was losing to senility ("My mom, my sweet mom/She don't remember my name.").

Background and recording

Just prior to recording Black Music, Chocolate Genius had finished reading The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.^[1] In an email interview with Cleveland Scene, Chocolate Genius explained the meaning of the album's title: "As long as my skin is this color, race will be an unavoidable and hindering label for people that are stuck in that archaic mindset. Of course, I take a special pride in the achievements of people that look like me, but I am foremost a citizen of the planet. Calling the first record Black Music was my way of challenging the people who have to file, sell, and categorize music by genre."^[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Pitchfork	9.0/10[4]
Portland Press-Herald	B+[5]
Rolling Stone	[6]
Spin	8/10[7]

Spin called it "a relentlessly somber, wryly confessional avant-folk-funk rebuttal to popular notions of what constituted African-American pop."^[8] Many other critics have also highlighted the album's morose and starkly autobiographical sound.^[6]

Track listing

1. Life
2. Half A Man
3. Don't Look Down
4. Clinic
5. My Mom
6. Safe And Sound
7. A Cheap Excuse
8. Hangover Five
9. Hangover Nine
10. Stupid Again
11. It's All Good
12. Half A Man (Acoustic Version)

References

1. Johnson, Martin (1 December 2010). "The Assorted Flavors of Chocolate Genius Inc". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
2. Saller, René Spencer (2002-05-16). "Minstrel Tension". Cleveland Scene. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
3. Raggett, Ned. "Black Music". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
4. Bang, Nathan. "Chocolate Genius: Black Music". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 2001-06-29. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
5. Plouffe, Matthew (1998-08-30). "Snoop's newest album dogged by earlier success". Portland Press-Herald.
6. Brackett, Nathan (2004). "Chocolate Genius". Rolling Stone. p. 163. ISBN 9780743201698. Retrieved 2014-05-25.
7. Green, Tony (July 1998). "Chocolate Genius: Black Music". Spin. pp. 126, 128. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
8. "The Greatest Bands You've (Probably) Never Heard". Spin. 27 July 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2014.