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Aloe Blacc

US - Stones Throw

“My purpose for music is positive social change,” says Orange County, California
native Aloe Blacc. “Even if the music itself does not explicitly express anything
that may signify positive social change, the product of the music will.” He is
speaking in general terms regarding his career, but more specifically about the
circumstances surrounding his upcoming album, Good Things, co‐written by the
versatile vocalist and songwriter in conjunction with the in‐house production
team at Truth & Soul Records.
Good Things marks a shift in methodology from personal to political for Aloe,
who refers to the project as his report on present conditions—joblessness,
homeless, the misappropriation of wealth, pillaging of resources, and a universal
lack of compassion from the capitalism at‐large under which we all function, but
some struggle to survive. Song titles such as “You Make Me Smile” and “Miss
Fortune,” coupled with airy, ethereal production from Truth & Soul’s Leon
Michels and Jeff Silverman mask a foreboding undercurrent in which Aloe crafts
lyrics both thoughtful and thought‐provoking. Nowhere is this more evident than
on lead single, “I Need a Dollar”—commissioned by HBO as the theme music for
the series How to Make It in America—because ultimately, that is how to make it
in America.
The first‐generation American offspring of Panamanian parents, Aloe has
become what writer and activist Amiri Baraka (nee Leroi Jones) once said of
John Coltrane. He is a singular “scope of feeling…a more fixed traveler” who has
found cohesion in art and life. The path from his 2006 debut, the multi‐genre
Shine Through, to Good Things is akin to the maturation of Marvin Gaye between
That’s the Way Love Is and the What’s Going On masterwork that followed. Aloe
has never purported to be any heir to Gaye, but musically, Good Things and
What’s Going On are companion pieces as both albums establish a character for
the artists that sets them apart from the sea of performers making very vivid and
discernible—yet normative and conformist—statements about who they are and
what they do. Good Things is a definitive declaration that places Aloe directly in
the framework of modern soul.
At the heart of this musical character is a recession‐age Robin Hood, whose goal
is to sell and profit from his wares with hope of freeing the less fortunate from
the capitalist system that serves as both their oppressor and his motivation. A
2001 graduate of the University of Southern California, Aloe credits a myriad of
influences—transcendentalist scholars Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo
Emerson, French existentialism, Oprah Winfrey, Tavis Smiley, Cornel West—
with leading him from the inner streams of consciousness he possessed as an MC
early in his career, to a more disciplined approach to songwriting, and now, the
desire to affect change and induce compassion by way of his own success. It is his
grand scheme, which, not coincidentally, is also the name of his backing band
(The Grand Scheme). The key is compromise and understanding the power of
popular art. Aloe is willing to put the gloves on and engage in the marketplace.
Good things lie ahead. – Ronnie Rees

video

Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar (Official Video) from Stones Throw on Vimeo.