“I didn’t think about writing this record about Jimmy Lee at all,” he said. But Saadiq took a broader view of what foregrounding his own voice and his own stories could achieve. Jimmy Lee is named after one of Saadiq’s brothers and is nominally about Jimmy Lee’s struggles with addiction. To the point where you couldn’t even hear the music.” “We call it the Clive Davis,” he said, “‘cause when I worked on this record for Luther Vandross with Beyoncé…every time we sent a song back to Clive, he’s like, These are the two best performers in the world, turn the vocals up.
Sometimes I used to hide a bit in a track… I’m way out in front of it.” The album is quieter and more delicately arranged than the live-band feel of Saadiq’s 2011 album, Stone Rollin’. I’m very bold out there, in your face now. Going into making Jimmy Lee, Saadiq said, “I was able to put my voice way ahead of my music. The restrained production on “Cranes in the Sky” leaves plenty of room for Solange’s voice. He emerged from that partnership with an altered sense of what he could do with his own music. I’m a great architect for music, ’cause I know every type of music and I don’t knock another one.” “You need to ask me a question, you need me to make it full, you need me to make it palatable for everybody? That’s what I do. Saadiq, now 53, described himself as a confidant as much as an artistic collaborator. These are the kind of things you can do when your talent is widely known and valued, but also when your presence is. His solo career began at 36, and his other credits include work with D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger, the Roots, Elton John, Snoop Dogg, Lady Gaga, and Miguel.
YOUTUBE RAPHAEL SAADIQ ASK OF YOU SERIES
Blige for Mudbound, composing for Issa Rae’s Insecure, a John Legend Christmas album, Marvel’s Netflix series Luke Cage. A quick rundown of some of his extracurriculars in the interim: Solange’s A Seat at the Table, an Oscar-nominated song cowritten with Mary J. On August 23, he’ll release Jimmy Lee, his first solo album since 2011. From his earliest days with the group Tony! Toni! Toné! in the ’80s and ’90s, the R&B mainstay and multiplatinum songwriter, session player, and producer has established himself as a sort of musical handyman, as capable of putting the finishing touches on others’ songs as writing his own.