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Maxwell (Eric Johnson)
Around this time 25 years ago, a new artist planted the seed for what would become a new genre.
His name was Maxwell, and he sounded nothing like the heavily sampled hip-hop-inspired R&B musicians that dominated the airwaves.
His voice harkened back to the days of Motown. Maxwell’s silky smooth falsetto was accompanied by orchestra level instrumentation, and something that up until that moment had been left behind in the ’80s the horn solo.
The album “Urban Hang Suite,” which turns a quarter-century-old this year, helped usher in an era of R&B called neo-soul. The new genre welcomed the likes of Erykah Badu, D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill.
is a Zimbabwean-American singer/songwriter based in Los Angeles. Her journey through the American pop music industry has been both an education and a challenge. As she learned to comply with the limitations and rules of the songwriting profession, she also bristled at them. In June 2021, Shungudzo will debut an album that she feels finally pulls together the strands of her unique life in her own way, including an embrace of social and political engagement. The album is called I’m Not A Mother, But I Have Children.
Afropop
’s Banning Eyre spoke with Shungudzo over Zoom, knowing very little about her. By the end, they had found a good deal of common ground, laughed a lot and shared their love of dogs. Shungudzo