Music Dude on: Nikka Costa and a White Woman's Soul

yall know I have a hate-on for Joss Stone, right? Despise her. And don't know if I should despise her, so much as I should despise marketing machines and the music media that drinks that Kool-Aid. But, if I have to see one more awards show parade that teenage euro bish around like she's the hottest thing is soul-music and see her up on stage prancing around and singing in that contrived wanna-be-from-the-pit-of-her-soul-church-voice, I'm going to throw up my innards. As I've said before: I hate Culture Pirates. And the fact that this bish had the audacity to name her debut The Soul Sessions really chases my cognac.

Joss Stone is not Gill Scott or Angie Stone or Badu or Larieux or even Fantansia for that matter.

HOWEVER, if you wanna kop a white woman with some absolute soul, please do yourself a favor and do some knowledge on Nikka Costa. Yall probably heard about her around the same time I did, which was 2001 when she dropped Everybody Got There Somethin'. They played the video on MTV2 (remember the one with her in those blue pants?), matta fact, one of her songs was used in a Tommy Hill commercial. 2001 was a dope year for me. I was makin money, kopped my whip (Jada), moved into my new apartment and most importantly: purchased a sound system. Manytimes, I would to spend Friday or Saturday night at my pad, on the balcony, bumpin my discography and drinkin Brandy. I used to have non-jazz and non-hop nights, where I would load up my CD player with about 50 CDs and either press random-play or if I was feelin sassy and industrious, I'd actually program a playlist. So I'd just sit on the balcony, watch the trafiic, get toasty and tranq out to Badu, D'Angelo, Sly, James, Stevie, Marvin, Musiq, Jimi, Jill, Gil, Lucy Pearl, Brand New Heavies, Omar, Soul II Soul, Res, Prince...u name it, until the wee hours or the cops came to my door.

Nikka would be in there. Matta fact, during my jazz sets or hop sets, sometimes I'd slip in singin-music. For a singer to get thrown into a jazz or hop set was like a testament to how nasty they were. Nikka turned up tenor sax set one Saturday night, I kid u not....Any ways, Nikka is white as snow, but funky and soulful as she wanna be. It amazed me at that time. See, based on culture, upringing and something intrinsic, I think each race has its own unique energy and expertise that they bring to music. True, African Americans created Rock-n-Roll, but I think that only some white dudes could create the kind of harmonic melody that u hear when listening to the Beach Boys. U know why? Because the nigras, inherently and second naturedly, were gonna sound like some derivative of the Chillites or Delfonics. Niggas wasnt surfin in Cali. Listen to the Beach Boys...I'm no officianado on their discography, but I've heard a lot of their stuff because that sound interests me (I love melody)...but that music sounds like something that couldnt have been created by anyone besides someone that lived in carefree Cali and lived that type of lifestyle. Nigras live in Cali, but in Watts and Oakland.

And, yo, straight up, wasn't no nigra gonna be Cobain before Cobain was Cobain. It's something about experience and outlook that comes through music, naa mean? Like, I'm not white, but when I look at some of the tortured white souls, especially the young adult souls, I always think that comes from expectations and the burden of those expectations and, perhaps, preconceived roles and boxes that people (parents, teahcers, society) set out. White kids are born with expectations, which is a great thing, but it they don't always jive with it. I'm skimming and speculating here...but, white kids seem to rail against that -- the expectations and the boxes. And it can be a torturous plight. so u get Cobains. Whereas, the expectations arent there in the black community. In the hood, the torture comes from the ceiling -- be it glass or cement. So the feelings arent as much about confusion as it is about hopelessness, but they both breed defiance and anger. But on one end you get Cobain on the other u get a late 80s Ice Cube. But its all in the experience. and generally, each race tends to be experience life in different ways.

This all gets me back to Nikka. She grew up overseas, came from a music family. But she's that rare breed artist that can pick up cetrain specific emotions or channel influences and make it sound authentic. I'm tellin u, homegirl got waaaaaaayyyyy more soul than 98% of these R&B chicks out right now.

Anyways, she dropped a new album last Spring, Can'tneverdidnothin, and I had no idea until my girl May hipped the crew to this site so we could download the new Ameil Larieux.

I listened to the Nikka this weekend and she's back on that thang, doing what she does and i lover her for doin it how she does it. It's hard to explain exactly why this white woman is so bad, but I think it's best displayed on track 5, Around the World. The way she's phrasing her vocals, it's like slang to me, naa mean? There's just this element that's so sassy and foxy. You ever seen a black woman walk with one of her wrists held-out, limp, and she's switchin and them hips is doin that dance and she's bein a nasty-but-classy black girl. Well that's how Nikka is comin across on this track, except she ain't Afro. it's an incredible thing that she does. And we wont even get into her band and the grooves theyre layin down or the sick guitar chords theyre throwin out. Nope...we wont get into that.

Just know that Nikka gets a Black Card from Twist, the Music Dude and Vince. Matta fact, Couch Test? Fuggedaboutit. I might even do the Good Life dance with her.