What better way to introduce Mr. Philadelphia than by starting w/ a review on Mr. Wonderful himself. Yes! Philly’s own Bilal! It always amazes me that there are people out there that still don’t know who this musical genius is. A close colleague of mine, (and rising star) Caesar, said it best, “Bilal is the most unknown, known artist there is.” Everyone knows Bilal, but they don’t. I’ll prove it. How many of you are familiar with the song Fallen by Jay Z? How about Everything I Do from the Fighting Temptation Movie/Soundtrack with Beyonce? (Bet you didn’t notice he was in the movie as well) Then there’s Cosmic Journey by Solange and one of my favorites Waiting for the DJ by Talib Kweli. And of course everyone knows Bilal’s own Soul Sista. And if that’s not enough to let you know who Bilal is, you can pick up almost all of Common’s albums because Bilal will be there.
The point is, you know Bilal more than you think you do. But, if for some strange reason you’ve spent the last 10 yrs on another planet and missed Bilal, you need to get to know him. Bilal is that artist that defines soul and Philly.
Now as much work as Bilal has done on everyone else’s project, one would wonder why does this guy only have one official project out. Unfortunately Bilal hasn't had much luck in the area of releasing his own work. While releasing a lot of underground material, it’s been some time since he has had an official “mainstream” project released. However, towards the middle of November there began to be a buzz that Bilal has a new label Plug Research and will be releasing a new project in 2010. Shortly after hearing that news, I found out that he was scheduled to perform at World Café Live on Dec 8th. Needless to say, I was in the building. There was no way I would miss that. Bilal is the one artist I could see over and over again. While some artist give the same show over and over, every time I’ve seen Bilal, he had some twist or surprise up his sleeve.
The energy was beautiful. There is something about an audience that is combined with fans as well as artist who are just as big of fans. The place was filled w/ singers and musicians, some that has shared the stage before with Bilal and others who would love the opportunity. Bilal delivered his classics from his 1st album, songs from love 4 sale that (unreleased) as well as some new material that is to be expected on the upcoming project.
A Bilal show will have an artist walking away questioning all that they thought they knew about music. He always breaks the rules singing notes that to the trained ear, is off, yet it works. And he always allows the band a moment to shine. Very innovative and experimental. It’s just great music.
Philly, you showed up and out on the 8th!! Let’s do the same with CD sales. Not just Philly but music lovers. Let’s take back and own the music we love. We (the fans) really control industry. So when this project drops…let’s make him number ONE!
hallabac@yaphilly.boi
