This was released in 2020? I thought this list was older than that. Good to know. I like how this album sounds and there are moments that ring out through the sameness, but lyrically it felt a bit like how PHILADELPHIA is a gay movie made for straight people. It's a tad on the nose, isn't it? There's obviously power in the repeated simplicity of saying something like "black is beautiful," but I guess I was kind of hoping it would dig deeper than that. (Not that it has to.) Maybe it does and I'm just tuning out due to the relatively relaxed nature of the music behind the lyrics... God knows I'm the last person to pretend to have any authority in this arena whatsoever. But if I want a glimpse into the black experience I feel like I could do better by reaching for a Kanye album or that last Stevie Wonder double-cheeseburger we just listened to. And those would have the added benefit of having some, you know, honest to god good songs.