THEESatisfaction - awE naturalE

There’s not enough good hip-hop these days which is strange as there’s been some strong releases by Killer Mike, Kendrick Lamar and Drake. For me, the leaders of this recent pack have been Shabazz Palaces. Similar to those creatively successful acts, Shabazz operate within a modernist hip-hop template using sparse electronics to exhilarating effect.  But what sets them apart is their maturity and wisdom, stretching back to the conscious rap era (Shabazz’s main man Ishmael Butler was in the legendary Digable Planets) and an appreciation of space age Afrocentrisms (think of the conceptual works of Sun-Ra,  Afrika Bambaataa and Funkadelic).

THEESatisfaction, a soulful hip-hop inspired female duo who featured on Shabazz’s excellent debut Black Up, appear to be kindred spirits as they too have been influenced by those aforementioned movements. On the other hand they are much younger, but what they lack in wisdom they certainly make up with an abundance of ideas on their debut awE naturalE.

This album is modern sounding but, as opposed to Black Up, it is also quite slight with many organic touches such as acoustic drums, piano parts and acapella style vocals. When I say slight I don't mean this in a bad way at all. There's nothing innocuous or pedestrian about THEESatisfaction; there's attitude here it's just not in your face. This is a clever trick to pull off.

The spirit of this record reminds me of De La Soul Is Dead - it's dark and hazy, at times venomous, but also lively. Also present is a politically conscious and literate air rarely heard and delivered this well since Mos Def’s Black on Both Sides or Talib Kweli/ Hi-Tek Reflection Eternal. As on all those hip-hop classics, there’s plenty of great wordplay and lyrical imagery that's amusing as well as thought-provoking.   

The hip-hop influence aside, awE naturalE goes a step further by not actually having that much rapping and keeping a foot in the neo-soul genre. There’s definitely an affinity towards the late night studio-led stylings of Erykah Badu and Meshell Ndegeocello and lots of cool well-sung vocal harmonies.  

Inevitably they collaborate with Shabazz Palaces on a couple of tracks and one of them is possibly the greatest joint on the album. However, THEESatisfaction are more than capable of holding their own.  On awE naturalE they might sound like they are just getting started but it should be an interesting journey from here.