Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
Hip-hop and R&B superstar Aloe Blacc is coming to the nation’s capital next week to promote mental health.
He’ll perform “Songs for Hope” at the Kennedy Center on Monday, Sept. 18, alongside Ariana DeBose, Renée Fleming, Ben Folds, Joshua Henry, Jimmie Herrod, The Lone Bellow, Chris Olsen, Kishi Bashi and Sri Ramesh.
“These will be new people to share the stage with for me,” Blacc told WTOP. “I’m really excited to see Ariana DeBose, I’m really familiar with the work that she did in ‘Hamilton.’ I’m really excited to see Ben Folds. I’ve been listening to his music for a long time, so I’m really interested to meet him backstage and say hello. It’s not everyday you get to see a soprano, an opera soprano sing, so Renée Fleming will be pretty awesome as well.”
Beyond the music, the event celebrates the 2023 Surgeon General’s Medallion Awardees for Health, honoring six recipients for their heroic work supporting mental health and well-being in their communities: Ashanti Branch, Corey & Jennifer Feist, Kate’s Club, Alysha Lee, Reverend Eduardo D. Morales and Major Kevin Cho Tipton.
“When I first got involved in making music as a full-time gig, I made a promise that I would use my voice for positive social transformation,” Blacc said. “To see the surgeon general honoring so many of our everyday heroes, front-line folks, people who support front-line folks, especially during the pandemic, it gives me a sense of purpose. It’s definitely something that I want to be a part of, to lend my voice and be part of a night like this.”
Born in Laguna Hills, California, in 1979, Blacc grew up listening to all of the hip-hop legends.
“Growing up, I was mainly into hip-hop music, listening to A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, some of the groups that were a little more introspective, jazzy and fun,” Blacc said. “As I was making hip-hop music, I started sampling a lot of classic rock, classic jazz, classic soul. I fell in love with singer-songwriters and just thought, man, I’d love to be able to use my voice to affect people’s emotions in the way that they do — and that’s when I started singing.”
Blacc joined DJ Exile to form the duo Emanon (backwards for “No Name”), competing on MTV’s “The Cut.”
“We named the group after a Dizzy Gillespie song called ‘Emanon,’ which he had no name for, so he named it ‘Emanon,'” Blacc said. “I was supposed to be working as a business consultant, but my start date got pushed back because of Sept. 11, 2001. Out of that tragedy, I got a chance to go on tour with some artists in Europe. When I got back, they introduced me to their record label and that label signed me to give me an opportunity to record.”
That independent label was Stones Throw, which released his very first album, “Shine Through” (2006).
“I’m still pretty proud of it,” Blacc said. “During that time, there was no social media, so I had to use my own creative ideas about how to present that body of music in today’s modern world.”
His second album, “Good Things” (2010), featured the hit song “I Need a Dollar.”
“‘I Need a Dollar’ was inspired by listening to field recordings of chain gangs,” Blacc said. “I just started writing my own sort of field song, and when I got a chance to work with producers out in New York, we jammed on some soul music and I threw these lyrics on top and it worked. It ended up being used as a theme song to a TV show called ‘How to Make it in America,’ which made it really popular.”
His third album, “Lift Your Spirit” (2013), earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album with hit singles like “The Man,” which memorably riffed on Elton John’s “Your Song” by looping the lyric, “You can tell everybody.”
“I turned in an album and the label was saying, ‘We need something that’s got a bigger theme,’ so they put me in a meeting with Dr. Dre,” Blacc said. “He said, ‘You need something that is masculine but vulnerable, sort of like what Marvin Gaye did.’ That was really inspiring, so I went back to the studio to write something that could have that humility but also some bravado. I think it worked out. It ended up being in the Beats by Dre commercials.”
The same album also featured the popular dance hit “Wake Me Up,” a collaboration with the late Avicci.
“I was really surprised by the way ‘Wake Me Up’ took off,” Blacc said. “As a collaborator, I want to bring 110%. I’m generally writing about inspiration, motivation. This song was lyrics that I walked into the studio with; it just so happened that they had already come up with the guitar part and the chord progression and it was a match made in heaven. When Avicci eventually mixed all of the sonics around the acoustic version, it just sounded amazing.”
After the holiday album, “Christmas Funk” (2018), Blacc dropped his fifth album, “All Love Everything” (2020).
“‘All Love Everything’ was a pandemic release,” Blacc said. “I didn’t want to hold out because I didn’t know how long the pandemic would last and I thought people definitely needed to hear something that’s uplifting, so I released the album. I have a few favorite songs on there: I love ‘My Way,’ I love ‘Harvard,’ and I love ‘My Family.’ I love all the songs, but I think those are some of the better songs that I’m feeling right now.”
His brand new song, “Never Let You Down,” drops on Sept. 14.
“It’s in collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America,” Blacc said. “It’s a song to hopefully amplify the great work that they do placing mentors with young people who are looking for someone that can spend time with them and give them some hope. My next project will be songs inspired by nonprofit organizations in a way to amplify and magnify the great work that community activists and volunteers do to better their environments.”
Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
