-New Urban SOUNDS- For Those Rainy Days: Smooth, Poetic Grooves from Jamila Woods

A Poet Who Infuses Soul with Jazz, Trip Hop, & Touches of Orchestral Pop: Chicago's JAMILA WOODS on "HEAVN"

Jamila Woods is a Chicago-based American soul singer, songwriter, and poet. Woods is a graduate Brown University widely known for her collaborative works with Chance the Rapper and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. A frequent guest vocalist in the hip-hop, jazz and soul world, Jamila has emerged as a once-in-a-generation voice, with Woods signing to Chicago's Closed Sessions label in 2016.  Woods is the Associate Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors and Chicago's Louder Than A Bomb Youth Poetry Festival, the largest poetry festival for youth in the world. In describing the process of writing poetry, Woods has said, “Through poetry, I realized you are the expert on your own experience,”  and music–like poetry– is also very personal for the singer,  as she states as per her web bio,  “It became a way to stop hiding, to actually be the most honest with myself through writing,” she says. “It helps me check in with myself.” 

Wood's cd release, "HEAVN"  has been in circulation for the last year, and is a melodic, trippy hip-hop outing featuring collaborations with hip-hop darling and social activist/philanthropist Chance the Rapper and lyrical rapper No Name, with meditations on love, artistry, social activism, self-worth and homespun Auntie style wisdom. We've got catchy tunes like Woods' "HOLY" and title track "HEAVN"  on our rainy workday playlist, and we're particularly partial to her collab single with Chance the Rapper, "LSD" (i.e. "Lake Shore Drive"), a romantic ode to black urban middle-class sea life along the city shores of Lake Michigan. Below, you can check out the multi-hyphenate scholar and artist as she stops by National Public Radio as a guest of their famed "Tiny Desk Concert" series,  waxing poetic via song.  (*Advisory Warning: this performance will contain a few spots of explicit language*).

Jamila Wood's "HEAVN" album in entirety makes for a relaxing listen that can be streamed via Soundcloud, and is available for purchase in hard copy and digital form via AMAZON here:  JAMILA WOODS- HEAVN