25/11/10: CLASS AND PROTEST IN ONE ARTIST - ALOE BLACC IN APRIL IN MILAN

The trade press was dazzled by his album 'Good Things', and ALOE BLACC, this young African-American talent, brings it to Italy on 8 April 2011 at the Salumeria della Musica in Milan, in the company of his band, under the monicker of Aloe Blacc & The Grand Scheme.

Before the entertainment comes the message, a dimension that leads to Aloe Blacc's name being associated with the greats of black music: from the poet Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka to Krs-One, via Gil Scott Heron and Curtis Mayfield. From Orange County, California, the wind is that of cultural emancipation. And between the grooves of an album that admirably blends soul, hip-hop and old-fashioned funk, there are recurring themes and eye-popping songs. Social change, even if not clearly expressed in the lyrics of 'Good Things', is a constant in the thoughts of our man, who releases his new album for Stones Throw, assisted in the studio by the tried and tested Truth & Soul team who arrange - with a genuinely vintage patina - these wonderful nuggets of black consciousness.
From the lead single 'I Need A Dollar' - already used in the series How To Make It In America - to the tear-jerking semi-ballad 'Momma Hold My Hand', through the admonition 'Hey Brother', a chiaroscuro journey into black America, the one that struggles daily for self-determination and social assertion. A 2001 graduate of the University of Southern California, Aloe is the archetype of the new black intellectual, who references Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, French existentialism, as well as Oprah Winfrey, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West. Promising MC in his early days, Aloe is now a fine writer, who punctuates his lyrics with the sounds of the old and new ghetto. The Real Life is now!