on 2022, musically
I read considerably less in 2022 than in previous years. But there was much to listen to.
1. FKA twigs - ride the dragon
I’ve long admired twigs for the ethereal, otherworldly mover and aesthete that she is, but didn’t listen to her projects with any intent until this year. The video for the aforementioned song showed up in my YouTube feed. Caprisongs felt like a breath of fresh air, and “ride the dragon” captures everything I love about the album: a certain playfulness and optimism. It was the exact energy I wanted to invoke for a new year.
2. SZA - Good Days
I'm not sure why “Good Days” affected me so much a full year after it dropped, but it did. The first several times I listened to it I couldn’t stop crying. SZA’s pengame is something fierce.
Trying to make sense of loose change
Got me a war in my mind
gotta let go of weight can’t keep what’s holding me
I was in a place of reckoning with the things I’ve loathed about myself and confronting them head on. I needed to free myself from me.
“Good Days” also reminds me of that quote from Song of Solomon.
Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.
3. Kendrick Lamar - Father Time f. Sampha
In June, I hosted my good & dear college friend in my apartment and one morning, before we did our sightseeing for the day, we listened to the first half of Mr. Morale… with the lyrics playing on my TV.
My favorite part of “Father Time” is at the beginning, when Kendrick describes an unrelenting dad who forced him to keep shooting baskets.
oh this the part where mental stability meets practice
oh this the part where he breaks my humility just for practice
“Wow,” my friend said as the song moved into Sampha’s hook. I agreed. Shout outs to millennials for our collective healing and for what we work to unlearn.
4. Doja Cat - Vegas
Only Doja Cat could interest me in listening to a song from the soundtrack of an Elvis biopic. Incidentally, this song dropped around the time my alopecia areata flared up. I’ve had flareups since June 2021, after head trauma from a car accident. No one ever wants to casually scratch their head and notice a smooth bald patch, but that’s a reality of AA. The worst part is all the scalp envy. I mean looking at people with perfectly filled in scalps, no coin-sized patches of missing hair. That’s what I remember the most about the music video, eyeing Doja Cat’s corn rows as she slinked around in that tropical dress. Props on the music video, also. There was something satisfying about that Big Mama Thornton interpolation playing over visuals of Black bodies moving. It felt like a reclamation.
5. Dua Lipa - Good in Bed
I never planned to go to Lolla unless I could go for free and, lo and behold, this was the year I went for free. Through a work connection, I had a pair of four-day passes. I was originally most excited for Doja, but she pulled out because of her tonsillectomy. I was then most excited to see Green Day, a seminal part of my coming-of-age. I didn’t give a fuck about most other acts. I invited my friend along and saw the acts she thought we should catch.
We caught Dua Lipa as Friday’s headliner. She took the stage and the first thing I said was, “Whoa, she’s a goddess!” Someone next to me overheard and nodded emphatically.
All of Dua’s songs were like at first listen, but “Good in Bed” was love. Looking around me, I was in Grant Park surrounded by tens of thousands of people, coming out of a global pandemic and jamming out to a song about vices. It was nice to have some low-stakes fun.
6. Naira Marley, Diquenza and Chivv - Drink Alcohol Like It’s Water
I had Naira Marley’s album cued up for my two-week family trip to Lagos and Ogun State. We made the two/three hour drive from Lagos to my mom's village and where my grandmother lives, 45 minutes outside of Abeokuta. We actually did something touristy for once: we climbed to the top of Olumo Rock, the origin of Ogun State's capital with an unbeatable view of Abeokuta. En route, I played God's Timing Is The Best Timing and replayed “Drink Alcohol Like It's Water” the most. Maybe it was because this was a 90% sober trip, or maybe because the other rappers reminded me of some of the features on racine carrée (which is very much still a banger).
In true Naira Marley style, it's impossible to not move while listening to this one. His popularity is kind of polarizing; I talked to several Nigerians who say his music is rubbish. Maybe, but if he ever goes on a U.S. tour I'm getting tickets. I'm not a Marlian…yet?
7. Wizkid - Ginger f. Burna Boy
I was late to getting around to Made In Lagos, so naturally I used said family vacation to play catch up. I found myself listening to it most on my return flight home. I had five hours to kill with my layover in Schipol Airport. Upon landing in Amsterdam I was immediately groped by a blonde woman at the security checkpoint. I also had to temper my moody stomach and prayed fervently for my bowels to stay intact until I was back in my apartment. So I wandered into duty-free stores, ate mild foods, tried to read, napped, and leisurely paraded from moving walkway to moving walkway.
Wizkid's smooth vocal maneuvers make all of Made in Lagos endlessly inviting, plus it's hard for me to dislike a Burna Boy feature. Among many reasons, I loved “Ginger” for the kókóró in the hook. (Kókóró is my favorite Nigerian dry snack. Yes, more than chin chin.)
8. Beyoncé - CHURCH GIRL
Renaissance sounded like Beyoncé unleashed, like freedom, to me. Especially the instant favorite that is “CHURCH GIRL” The way that Clark Sisters sample flipped into a trap beat was something out of a magic trick. It reminded me of a College Dropout-era production (e.g., “School Spirit”).
I'm gon' let go of this body, I'm gonna love on me
No one can judge me but me, I was born free
It was the nobody can judge me but me that pricked the space behind my eyes. I celebrated my 30th with a karaoke night, ringing in the new decade singing drop it like a thottie drop it like a thottie/Church girls acting loose, bad girls acting snotty
9. Ari Lennox - Leak It f. Chlöe
Ari Lennox released an album on my birthday this year! I didn't love a/s/l as quickly as I loved Shea Butter Baby, but I’m a sucker for female R&B duets. This was easily Chlöe's best verse of 2022 (damn it Chloe, drop an EP with more of this please). I developed a flower picking habit this summer. Late September is a last hurrah for most wildflowers, and I had a friend's birthday to attend later that day. So I put on some music, hopped on the train and I got off at Graceland Cemetery to pick her bouquet. I’ll always remember the velvet of Ari and Chlöe’s stacked voices as I picked stalks of goldenrod and white aster in the autumn sun.