NERU THEE FOURTH FUGEE Channels Lauryn Hill Long Awaited Album 'The Almanac'
Baltimore genre-bending multidimensional lyricist, vocalist, composer, producer and activist NERU THEE FOURTH FUGEE is kicking off the year with her long-awaited and highly anticipated new album titled ‘THE ALMANAC.'
Reminiscent of early Funkadelics with facets of the legendary Lauryn Hill, while firmly operating in her own lane, Neru Thee Fourth Fugee merges elements of hip hop, neo-soul, funk, ambient and psychedelic music to create her own unique sound. Her abstract lyricism, transcendental harmonies and trance-like kaleidoscopic melodies create a thought provoking mind bending listening experience that commands your attention and challenges you to listen intently with all of your senses.
Her new album The Almanac is preceded by her comeback single ‘C-Spine’ featuring rising star Deetranada, which was released in March 2019, before which, Neru Thee Fourth Fugee had been spending the previous four years on the road, opening and performing alongside the likes of Danny Brown, The Roots, Oddisee, IDK, Princess Nokia, and Dan Deacon, to mention a few, on the back of her debut project The Reincarnation and her well-received 2014 double EP Enlightenment Era.
Produced in its entirety by Neru Thee Fourth Fugee and her Hippy Trippy Collective, The Almanac is packed with colourful compositions and melodies, mentally stimulating subject matter, groovy delivery, and compelling lyrics and songwriting, whether it’s the psychedelic and expansive opening track ‘Doom’, which offers an acid trip-like experience for the listener, or ‘xRxed xWxhite xBxlue (RWB)’ about police brutality and racial injustices in America, or ‘Dessalines Dissemination’ inspired by Jean-Jacques Desselines, who, in 1804, led the Haitians through the first successful slave revolt revolution in history.
The 9-track project also comes with only a few guest appearances, most notably from rising rap star Deetranada, on ‘C-Spine’, which sees both Baltimore natives trading trippy bars over an ominous piano-led backdrop, and from Compton rap queen Ill Camille on the sensory ‘Rouge’, inspired by the limitless beauty the earth provides, and how we are all intertwined with the earth. Exciting Baltimore newcomer DopeSol rounds up the handful of features, with the philosophical ‘30 Billion’ about the insignificance of human beings in comparison to the universe and its thirty billion plus planets.
Speaking about the inspiration behind The Almanac album, Neru Thee Fourth Fugee says, “I've always had the idea of creating a musical Almanac to shed light on significant events and astronomical data throughout history. The Almanac is a collection of history, paradigm shifts, cosmic happenings, philosophical ideas, biblical theories and current events. ‘The Almanac’ is an assortment of ideologies that are left up to the listeners own devices to interpret”.