Mali Music
Mali Is…
(RCA)

Mali Music’s new album, Mali Is…, has a raw, driving brilliance. Mali Music’s vocal delivery is pure vintage soul. The album tackles modern day sensibilities and observes the world through a strong spiritual center without ever getting repetitive or preachy. Born Kortney Jamaal Pollard, Mali Music began early and in gospel. It’s easy to deduce that his early beginnings in gospel allowed him the ability to make music that reaches into the soul. It is quite a refreshing break from mainstream R&B while both it and hip hop influences are felt. Mali Music reverberates with a message that deems the heart and soul as the most valuable assets of all. “Heavy Love” booms with a sonic onslaught of drums and the bass offers up a nice edginess as he calls us to keep love at the forefront despite despair. The emotive uplift signifies the electricity of a hidden force felt that prompts one to keep on moving despite doom scattered about. The fiery rhythm is so thick, it’s earth-shattering. The beauty of Mali Music is the vintage vibe of R&B and palpable rhythms. The luminous Nina Simone sample on “Little Lady,” the urgency to be and do right on “Loyalty” and the rapid pacing of “Make It” show off powerful emotive lyrics surrounded by music that nicely bends genres and expectations. “One” erupts into sturdy reggae as he sings, “Trouble everywhere/It seems like hope is an illusion/Everywhere you turn, another tragedy.” The uplift is in the chorus as he sings, “Yeah we gotta make it right/Yeah we gotta change our world.” In that Mali Is… is his first full-length major label release, it is also a break for him into the secular music scene. Mali Is… remains so effortlessly vibrant, the crossover appeal is as easy as welcomed sunlight.