Black History Month Featured Albums: Week Four

Happy Black History Month! Every day in the month of February, WXPN is taking to the airwaves to highlight an essential album from the stylistic spectrum of Black music history from the 1960s to present. You can reconnect with old favorites and discover new classics, concluding with the week four rundown below. Keep listening all month long for more explorations!

February 22: Beyoncé – Lemonade

What happens when you cross a once-in-a-lifetime artist, best-selling musician, and icon of her generation? Jay-Z found out when Beyonce made lemons into Lemonade. After the rapper was caught cheating, his wife clapped back with a concept album for Black feminism, and consolidated all her power in arguably her strongest record to date. Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century even made allusions to her future in Lemonade with genre-bending explorations and nods to her Texas roots. (Listen: Spotify / Apple / Tidal) – Paige Walter

February 23: Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth

February 24: Bill Withers – Still Bill

One of the most influential and talented singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s, Bill Withers released his second studio album Still Bill in 1972 on Sussex Records. It finds Withers, along with the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, creating a soothing soul classic that still sounds fresh today, as he was a pioneer for so many artists that came after him. On this album, his hit “Lean On Me” spread hope across the country and world during a turbulent time. (Listen: Spotify / Apple / Tidal) – Jack Clark

February 25: James Brown – Live At The Apollo

Recorded at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, James Brown’s first live album is flooded with charisma, talent and passion. Backed by his legendary band The Famous Flames during a 1963 concert at the iconic Harlem venue, this album shows Brown delivering unforgettable renditions of “Try Me,” “Think,” “I Don’t Mind” and “I’ll Go Crazy” and more. It was a breaking point for the Hardest Working Man in Show Business’ career, and his fame only grew from here. (Listen: Spotify / Apple / Tidal) – J.C.

February 26: Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill

By the time Lauryn Hill’s solo debut came out in 1998, she was already a star. After winning worldwide acclaim as a rapper and singer in The Fugees — particularly with her iconic rendition of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song” — Hill’s deeply introspective solo album went even bigger. On Miseducation, she addressed love and devotion, heartbreak and betrayal, family roots and hometown memories, industry drama and spiritual aspirations, set to some of the most broadly accessible strains of soul, R&B, and pop of her era. Collaborations with D’Angelo (“Nothing Even Matters”) and Carlos Santana (“Ex-Factor”) were icing on the cake, but truly this was Hill’s show through and through. Like she raps on “Final Hour”: “I treat this like my thesis. Well-written topic, broken down into pieces.” (Listen: Spotify / Apple / Tidal) – John Vettese

February 27: The Roots – Things Fall Apart

After several albums that garnered critical acclaim and cult devotion but underwhelmed in the area of commercial success — either in the hip-hop scene or pop mainstream — Philadelphia heroes The Roots were at a sort of make-it-or-break-it crossroads in 1999. Thankfully, for the city and the music world at large, they made it in a big way. Their fourth album Things Fall Apart is an emotive, complex, conceptual, and euphoric journey through hip-hop, life, music, and occasionally, unabashed love, like their Erykah Badu, Eve, and Jill Scott assisted chart-topper “You Got Me.” Wrapped up in the wave of the late-90s Soulquarian scene, Things Fall Apart was one of its crowning jewels, and an all-time high point for the band and the city alike.  (Listen: Spotify / Apple / Tidal) – J.V.

February 28: Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

He’d been a hard-working singer and songwriter for a decade and a half, and by the time he arrived at his 1971 album What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye was ready to release a masterpiece. Delving into expansive pop, jazz, and psychedelic atmospheres, Gaye addresses the political turbulence of the era in a soothing soulful style. The album focuses heavily on the Vietnam War, poverty, ecological issues, and the world we leave behind for the next generation, and it did it through unforgettable songwriting. (Listen: Spotify / Apple / Tidal) – J.C.