The latest in the Soul Mates Project series! This time around, Amerigo Gazaway pairs Chicago rapper Common's conscious lyrics w/ various Stevie Wonder gems — vocals, and a "slew of uncovered resources— and the result is a vivid hip-hop-meets-soul project that goes way further and deeper than a typical "mashup" release. The deconstructed samples are re-orchestrated and Gazaway's ability to interweave multi-track instrument stems, interview audio, and documentary sound bites into the 15-tracker is amazing. Gazaway adds: "Stevie Wonder's early use of synthesizers, drum machines, and samples, in a lot of ways, paved the way for hip-hop and sampling. Part of my motivation for this project was to highlight those contributions." We're certainly sold! Check out "Living For The Chi-City," "The Sixth Superstition," "The Light (I'm Yours)," "Southside," and "I Was Made To Love H.E.R."

• music label: Soul Mates 2016

reviewed by nakaveli 10/2017