Bilal (American singer)

Common and Mos Def (pictured in 1999) appeared on Bilal's debut album and were his colleagues in the Soulquarians musical collective.

Bilal began to familiarize himself with the music scene in New York City, meeting prominent recording artists such as Common, The Roots, and Erykah Badu from the Soulquarians collective. Eventually, he was discovered by Aaron Comess from the Spin Doctors during an after-school jam session. It was with him that Bilal recorded his demo and eventually landed a record deal with Interscope Records.[13]

In 2001, Bilal released his debut album 1st Born Second, which featured contributions from the Soulquarians as well as high-profile producers such as Dr. Dre and J Dilla.[14] The album peaked at number 31 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, and it has sold 319,000 copies.[15] 1st Born Second received universal acclaim from music critics; and holds a score of 82 out of 100 at Metacritic.[16] The album earned rave reviews from publications including The Village Voice, Chicago Sun-Times, and USA Today,[17][18][19] and it also received comparisons to the music of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Sly & the Family Stone, Prince, and Curtis Mayfield.[16][20][21][22]

The album showcased a wide variety, from the emotionally charged fan-favorite "Soul Sista", which peaked at No. 18 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts, to the political viewpoints of "Fast Lane" and "Second Child".[23] Bilal managed to gain a sizable following and high attendance at his live shows,[3] as well as much acclaim and respect from his peers, many of whom noted his range and ability to sing in a freeform style, and his classically trained falsetto.[3] The soulful feel of the album caused Bilal to be labeled as "neo-soul". Bilal stresses that this term does not fit, and throughout his career, his expansion in music and pushing of boundaries proved his point.[24]

Bilal performing at the A38 concert hall in Budapest, 2008

In the following years Bilal continued to appear on projects by other artists of both high profile and avant garde, while recording and developing his follow-up set to be released on Interscope Records and featuring contributions primarily from producers Dr. Dre and J Dilla. These plans proved to be changeable and the final result, Love for Sale, was an album that appeared to be built around Bilal's own musicianship. Bilal switched it up on Love For Sale, which includes live instrumentation and a vibe completely new and different from its predecessor.[25]

Bilal's anticipation for the album was shot down, however, after receiving disapproval from Interscope. Unwilling to start from scratch, Bilal continued to push his LP. However, near the album's completion, the album was leaked in its entirety on the Internet.[25] Interscope shelved the album indefinitely, hinting that it saw little commercial potential in it. The event sent Bilal into a period of distress,[26] and he was considering quitting music; however, Love for Sale received over half a million downloads on the Internet,[27] and Bilal began touring, despite there not being a proper release of the album. His concerts were known for being intense and inspiring awe among audiences.[28]

In 2008, Bilal began recording for his next album.[30] After nine years without a properly released album, Bilal made a comeback on September 14, 2010, with Airtight's Revenge, a sophomore LP released under independent record label Plug Research. Bilal describes it as a retrospective: an album that explores his experiences and things he has learned since his last release. An experimental album, Airtight's Revenge blends jazz, hip-hop, electronic, rock, soul, and blues into one raw, genuine collection of music.[31] The album's single, "Little One", earned Bilal a nomination a 2011 Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Urban/Alternative Performance. That year, he also contributed as a guest performer to the Roots' Grammy-nominated album Undun (2011) and the Robert Glasper Experiment's Grammy-winning Black Radio (2012).[3]

Bilal (center right) at the 2011 Stockholm Jazz Festival in Sweden

In 2012, Bilal revealed plans for a new album under a new label, eOne Music.[32] During several interviews, he described the new project as "a lot warmer and [more] sensual" than its conceptual predecessor.[33] The new album, titled A Love Surreal, has a more acoustic sound, as Bilal worked closely with his entire band. To set up the album's release, on December 5, 2012, he released a mixtape titled The Retrospection via Facebook[34] and then the album's lead single "Back to Love" six days later. The song's music video was released on January 8, 2013, telling the story of a drug-addicted love doctor who ironically uses the advice he gives to his patients to help his own relationship.[35] The song sets the tone for the album, which Bilal says embodies "the whole process [of love]: meeting, the break-up, [and] the get-back-together". A Love Surreal was released on February 26, 2013.[36]

With the release of A Love Surreal, Bilal immediately achieved commercial success, debuting at No. 1 on iTunes' R&B Chart.[37] On Billboard, the album debuted at No. 17 on the Independent Albums Chart, No. 19 on the R&B Albums Chart, and No. 103 on the Billboard 200, ranking higher than its predecessor, Airtight's Revenge. The album also received numerous high reviews, including an 8/10 from SPIN magazine,[38] 4.5/5 stars from Allmusic, and 4/4 stars from USA Today.[39]

In between albums, Bilal appeared on albums by a variety of recording artists, including Kimbra, Otis Brown III, Kat Dahlia, and Slum Village.[3] His guest contributions to Kendrick Lamar's third album To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) helped create buzz for Bilal's fifth album, In Another Life,[40] released in 2015 to critical success.[6] In an essay on the Soulquarians published that year, Michael A. Gonzales traces the collective's impact to Bilal's contemporary contributions: "Listening to Kendrick Lamar's newest album To Pimp a Butterfly, Bilal has transformed himself into an arty Nate Dogg for the post-Soulquarian generation that includes Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding and, now, Kendrick.[8] Also writing that year, Exclaim! journalist Kevin Jones said, "Bilal's years spent in career limbo feel like a relatively minor blip in the wake of the many artistically ambitious personal releases and guest projects the uncompromising singer has managed to string together in recent years."[40]

In 2019, Bilal contributed to Philip Bailey's single "We're a Winner", a recording of the Impressions' 1967 song of the same name. Bailey said of Bilal, who sang guest vocals and appeared in the music video: "Bilal was one of those singers who uses his [voice] like an instrument. And he's very explorative with his vocal [range]. He's played and he sang on things with more jazzy guys, too. I thought that our voices — obviously having those falsettos — would complement one another. And with that one, we actually sent him the files. I wasn't even in the studio with Bilal when he did his stuff."[42]

In August 2020, over the course of a three-day weekend, Bilal live streamed his creation of an experimental three-song EP for HighBreedMusic, a Brooklyn recording studio and digital music channel. He wrote, recorded, and produced one song each day, totaling 54 hours, in collaboration with producer Tariq Khan and 30 other musicians, including Erykah Badu, Robert Glasper, Tone Whitfield, Khemist, Simon Mavin (of Hiatus Kaiyote), Keyon Harrold, Madison McFerrin, Marcus Strickland, Yahzarah Sinclair, Raymond Angry, Ben Williams, Brandee Younger, Big Yuki, Melanie Charles, Marcus Gilmore, and Louis Cato. Each participant worked remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The stream simultaneously showed the EP's artwork being made, with a group of three visual artists enlisted for each song, including Angelbert Metoyer and Shanina Dionna.[43][44]

The EP was available to be pre-ordered during the weekend of the live stream, with sales and optional donations given to the participating artists, a number of whom were in financial difficulties because of the pandemic. On September 6, it was released on Bandcamp as a three-track digital download titled Voyage-19, for a price of $6.99, the profits of which were also distributed among the participants.[43][44]

Songs:

with Common

• "Funky For You" (Common & Jill Scott) from Like Water for Chocolate
• "Nag Champa (Afrodesiac for the World)" from Like Water for Chocolate
• "The 6th Sense" from Like Water for Chocolate
• "Heaven Somewhere" from Electric Circus
• "Aquarius" from Electric Circus
• "Star69 (PS With Love)" from Electric Circus
• "Faithful" (Common & John Legend) from Be
• "It's Your World/Pop's Reprise" from Be
• "U, Black Maybe" from Finding Forever
• "Misunderstood" from Finding Forever
• "Play Your Cards Right" from Finding Forever
• "Joy and Peace" from Black America Again
• "Home" from "Black America Again"
• "A Bigger Picture Called Free" from "Black America Again"
• "Letter To The Free" from "Black America Again"