Theo Croker's BLACK2LIFE // A FUTURE PAST is smooth, relaxing jazz that's more traditional than most from 2021. However, as with nearly every Black artist, there's an indelibly deep connection to roots, history. An ethereal and eternal Blackness that connects us all in brother- and sisterhood.
BLACK2LIFE Is beautiful work that while very traditional is still very connected to the now with its composition.
Then you get a track like "State Of The Union 444 // BLK2THEFUTURE."
Damn and good god almighty! Wyclef Jean proclaims this might be the last rap he ever writes, and I actually believe him. The power in this track does something that nothing else on the album does. Aggressive, raw, militant Blackness that we rarely see in this form outside of hip hop. It's a welcome shift that comes later in the album and frames how it ends.
Blistering connection to Haitian roots and indigenous loyalty. Beautiful, bold, unfaltering music that leaves the listener feeling the residual effect of it long after the album ends.