Aloe Blacc Is A Testament To The Strength Of Strategic Giving & Intentional Artistry – Vibe

Aloe Blacc can remember his first time in the muggy oasis of New Orleans clear as day. It was before Good Things Aloe, when he was still in his future soul hip-hop phase, but not yetintegrated into the music industry as a soul singer and Grammy-nominated recording artist. It was a very messy time in his life literally. Hed taken over the town for his best friends bachelor party, passing through the citys storied daiquiri drive-thrus, speed racing through the bayou and letting confectioned sugar powder their good clothes in a beignet fight.

Aloe has since returned to the city several times in a more professional capacitieshe and Pharrell touched down in the Big Easy for Bruno Mars 2014 Moonshine Jungle Tourbut his most recent trip was to honor one of musics biggest influences: jazz. Aloes passion for jazz and the influence music like it has on the world is why Hilton Honors tapped him for their Music Happens Hereprogram.

We look for artists who are passionate about something, Mark Weinstein, Senior Vice President & Global Head of Customer Engagement,Loyalty and Partnerships says of Aloe. Just hours after letting six Hilton Honors members in on an exclusive studio session, Blacc serenated about 200 more at the House Of Blues last Friday (May 12). [Aloe] said, I love R&B and jazz, thats where this all comes from. He wanted to rerecord What A Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong song, and really wanted to come to New Orleans.

During the hour-long showcase, Aloe ran through some of his most popular cutsYou Make Me Smile,the Elton John-sampling Im The Man, Wake Me Up and a snazzy, slowed down cover of Michael Jacksons Billy Jean were fan favoritesbacked by a vibrant band that brought out the best of all the instruments they played.

Staying in line with the iconic genre perched on his pedestal, jazz also heavily influenced Kendrick Lamars To Pimp A Butterfly, an album Aloe feels was one of the most poignant musical statement-pieces in the last few years. Aside from the stanzas and melodies woven through Kung-Fu Kennys heavily lauded 2015 LP, what Aloe loves most is the intentional nature of the Compton, Calif. natives artistry. Yes, the music sounds damn good, but more importantly, its Kendricks way of feeding ideas of how to fix communities of color from the inside out that impresses him.

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Its easy to identify an artist like Kendrick because you know that he is using his platform, he says. Hes really smart about slowly opening that envelope to where hes really trying to educate folks with the lyrics.

In addition to waxing poetic about the power of K. Dots prose, Aloe sat down with us to talk about how his mentor Harry Belafonte inspired the way he donates to worthwhile causes, why its a good thing that the privileged are trying to stay woke and how his own music falls in line with these turbulent times.

VIBE: What made you feel that the Music Happens Here was a great fit for you to come back to New Orleans and highlightthe jazz scene? Aloe Blacc: Well, jazz was born here in New Orleans and has influenced, if not, ignited the foundation of so many other styles of music. Saying music happens here is more than just saying that its happening here. Music has happened here, music started here, and its spread across the world. Youve got an artist like Louis Armstrong, who weve been paying homage to, who took jazz around the world. He humanized the idea of a black man, although it still took decades. His music was in the homes of people who regularly would not have acknowledged him or his family, his people. I think to say music happens here, its much deeper than that. To come here and pay homage to that legacy for me is an honor.

The last two years have been a great time for music and a pivotal time in terms of people opening up and saying what needs to be said. What are some of the projects that have really moved you or impressed you? Ive been listening to a lot of old stuff, but when it comes to new stuff and new artists who are really pushing the envelope? I think its easy to identify an artist like Kendrick [Lamar] because you know hes using his platform and hes really smart about slowly opening that envelope to where hes really trying to educate folks with the lyrics. You gotta get em in. First you attract them. Hes attracted so many ears, and now hes able to start feeding those ears with the messages that he wants to deliver. Its almost diametric opposition to his contemporaries. Listen to the other hip-hop thats in the landscape right now and it just doesnt even compare in terms of the literacy and the content. Thats one artist.

Theres Tom Morello who never really stopped. With Rage Against The Machine, the name of their group was an important message to begin with, but it was almost like they were really popular for teenagers who are engaged in adolescent angst anyway, so rebellion is kinda part of the deal. When you see an artist like Tom Morello continue on in his activism and work with Chuck D and other activists who are artists, you recognize it wasnt just a schtick, it was real, and those messages are beyond teenage angst. Those are messages that we shouldve been espousing and holding near, because when you take your eye off of the tower, somebody might supplant the establishment and take the position at the top of the tower. You wouldnt even know what happened. But when youre already part of that kind of mindset of watching out, being astute and paying attention to whats going on, you see it, you know it and you just wish that you could scream loud enough for everybody else to hear so that you can amass a movement. I think now that you see these rallies and marches like the one that happened after Inauguration, there are people whove never marched for anything in their lives in that one.Those are the people who probably felt privileged enough or didnt even recognize their privilege that they were part of they were potentially a victim or going to be threatened, just didnt even see it. But now theyre all woke and I dont mind, because we need as many colors of the rainbow as we can have to be part of the movement.

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You touch on a cool point: people marching whove never marched before in their lives. A big critique that our generation gets is that were not IRL with it. So many conversations happen via social media in this very safe, contained digital realm, but then you have the people who do go out, but dont know how to continue that conversation. What, do you think, are some ways to resolve this disconnect? I look at my heroes and my mentors; Harry Belafonte, for instance. Hes a mentor to many of us in the music business. We spend time at his house, he tells us about the stories where he had to convince Dr. Martin Luther Kings father that sending Martin Luther King to Europe was the right way to fund the movement. After Harry had spent all his money on private planes because it was dangerous to have Martin Luther King in public at some point, on hotel rooms, on venues, on buses. When money was drying up from the people like me.We go out, we sell the songs, we make the money, then we dole it out to the organizations that we believe are doing the right work on the ground. Youve got to come up with different strategies. What I feel is the answer is, we are looking to the elders, we learn those strategies and methodologies, and we find the organizations that are on the ground working hard. We see a lot of artists start their non-profit organizations and their philanthropies. A lot of that is a tax shelter.

The way I understand it, if theres an organization already doing the work, I dont need to start a foundation. They just need my money. And thats what happens. Ill do a show, and Ill tell either the buyer or the booker to be sure a portion of that goes to the organization or when I get paid, a portion of it goes to the organization. Thats really how all of us should be working. But you get your folks that start their foundations and they have gala nights and they raise more money for the foundation and really its just a tax shelter. Its kind of disheartening knowing that people like Sidney Portier and Harry Belafonte funded organizations that put foreign nationals through university programs here in the United States, one being Barack Obamas father. So had he not had the likes of the entertainment elite put money in the coffers of these foundations for young aspiring youth, we wouldnt have had our first black president. Thats the legacy, and a lot of people dont know that story. They wont ever understand the power of what we do as artists. And I ask them, did you ever feel like you were compromising anything by being a popular artist? He said no, because he would always try to put the message in the music, too. When he sang Day O, it sounds like a fun island song, but really thats a day laborers hardship. He put the real message in the music. He didnt compromise, even though it may look like it because hes a pop artist, but he was still true to what he had learned from his predecessors.

CREDIT: Brian Nevins/Getty Images for Hilton

Your music, and even some of the imagery in your videos, seems right for right now. It parallels those feelings and messages of today, as well as gives that necessary escape and uplifting energy. Did you have any sort of inkling or foresight that your music would play that kind of role now? I dont know if I had the foresight for it, I just know what I feel needs to be said. I get this opportunity to be marketed and promoted by one of the biggest pop labels in the world, and as long as theyre willing to put money behind it, then Im going to take the opportunity to either uplift or educate. Its either going to be Wake Me Up or Love Is The Answer, or like on my second to last album, Life So Hard or Politician. So its not something I foresaw. I didnt realize it would get to this dire situation so quickly, but were here. So Im going to put the messages in the music and try to get the record label to push it. I just recorded a song which I think is going to be my next single and I used the music videos a lot of the times as the PSA. I have a dream for my next single chronicling the story of Madiba, of Nelson Mandela. I think we need a visual of what a real leader is so we can understand the juxtaposition of whats happening in this administration. Of course we just had Obama, but its just too recent. People arent really championing that legacy, so we need to see one that everybody agrees on. Indisputable. Then we do the litmus test. We look at this and look at that and you tell us what is real.

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Aloe Blacc Is A Testament To The Strength Of Strategic Giving & Intentional Artistry - Vibe