Jamil Rashad, die optreedt onder de naam Boulevards zal zijn nieuwe album Electric Cowboy: Born in Carolina Mud op 11 februari 2022 via het New West Records zusterlabel Normaltown Records uitbrengen. Het 12 nummers tellende album werd gecoproduceerd door Blake Rhein (Durand Jones & the Indications) en Colin Croom (Twin Peaks) en werd opgenomen in Chicago, Nashville en Atlanta. Ook Adrian Quesada van de Grammy-genomineerde neo-soul act Black Pumas, Nikki Lane en Macie Stewart zijn te horen op het album. De nieuwe single Better Off Dead (ft. Nikki Lane) is nu uit.
Electric Cowboy: Born in Carolina Mud is ontstaan in de grond waar Boulevards opgroeide, beneveld in de drek van de plek. Rashad zegt: “I was born in the North Carolina mud. That’s where I have my roots. I’ve lived in Los Angeles and New York, but I keep coming back here. This is home. This is where I’ve learned the most. North Carolina doesn’t get nearly the credit it deserves, but there are all these amazing people doing it a very particular way that is very inspiring. It’s always been at the center of so many different scenes—soul, country, jazz, hip-hop, indie rock. I wanted some of that dirt on this record. I’m leaving my footprint in that mud.” Al die stijlen en genres vormen de inspiratiebron voor Electric Cowboy, maar het dominante geluid, de mentaliteit is funk: gruizig, warm, vreemd, psychedelisch en charismatisch. Rashad zegt: “On Electric Cowboy I wanted to make some modern funk, but still have some soul elements and some punk elements,” Hij noemt James Brown, Shuggie Otis en Baby Huey, maar ook Bad Brains, Gang of Four, Television en The Cramps als zijn helden.
Electric Cowboy: Born in Carolina Mud is een album vol demonen. Rashad zingt over dezelfde problemen als zijn idolen: drugsmisbruik, racisme, geweld, systematische onderdrukking en professionele en romantische zelf-sabotage. Het album zwelgt niet in de duisternis, maar biedt tegenwicht aan die beproevingen met wilde, elektrische grooves.“On the cover you see a black man on a horse running away from his demons. That’s me. You can hear it all in the songs – struggling with demons and still coming out on top of it all. That’s what funk is! You got some heavy, dark shit, but you also got some joyful compositions, funky basslines, dope harmonies, infectious hooks. So that’s me on the cover, the Electric Cowboy, slaying anything that comes in my path. I gotta keep riding, keep trucking, keep fighting, keep pushing.”
De nieuwe single heet Better Off Dead en daarop zingt niemand minder dan Nikki Lane mee.
“I wrote this song about coming off a week-long bender. The question I used to ask myself was what’s worse, the pain or the hangover? So many times after my binges, I would want to contemplate suicide and not be alive. During the following days after the pain I inflicted on myself, I would just want to leave earth and not go through it. The same goes for withdrawals from alcohol. I would have the worst migraines and the worst shakes from withdrawals. So I’d rather be ‘better off dead,’ than deal with all this pain.” Luister Better Off Dead ft. Nikki Lane hieronder. Eerder werd al de single Where Is Da Luv? uitgebracht.
