Amerigo Gazaway brings to life an imagined studio session between Chicago’s crowned prince of Hip-Hop, Common, and Motown legend, Stevie Wonder.
A return to the soul meets hip-hop formula of his Marvin Gaye + Mos Def pairing Yasiin Gaye, Gazaway connects the dots between hip-hop and the genre’s predecessor with a musical history lesson told through the intersecting themes of Common and Stevie’s respective catalogues. As Gazaway put it:
“Stevie Wonder’s early use of synthesizers, drum machines, and samplers, 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”
Picking up where Common and Stevie’s 2016 Black America Again, single left off, Amerigo brings his imagined recording session to life with a slew of uncovered resources (including multitrack instrument stems, interview audio, and documentary soundbites.) Re-orchestrating deconstructed samples, the producer interweaves Common’s vivid wordplay and Wonder’s passionate vocals for a project that blurs the line between a “mashup” and a modern day duets album.
Watch the album teaser video, stream/download the first single The Sixth Superstition, and download the full album below.
Tracklist
1. Intro Theme (I Wonder)
2. I Was Made To Love H.E.R. `
3. Living For The Chi-City
4. Ressurection To Higher Ground
5. Bad Girl (feat. Kanye West)
6. The Sixth Superstition
7. Innervision Intermission
8. Sugar by The Pound
9. For Once In My Life (feat. Erykah Badu)
10. Like They Used to Say
11. God Bless the Freestyle
12. The Light (I’m Yours) (feat. Bobby Caldwell)
13. Southside (feat. Kanye West)
14. Pop’s Rap (feat. Lonnie Lynn, Sr.)
15. The Sixth Wonder (Bonus Track)
