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Time - Man of the Year
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1993-04-08
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REVIEWS, Page 70MUSICA Sweet yet Fiery Essence
By GIL GRIFFIN
PERFORMER: NENEH CHERRY
ALBUM: Homebrew
LABEL: Virgin
THE BOTTOM LINE: The singer-rapper paints poignant,
street-smart scenes of life, love and urban reality.
One minute she is tender, singing with a lilt as soft and
sweet as cotton candy. The next she drives her points home by
rapping tart, in-your-face rhymes as pungent as picante salsa.
Afro-British singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry, 27, exhibited this
sweet yet fiery (and fervently feminist) demeanor on her
memorable 1989 debut album, Raw Like Sushi. The alluring
dichotomy continues on her sensational new release, Home brew.
Call it the essence of being Neneh.
The album, co-produced in first-rate fashion by Cherry with
her husband Booga Bear and Johnny Dollar, kicks off with the
appropriately titled Sassy, an old-school, freestyle rap tune,
in which she asserts, "Fellas got to give me the most respect/
'Cause you know I don't waste my time." Propelled by a jazzy
piano riff, she rhymes a duet with the Guru, a raspy male rapper
from the group Gang Starr. "If you step to her wrong," he warns,
"you're getting played like jazz."
Many of the cuts, such as Move with Me, Twisted and Red
Paint, show Cherry in a soul-searching mood, singing and
rapping almost mystically ("Move with me, I'm strong enough/ To
be weak in your arms"). The sparse, moody arrangements,
combining synthesizer strings, record-turntable scratches and
occasional guitar, bass and piano riffs, give her hip-hop, rock
and jazz fusion a delightfully surreal ambience.
But Cherry rocks out too. Money Love, the first single
released from the album, flexes a kinetic, chunky drumbeat and
power guitar riffs. Trout, which despite its ambiguous title is a
hymn of praise for sex education in public schools, is set to
a booming, get-up-out-of-your-seat hip-hop drum rhythm, with
guitars and harmonica added for good measure. On this track
Cherry does a snappy duet with R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe,
who manages not to embarrass himself while rapping.
Homebrew's hallmark track, though, is I Ain't Gone Under
Yet, an eloquent portrait of a stereotype-defying young mother
on the streets. The piece aims to make listeners rethink their
assumptions about the homeless and single mothers. First Cherry
raps, "The city's my home, the streets where I roam/ But still
I leave the drugs and violence alone." Then she breaks out into
smooth singing: "Your under is my over/ I've never seen your
over yet/ But don't forget/ I ain't gone under yet."