Speech Debelle Practices “Freedom Of Speech” With Soulful Jazz-Infused Hip-Hop

“So if I break it down slowly, they can really see where I’m coming from,” raps Speech Debelle in her latest endeavor aptly titled Freedom of Speech.

Not afraid of her own sonic shadow or the darkness in between spaces of light when rapping about the inner workings of her soul, Debelle does break it down slowly on her sophomore album.

Swaddled by jazzy interludes, soulful instrumental meanderings and flossy, fitful percussion perfect for a psychedelic funk album of sorts, Debelle seems to be having a musical tête-à-tête with her listeners–or herself.

An intimate relationship highlighted by the spoken-word poetry of her silvery rapping style and the almost shamanic spiritual allusions hidden hopefully within the angst of her life story.

In Debelle’s “Live For The Message,” the soulful singer-songwriter and rapper cuts through her artistic cloth and exposes her soul with telling the listener that she since her Mercury Prize recognized début album, she’s decided to “rap without fear” because there’s “no gain without pain” and that she lives for the “message” which is spiritual wealth–a phrase that she repeats throughout the album including on the third song, “Blaze Up A Fire.”

“Spiritual wealth is what fills up my cup” says Debelle in “Blaze Up A Fire,” her almost Bjork-like singing voice juxtaposed by the masculine rhymes of  Roots Manueva and Realism who ask us if we want to “make money or history.“

Probably, in everyone’s case involved, a little bit of both.

Money can’t buy everything though and Debelle’s personal history plays a strong part in “Elephant,” a song seemingly about relationship issues, the weakness of humanity, and the “elephant” in the middle of the “living room floor,” which is surrounded by melancholic strings–so bittersweet that the song is almost tear-jerking.

Despite peering into Debelle’s intimate conversations, “Angel Wings” comes off as a song of hope with an experimental classical style, almost at times ambient and New Age-y, an inspirational track that decides to veer off from what could be perceived as a sappy direction with a perceptive edge.

Debelle gives a nod to writers and bloggers who called her arrogant but that she has her “angel wings” and she’s not “afraid of flying.”

Or falling.

It’s all a part of the human condition that Debelle almost distracts us with in “I’m With It, ” a song infused with an upbeat disco style, a driving dance beat, shimmering strings, sexy broken percussive cadences, and that overall feeling of being in love with the moment.

A song that has an edge of Prince, maybe not sonically, but energetically.

“Eagle Eye” begs for your moment to get crazy, although that’s more with feelings than in the orgiastic party state that Prince would suggest.

“Let’s get it done. Why wait for the rapture?,” raps Speech Debelle. “You can’t clip these wings,” she reminds us.

Debelle is prepared for anything that life gives her, as long as it’s imbued with freedom. “What am I running from? What am I running to? I can’t see it’s all so bright,” says Debelle, summing up her “conundrum” in life perfectly in the last song, “Sun Dog,” a favorite on the album.

A beacon of light in a cold, dark world, Freedom of Speech shows that Debelle doesn’t think you can find “spiritual wealth” in just the sunshine.

Sometimes it takes a minor tone or the kink of a grace note to remind you of the power of your introspective liberties.

Speech Debelle- Freedom Of Speech(Big Dada)

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Tracklisting:

01. Studio Backpack Rap
02. Live For The Message
03. Blaze Up A Fire (feat. Roots Manuva & Realism)
04. Elephant In The Living Room
05. X Marks The Spot
06. Angel Wings
07. Shawshank Redemption
08. I’m With It
09. The Problem
10. Collapse
11. Eagle Eye (feat. Realism)
12. Sun Dog