One of November's wildly underrated releases arrived today (November 4) in the form of Caged Bird Songs, an album centered around the words and voice of legendary poet Dr. Maya Angelou.
"This project is important," Angelou said before her death. "It's woven into the tapestry of our lives, and we're being serious and giving and kind about it. So obviously, it's going somewhere. And we have to release it to go there." Aol is currently hosting a clip of Angelou talking about the project with such grace that it sounds like she's reciting a poem.
According to a press release, the album was produced by Shawn Rivera and RoccStarr. It features Angelou reciting poems like "Still I Rise," "On Aging," "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" and "Human Family" over a hip-hop landscape that contains elements of funk and rock. Angelou's voice is soft, yet demands attention as she delivers her words. Check out the tracklist and a few of the pieces below.
Rivera picked poems from the writer's body of work that contained a natural musicality already, Billboard notes. "Her life story rang a bell with me," the producer said. "I wanted to bring her message musically to her fans as well as a new generation."
Angelou won three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album in 1993, 1995 and 2002. Her other musical endeavors included collaborations with Ashford & Simpson, Wynton Marsalis and Roberta Flack, among others. She also recorded a calypso album in 1957.
Her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, came out in 1969 and propelled the writer to notoriety.
Caged Bird Songs Tracklist
01. Human Family
02. Pow Pow
03. Sepia Fashion Show
04. Harlem Hopscotch
05. Pickin’ Em Up
06. On Aging
07. Ain’t That Bad
08. One More Round
09. Come And Be My Baby
10. The Thirteens
11. Africa
12. Life Doesn’t Frighten Me
13. Still I Rise
