Legendary singer-songwriter and producer Raphael Saadiq is getting ready to return with his fifth solo album. After a hiatus in which he spent time working as a producer on Solange’s A Seat At The Table album, and as the music composer on HBO’s Insecure, his first project in seven years is on the way, drawing inspiration from the name of his older brother, who died a drug overdose.
“Jimmy Lee, that’s my brother’s name, of course. It just never dawned on me that I never really realized my brother’s situation, or how fatal it was,” Saadiq recently told okayplayer in a recent interview. “I started thinking about it, and I just wanted to make an album about it. I have a lot of friends who have similar issues as my brother. He was a really good friend, so I thought maybe it’s time for me to deal with the subject a little bit.”
On what listeners can expect from the project, he reveals that sonically not much has changed while the content will be deeper than what fans are used to.
“Some of the same things. Different chords,” he remarks. “It’s a little darker in storytelling. Not really fast, but it’s a little aggressive.
Jimmy Lee follows on the heels of 2011’s Stone Rollin’ and does not yet a have a release date.