Leather Blvd. on the POW Best Albums of 2023

Pink Siifu claims no territory, geographic or sonic: he’s lived all over the country and in recent years has excelled at aggro punk, dusty bars-on-bars raps, and aquatic funk. Together with Long Beach producer Ahwlee as B. Cool-Aid, they make “family reunion music,” a combo of grit and groove to provide the pulse for multi-generational kick-backs. Their new album Leather Blvd. soundtracks an imagined, ideal Black-owned neighborhood. It’s inspired by the neo-soul sounds of Badu, Jill Scott, and D’angelo and the Yodas before them, like Sly, Prince, and the Ohio Players. As John Morrison wrote, this imaginary street “could be in Stankonia, or it could be on P-Funk’s Mothership, or in Henry Dumas’s Holly Springs – or any other place where Black folks can imagine a world in which we are able to create, make love, and be free.”

This is music made by people who love being together. Siifu and Ahwlee were friends first. Veterans of the Low End Theory beat scene, they met at a birthday party for fellow producer Mndsgn and discovered a similar sense of humor and style. They developed these songs through a post-modern jamming process: Ahwlee made beats from samples of a Richmond jazz group Butcher Brown and instrumentalist DJ Harrison – who then re-recorded the new compositions under Siifu’s vocals. After that, they swaddled the tracks in layers of communal backing vocals and guest appearances from like-minded soulsters like Liv.e, Quelle Chris, Ladybug Mecca of Digable Planets, and Dungeon Family figurehead Big Rube. The result is warm, lascivious, and endlessly listenable. It’s like the rambunctious little cousin to Voodoo. Do you like having fun and feeling good? Then be sure to drop by Leather Blvd.

Originally published on POW.