Nailah Blackman's dirty, dazzling charisma

I haven't felt moved to break a soca artist out of the rolling thread in a long time, but Nailah Blackman's handful of singles are super exciting and she's alarmingly charming in her videos.

Her very short discography touches a lot of T&T cultural bases without being exclusive. Here's her unabashed attempt at a Carnival anthem/history lesson, "Sokah" [I feel obliged to warn you that this video is sponsored by Uber]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw7TpFMRD5s

That's her grandfather, originator of soca (or sokah as he preferred it) Lord Shorty, at the start of the "Sokah" video explaining how it began as a synthesis of elements of T&T's usually segregated Indian and African traditions. (Incidentally, her whole family is musical; her aunt Marge currently has a big tune with Voice: https://youtu.be/twlzqlRLpRE)

The winning combination of smut and sunshine on "O' Lawd Oye" is what convinced me to start this likely quixotic thread. Classic calypsonian dutty lyrical vibes + a fantastic rippling zouk bassline:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6XTTHm98PQ

Her most recent track is "Dame Lorraine," an ode to the mas character of the same name (gis highly recommended):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFbvlNfryNQ

If you're still here, check her solo debut from last year, "Baila Mami": https://youtu.be/jJs5zR3dWCw

Her duet with Jamaican singjay Shenseea (herself a welcome new arrival in dancehall's currently exceptionally male-dominated ranks), "Badishh," is lots of fun: https://youtu.be/heQY8otg6YA

And for completion's sake, there's her first appearance on record, singing the hook on Kes's "Workout" with what one youtube commenter called her "hummingbird" voice, which I assume they meant as an insult but hummingbirds are amazing fuiud: https://youtu.be/JOqPFQ3ndss

I’m all for this thread, of course. Bravo!

thank you for debolding this thread longneck :)

Baila Mami is so delicious. I didn’t even know who her family is.

I know far less about T&T music history than JA, so getting into Nailah has also been fun on the wikipedia/google rabbit hole front as well, though I haven't managed to finish that Lord Shorty piece I linked as red bull's website color scheme makes me want to die

Let it be known that that the other song on the Jamette Riddim is actually by Shenseea. If these two could help each other to the top it would be quite awesome.

This one. Not trying to derail the thread but I think it's interesting how they're sort of shadowing each other's rise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdz1gfgZY2M

Linking them makes tons of sense, for sure. I wasn't really feeling Shenseea on Jamette the first time, but that's much better than I remembered. A little opportunistic, but that's par for the course with her now and I've come around to admiring her hustle at this point. I bet we'll see her on something afrobeats (Nigerian or UK) soon.

"Badishh" rules though, and their voices complement each other perfectly, in both pitch and texture; they make a believable pair of friends in the video too

She's already been on Cadenza's «Parking Lot» with Yxng Bane, lol. It's cool. I would have expected it to be bigger than it was.

ha, totally missed that! listening now...she's great on this beat

She is, though!

And for completion's sake, there's her first appearance on record, singing the hook on Kes's "Workout" with what one youtube commenter called her "hummingbird" voice, which I assume they meant as an insult but hummingbirds are amazing fuiud:

I'm not entirely sold on her voice tbqh but it's definitely interesting how much her vocal style borrows from chutney. The combination of that kind of nasal delivery and unconventional scales gives it a real Indo feel. idk how much of that it deliberate and how much is just the effect of autotune tho.

that's a great point, I don't know chutney or bollywood in any depth at all, but to this novice there's a little Lata or Asha in the nasal tone.

Glad there's a thread for her! Have had this interview on my mp3 player to listen to but hadn't gotten around to it yet: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/rum-club/e/52328703

Oh nice, never heard of that podcast, thanks etc!

not as head over heels for this one, but her stylistic versatility (this is kind of dubby/rootsy) continues to impress:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Z3RrqvaxM

btw that podcast etc mentioned was pretty delightful

I've woken up every morning this week with Dangerous Boy in my head, so in honor of that, here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkHnAPG4G0o

<3

never got too into the couple of EDM-ish tracks she dropped over the summer (though the video for "Birthday Song" is v cute), but the new one, "Iron Love," heads back to T&T:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJGtA0iZe2A

That's awesome :-)

She's got a new one with Shenseea, "We Ready (Champion Gyal)":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xowe0cmpFj8

a perfect end-of-summer confection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8kCU1cFg88

"Sweet & Loco"

(cross-file this with puns you had missed too)

bless you and your devoted little thread, rob

aw thank you! tbh my devotion has def waned a little lately, so I was genuinely thrilled at how much I like this. I'll have to report back when I get a chance to listen to the whole EP

nice one - kind of a Ghanaian beat, alkayida-ish?

I honestly can’t remember what al kayida sounds like but it’s def an aftobeats vibe

Or afrobeats maybe

This kind of stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG8LGFSypeM
Ebony • Date Ur Fada

Beyoncé and Shatta Wale’s “Already” would be a recent high-profile example.

(Turns out she made “Sweet & Loco” with UK Afrobeats producers Team Salut, so it checks out)

aptly titled More Sokah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYgkqQ4enIc

it's Bam Bam Season:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cQCZxq29B8

"Boujee" is a rich text:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqqyPN_h1yM

^that had me a little worried she was going for some doja cat so-random pivot

happily she can still bring the vibes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hT_uCFOd4M

"Farmer" f. Sammy Jo

oh I missed this one in December -- more intl pop-sounding but love the bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wNd5ZIjQLY

"Big Deal" (video is a whole ~thing~ so maybe just stream it)

more sweet afro-soca guitar on "Trouble Wine"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryTXV25Ubvk

I was really excited to see this Trini dancehall collab with Medz Boss, "Talk Less"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Si3KxePZw

"Drama" is sweet and a little melancholy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_-8FjAgYOM

Nailah going all afropop on us in “Sidung Pun It”, with Oxlade joining in on the fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlOsbiAzGTI

the video won’t premiere until tomorrow, so here’s the audio as a placeholder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8T6Mg8wFjw

I also need to namecheck producer Dee Mad.

yeah that is nice! good job Dee Mad

also bc, I like all the Oxlade you've posted, just haven't sorted any of it out in my mind really