With the May release of her unflinching debut, Shea Butter Baby (Dreamville), D.C. native Ari Lennox establishes herself as a vital voice in contemporary R&B. On album opener “Chicago Boy,” she muses about a guy she meets by chance in a Chicago CVS and the sexual escapades that ensue: “Might, might bend it over / Love you like Sosa,” she sings over sultry jazz instrumentation. And this is all before she ends the song with a spoken disclaimer about how “fucking freaky” things are about to get.…
With the May release of her unflinching debut, Shea Butter Baby (Dreamville), D.C. native Ari Lennox establishes herself as a vital voice in contemporary R&B. On album opener “Chicago Boy,” she muses about a guy she meets by chance in a Chicago CVS and the sexual escapades that ensue: “Might, might bend it over / Love you like Sosa,” she sings over sultry jazz instrumentation. And this is all before she ends the song with a spoken disclaimer about how “fucking freaky” things are about to get.…