Earlier this summer, our girl Maimouna Youssef was kind enough to bless us with an exclusive preview of her new duo with DJ Dummy, The Vintage Babies, and their upcoming Vintage Babies album. Rooted in '70s soul and brimming with words of inspiration, the "Shine Your Light" premiere was the perfect bait to get us hooked. And we're here to tell y'all, the full album does not disappoint.
Given Mumu's variegated but consistent track record – remember, this is a woman who can switch from sultry soulstress to inspirational educator to empowering activist to fierce femcee and beyond – plus genius-level production skills of DJ Dummy, we already knew that the collaborative project would be SoulBounce-worthy. Not to mention the fact that they have great musical chemistry (both are members of Common's touring band) and their previous partnering gave us the greatness that is The Reintroduction of Mumu Fresh. The duo picks up right where they left off, giving us track after track of pure heat.
Vintage Babies comes in two flavors, Clean Version or Explicit. If you don't plan on listening around the kiddies, opt for the latter. You'll get "grown folks" skits and two extra tracks, "Do Your Own Thing" and "Say My Name" (a tribute to Sandra Bland), that absolutely should not be missed. The album also boasts some noteworthy features by Common, SiR, Elena Pinderhughes and Raquel “Ra” Brown, along with background support from Eric Lau, Kaidi Tatham and Daniel Crawford.
Dig into the stellar Vintage Babies collection and peep the lyric video for the sunny, Latin-infused groove "Run Away" right here. Then head to Bandcamp or iTunes to purchase Vintage Babies in the version of your choice.
