The album, produced by Flying Lotus and Thundercat, features musical contributions from Ty Dolla $ign, Childish Gambino, Lil B, Kamasi Washington, Steve Lacy, Steve Arrington, BADBADNOTGOOD, Louis Cole and Zack Fox.
“It Is What It Is” follows his game-changing third album “Drunk” (2017). That record completed his transition from virtuoso bassist to bonafide star and cemented his reputation as a unique voice that transcends genre. “This album is about love, loss, life and the ups and downs that come with that,” Bruner says about “It Is What It Is”. “It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but at different points in life you come across places that you don’t necessarily understand… some things just aren’t meant to be understood.”
The unruly bounce of new single ‘Black Qualls’ is classic Thundercat, teaming up with Steve Lacy (The Internet) and Funk icon Steve Arrington (Slave). It’s another example of Stephen Lee Bruner’s desire to highlight the lineage of his music and pay his respects to the musicians who inspired him. Discovering Arrington’s output in his late teens, Bruner says he fell in love with his music immediately: “The tone of the bass, the way his stuff feels and moves, it resonated through my whole body.”
‘Black Qualls’ emerged from writing sessions with Lacy, whom Thundercat describes as “the physical incarnate of the Ohio Players in one person - he genuinely is a funky ass dude”. It references what it means to be a black American with a young mindset: “What it feels like to be in this position right now… the weird ins and outs, we’re talking about those feelings… Part of me knew this [track] was where Steve [Arrington] left us.”
Thundercat forms a cornerstone of the Brainfeeder label; he released “Golden Age of Apocalypse” (2011), “Apocalypse” (2013), followed by EP “The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam” featuring the modern classic ‘Them Changes’. He was later “at the creative epicenter” of the 21st century’s most influential hip-hop album Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly”, where he won a Grammy for his collaboration on the track ‘These Walls’ before releasing his game-changing third album “Drunk” in 2017. In 2018 Thundercat and Flying Lotus composed an original score for an episode of Golden Globe and Emmy award winning TV series “Atlanta” (created and written by Donald Glover).
Album photography by Eddie Alcazar.

在经历了2002年初格莱美颁奖典礼那个美妙的夜晚之后，全世界无数热心的歌迷对于Alicia Keys的第二张个人专辑都在翘首以待，期待着这位灵魂乐才女能够给歌迷更多新的惊喜。现在，这张专辑终于来了，在发行后的第一周，这张专辑横扫唱片店货架，售出了61万8千张，这样的成绩比她第一张专辑《Songs in A Minor》最高24万张的单周销量高出一倍还要多的多，同时这也令这张专辑毫无阻力的登上了Billboard排行榜冠军的宝座。

每一名歌手获得了格莱美奖之后都会自然而然得承受到一些压力，对于Alicia Keys这样风头席卷一届格莱美奖的歌手来说更是如此，因而为了这张新专辑的制作，Alicia Keys倾尽了将近一年的时间来精心打磨，以期能够延续自上一张专辑之后的辉煌。Alicia Keys并没有让人失望，这张由各路精英打造出来的专辑证明了Alicia Keys并没有被五项格莱美奖杯的压力所压倒，除了以其拥有的似乎无限的音乐才华继续创作出了以《You Don't Know My Name》为代表的这样优秀的单曲以外，并且还继续展现着自己卓越的演奏才能。在这张名为“Alicia Keys日记”的专辑中，除了优美的音乐之外，更多的表现出了Alicia Keys的成熟以及丰富细腻的感情，专辑中或描绘出了一个年轻女人的复杂而曲折的爱情，或流露了一个少女对于音乐所拥有的浪漫和梦想。Alicia Keys是在尽情的展示着自己各方面的音乐才华，她是以音乐为生的，以创作和表演音乐来为她的生活带来快乐，也正是这样的状态才使Alicia Keys和她的音乐能够近乎完美的结合在一起，令听者陶醉在其中。

作为最顶尖的少女R&B歌星，五项格莱美奖的得主，Alicia Keys的第二张专辑同她的前作一样的出色，继续保持Alicia Keys特有的风格，她能够把所有优秀的灵魂乐歌手的优点提取出来，并且恰如其分的将其融入自己的音乐之中，多种元素的加入，赋予了音乐生命力。两年的努力，一张优秀的专辑。

On her second album, the Atlanta singer uses her bluesy, soulful contralto to express a deep, almost ecstatic sense of loneliness.

Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes today announce What Kinda Music – a masterful collaboration between two artists of very different disciplines, and one of the most unique and seamlessly original projects of its ilk to date, slated for an April 24 release on Blue Note, one of the most legendary music labels around and one known for moving the needle of jazz through the decades.

Until a late flurry of percussion arrives, doleful guitar and bass are Solána Rowe’s only accompaniment on opener “Supermodel,” a stinging kiss-off to an adulterous ex. It doesn’t prepare you for the inventively abstract production that follows—disembodied voices haunting the airy trap-soul of “Broken Clocks,” “Anything”’s stuttering video-game sonics—but it instantly establishes the emotive power of her rasping, percussive vocal. Whether she’s feeling empowered by her physicality on the Kendrick Lamar-assisted “Doves in the Wind” or wrestling with insecurity on “Drew Barrymore,” SZA’s songs impact quickly and deeply.