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Classic Recordings: Ari Lennox – Shea Butter Baby

Thirteen tracks from the album that made a Washington DC singer the most quoted R&B voice of 2019 — and did it mostly by being funny.

Ari Lennox: Shea Butter Baby (2019)

Ari Lennox was the first woman signed to Dreamville, J. Cole's label, and Shea Butter Baby is the record that justified the signing several times over. It is a debut that sounds like a third album: confident, specific, structurally sound, and written in a voice that is recognisably one person's rather than a genre's.

The thing that separates it from its contemporaries is tone. Most R&B debuts of that period aimed for either seduction or heartbreak. Lennox writes about rent, roommates, being broke, wanting to be left alone, and enjoying herself — and she is genuinely funny, which almost nobody in the genre risks.

The voice does the rest. It is a rich, slightly husky instrument with an old-fashioned quality that makes even her most contemporary production sound like it belongs to the seventies.

What to listen for

"Shea Butter Baby" with J. Cole is the title track and the best-constructed single — a groove built on almost nothing, with a chorus that arrives sideways.

"BMO" is the one everyone quotes, and it is the clearest demonstration of the humour.

"New Apartment" is the album's thesis: a song about living alone that is entirely about freedom rather than loneliness, which is a rarer subject than it should be.

"Whipped Cream" is the emotional centre and the best vocal performance here — a song about self-sabotage delivered without any self-pity at all.

"Broke" with JID is the label-mate collaboration and the funniest track, and "Up Late" and "Static" are the deep cuts that reward repeat listening.

"Chicago Boy" opens the album beautifully, and "Get Close" closes it.

Go deeper

The PHO EP (2016) is where the sound was worked out, and age/sex/location (2022) is the follow-up.

The Dreamville roster — JID, Bas, EARTHGANG — is the immediate context. For singers in the same lineage, Erykah Badu is the obvious ancestor and Yasmin Lacey the British contemporary.

Why it holds up: debut albums usually give away their inexperience in the sequencing — too many ideas, no shape. This one is thirteen tracks, under forty minutes, and every song is doing a specific job. That discipline is rarer than a good voice, and it is the reason people still play the album rather than the singles.

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