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Editorial Reviews

"I have no fear," exclaims 22-year-old Bilal (Beloved, Intelligent, Lustful, and Livin' It) on the improvisational-sounding church jam session "Sometime," from this breathtaking debut. And it's that fearlessness that sets the Philly-born, classically trained singer-songwriter apart from his neo-soul contemporaries. Prior to the disc's much-buzzed-about and long-delayed release, Bilal's cachet as a member of the progressive soul collective the Soulquarians -- which includes Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, and the Roots' drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson -- landed him standout guest shots on Common's Like Water for Chocolate and Guru's Streetsoul. But on 1st Born Second, Bilal steps front-and-center with a daring charisma and a cocky, sexually charged approach that hasn't been heard since the Artist once again known as Prince started making sense. On the intoxicating, Raphael Saadiq-produced "Soul Sista" (originally from the Love & Basketball soundtrack) and the jazzy, James Poyser-produced "When Will You Call," the falsetto-prone Bilal matches the seductive, Princely presence of his Soulquarians soulmate D'Angelo. His obvious influences aside, however, Bilal is anything but derivative. Throughout the 17-song disc, he convincingly tackles subject matter both lighthearted (the breezy ode to lost love "Reminisce," featuring Mos Def and Common) and heavy-handed (the chilling black-on-black crime depiction "Second Child"), and his uninhibited vocals adapt as well to lazy hip-hop beats (the Dr. Dre-produced "Fast Lane") as they do to sunny, out-of-sync R&B grooves (the Mike City-produced "Love It"). On the disc's intro, the petite, dreadlocked singer humbly proclaims himself "a shining star here to break you off a bar," and he more than fulfills that prophecy. As Prince once mused, "This is not music, this is a trip." Tracy E. Hopkins, Barnes & Noble

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