Review: Black Spade, “To Serve with Love”

Black Spade
To Serve with Love
Om Records

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Earlier this week, I was reminiscing about the critical reception to Slum Village’s second album (and first with wide distribution), Fantastic Vol. II. Many critics focused on strange and abrupt the group sounded. Others questioned whether Baatin, T3, and J-Dilla (then known as Jay Dee) could even rap. The lyrics were brittle and harsh, with constant references to “bitches” and thuggin’ it up in the club, and a stark contrast to Dilla’s warm, soulful beats. Years after its 2000 release, Fantastic Vol. 2 is widely hailed as a classic in spite of — or rather, because of — its faults.

To Serve with Love isn’t as groundbreaking as Slum Village’s opus, but it heralds the arrival of a major new talent. And Black Spade, a musician based in St. Louis, also exhibits quirks that are intrinsic to his style. When he raps, he tends to ramble, like a boxer waving his arms without landing a shot. But that meandering quality gives his songs a conversational quality, as if he were in your home, playing at a piano for you.

At an hour and ten minutes, To Serve with Love is rambling and scattershot, a varied collection of Black Spade’s ideas and sounds. Sometimes he raps; other times he sings. He plays with soft neo-soul, stomping disco, ragged electro-funk, and jazzy hip-hop. His gulliest tracks come near the end of the disc in the form of “True Friends,” where he reflects on all the dudes who hated on him years ago over a mordant, melancholy loop; and “Where I’m Coming From,” where he rips over a horn section hardened by reverb. Describing his hometown, he raps, “St. Louis, where we bump you and we don’t say sorry/Some don’t cross that bridge, don’t get out much/Some of us use government helpings as our crutch/We chill on porches, don’t need spots to set it.”

Other standouts include “Actioneer,” which lopes with handclap percussion and a singalong chorus, and “To Serve with Love,” where Black Spade runs down “that ol’ relationship shit from back in the day” and reminisces about a former girlfriend. Some tracks, however, feel indistinct, merely workouts bracketed by strong melodies and Black Spade’s rambling rap. They feel like overlong segues to the next memorable tune. He experiments on these songs: for “Evil Love,” he opens with a phone recording from a French girl, then closes by winding down the beat as if it were a record slipping from 33 to 78 RPM.

If To Serve with Love had a better ratio of hits-to-filler, then it would qualify as a true masterpiece instead of a promising debut. However, Black Spade’s achievement, no matter how modest, can’t be denied. With To Serve with Love, he has created an album that sparkles with his three-dimensional personality.

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