Jamila Woods

One Liner: Hook singer for Chance the Rapper with a silky smooth voice
Wikipedia Genre: R&B, soul, hip hop
Spotify Says Similar To: BJ the Chicago Kid and Kari Faux
Home: Chicago

Poster Position: 18
Slot: ?

Thoughts:  First instinct, based on the first song, was that this lady sang on the Chance the Rapper Coloring Book album.  A little bit of research later, and YES!  My ears are magical temples made of golden fleece and truffle butter.  She is the one with the hook on "Blessings" from that Coloring Book album.  So, I expect that this means we'll have her up there with Chance, actually throwing down the real hooks to her songs, which makes for a cooler show than one with a replacement singer or a pre-recorded hook.  Thumbs up.

No bio on Spotify, and she has a tiny entry on Wikipedia that mentions her as appearing on two Chance songs and one Macklemore/Ryan Lewis track.  Her Spotify page only has four songs (only two of which are really her original songs), although her Wikipedia bio states that she released an album on Soundcloud in 2016 "to critical acclaim."  Pitchfork ranked it as the 36th best album of 2016.  Well, it may have been the greatest thing ever, but I didn't listen to it because I'm old and crotchety and therefore don't go on to Soundcloud for music.  *shakes 8 year old iPod shuffle at the clouds, mutters to self about storing his music in them*

"Blk Girl Soldier" is her top track at 559k streams on Spotify.

Awesome voice and great track, on that Erykah Badu-type educational vibe.  "Look at what they did to my sister last century, last week."  Damn.  The other tune is the one that reminded me so much of her turn with Chance, this one is "Holy," which has 397k streams.

Self-love, empowerment stuff.  "Woke up this morning with my mind set on loving me."  No need to be lonely just because you are alone.  This tracks an old gospel song that said that the singer woke up this morning with her mind on Jesus.  Cool switch to shift from Jesus to her own holy self.  I like it.

This is not my type of music I'd normally listen to, but its hard to not enjoy her stellar voice and smooth sound.  I probably won't go watch her in the Fall, except for when she sings Chance's hooks, but I enjoyed these two tracks.