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Cherrywine


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Cherrywine's debut record, Bright Black, to be released on the DCide label in partnership with Babygrande Records this spring, take's listeners on a personal, funky, soulful trip. Laced with lyrics that echo in your head long after the first listen, the album melds rap with more traditional songwriting filled with guitars and keyboards reminiscent of early Outkast and Prince (circa Dirty Mind).In the case of Ishmael Butler, founder of this raw but enticing effort, Cherrywine marks the metamorphosis of his career with a new musical sound and a deeper artist perspective. _

In the early '90's, Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler was at the forefront of a new wave of urban music as the founder and leader of Digable Planets. Along with fellow members Mary Ann "Ladybug" Viera (aka Mecca) and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving (aka Knowledge), they created music charged with classic jazz samples, hip hop beats and politically greased lyrics. They released two definitive albums, their platinum selling debut album Reachin' (a new refutation of time and space) in 1993 and it's follow-up Blowout Comb in 1994, before disbanding in 1996. They also won a Grammy in 1993 for best rap performance by a group for their MTV-friendly single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat')."_

After the New York-based group separated Ishmael packed up and headed west to Seattle, where he had lived early in life. There he met up with guitarist Thaddeus Turner and his bass-playing brother Gerald, who turned Ishmael, a jazz-head, on to guitar based blues and funk. He also stepped into the acting world and starred in the leading role of I am Ali, a standout film at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival written by one of VIBE Magazine's most celebrated scribes, Dream Hampton._

Over the next few years Ishmael learned to play the guitar and keyboards--classic blues and funk becoming a focus-by playing along to Sly Stone and Prince records. He then formed Cherrywine, a name Ishmael chose because as he explains, "I like the things that can be inferred from it." In addition to the Turner brothers, Seattle guitarist Bubba Jones joined his live hip-hop act, and together they laid the foundations for Bright Black. _

For the recording of Bright Black, Ishmael teamed up with Dave Darlington, who engineered Digable's Blowout Comb and Larri Sims to co-produce the record. Moving beyond traditional hip-hop, Ishmael lays out what he knows in life and all its temptations on songs like "Dazzlement." If anything, he takes issue with the underground rappers and performers who hate on the stars of MTV. "It's not a hayride for these people-they work hard. I just stopped looking at stuff like that and being judgmental. And I'm not going to react to someone else's creativity to form my own. That's corny to me."_

For Ishmael, his creativity is fueled by his own personal experiences. Truth is a priority, both as a writer and as a performer. He felt a thinness in his previous work and digs deeper lyrically and musically to create something more hard-won and hopefully, more appreciated. "Writing this way is hard, because it's almost like knowledge. The more you expose yourself, the more you realize how much you're kind of stepping on or hiding."_

He now uses fewer words to convey more exacting emotion and powerful feeling. On "I Had to Lie," Butler explains to a girlfriend his rationale for the fables he weaves. The music of "See for Miles" sounds like the driving swirl of obsession and addiction, whatever the drug. Butler's mastery of language and his innate ability to be one step ahead of his contemporaries (acknowledged from his days with Digable) has not diminished as he continues to stake new directions with his sound._

In addition to a deeper writing style, Butler is no longer just a straight rapper finding a hook and a sample. He has seen a higher road in the struggles musicians go through trying to make the sounds in their head appear on the track. "I just felt like being a musician meant playing an instrument, you know? I don't know if that's necessarily true, but that's how I felt," says Butler. "And I started to feel inadequate. I had been lazy… just doing the minimum amount of work to live."_

Butler's musical transition has been internal and deeply felt, but reaching his fans is still the priority. "There's something in me that wants to relate to everybody, to find a common ground, something we all share. When everybody is out at the club, and carousing and trying to get up and get a little away from whatever they're trying to get away from--to be able to make music to facilitate that is romance."

 

 

 

I know it's alot to read. Just concentrate a little.

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