GOAPELE IS BACK
For the better part of a decade Oakland, CA singer/songwriter Goapele has shared her dreams, politics, romances and lost loves as she has grown into an eloquent and enigmatic womanhood. Now, with the video for her new single “Milk & Honey” the songstress reveals a more confident, open and sensual side.
The Bedrock produced track and David Telles helmed video oozes with a syrupy sex appeal that many fans may be unaccustomed to, but that’s because Goapele is liberating herself a bit. “Its more suggestive than any other songs I’ve done,” she shares. “There have been little sprinkles on my other albums, but I’m feeling a little more bold and less afraid to be sexy.”
Her emerging grown-and-sexy bravado is highlighted by David Telles’ delicious visuals. Telles provides honey-dipped imagery over Bedrock’s beautifully layered electro soul, making “Milk & Honey” a very sensory experience. Over this backdrop, Goapele welcomes you into more intimate environs and emotions, coyly writhing as she sings, “Lay back, let me blow your mind.”
While there was something very empowering about appearing in a t-shirt sans make-up on the cover of her debut album, Even Closer, there is something equally empowering about shedding her fears of music industry exploitation and strutting confidently into more brazen territory. “Now if I want to dress sexy, I can, and if I want to be be more blunt, I can,” she says. “I just want to do what feels good.”
Milk & Honey is being recorded at The Zoo, home to Goapele’s Bay Area based Skylight Studios, and so far is shaping up to be another deeply honest and personal album. She has written and recorded many introspective love records, while also highlighting her new found bold femininity with more fun and fantastical songs. Production-wise, tracks with Bedrock, Kanye West, Dan Electric, Mike Tiger, Bobby Ozuna (Raphael Saadiq, John Mayer, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige), Malay (John Legend), Jeff Bhasker (The Game, Keri Hilson, Kanye West, Ludacris, T.I) and other musicians are in the works, so the end product promises to be the perfect blend of today’s hottest talent and Goapele’s renown soul shattering vocals.
