CDs
LOVE HAS NO SEASON
Oyewole’s second album of songs, LOVE HAS NO SEASON (2014), centers on the theme of love and relationships. Throughout the album, Oyewole’s songs command attention by burrowing deep under the skin. A generous offering, many of the songs are fairly simple, with Oyewole expressing his artistic domination (along with signature vulnerability) over some phenomenal trap beats. Co-produced with Derrick Jordan, with music and lyrics by Oyewole, LOVE HAS NO SEASON is a feast for the ears.
ABIODUN OYEWOLE
25 YEARS
One of the original Last Poets, Abiodun Oyewole issued this excellent recording in 1996 on the Rykodisc imprint as part of producer Bill Laswell's Black Arc series. Laswell, who produced the set, gathered together a who's who of New York's downtown best to assist on 25 Years. That cast includes Henry Threadgill, Aiyb Deng, Umar Bin Hassan, Don Babatunde, Brandon Ross, and Ted Daniel, to name a few. Oyewole offers the dead on proof that he is a rapper of the first order amid drums, fat rumbling basslines, rumbling percussion, reeds, and voices. His themes are related to that of the lifelong revolutionary -- a diehard who never gives up hope -- the irony of thug life, love and lust, unity, Rastafarianism, and the struggle of living and dying in a racist America where the only real interest of the current system is preservation at all costs no matter how bloodthirsty and cannibalistic the means to that end. Oyewole is a prophet whose anger is righteous but whose compassion is real. His motivation is spiritual, based on the love of justice and a true equality: where what is equal is not defined by lip service but in the actions caused the removal of ignorance. The music is as profound and moving as the message.