WE BELONG is out now, today is a very special day here at City Slang. Sinkane has always paved his own way, defying all odds and surpassing expectations. With seven studio albums under his belt and an illustrious career as a composer, producer and band leader, he has orchestrated remarkable projects.
‘We Belong’ resists genre. It’s pop. It’s funk. It’s electronic. It blends the gritty punk newness of a 70s and 80s New York with the steady, foundational soul of the rhythms of his native Sudan. It is a “love letter to Black music”.
Though We Belong comes deep into the catalog of a long career, it also resists stagnation. It moves and travels—through words and eras, through emotion and healing.
We love you Ahmed, happy release day friend!
We hope you enjoy and cherish this inclusive, expansive record as much as we do! 💜💜💜
A few words from Ahmed, "I am beyond thrilled to announce that my new album, “We Belong”, will be released on April 5th via City Slang Records. Not gonna lie to you all. This album is a fucking bop. I got to work with some of my favorite musicians: Bilal, Money Mark , Tru Osborne, STOUT, Hollie Cook, Casey Benjamin, Sheddrick Mitchell, Aja Grant, Ifedayo, Amanda Khiri, Mikey Freedom Hart just to name a few.
Also, something very peculiar happened while making this album.
I got a random text from a foreign number. Someone meaning to text his daughter. Usually, I’d delete and block these things. But this one was interesting. This text was about African-American poets. Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovonni, Audre Lord.
I decided to respond to this guy. And, well, we got to know each other. The text was an honest mistake. Will Halsey is his name. It turned out that we had a lot in common. Not only our love for poets from the Black Arts Movement. But also music, musicals and life in general. We began to text frequently. Sharing poems back and forth, new and old. Together, we’d analyze poems and songs. He’d tell me fun anecdotes about what it was like living in New York in the 60s and 70s. Eventually, I started talking to him about the album that I was making. I’d send him lyrics that Amanda and I had been working on. We’d talk through ideas that I couldn’t quite translate into lyrical form. He helped me figure it all out. Kind of like an editor. Or even a spiritual guide. We plan to meet up for the first time later this month and listen to the record together. He still hasn’t heard it! Slide 3 is the video of me talking to him on the phone for the first time!"