搬運自：微信公眾號【評論搬一堆】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：ConigliaFolle

校對：Ryan-Chopin

排版：Peter D

When?Nina Simone?first learned of the church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four little girls, her immediate reaction was to try to?build a gun?in her garage for retaliation. After a cooler head prevailed, thanks to her then-husband/manager, she retreated to the den of her home in Mount Vernon, New York and wrote “Mississippi Goddam.” For the next seven years, the civil rights movement guided her artistic compass, and she became an unwavering voice for oppressed people of color everywhere.

當妮娜·西蒙妮(Nina Simone)第一次得知阿拉巴馬州伯明翰的教堂爆炸事件導(dǎo)致四個小女孩死亡時，她的第一反應(yīng)是試圖在自己的車庫里制造一把槍作為報復(fù)。多虧了當時的丈夫兼經(jīng)紀人，頭腦冷靜后，她回到紐約芒特弗農(nóng)(Mount Vernon)的家中，寫下了《密西西比戈達姆》(Mississippi Goddam)。在接下來的七年里，民權(quán)運動指引著她的藝術(shù)方向，她成為了世界各地受壓迫的有色人種的堅定代言人。

With?LEGACY! LEGACY!, Jamila Woods eagerly takes the reins from pioneers like Simone. On Woods’ 2016 debut?HEAVN, her acerbic wit was literally child’s play—transposing the clapping game “Miss Mary Mack” for stark lyrics about police brutality on “VRY BLK,” for example. Those kernels have now ripened on her second album, one that is richer and fuller in every respect. Evocative of Mos Def’s landmark album?Black on Both Sides, LEGACY! LEGACY!?marries incisive political commentary with deep introspection. The result is an album full of wordplay, anger, and wry humor. Woods returns to us a brazen young artist and woman, keenly aware of the backlash she could face for her transparency.

在《LEGACY! LEGACY!》這張專輯中，Jamila Woods從Simone這樣的先鋒手中接過了指揮棒。在Woods于2016年發(fā)行的出道專輯《HEAVN》中，她尖酸刻薄的語氣其實來源于孩童的游戲——將拍手游戲“Miss Mary Mack” 改編成了”VRY BLK”中諷刺政治暴行的歌詞。這種內(nèi)核在她的第二張專輯中已經(jīng)日臻成熟，在各個方面都更加豐富飽滿。與Mos Def飽含回憶的里程碑式專輯《Black on Both Sides》相比，《LEGACY! LEGACY》在富有敏銳政治評論的同時也有著深刻的自省性。最終的產(chǎn)出就是一張充斥著文字游戲、憤怒與扭曲幽默的專輯。在這次回歸中，Woods變成了一位厚臉皮的青年女藝術(shù)家，杜絕看到自己可能已經(jīng)過氣這一事實。

Each track on?LEGACY! LEGACY!?highlights a legendary artist of color, spanning disciplines, genres, and decades—Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Frida Kahlo, Miles Davis. For Woods, collectively, they become examples of how to unapologetically navigate life as a person of color. Each song’s subject is treated with the same reverence and warmth as Woods’ own ancestors, who are also referenced throughout. While she assumes responsibility for mining sociopolitical issues in her music, she also stands on the shoulders of these figures in search of her own humanity.

《LEGACY! LEGACY!》中的每一首歌都展現(xiàn)了一位跨越了各種流派、年代以及風格的傳奇藝術(shù)家的色彩——從Zora Neale Hurston到James Baldwin, Frida Kahlo, Miles Davis。對于Woods來說，這些人是作為有色人種，能夠毫無悔意地引領(lǐng)人生的模范。每首歌的主題都同樣重要，同樣溫暖，就像Woods的前輩一樣，他們在整張專輯中也被反復(fù)提及。當她在自己的音樂中展示出對潛在社會政治問題的關(guān)心和責任感時，她也凌駕于那些想要窺探她真實性格的人們之上。

Inspired by the life of trailblazing singer betty Davis, the album’s opener “betty” begins with just three simple chords on the piano—in walks “betty Mabry,” quiet and unassuming, a then-23-year-old girl raised in Pittsburgh. When we?meet?“Mrs. Miles Davis,” Woods injects bold, rhythmic layers into the track, marking her arrival. She served as Davis’?muse, but taking a?backseat?role was just not for her. Their turbulent union dissolved after just one year, and not long after, the funk goddess emerged onto the scene. Armed with her newfound independence, Davis would go on to break barriers in rock, R&B, and funk, but she never achieved mainstream success and was often criticized for her hypersexuality. As Woods sings on “betty,” she finds both catharsis and validation for the audacity to be different without compromise: “I am not your typical girl/Throw away that picture in your head,” she declares.

受領(lǐng)軍人物betty Davis的啟發(fā)下，這張專輯的序曲“betty”以三個簡單的鋼琴和弦開始——伴著安靜而篤定的”betty Mabry”，仿佛能看到一位在匹茲堡成長起來的23歲女孩。聽到“Mrs. Miles Davis”時，Woods往音軌中插入了大膽且富有節(jié)奏感的墊音，宣示了她的來臨。她充當了Davis的女神，但是藏在幕后并不適合她自己。他們喧囂吵鬧的結(jié)合在僅僅一年之后就分手了，不久后，這位朋克女皇就再次進入了公眾視野。帶著全新的自信，Davis繼續(xù)打破搖滾、R&B以及朋克方面的界限，但是她從未獲得過主流音樂界的認可，而且也經(jīng)常被批評為縱欲過度。正像Woods在“betty”中唱的那樣，她為自己的情感宣泄以及與眾不同和不妥協(xié)找到了合適的理由：“我不是一般的女孩/把你頭腦里的成見撇掉吧，”她宣告道。

The ways in which black excellence has been continuously jettisoned in America is unending: take Muddy Waters’ first meeting with the Rolling Stones. At the time, Waters?was allegedly painting the ceiling of his own record label, Chess, when the British rock stars arrived to record “Satisfaction” during a stop for their first U.S. tour. On “Muddy,” Woods cries out, “They can study my fingers/They can mirror my pose,” over an electric guitar that blares out in protest and anger. She is caught between adoration for her hero, rage over the rampant appropriation of black music, and the understanding that this damage goes beyond repair.

黑人才華被雪藏的情況在美國從未消失：就拿Muddy Water第一次和滾石樂隊見面來說吧。當滾石樂隊在自己第一次美國巡演中途到他的廠牌要錄制”Satisfaction”時，當時Waters正在粉刷自己公司“Chess”的天花板。在歌曲“Muddy”中，Woods伴著電吉他暴怒的反抗大聲疾呼，“他們可以研究我的技法/也可以復(fù)制我的造型”。她身處對英雄榜樣的傾慕、對黑人音樂難以正名的憤怒以及深知這種破壞難以修復(fù)的心境之中。

On “Basquiat,” Woods explores how the behavior of an artist of color unfairly becomes fodder for public opinion. She draws inspiration not just from her own run-ins with the media, but chiefly from an interviewer who once asked the renowned artist “what makes him angry,” suggesting that the “rage” seen in his work could be summoned upon command: “These teeth are not employed/You can’t police my joy.” The song simmers along on a jazzy hip-hop groove for nearly seven minutes, peppered by a staccato call-and-response (“Are you mad?/Yes I’m mad”). Tellingly, the song never erupts, and when Woods sings “They wanna see me angry,” she’s sighing, not shouting. Her exhaustion is palpable, resigned to wear the mask that “grins and lies,” as poet?Paul Laurence Dunbar once said—the mask that she must wear to quell the seething rage she feels when asked, once again, to explain herself.

在“Basquiat”中，Woods探索了一位有色藝術(shù)家的行為舉止如何會成為輿論攻擊的助燃器。她不僅從和媒體的交集中獲得靈感，也從一位記者向一位知名藝術(shù)家提問“是什么讓他變得憤怒”這件事中獲得啟發(fā)，暗示他作品中的“怒火”是有來由的：“這些唇齒并不負責/你管不著我的歡欣愉悅”。歌曲和爵士風格的hip-hop律動一起持續(xù)了將近七分鐘，被斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的問答點綴（“你瘋了嗎？/是的我瘋了）。但是這首歌整體是敘述性的，并沒有爆發(fā)的時刻，當Woods唱道“他們想看我生氣的樣子”時，她在嘆氣，而不是大喊。她的筋疲力竭是真實可感的，她拒絕戴上“假笑和謊言”的面具，就像詩人Paul Laurence Dunbar曾經(jīng)說過的——她在被問及的時候不得不戴上面具才能隱藏她心底沸騰的怒火，她再次應(yīng)用了這個例子，以袒露內(nèi)心。

In his landmark 1903 essay “The Talented Tenth,” W.E.B. DuBois argued that the liberation of all black people would come from cultivating a handful of exceptional blacks through higher education. Over a century later, black artists and activists, poets and politicians continue to thrive across a spectrum of different mediums. Almost every predecessor conjured in and in-between Woods’ lyrics balanced their craft alongside an unending fight for total equality, whether they wanted to or not:?“All the women in me are tired”?becomes a running motif throughout the album. With?LEGACY! LEGACY!, Jamila Woods positions herself to join the battle, bridging the gap, once and for all, between our unresolved past and the promise that awaits us all on the horizon.

在 W.E.B. DuBois于1903年發(fā)表的里程碑式論文 “The Talented Tenth”中，他認為整個黑人種族的解放要等高等教育培養(yǎng)出一些杰出的黑人后才會實現(xiàn)。在一百多年之后，黑人藝術(shù)家和社會活動家、詩人和政客們依然通過各種途徑奮斗爭取自身的權(quán)利。不管他們是否自愿，但幾乎每位前輩都在Woods的歌詞中閃現(xiàn)，并在無盡的平權(quán)斗爭中施展了自己的魔法：“我身體中的所有女性都已經(jīng)疲倦了”成為了貫穿整張專輯中的流動主旨。通過《LEGACY! LEGACY!》，Jamila Woods使自己成為斗爭中的一員，通過填補年代間的代溝，她徹底地將未解決的過去和即將到來的美好前景相連。