Airtight reputation

Neo-soul icon Bilal proves that success is the best revenge

Philadelphia soul musician Bilal was hospitalized for an asthma attack on Monday, Sept. 20, and was forced to cancel his Montreal appearance at the eighth anniversary of the Goods nights at la Sala Rossa on Saturday, Sept. 25 (the show will still go on with DJs Groundfood and Scott C). Here is the interview with Bilal that was going to run in the paper.

Splashing onto the scene with a hot single produced by Dr. Dre, Bilal sang his way into people’s playlists with his debut album, 1st Born Second, nine years ago. Soul-ifying songs by Common, Talib Kweli, Guru, Beyoncé, Musiq and more, Bilal was primed to drop Love for Sale in 2006. It was leaked before its release, so despite an evolution in his sound, a tight band and provocative tunes, it was shelved by a label that just didn’t understand it. Bilal continued to hone his skills, performing with his band and develop­ing material for his latest release, Airtight’s Revenge. Material from all three albums and perhaps more will honey the ears of those who attend this month’s eighth-anniversary edition of the Goods. The Mirror reached the Philadelphia-born neo-soul artist by phone in New York City.

Mirror: Your three albums have spanned a lot of changes within the industry. What are the advantages to you now?

Bilal: It’s more beneficial to me now because I can put out what I like. I don’t have to worry about a label saying, ‘No, you can never put this out because we’ll never sell that to the radio—we need that one single that will sell the album.’ It’s not like that anymore. Because of iTunes, people can go online and buy that one song they like. Things have really changed.

M: I caught Love for Sale on your MySpace page after hearing about it being canned. What was your label thinking, shelving such a diverse and powerful album?

B: I don’t know! I don’t think I had a strong enough team to make the label understand that the album should have come out. I was saying the same thing, man—let’s just put it out. Everybody loved it when it went online. But [initially] me and my band were the only cats who thought the shit was dope. Everybody at the label was like, ‘What is this weird-ass shit?’

M: You went places on the second album you didn’t on the first. Is Airtight’s Revenge a continuation of or a departure from Love for Sale?

B: It’s a continuation. Around the second album, y’know, I was getting into the blues. I discovered Charlie Mingus, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, and that just turned my life upside down. So on this record, the guitar has really come to the forefront. I’m also inspired by electronica on this album, also rock acts like Led Zeppelin, Bea­tles, Steely Dan, Radiohead—I’m one of those people that when I hear something new, I just listen to it until it breaks. So it starts to sew itself into the fabric of my brain and when I start to write new tunes and jump on the piano, they start to mix together. It stretches the music even further.

M: Have you been checking out some dubstep?

B: Yeah, slowly getting into it. Actually, two of my new good friends are Flying Lotus and Daedelus. They’ve been hooking me up, hipping me to some stuff. So I’m definitely inspired by that stuff now. ■

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