HYPE, YEAH? YOU GOT IT?
If there is anything that leaves me totally not wanting to like something it’s goddamn hype. The Black Madonna is a Chicago based DJ/Producer riding some sweet hype right now and given that people are sort of clocking that dance music being a tad on the insular side and overly safe right now, how that isn’t actually terrible, it just makes for some pretty boring dance music, her sort of manifesto is a nice thing to get behind.
“Dance music needs riot grrrls. Dance music needs Patti Smith. It needs DJ Sprinkles. Dance music needs some discomfort with its euphoria. Dance music needs salt in its wounds. Dance music needs women over the age of 40. Dance needs breastfeeding DJs trying to get their kids to sleep before they have to play. Dance needs cranky queers and teenagers who are really tired of this shit. Dance music needs writers and critics and academics and historians. Dance music needs poor people and people who don’t have the right shoes to get into the club. Dance music needs shirts without collars. Dance music needs people who struggled all week. Dance music needs people that had to come before midnight because they couldn’t afford full admission. Dance music does not need more of the status quo.”
Does, “He Is The Voice I Hear” live up the hype? Perhaps not (I mean, wtf is hype anyway?) and there is something to be said about how quite a few people seem to be expecting one person to magically change the face of dance music (be nice if a few more were to ‘chip in’ on that front). If I’m honest, I do prefer her mixes a ton more than the original productions. That’s not to say I don’t like it, I rather enjoy super-long disco tracks with pew-sounds and violins, that sort of thing, it does me just fine. Some of you may find it’s a the type of track that just ticks the boxes of what you’d expect somebody like me to like though and that’s ok. 
