Son Little Hits The Road With Kelis
Son Little sees the world differently from the rest of us.
As a child of hip-hop, Son Little - the neo-soul-blues-hip-hop persona of former Roots and RJD2 collaborator Aaron Livingston - takes on reality as a series of samples, genetic building blocks that connect in strange and miraculous ways. Hence the "neo-blues meets the ghost of Bob Marley trapped inside a tabla machine" tag Okayplayer gave his first single href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny27_Phcwfs">"Cross My Heart," or his own description of second single href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYXV7Ka7LyI">"Your Love Will Blow Me Away When My Heart Aches" as a "Wu-Tang sea shanty with the Beatles on background vocals." This is no flip, off-the-cuff soundbite; Little borrowed pieces of lyrics from a traditional sea shanty and reset them inside the timeless worksong groove of "Your Love...," grafting the imagery of the lawless seas onto modern streets. Lyrical cut-ups a la Burroughs and Bowie, musical cutups deeply ingrained in his hip-hop schooling, all emerge as a deep soul ache in the new school of the Weeknd and Miguel. Now, for the first time, Son Little takes his music to the streets in his first national tour dates, seven of them in support of R&B maverick Kelis. Little is already commanding attention in the press and blog world, on the strength of just the two aforementioned single releases in 2014. For an America whose cultural bloodlines trail Son Little like the hellhound of the old blues songs, this tour will be a first chance to see an artist who is already one of the breakout stories of the year.
Catch Son Little On Tour:
6/2 Filmore San Francisco, CA*
6/3 House of Blues, San Diego, CA*
6/4 El Rey, Los Angeles, CA*
6/9 Park West, Chicago, IL*
6/11 Danforth Music Hall, Toronto*
6/13 Webster Hall, New York, NY*
6/15 9:30 Club, Washington DC*
6/23 Johnny Brenda’s Philly, PA #
6/24 Great Scott, Allston, MA #
6/30 Subculture, NYC ^
7/10 Rough Trade, Brooklyn, NY %
7/12 Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA ~
7/13 U Street Music Hall, DC ~
* Supporting Kelis
# Supporting Small Black
^ Supporting Lady
% Supporting Streets of Laredo
~ Supporting Nightmares on Wax