SoulAkademic Funkalicious Sundays: N'dambi

Instant Cipher

Miles Davis labored The Birth Of Cool, Oscar Brown Jr. brought us Sin&Soul...and Then Some, but in the summer of 2001 N’dambi was Tunin Up & Cosignin.
  

Crash course in N’dambi 101:  She honed her chops singing in her father's Chuuch', sang back-up vocals on Erykah Badu's Baduizm, co-wrote Hey Sugah on Badu's Mama's Gun, and her indie-produced debut album sold over 70,000 units world wide through word-of-mouth fans/college radio dials.

Tunin Up & Cosignin is a two-disc set, replete with a Cosmic Slop of be still, my beating heart live tracks from her 1992 debut LP, Little Lost Girls Blues + dope new tracks like these:

Track 6: Call Me/N'dambi

Tunin Up & Cosignin

Track 12: Black Star/N'dambi

Tunin Up & Cosignin

Driven by a dedicated word-of-mouth fan base, the success of Little Lost Girls Blues showered the Texas native with indie street cred, As If! she needed it...not hardly! 

When Tunin Up & Consignin dropped on the thirsty ears of fans from here to Japan, it was declared a certified classic.  N'dambi's sound is more mood than music.  Backed by a stellar band, her instrument is instant cipher [raise ya' hands and stomp your feet].
  
A Weird Kind Of Wonderful (2005) and Pink Elephant (2009), are the most recent gems that definitely warrant prime ear bud real estate by any means necessary.   
Stax Label producer/legend/Homo sapien, Leon Sylvers III (whose produced for everybody...like Gladys Knight everybody) lent his expertise to Pink Elephant.  N'dambi's 2009 release is a testament to both her growth as an artist and what can be achieved in 
a room of one's own.