Bilal

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Bilal Sayeed Oliver (born August 23, 1979), better known mononymously as Bilal, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer.

He is currently an independent artist residing in New York City.Bilal is noted for his wide vocal range, his work across multiple genres, and his live performances.

He has been well received, both nationally and internationally, with an extensive list of collaborations including Kendrick Lamar, Common, Erykah Badu, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Guru, Kimbra, J Dilla, Robert Glasper, The Roots, and many more.

Early life

Bilal was born Bilal Sayeed Oliver in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a religiously mixed household, his mother being Christian and his father Muslim. When he was 11 he became choir director at his mother's church, and at 14 he formed a group and performed gigs at the Blue Moon Cafe in Philadelphia. As a formative experience, he cites his father taking him to the city's jazz clubs. "I used to have to sit in the back where the cigarette machine was. They had a curtain they could put over me just in case the police came", he recalls to Beat magazine:

Bilal graduated from the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and then attended New York City's The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, where he met the pianist Robert Glasper on his first day. With Glasper, he frequented a number of jazz clubs in the city and eventually the Wetlands Preserve nightclub, where he connected with musicians of the Soulquarians collective: the Roots, Common, Erykah Badu, and Mos Def. Concurrently, Bilal frequented jam sessions set up by New School professors and students. At one such event, he met Aaron Comess, a musician from the pop-rock band Spin Doctors. The two went on to improvise together at Comess's home and produced a demo that was later heard by Interscope Records, who signed Bilal to a record contract.

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Career

Bilal began to familiarize himself with New York City's music scene, including famous recording artists including Common, The Roots, and Erykah Badu from the Soulquarians collective. He was eventually discovered by Aaron Comess of the Spin Doctors during an after-school jam session. Bilal recorded his demo and eventually signed a record deal with Interscope Records, and it was with him that he achieved his first success.

Bilal's debut album 1st Born Second debuted in 2001, bringing together Soulquarians as well as top-profile artists such as Dr. Dre and J Dilla. The album reached number 31 on the United States' charts, despite the fact that it peaked at number 31. Billboard's 200 chart has been sold, and it has sold 319,000 copies. At Metacritic, 1st Born Second received universal praise from music critics, with a score of 82 out of 100. The album received rave reviews from publications including The Village Voice, Chicago Sun-Times, and USA Today, and it has also been compared to Marvin Gaye's, Stevie Wonder, Sly & the Family Stone, Prince, and Curtis Mayfield.

The album featured a number of artists, including the emotionally charged fan favorite "Soul Sista," which debuted at No. 1 in 2007. From the political views of "Fast Lane" and "Second Child," 18 are on the Top R&B/Hip Songs charts, to "Second Child" and "Second Child." Bilal managed to gain a large following and high attendance at his live shows, as well as acclaim and admiration from his peers, many of whom praised his versatility and ability to perform in a freeform style and his classically trained falsetto. Bilal was dubbed "neo-soul" because of the album's soulful feel. Bilal insists that this word does not refer to him, and that his musical journey and pushing boundaries proved his point.

Bilal continued to appear on projects by other artists of both high-profile and avant garde, while producing and releasing his sequel, which would feature contributions mainly from producers Dr. Dre and J Dilla. These plans were able to be modified, and Love for Sale, as the final result, appeared to be based on Bilal's own musicianship. Bilal updated Love For Sale, which features live instrumentation and a completely different look from its predecessor.

Bilal's enthusiasm for the album was shot down, however, after Interscope expressed disapproving of it. Bilal continued to push his LP because he was unwilling to start from scratch. The album's entirety was leaked on the internet, but near the album's conclusion. The album was shelved indefinitely by Interscope, hinting at the fact that it had no commercial interest in it. Bilal was in the middle of turmoil and he was considering quitting music; however, Love for Sale earned over half a million downloads on the internet and Bilal began touring, despite there not being a formal release of the album. His concerts were known for being energetic and instilling awe among audiences.

Bilal's first album was released in 2008. Bilal made a comeback on September 14, 2010, with Airtight's Revenge, a sophomore LP released under independent record label Plug Research, after nine years without a properly released album. Bilal's album is billed as a retrospective: it's an album that focuses on his life and lessons learned since his last release. Airtight's Revenge, a pioneering album, blends jazz, hip-hop, electro, rock, soul, and blues into a single, authentic collection of music. Bilal's single, "Little One," received a 2011 Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Urban/Alternative Performance. He appeared on the Roots' Grammy-nominated album Undun (2011) and the Robert Glasper Experiment's Grammy-winning Black Radio (2012) last year.

Bilal revealed plans for a new album under a new name, eOne Music. During several interviews, he described the latest venture as "a lot warmer and [more] sensuous" than its conceptual predecessor. Bilal's latest album, A Love Surreal, has a more acoustic feel, since he was closely associated with his entire band. He released a mixtape called The Retrospection on Facebook and then the album's lead single "Back to Love" six days later to promote the album's release. On January 8, 2013, the song's music video told the tale of a heroin-addicted love doctor who use the advice he gives to his patients to improve his own family relationship. Bilal's album "embodies "the whole process [of love]: the initials, the breakup, [and] the get-back-together." On February 26, 2013, A Love Surreal was born.

Bilal immediately gained commercial success with the debut of A Love Surreal, debuting at No. 1 in New York. 1 on the iTunes R&B Chart. The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard, where it debuted at No. 1 in the United States. No. 17 on the Independent Albums Chart, No. 17 No. 19 on the R&B Albums Chart, and No. 78 at No. 19; and No. The Billboard 200 is ranked at 103, a step ahead of its predecessor, Airtight's Revenge. Several notable accolades have been given to the album, including an 8/10 from SPIN magazine, 4.5/5 actors from Allmusic, and 4/4 stars from USA Today, as well as a 4/4 star.

Bilal appeared on albums by a variety of recording artists, including Kimbra, Otis Brown III, Kat Dahlia, and Slum Village. Bilal's third album, To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), garnered a lot of buzz for the band's fifth album, In Another Life, which was released in 2015 with critical success. Michael A. Gonzales' essay on the Soulquarians, published in an article that year, "Listening to Kendrick Lamar's latest album To Pimp a Butterfly, Bilal has developed himself into an arty Nate Dogg for the post-Soulquarian period, which includes Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, and, now, Kendrick Lamar's Kendrick Lamar's contribution to Bilal's contemporary contribution."

Also writing that year, Exclaim!

"Bilal's years in career limbo seem like a tiny blip in the aftermath of the numerous artistically ambitious personal debuts and guest appearances the uncompromising singer has managed to string together in recent years," writer Kevin Jones said.

Bilal performed "We're a Winner" by Philip Bailey in 2019, a version of the Impressions' 1967 song of the same name. Bilal, who performed guest vocals and appeared in the music video, was one of those singers who uses his [voice] like an instrument," Bailey said of him. [range]: He's very experimental with his vocal [range]. He's performed and he's performed with more jazzy guys as well. I assumed that our voices, which obviously have those falsettos, would complement one another. And with that one, we actually sent him the files. Bilal did his stuff in the studio.

Bilal created an experimental three-song EP for HighBreedMusic, a Brooklyn recording studio and digital music website, in August 2020. In collaboration with producer Tariq Khan, Robert Glasper, Tone Whitfield, Khemist, Simon Mavin, Keyon Harrold, Elijah Sinclair, Thomas Brute, Marcus Strickland, Raymond Angry, Marcus Gilmore, and Louis Cato, he wrote, recorded, and performed one song per day, totaling 54 hours, including Erykah Badu, Benjamin McFerrin, Joseph Brute, Keyon Harrold, Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, each participant worked remotely. The EP's artwork was also on display, with a group of three visual artists selected for each song, including Angelbert Metoyer and Shanina Dionna.

During the weekend of the live stream, the EP was available to be pre-ordered, with sales and optional donations to the participating artists, a number of whom were in financial hardship because of the pandemic. It was announced on Bandcamp as a three-track digital download named Voyage-19, the proceeds of which were also distributed among the participants.

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