Miles

Album: Legacy! Legacy! (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • Legacy! Legacy! is a concept album in which Jamila Woods examines her family history through the lens of some of her heroes. Here the Chicago songstress steps into the shoes of Miles Davis while the instrumentation evokes the jazz trumpeter icon's early-'70s music.
  • In channeling Miles Davis, Woods becomes masculine and braggadocio, asserting, "There'll never be another. I'm better than your best."

    She explained to Uncut: "I was thinking about the balance of feminine and masculine energy and how I wanted to manifest more of that assertiveness and more things associated with masculine energy. The song became a cool experience in embodying that."
  • Woods told Pitchfork that though it was hard for her to be masculine and assertive, voicing Miles Davis was a good feeling. "Miles used his power," she explained: "He would speak really softly in meetings with white executives so they would have to lean in. He'd turn his back to the audience, like, I'm not here to perform for you white people, I'm playing my music and I don't need to shuck and jive for you. I appreciated that."

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