Introducing: The Snack Break
with Nina Simone, dead prez and Nala Sinephro
Hello, music connoisseur, and welcome to The Snack Break.
This is a weekly newsletter delivering three curated songs directly to your inbox, each selected and introduced by one of the three Snack Break editors.
We’re music lovers Akil, Miriam, and Moiz, and we’ll be sharing everything from free jazz to bachata to old school hip hop. Please enjoy this week’s picks.
✌🏿✌🏽✌🏻
The Snack Break
“Space 4” by Nala Sinephro
Something from a score about walking alone on a foggy night. —Akil
Apple Music • Spotify • YouTube
"Mind Sex” by dead prez
From the duo’s debut album Let’s Get Free, an ode to a woman’s intellect, which dead prez views as a prerequisite to any physical relationship. More than just an elaborate come-on, this sincere appeal to mental connection is part of the album’s broader project of Black liberation, suggesting that the witnessing of a woman in her totality is a necessary part of collective freedom. Also, at one point, member stic.man tries to seduce his hypothetical partner by rhyming “crouton” with “futon.” Absolute fire. —Miriam
Apple Music • Spotify • YouTube
“That’s All I Ask” by Nina Simone
From Nina Simone’s 1966 album Wild Is the Wind, “That’s All I Ask” is nothing short of nourishment. Each inflection in this 2 minutes and 33 seconds carries a world of feeling. She sings “little baby” as if to a toddler; and “nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody knows how deep my love for you really goes…” with each “nobody” at a different pitch, as if sung by a different person, all echoing her plea. —Moiz