After the singles, here comes the album.  1783, the third full-length album from Halifax hip hop/ R&B artist, Aquakultre, takes a deep dive into Black Nova Scotian history and says so much that really needs to be said.

A MASS MIGRATION

In 1783, the American War of Independence came to an end. Refugees, former soldiers, and British loyalists left everything behind to return to England, or make new homes elsewhere.

From April to November of that year, over 3000 people of African descent boarded 81 ships and sailed out of New York. These were the so-called Black Loyalists: some of them free people, many of them still enslaved, who fought for the British in exchange for the promise of land and freedom. Arriving in Nova Scotia, they were given the poorest housing, little food, few supplies. Yet they survived and went on to found Black settlements across the province.

The events of 1783 sparked the origin story of a unique people and culture, sometimes called African Nova Scotia or Black Nova Scotia. Or, if you’re from there, just Scotia.

A CONCEPT ALBUM WITH DEEP ROOTS

Descended directly from those settlers, Black Nova Scotian hip hop/ R&B artist, Aquakultre – aka Lance Sampson – has chosen 1783 as the title for his third full-length album.  And he has ample good reason for doing so.  1783 is a concept album with deep roots in Lance’s personal and family background. Each track covers a different aspect of Black Nova Scotian history; thought-provoking family stories, intergenerational reflections, social observations – there’s plenty of each of those to ponder in the grooves of 1783.

Speaking of the stories and experiences that inspired the album, Lance says: “When I had my daughter, I wept for the first time in almost 15 years.  And, as she got older, I came to realise that I didn’t have a true example of what fatherhood looked like.  What a partnership looked like.  I didn’t understand why I felt so out of place within and around people who looked like me.  I barely knew who my family was.  I didn’t know who I was. 

If my daughter were to ask me who her family was, I could only give her a fraction of what I now know to be true.  I knew I had to do some research.  1783 is when Black Loyalists made their way to Nova Scotia from New York, but it is also how far I can personally trace my roots.  Travelling the province, talking with elders from the Black communities I’m connected to, inspired the writing of the album.”

HARD-HITTING LYRICS AND SWEET, SWEET TUNES

If you’re someone who likes to listen to and understand lyrics, then 1783 isn’t an album for the faint of heart.  Several of Lance’s stories are deeply unsettling, recounting the mistreatment of Nova Scotia’s Black communities by the white majority, the realities of poverty and the inter- and intra- community squabbles that have been a feature of life for so many.  If lyrics aren’t your thing, you’ll still find much to enjoy amongst the album’s 17 tracks – 1783 is rammed with some of the best R&B, soul and gospel that I heard since Marvin Gaye was still with us.

Well – I say 17 tracks…  Actually, 1783 comprises 11 full-length songs, plus a handful of ‘interludes’ that help put Lance’s songs into context.  And, at the end of it all, the listener is left with the distinct feeling that, despite the trials and tribulations Lance re-enacts, Black Nova Scotia has survived and is ready to move forward.

IMPRESSIVE VOCAL RANGE

We’ve already described What Are You Sayin’ – the album’s opening track and one of four singles to preview 1783 – as “smooth, rich and thoroughly tasty,” and that’s an assessment that I’m happy to stand by.  Thoughtful and soulful, it’s a song that sits comfortably alongside such gems as Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.  Lance’s voice is sweet, the backing vocals are melodic and precise and the band are spot on the nail.  And that’s the template for the whole album.

Inspired by a TV documentary, the story behind the strident Bags Packed is an horrific one, and Lance tells it with a passion.  It’s a song with a heartfelt gospel flavour, packed with punchy brass and Lance assumes a voice that seems to owe a great deal to Aretha Frankiln.

The scene for the excellent Holy is set by Lance’s recitation of a letter written to a serving soldier and, with Holy, Lance explores the impact that letters to and from such isolated individuals have upon the senders and recipients.  Holy is a mellow piano ballad that gives Lance the opportunity to exercise his impressive vocal range – and he hits the highest, and the lowest, notes without losing a single iota of control.

SIMMERING WITH TENSION

The third of the album’s four ‘preview’ singles, Gallows is an exceptional – if troubling – song that recalls the wrongful conviction and execution of Lance’s great-great-grandfather, Daniel Perry Sampson.  Daniel was the last person to be hung in Halifax under Canada’s then systematic anti-black legal system.  With its repeated chant of “City don’t give a Goddam for a Black boy like me,” it’s a song that can’t help but stir the listener’s emotions.  It oozes passion and venom and it’s a highlight of the album.

And, whilst we’re on the subject of troubling songs, Keep Me Down is another harrowing tale of life in the Black Nova Scotia of the not-too-distant past.  Lance’s lyrics relate the story of a confrontation between local residents and a group of American sailors – on shore leave and steaming through the town, taking what and who wanted.  The song is funky and it simmers with tension.  The backing vocals are choirlike, as Lance recounts the fate of a brave individual who stood up to the invaders: “They chased me down in the street, brought me down to my knees, stripped me down to my feet – But they did not keep me down.”

“GENTRIFIED OUT OF EXISTENCE”

Lance turns his attention to the intra-community violence that plagues certain neighborhoods of Halifax, with Make That Change – the most recent of the four ‘preview’ singles.  Accompanied by Juno Award-winning soprano, Measha Breggergosman-Lee, Lance raps his hard-hitting lyrics.  Unrest is confronted head-on, before Lance steers his message away from violence and towards reconciliation.

Halifax and Dartmouth are separated by The Narrows, a sea inlet from the Atlantic.  Dartmouth was formerly one the district’s predominantly Black areas but, in Lance’s words, it’s now been “…gentrified out of existence.”  With the Avenue, Lance laments the unaffordability of the district to the families that once called it home.  To a backing of smooth, slick soul, complete with weeping guitars and sweeps of organ, Lance sings: “It’s easy to sacrifice – we had to all our lives,” as he takes a final stroll down Dartmouth’s Crichton Avenue.  And a closing rap, in which the speaker recites the surnames of families who, for generations, had occupied the neighborhood, serves to emphasise just how much has been lost.

IN HONOUR OF PATRICE

Written in honour of Patrice, the child of a family friend who died aged just four, Black Doll is, perhaps, the most hauntingly sad song on the album.  Patrice was the proud owner of a black doll that her mother had made for her.  In the racially-charged environment in which they lived, Patrice’s parents were reluctant to let her carry the doll around in public, and the doll was, inevitably, lost.  Black Doll is a melodic, dreamy, song with another excellent vocal from Lance; and the tears can’t be restrained when Lance reveals that Patrice’s beloved doll was “…left in the dirt.”

Featuring guest vocalist, Linda Carvery, Matriarchs is described as: “A gut-wrenching duet between a man who’s dancing with danger and his single mother who tried to raise him right.”  Driven by a resounding drumbeat and powerful guitar chords, Lance and Linda trade such dramatic dialogue as: “No-one’s taught to raise a man alone.  When the matriarchs pass, the medicine’s gone,” before the song erupts into a joyful gospel extravaganza.

LESSONS LEARNED

Lance considers the lessons from past generations and works out how to apply those lessons to his relationship with his own children, with the short interlude, Father’s Fresh Start.  He concludes that: “My son will be a good man,” and that sets the theme for the (ultimately) warming I’ll Be Damned.  The song is inspired by Lance’s uncle, Derek Johnson – the ‘Black sheep’ of Lance’s family.  Lack of knowledge and experience and a need to deal with the abuse and racism that he encountered on a daily basis made life very difficult for Derek and those close to him.  In the song, Lance draws parallels between Derek’s experiences and his own.  It’s folky, it’s warming and it’s reassuring, as Lance tells how past agonies have shown him the way to make life better for his own children.

A burst from a 1975 home recording of the music hall favourite, Show Me the Way to Go Home (included here because the song meant so much to Lance when his grandmother sang it) provides the prelude to Scotia Born, the album’s lead single and its closing track.  It’s a happy, catchy celebration of the communities and cultures of Black Nova Scotia, with stunning vocals from guests Haliey Smith and Gary Beals.  The song drips with pride, community and togetherness and the sound of a crying baby and a mother’s laughter at the close of the song makes a potent statement: Black Nova Scotia has survived – and a new generation is ready, and waiting, to move forward.

Watch the official video to Scotia Born – the album’s lead single – below:

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