''Break of Dawn'' (formerly titled ''Milk & Honey'') is the fourth studio album from
Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
vocalist
Goapele
Goapele Mohlabane (; born July 11, 1977), is an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter. Her name means ''to move forward'' in Setswana, a Southern African language.
Early life
Goapele's South African father Douglas Mohlabane was an exiled pol ...
after a five-year-long hiatus.
Background
The first single, "Milk & Honey," was leaked on the Internet July 10, 2009, while the video directed by David Telles went into rotation on August 4, 2009, and was shot with the
Red One Camera. It offers a more suggestive and seductive vibe than what fans may be accustomed to from the singer. Goapele is known to incorporate messages of politics, love, romance, and struggle into her music. The second single, "Right Here," is a love song produced by Drumma Boy.
On August 28, 2011, Goapele released the third single, "Play," a sensual song produced by Dan Electric & Teddy Thunderbolt.
Recording
''Break of Dawn'' was recorded at the Zoo in
Downtown Oakland, California
Downtown Oakland is the central business district of Oakland, California, United States; roughly bounded by both the Oakland Estuary and Interstate 880 on the southwest, Interstate 980 on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and Lak ...
, home of Goapele’s Skylight Studios. This project will be another personal album with several love songs as well as up-tempo joints. Production-wise, tracks with Kanye West, Drumma Boy (Young Jeezy, T.I., Ludacris, Plies, Yung Joc, Rick Ross, Gorilla Zoe, Twista, E-40, Rocko, Juvenile, Yo Gotti, Monica, Paul Wall, 8Ball & MJG, Lil Jon), Dan Electric, Mike Tiger, Bobby Ozuna (Raphael Saadiq, John Mayer, Erykah Badu), Malay (John Legend, Mary J. Blige), Jeff Bhasker (The Game, Kanye West, Ludacris, T.I), Kerry "Krucial" Brothers ( Alicia Keys, Mario, Keshia Cole, Nas) and other musicians were confirmed.
Concept
On this album Goapele revealed a more confident, open, and sensual side. She said that she was liberating herself a little more and claims while there was something very empowering about appearing in a T-shirt without make-up on the cover of her first internationally distributed album, ''Even Closer'', there is something equally empowering about shedding her fears of music-industry exploitation and strutting confidently into more brazen territory. She said, “Now if I want to dress sexy, I can, and if I want to be more blunt, I can. I just want to do what feels good.”
Track listing
#"Play"—3:43
#"Tears On My Pillow"—4:46
#"Undertow"—3:47
#"Break of Dawn"—4:29
#"Hush"—4:05
#"Money"—4:06
#"Pieces"—3:24
#"Right Here"—3:21
#"Milk & Honey"—3:12
#"Cupcake" —3:40
References
External links
Official siteGoapele PressGoapele at MySpace
{{Authority control
Goapele albums
2011 albums