SassyBlack, "While Black" (Crane City Music)

Former THEESatisfaction member SassyBlack continues her strong solo career with a new EP due out soon on local hiphop powerhouse label Crane City Music, Wakanda Funk Lounge. SassyBlack (aka Catherine Harris-White) proved herself to be one of the region's most perceptive observers of the queer WOC romantic experience on works such as No More Weak Dates and New Black Swing.

On Wakanda Funk Lounge, SassyBlack celebrates her self and blackness in general without coming off as conceited—a not inconsiderable feat. The title alludes to the fictional sub-Saharan African nation in Marvel Comics' Black Panther, reflecting Harris-White's staunch fandom of the artform. The music here's minimalist yet seductive, not a million mattresses away from D'Angelo's Voodoo in its languorous mood, albeit much more concise in song length. "While Black" is a gently crackin' and snappin' bit of pink-lit funk that could be the most low-key club banger of the year. "Rockin' never stoppin'/Beautiful, luxurious, abundant, centered, knowing" is a refrain worth repeating, sotto voce, in the ear of a lover—potential or otherwise.