Events

[POP] Remember Floetry? The Brit duo of Natalie Stewart and Marsha Ambrosius caused a stir in the late 1990s, building up to a signing with Dreamworks and the release of three albums, Floetic (2002), Floacism (2003) and Flo’Ology (2005). A mix of neo-soul and poetry, the duo put a unique spin on the fringes of hip-hop, merging the more soul-influenced sounds of artists like Erykah Badu and Jill Scott with spoken word couplets. And while that might sound like a lot of mainstream hip-hop on paper, Floetry had a distinctive tone that helped them sell over a million and a half albums during their initial run. Ambrosius embarked on her solo career with a 2007 mixtape entitled Neo-Soul is Dead  for Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment, but decided to concentrate on production and co-songwriting credits in the years that immediately followed, waiting until 2011 to release her proper solo debut, Late Nights & Early Mornings. The disc debuted at number 2 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, and since, two more celebrated albums, Friends & Lovers (2014) and Nyla (2017), have resulted in multiple award nominations and critical acclaim. The latter remains Ambrosius’s latest and it brings her to the Tralf Music Hall on Saturday, February 23. The early show (doors at 6:00 pm, show at 7pm) is close to sold out, but a second show has been added with doors at 9pm and music starting at 9:30pm. Young’un Leah Jenea from Season 2 of Fox’s The Four will open both shows.