With a history of being featured in songs by popular hip-hop artists like The Game, Nas and Busta Rhymes, the hip-hop and R&B crowd probably has high hopes for Marsha Ambrosius’s much-anticipated emergence as a solo artist.
After proving her R&B skills as one part of the British hip-hop duo, Floetry (which failed to launch the songbird much mass acclaim), critics have been anticipating her reentry into the soulful world of R&B.
With the combination of her sultry, soulful vocals reminiscent of Mary J. Blige and Alicia Keys and her honest, heartfelt and at times crude lyrics, Ambrosius produces a unique style that is straightforward and alluring on her debut, Late Nights & Early Mornings.
Although the songs on her freshman effort are somewhat indistinguishable from one another, any listener will admit that Ambrosius’s music is full of authentic feeling with themes of heartbreak, vulnerability, love and intimacy. When these themes are combined with pulsing hip-hop beats and Ambrosius’s seemingly limitless vocal range, the final product is slow, sultry and most importantly, sincere hip-hop/R&B music.
Her first single, “Hope She Cheats on You (With a Basketball Player),” bitterly addresses an ex with blunt lyrics like “[His new girl] don’t know the difference ‘tween a touchdown and a layup/ Got you on Viagra in order for you to stay up.” Although the deeper meaning of this song is heartbreak, Ambrosius incorporates a vulgar sense of humor in her lyrics that depicts a lyrical strength in overcoming pain.
But with this sense of cheeky humor, Ambrosius balances her album with some seriousness as well. For example, “Far Away,” shows a vulnerable, more reflective side of Ambrosius. With moving lyrics like “…I was by your side/ When you went through the pain/ I guess it doesn’t matter now that you’re so far away,” Ambrosius expresses her desperate longing for a loved one she lost to suicide (which is explained in the end of the companion music video).
As with many hip-hop/R&B artists vying for the attention of listeners, Ambrosius emphasizes a hefty amount of sex appeal in a handful of songs on Late Nights & Early Mornings. “With You,” “Late Nights & Early Mornings” and “Your Hands” are all, to put it bluntly, extremely sensual and suggestive songs.
In “With You,” (which Ambrosius wrote with the help of Alicia Keys) she sings, “In my head I can see it so clearly/ Thinking ’bout all the things I wanna do to you.” Ambrosius certainly says what she means in her lyrics, whether it stems from her libido or her broken heart.
Although her lyrics are fairly indistinct, and her music sounds like almost any other R&B song, Ambrosius’s effortless vocals are full of soul and passion that bring a welcome sense of meaning to her arguably too simplistic lyrics and style.
As an artist, Ambrosius is undoubtedly unique because she’s capable of showing multiple, vulnerable dimensions of herself to an audience. Any listener will notice that Ambrosius put heart and tears into Late Nights & Early Mornings, drawing on her personal experiences with love and heartbreak to produce a dimension of hip-hop music that’s charged with raw, perceptible emotion.
3.5 stars out of 5