Through setbacks and successes, Fousheé’s been biding her time.
Caring for her mother after a severe car accident cut college short for Fousheé, bringing her home to Harlem, where she became the house singer at Cafe Wha?, the same place Jimi Hendrix was discovered. That gig set her up nicely to wow the judges on Season 15 of “The Voice,” but she didn’t move past the first round.
A track she wrote and uploaded to TikTok ended up going viral… as an uncredited sample on someone else’s song. But ever resilient and ready to seize the moment, Fousheé released her full-length song all over the Internet herself.
Then she discovered the downfall of going viral in the digital age: RCA made her prove it was her singing in the first place. She did, and then made history with “Deep End,” the first song by a Black female artist to break into the top 10 on the Alternative Airplay chart since Tracy Chapman’s “Crossroads” 32 years ago.
In the midst of protests, police brutality, and the deaths of so many African-Americans last year, and in quarantine with nowhere else to put her rage, Fousheé channeled it into “Deep End.” The feeling of angry helplessness but defiant hopefulness captured in the song resonated with so many people, she decided to keep sharing her truth.
“Gold Fronts,” this syrupy hood lullaby is the follow up, with more of Fousheé’s double-edged quarantine feels packed into it. She mourns the trials and tribulations 2020 brought all of us, but celebrates the things that have mattered most through it all: our culture, our community and our ability to smile through it all. “I was really trying to write in a way that felt tangible and approach how living in a pandemic feels without actually saying those words,” she said. “There’s something spiritual about this song and I hope everyone feels that.”
You will. She sets the mood immediately, humming along with an unseen choir, and plucking through the song’s sparse guitar melody while wandering through various neighborhood scenes: the backyard get-together, corner swap meet, kid-sized street games, and throwing us gorgeous looks under the artificial, neon lights of a combo convenience/liquor store.
It’s such a beautiful approach to last year, delivered with strength and grace. Even Lil Wayne, who closes out the song, is more endearing than you’ve ever seen him with a verse that’ll touch your heart. He probably can’t help it. Everything about Fousheé and “Gold Fronts” will make you want to shine too.