Swedish-born Neneh Cherry<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s critically-acclaimed and award-winning debut album, Raw Like Sushi<\/em>, was a massive international success in 1989. Following its release, on June 5 that year, she turned up everywhere \u2013 including pinned to countless bedroom walls. The album\u2019s collaborative outlook and mixture of atmospheres also presaged many of the most creative electronica albums of the 90s and 00s, signaling the end of the 80s as Cherry called out the \u201cmoney men\u201d in favor of urban sweetness.<\/p>\n Neneh Cherry is part of a lineage of music royalty. The daughter of Sierra Leonean drummer Ahmadu Jarr, and step-daughter of jazz legend Don Cherry, her siblings include Eagle-Eye Cherry and Titiyo, both of whom followed Neneh into the charts. She married her regular collaborator Booga Bear, aka Cameron McVey, and her musical offspring include recent pop sensation Mabel.\n<\/p>\n This rich musical heritage shows through in Cherry\u2019s work, from her initial records with post-punk groups The Slits and Rip Rig + Panic, through sessions with a bewildering array of artists as diverse as Cher<\/a><\/strong>, Eric Clapton<\/a><\/strong>, Bob Dylan<\/a><\/strong>, Peter Gabriel, The The, Steve Beresford, R.E.M.<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Michael Stipe, Chrissie Hynde, Pulp<\/a><\/strong>, Portishead<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Geoff Barrow, Gang Starr<\/strong><\/a>, The Notorious BIG, Timo Maas, and Loco Dice. There have been collaborations with Bernard Butler (on her hit \u201cWoman\u201d) and Senegalese singer Youssou N\u2019Dour (on their famous duet \u201c7 Seconds\u201d), her Dreem Teem-produced garage hit \u201cBuddy X 99,\u201d and recordings with Scandinavian jazzers The Thing, electronica maverick Four Tet, and Swedish pop legend Robyn.<\/p>\n Cherry\u2019s career springboard, Raw Like Sushi<\/em>, however, contains some of her best-loved music. She put together the Madonna<\/strong><\/a>-esque sass of the go-go influenced rap opener and smash lead single \u201cBuffalo Stance\u201d with Bomb The Bass\u2019 Tim Simenon and Mark Saunders. It\u2019s based on \u2013 and successfully commercialized \u2013 her appearance with her future husband McVey, the singer Jamie J Morgan and Bristol\u2019s The Wild Bunch on Morgan\/McVey\u2019s choppy 1987 B-side \u201cLooking Good Diving With The Wild Bunch.\u201d Single remixes for \u201cBuffalo Stance\u201d included one from American dance legend Arthur Baker, who pushed the Madonna comparison to the max, as well as one from DJ Mushroom of The Wild Bunch (which was then morphing into Massive Attack<\/a><\/strong>). Massive Attack clearly learned a lot from Cherry about how to get their ideas across to a wider audience.\n<\/p>\n Listen to Raw Like Sushi<\/em> now<\/a>.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n Nellee Hooper from Soul II Soul helped his Wild Bunch colleague 3D on the massive, strings-led \u201cManchild,\u201d 3D writing, and Hooper arranging. Focusing on male immaturities gave an indication of the music to come from 3D, almost a decade ahead of his inward-looking work on Massive Attack\u2019s classic 1998 album Mezzanine<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, while Cherry channeled New York\u2019s iconic Roxanne Shant\u00e9 on the rap. \u201cManchild\u201d is one example of the prescient third-wave feminism that percolates throughout Raw Like Sushi<\/em>, from the anti-prostitution lines of \u201cBuffalo Stance\u201d onwards. This time the remixes came from Massive Attack themselves (thickening up the bass and sounding like Portishead several years early, with rave stabs limply slurring in musical metaphors), as well as from their collaborators Smith & Mighty.\n<\/p>\n The uptempo, poppy, multilingual coming-of-age single \u201cKisses On The Wind\u201d features lively scratching from Mushroom, with remixes coming from Latin dance figureheads David Morales and The Latin Rascals. Low-slung single \u201cInna City Mamma\u201d follows. Its title is a perfect moniker for Cherry, but the track opens out to reveal the \u201cshattered dreams\u201d of city life, with the city personified as a pimp. \u201cThe Next Generation\u201d was produced by Mushroom, and it shows: block-rocking breakbeats, jazzy samples, and scratches underscoring Cherry\u2019s call for the 90s generation to embrace multiculturalism and to raise their children correctly.<\/p>\n The second half of the album keeps up the diversity. The skittery, feisty love triangle of single \u201cHeart\u201d introduced Cherry\u2019s brother Eagle-Eye to the world (while some editions of the album also feature the rawer demo version of the song). The synth-poppy \u201cPhoney Ladies\u201d pleads for female unity, while the lustful \u201cOutr\u00e9 Risqu\u00e9 Locomotive\u201d is a James Brown<\/strong><\/a>-sampling swingbeat piece. School-days tale \u201cSo Here I Come\u201d features production from hip-hop stalwart Bryan \u201cChuck\u201d New, plus turntable work from Mushroom, and some versions of the album finish with \u201cMy Bitch,\u201d a two-hander with rapper Gilly G in which he inevitably comes off worse.\n<\/p>\n Raw Like Sushi<\/em> predicted work by Cherry collaborators such as Bomb The Bass, Soul II Soul, Massive Attack, Smith & Mighty, Portishead, Groove Armada, and Gorillaz, but, for some reason, isn\u2019t often spoken of in the same breath. It\u2019s time the album was fully re-appreciated, taking its place beside those acts\u2019 most vaunted collections as a progressive modern classic.\n<\/p>\n Raw Like Sushi<\/em> can be bought here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\nA rich musical heritage<\/h2>\n
A career springboard<\/h2>\n
Predicting the future<\/h2>\n