V V Brown taps into a classic neo soul sound for “Twisted,” a thoughtful yet forceful examination of the ways a creative and social culture can be co-opted and exploited for profit without the people who make up the organic, human community of people in which that culture germinates benefiting directly. Brown’s voice sounds like its coming from another time and traveling through a hall of images and memories while a repeating phantom of processed vocals passes her by to a rhythm outside of the standard 4/4 time of pop music, rather, something more behind or ahead of that beat, dragging behind ever so slightly at times like a Dilla production. It altogether keeps you riveted on Brown’s commentary about the commodification of black and other indigenous cultures as something to fetishize and sell back to that community and to people who think that by buying in they’re participants. It’s a process as old as the model of colonialism and its endless trivializing the culture, spirituality, beliefs and art of the colonized so that it can be turned into yet another product. But in Brown’s words and lyrics you hear a spirit of resistance to this pattern and a reclamation of the dignity of the authentic culture as something you are rather than giving it up as something for sale. It’s the kind of creative subversion of the dominant paradigm that has been part of popular musical styles for decades and even centuries. V V Bown, with “Twisted,” just gives it her own brand of soulful cool. Listen to “Twisted” on Spotify and follow V V Brown at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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