You Need to Hear Meklit's Ethiopian Cover of The Roots' Classic "You Got Me"
First Listen: We premiere Ethiopian-born singer Meklit's cover of The Roots & Erykah Badu's timeless classic, "You Got Me,"
Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based singer and songwriter Meklit’s cover of The Roots and Erykah Badu’s timeless classic “You Got Me” is her way of saying thanks to hip-hop.
<p>Over horns, a bass guitar and robust drums, the singer adds her own character to the vocals originally sung by Erykah Badu.</p><p>Here’s what she had to say about the song:</p><p>“I've wanted to do this particular song for eight or nine years. Growing up in Brooklyn as a young Ethiopian woman, I never heard my name called in public. Every time people talked about Ethiopia, it would be that craziness about poverty. But the one place where I felt seen was inside of hip-hop. You know, when <strong>The Pharcyde</strong> released “Passing Me By,” those were moments of recognition. I felt the same when <strong>Black Thought</strong> called out this <em>'Ethiopian queen from Philly taking classes abroad.'</em> I felt like he was speaking to me and announcing my existence."</p><p><div class="preroll-video"></div><ora-player></ora-player></p><p>“I wanted to interpret that song in and Ethio-jazz way as a way of saying thank you to Black Thought, The Roots and hip-hop for making me. I really wanted it to be in an Ethiopian rhythm. Hip-hop tends to be in 4/4, since I wanted to bring it into a traditional rhythm my cover is in 6 [time]. I spent a lot of time writing a melody. The verses are in an Ethiopian scale which is used for songs of longing and nostalgia. The scale is in a deeply emotional world that I thought really matched the feeling of the lyrics.”</p><p><div class="dfp_atf-slot" data-not-loaded="true"></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script></p><p>Listen to Meklit's cover of "You Got Me" below, which is premiering with us today. <a href="https://meklitmusic.bandcamp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pre-order her upcoming album</a>, <em>When The People Move The Music Moves Too</em>, and check out her tour dates underneath.</p><p><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/309385565%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-yBvbJ&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p><p><strong>Tour Dates</strong></p><p>6/20 – Washington, DC – Tropicalia</p><p>6/21 – New York, NY – Nublu</p><p>6/24 – Seattle, WA – Madaraka Festival</p>
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