After connecting in England due to their passion for basketball, Natalie Stewart and Marsha Ambrosius later connected in the poetry circles of England. To two eventually hopped the pond and landed in Atlanta and started performing at Yin Yangs Poets Cafe. With rave reviews, the 2 traveled north of the Mason-Dixie and arrived in Philadelphia where they started recording at Jazzy Jeff's "Touch of Jazz" studio. In 2002 Floetry signed to Dreamworks and recorded 3 albums (Floetic, Floacism and Flo'Ology respectivly) before the group disbanded due to personal reasons.
Fast forward to 2011, after a brief stint as a back up singer for Aftermath artist (insert lol), several mixtapes and guest appearances, Marsha Ambrosius now sees the light of the day as she releases her first solo studio album "Late Nights and Early Mornings". This album really shows emotion as she copes with the loss of a bestfriend, a romance and eventually losing herself to love better.
Stand out tracks includes the 1st single "Hope She Cheats on You With A Basketball Player". When I first saw the title I immediately thought pop/radio bubble gum bullshit. Far from it. I actually like the track a lot, even though some of my male counterparts might not agree with me but i actually think its funny, it shows you how bitter people can actually get over a relationship.
The 2nd single "Far Away" is Just Blaze produced. When I first saw the video I was confused as to what was going on. The visuals threw me off so I couldn't really grasp the lyrics until it was later explained to me. She lost her best friend to suicide as he couldn't deal with the pressure society put on him because he was gay. Taboo subject but it happens urban America. Remember black people were the ones that voted against same sex marriage more than any other race in the California Elections of 2008.
"Lose Myself" touches on self love. She lost herself in a relationship but that experience taught her how to love herself more. Real talk! Other stand out tracks include, "I Want You to Stay" , my favorite "Chasing Clouds" and the masterpiece she wrote for the King of Pop, "Butterflies".
This album does have a few minor flaws "Late Nights and Early Mornings" is cool, it would've been dope if Prince used it. The song sounds so much like Prince that I had to check my mp3 player to make sure I was listening to Marsha. Plus the beat had the electric drums and the reverbs of a classic Prince song. You see where I'm going with this? "Sour Times" and "Tears" slows this album down a lot. I believe she could've left these 2 songs off. She's missing some mid-tempo to up-tempo songs. It would've balanced out the whining she constantly provided us with through out the album.
All in all LNEM is a solid album, just don't listen to it during the day or at work, it might give u case of the itis ("food coma"). Maybe she could've enlisted some of her backpack cronies (Mos Def, Common, The Roots) or even some of her friends at Aftermath (Game, Eminem) to give it a dose of No Doze. On a scale of 1-5, I give it a 3.75.
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