Camille Yarbrough

★★★★ The Iron Pot Cooker CRAFT. LP First vinyl reissue of cult proto-hip-hop album. Occupationwise, there’s not much that 82-year-old Yarbrough hasn’t tried her hand at. Starting as a dancer, she moved on to stage, TV and movie acting before writing children’s books and becoming a university professor. She’s probably best remembered for this 1975 album, based on her one-woman stage show, Tales And Tunes Of An African American Griot. A collection of spoken-word meditations on ghetto life set to music, the LP languished in obscurity until Fatboy Slim famously sampled its gospel-infused funk track, Take Yo’ Praise, whose vocal chorus formed the basis of his 1998 hit Praise You. Yarbrough is a compelling storyteller whose angst-ridden polemics bristle with a righteous indignation at racial injustice. In the Black Lives Matter era, the album’s relevance is greater than ever; its messages still resonating powerfully.