R&B Singer Manasseh & Femdot Release “CBD”
Chicago psychedelic soul artist Manasseh today shares the soulful diss track “CBD,” featuring rapper femdot. This collaboration off of Manasseh’s upcoming second album R&B[eyond] plays to each’s strength, where Manasseh builds up a dreamy atmosphere while femdot. cuts through it.
Atwood Magazine shared the new single, writing that it’s “a smoldering, soul-drenched confrontation that wraps righteous anger in velvet vocals, psychedelic haze, and a hook as cutting as it is cathartic. It’s a diss track with its heart still beating.”
As a singer, vocal coach, and arranger, Manasseh Croft has worked with Johari Noelle, AMI, Isaiah Collier, and more. He’s recently appeared on releases by Marquis Hill, Heavy Crownz, Rich Jones, Galaxy Francis, Rhea the Second, and more. While Manasseh has spent years working with other artists as a vocal coach and studio vocalist, he’s also proven he has a voice of his own.
Croft said R&B[eyond] is a tribute to the permission his mom gave him to explore secular music, having grown up in a strict Baptist household. He said, “Even so, my mother always recognized just how deeply I loved music—and that truth lives at the core of this body of work.”
When sharing his last EP (Variations V1: I’ll Be, 2023), Sound Opinions‘ Jim DeRogatis said, “I hear echoes of gospel, house music, and psychedelic soul. That tradition from Curtis Mayfield through D’Angelo.” After listening to the title track “I’ll Be (Live, Pt. 1),” Greg Kot added, “that track was moving to me, it reminded me a lot of old gospel recordings from the 50s and 60s. There’s some of that ambiance, it’s very powerful to take on that tradition.”
