Maya Angelou is a noted proponent of hip-hop music, having interacted with everyone from Tupac Shakur to Common, so it's reasonable that a hip-hop album inspired by her classic work I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings will be released soon, according to Billboard. The album will go under the simpler title Caged Bird Songs.
This project wasn't solely launched as a tribute to the poet's passing: Angelou herself provides most of the original vocals on the album. However the album, produced by Shawn Rivera and RoccStarr, got a shot in the arm due to its newfound relevance following the writer's death.
Caged Bird Sings had been started before Angelou heard of it but she completely embraced the idea once it came to her attention. Her vocals, which feature the author reading passages from her own autobiography, were recorded at her home in North Carolina.
"Grandma loved it from the beginning," said her grandson Colin Johnson. "These guys were inspired by grandma's work, which many people are, and felt like giving it a different medium of delivery to make it more obtainable to a larger group of people."
Angelou was clearly talented as a writer but her speaking ability was above average as well. By which we mean to say she won three Grammys for spoken word albums, which makes Caged Bird Songs sound all the more promising. Johnson hopes that by connecting his grandmother's work with hip-hop, it will inspire today's youth to pick up a book of poetry that doesn't come with a soundtrack.
Caged Bird Sings is due to be released November 4.
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