Honey is a serious inspiration and such an important woman who - I haven’t even spent that much time with her - but I feel very connected and close. That was the first thing that we did where it’s like, well, it’s nice to bring this out with something new. Honey Dijon did a remix of “Buddy X,” which of course wasn’t actually on Raw Like Sushi, but on Homebrew. There was the package of music with remixes and what became quite a fat collection of tracks and music of that era. The idea for this record was born with the reissue of Raw like Sushi. But I feel like it’s respectfully an important time in your life to honor what you’ve passed through and what you’ve been. I feel absolutely and completely unfinished. I think where I am in my life, over the last 10 years, it has been quite an interesting journey. I think I’ve always been kind of allergic to getting trapped in my own past, do you know what I mean? Once I’ve wrapped up and done one project, I’m always channeling the next thing. NENEH CHERRY: It’s just been the best gift. The Versions (2022)Īt this point in your life, why did you decide to do a career-spanning project? And what did the artist selection process look like? Eventually, she’d come back to solo music, releasing 2014’s Blank Project and 2018’s Broken Politics.Īhead of The Versions, Cherry sat down with me over Zoom to talk about her latest project and parse through her considerable career, which includes a day in the studio with a then-relatively unknown Biggie Smalls. She released two follow-up projects in the ’90s (1992’s Homebrew and 1996’s Man) before focusing on collaborative projects with friends and family: In 2006, she formed CirKus with husband Cameron McVey, and in 2011, she collaborated with experimental jazz collective the Thing, releasing 2012’s critically praised The Cherry Thing. Through Don, Neneh met Ari Up and post-punk greats the Slits as a teenager, and she’d go on to perform with them - and fellow London scenesters Rip Rig + Panic - in the early ’80s.Īs a solo artist, Cherry caught a wave of mainstream success via Raw Like Sushi and “Buffalo Stance,” but pop star life - and its inherent superficialities - didn’t suit her.
When her parents separated, Karlsson married jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, who raised Neneh from birth along with half-brother Eagle-Eye Cherry (of “Save Tonight” fame), violinist Jan Cherry, Christian Cherry, and jazz artist David Ornette Cherry.Īrt was a way of life for the Cherry family Neneh and Eagle-Eye would frequently join in performances with their father. Her birth father was musician Ahmadu Jah. Her mother Monika “Moki” Karlsson was a painter and textile artist. But she is a natural boundary-breaker, a truth-teller, and a real artist’s artist. More than three decades after she first set out on a solo career, the Stockholm-born performer has never been particularly interested in the type of stratospheric fame that came with her Raw Like Sushi era. Out Friday, it features updated takes on classic songs like the aforementioned “Buffalo Stance” (Robyn featuring Mapei), “Manchild” (Sia), “Woman” (ANOHNI), “Heart” (Sudan Archives), and more. At the time, Cherry earned immediate comparisons to Madonna and Prince, and legions of artists would become inspired by how she tinkered with pop framework: from trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack to fellow Swede Robyn to Lorde, Sia, and M.I.A.Ī few of those artists appear on Cherry’s forthcoming career-spanning tribute album, The Versions. But Neneh Cherry was light years ahead of her time when she released her 1989 debut album, Raw Like Sushi, which featured lead single “Buffalo Stance,” a Grammy-nominated feminist proclamation melding hip-hop, electronica, and dance. Today, genre fluidity is a pretty much a given in pop music.
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