Track Listing

1. Sketches Of A Man (intro)
2. Free As A Bird
3. Feels So Good
4. Blow Your Mind
5. Few Reasons (Truth Pt.2)
6. Open Your Eyes
7. Workin' It
8. Slum Village - Dwele & Brandi
9. Five Dolla Mic
10. I'm Cheatin'
11. You Won't Be Lonely
12. Love Ultra
13. Travellin' Girl
14. If You Want To - Dwele & Lloyd Dwaye & J. Tait
15. Shady
16. 70s
17. Vain
18. Spiritual
19. I'm sorry (Wake The Musical Baby)
20. Body Rock

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38620 in Music
• Released on: 2008-07-07
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Solid album from an underrated artist
I am glad to see that Dwele has released Sketches of a Man. The album comes after his switching labels from Virgin to Koch. Usually this sort of label change can make me anxious as to the kind of sound that will come out on the album. For example consider Janet Jackson's albums overtime leaving record labels. I was even more anxious after Dwele has gained some more mainstream, global fame having worked with the GOOD MUSIC crew namely Common on Finding Forever ("The People") and Kanye West on Graduation ("Flashing Lights"). You know how sometimes artists compromise their usual craft in pursuit of riding the Fame Wave to see where it takes them.

Dwele stays true to himself. This is a raw, gritty, dirty (not in the explicit way) album which keeps Dwele credible and not over produced. I am really glad to see that there are artists like Dwele around making good music like this in an age of commerciality like Chris Brown or how did this get produced like Soulja Boy etc. He gives his genre legitimacy. You are reminded that the genre included members like Marvin Gaye once upon a time. Each Sketches song would be appropriate on his sophmore ("Some Kinda...") and debut album ("Subject"). Sketches takes heavy inspiration from his mentor the late J Dilla with the obvious nods here and there on "Workin on it", "Nothing Like This," "Two Can Win," and "Stop." There is also a very listenable cover of Bobby Caldwell's "Open Your Eyes" which you may recognise from Common's "The Light". Sketches lead single "I'm Cheatin'" is an example of where Dwele will talk about something like cheating on his girlfriend. Then with some slight change of vocals and lyrics he is cheating on this girlfriend with his girlfriend. Sketches of a Man does what it says on the tin and details different situations that a man can find himself in. Of course this includes relationships. The album is a healthy mix of different types of sounds ranging from reggae inspirations and slower songs like the acoustic "Love Ultra". There is the influence of horns in "Travelin' Girl" and "Vain", the jazzy "Spiritual" and the piano ballady "I'm Sorry (Wake the Musical Baby)."

For those of you who were only introduced to Dwele through Kanye and Common: Dwele is not the most dexterous singer in the urban/r&b market. He is not Usher and thankfully he is not nearly as ostentatious as R Kelly (nor arrogant nor attracting negative press). Dwele is not D'Angelo on the other end either. But for me he does quench that want for a D'Angelo type of smooth listenable album that plays nicely in the background on an evening. Dwele inhabits a world where R&B, spoken word, jazz and hip-hop intermingle. He leans closer to that type of artist and I suspect that is why the J Dilla type production suits him so much better. Do you remember Maxwell? Something like that. It is the type of album that would imagine Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and The Roots would listen to but no inalienably artistic. This is truely good music. It won't sell as much albums as it should but if you are a Dwele fan, you won't be disappointed. Despite the 20 tracks on the album, the entire CD runs at just over 60 minutes with quite a few songs flowing into each other. I recommend listening to the tracks by sample somewhere in order to decide whether to buy it. I do believe though that this is an album you should buy as a whole. Don't just get individual tracks or else the enjoyment of the album as a piece of work is lost.

My only complaint with this album is that I think Dwele would benefit from an injection of some more featured artists which is not something that I thought I would really say. Carefully chosen artists like Estelle or Leela James. Someone closer in his genre in order to bring out the best in himself and offer a vocal contrast to the listener. There are some features but I notice a distinct lack of female vocal. Mind you maybe that was the point in an album called Sketches of a Man.

Fantastic! A must have for any soul music lover!
This is a STUNNING album!

Listen to it on your own and you will be on your knees clenching your fists singing like acapella....

Then again this album is even better to have as background music while you entertain the woman you love!

It is a must have, believe me! GET IT!

Pleased
Love the way Dwele remains distinctive with his style without trying to divert too much. Dwele just has something good with the way he adds hip hop, jazz and poetic influences to his songs. I was happy with the whole album and can play it all the way through without running back to skip tracks! Definately a 3rd time lucky purchase and I remain a fan.