2019 · Album
Fuck Yo Feelings
Loma Vista Recordings · Released: October 3, 2019 · Notable reception: Jazz Forum: 4.5/5; Pitchfork: 4/5
Glasper's Provocation Found Its People
The album landed with mixed signals but won over listeners willing to meet it halfway.
When Robert Glasper released Fuck Yo Feelings (2019) on Loma Vista Recordings, the title alone announced he wasn't chasing consensus. This was his first project with the label, and it arrived at a moment when Glasper had already spent years pushing jazz away from reverence and toward conversation—something closer to how actual musicians talk when the tape stops. The critical response on arrival told the real story: not a slam dunk, not a rejection either. Jazz Forum's 4.5 out of 5 rating stood out as genuine enthusiasm, while Pitchfork's 4 out of 5 suggested the album had crossed over to listeners beyond the jazz establishment. The other outlets landed on three stars—solid, professional, but not the kind of score that gets plastered on posters.
What matters here is that mixed initial response didn't sink the record. Instead, it found its actual audience gradually—people who came to understand that the provocation in the title matched what Glasper was doing musically. He wasn't being difficult for difficulty's sake. The album worked because it honored the fundamentals of jazz conversation while refusing to perform deference. Glasper had spent years earning the right to challenge expectations, and this project felt like him testing what listeners would accept once they trusted his instincts.
For Glasper's catalog, this sits somewhere between statement and exploration. It's not the entry point—Black Radio (2012) remains more immediately accessible—but it's the album that shows where his thinking had moved by 2019. The record didn't need to explode on impact. It needed to be there, available to people ready for it, and that's exactly what happened.
