It Was a Good Day

 

I remember my first day at Junior High School 123 in the Bronx. The bell rang signaling the start of a new beginning in the 9th grade for me.  The recently painted walls were littered with freshly dressed onlookers, some new some held back from the year before...the chatter grew louder with every fabricated story.  Then without warning, a brown Bahamian beauty who seemed to appear out of the halls of injustice (rare... like a novel found in a strip club).  In strolled a pecan tan bunny named  Icilma Williams.  Her dress showed off her belly and the halls froze, captivated like the opening of Belly. 

As she walked pass me..., her hair smelled like a golden baked waffle cone, with chocolate syrup dripping from the melted Oreo ice cream on her dishwashing-free hands.  Her exotic presence parted the horny halls like a drink menu from Moses' wine collection.  Her dress blew in the air-conditioned tiled halls, letting her senior class frame hit the homemade stiches on her dress like they were trying to escape the floral print.  

I was staring at her so long and "hard" that I didn't see the school's terrorist, Jerome Barker leaning on the wall sporting his fresh, light blue suede Pumas with the cocaine white fat laces.  Jerome could have easily been the main character in Scared Straight the Early Years.  Moments later, I assumed that my eyes had rolled to the back of my head because of dream I had from Icilma's first kiss.  Well as the credits rolled from the nighttime series, Fantasy Island I woke up from the school nurse's stretcher, and I later found that I was the victim of a lightening quick upper cut from Jerome's right hand of fury.   

In my daydreaming gaze at Icilma I didn't realize that I stepped on Jerome Barker's fresh, first day footwear.   The thought of Icilma's warm lips was enough to dull the pain from that Tyson-like upper cut as it was later described to me after the coma.   The school hit Jerome with a suspension so stiff that Metta World Peace held a banner outside in protest.  For most preteens and teens, the first day of school is often a highly anticipated balance of love and lust, neatly wrapped in what will one day create a lifetime of memories for the Brighter Days ahead.

Released June 6, 2025 BBE Music Inc.

Well on June 6, 2025, when most schools were letting out for the summer, one of UK's Mount Rushmore of musicians, Omar Lye Fook, kicked off the summer with The Brighter Days and I am here to tell you this shit feels a lot like the first day of school. I am on my 42 spin and this masterpiece feels like Erykah Badu, Nia Long, and Lupita Nyong'o invited me to a sleepover and the maid, Halle Berry was applying the baby oil using a replica of a winning mega million lottery ticket.   This is Omar's 40th anniversary in the music business and The Brighter Days feels like he wanted to share his lowkey journey with some of his loyalists.  You are going to want to open the magnums to fully enjoy Omar's Magnum Opus. 

Assuming this is your first stop at Ghetto Proverbs..., welcome and I thank you for stopping by.  Pease understand that as much as I love Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Eric Roberson, Donny Hathaway, and Rahsaan Patterson, Omar's Brighter The Days is the Icilma Williams of his storied work.   I never, ever thought any of his previous work could surpass For Pleasure or This is Not a Love Song, which are true treasures. But this 18-track soul session is nothing short of spectacular.  The guest appearances feature a wide array of icons like: Brooklyn rap legend, Jeru The Damaja, soul poet, Eric Roberson, the soul princess, India Aire, the early songstress version of Ledisi, and soul royalty, Raheem DeVaughn (who is the first cousin of Chrisette Michele). I am telling you this featured collection feels like someone threw a house party and replaced social media with courting 

For you Johnny and Jane Come Latelys Omar isn't going to blow you away with his vocal prowess, like a Luther or Donny or Marvin, nor will he outdance your favorite member of the Patridge Family.  Omar is more like meeting the love of your life for the first time and going for a walk under a star-filled sky and all of a sudden bending down to find a $100 bill stuck to your beach sandals.  He is an unexpected treasure, and you will always remember where you were when you first heard his extremely soulful music. Most of the hour-long wax-appeal seems like he got stuck in the studio with Sly and the Family Stone, D' Angelo and Prince.   You may have to turn the clock back to D Angelo's Voo Doo to find a more soulful project.   

In New York City most of the public schools are attended by many of the people in your surrounding neighborhoods, as such you tend to see the same kids from K-12.  Well, my last year of high school was a blur, in fact I had enough credits to graduate six months early.   I decided not to leave early so I took a few elective classes and one of them was home economics.  I was the only dude in the 12-student class.   Just as the teacher closed the door on the first day to go over the (loosely termed syllabus), guess walked in the door?  Yep, Icilma Williams.   It had been three years since I last laid eyes on her, as her family moved back to the Bahamas (probably to build another Rhianna).  

A lot had changed since we last saw each other. Thanks to Run and them, those Hollis Queens Kings helped bury Pumas in the goodwill footlocker and now ADIDAS was the hood shoe of choice.   A Japanese automaker, Datsun invaded the American landscape with their signature Maxima model. And I upgraded my teenage hormones by tapping my 33-year-old English teacher for the past two summers -- did you think that I did the extra six months because I liked to bake?  

Epilogue

Icilma still looked the same, she still smelled like a freshly baked dessert and her hips finally outgrew those stiches on that summer dress.   At the end of the first day of home economics she walked over and hugged me like she was proud of the young man I matured into.  

Like magic we picked up where we left off laughing and chatting about what the future started to feel like.  I told her that one day she can watch me hoop for the hometown NY Knicks, she was too kind to mentioned that I didn't even play for my high school team (in my humble defense, Stevenson High did boast three future pros and one of them was Kyrie Irving's dad).  She told me that she will spend the summer thinking of baby names for her oven baking newborn.   There was a time that news would have felt like a Jerome upper cut, instead it felt more like The Brighter Days were ahead.  

1 Love, 

Ray Lewis