Neneh Cherry

Neneh Cherry developed an innovative fusion of styles toward the end of the 1980s that anticipated both alternative rap and trip-hop while steadily building a catalog marked by equally surprising detours. As vocalist, composer, MC, and producer she first emerged within Britain’s post-punk milieu, then secured broad recognition through the worldwide phenomenon “Buffalo Stance.” That track propelled her diverse debut album Raw Like Sushi (1989) into the upper reaches of charts in multiple territories and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Eschewing the usual commercial route, she elected to release solo projects at measured intervals and lent her voice to recordings fronted by everyone from Peter Gabriel to Gorillaz. Throughout the 2010s she issued three strikingly inventive albums—The Cherry Thing (2012), Blank Project (2014), and Broken Politics (2018)—before joining forces with younger collaborators on fresh interpretations of earlier material for The Versions (2022).

Born Neneh Mariann Karlsson on March 10, 1964, in Stockholm, Sweden, she is the daughter of West African percussionist Ahmadu Jah and artist Moki Cherry. Raised by her mother and trumpeter stepfather Don Cherry between Stockholm and New York City, Cherry departed school at age 14 and moved to London in 1980 to perform with the post-punk band the Cherries. Brief associations with the Slits and the Nails preceded her entry into the experimental funk and post-punk group Rip Rig + Panic, with whom she appeared on the albums God (1981), I Am Cold (1982), and Attitude (1983). During the same stretch she also recorded with New Age Steppers and as one member of the short-lived collective Raw Sex, Pure Energy. After Rip Rig + Panic disbanded she continued with its offshoot Float Up CP, fronting the 1985 release Kill Me in the Morning. The following year she guested on “Slow Train to Dawn,” a single from the The’s Infected.

In 1987 Cherry and fellow artist Cameron McVey (aka Booga Bear) formed a lasting creative and personal partnership after meeting while modeling for Ray Petri, founder of the Buffalo fashion house. Later that year she co-wrote and appeared on the B-side revision of Morgan/McVey’s Stock Aitken Waterman-produced “Looking Good Diving,” retitled “Looking Good Diving with the Wild Bunch.” Signed to the Circa label, she entered the U.K. singles chart as a solo act in December 1988 with “Buffalo Stance,” a reworked take on “Looking Good Diving with the Wild Bunch.” The Bomb the Bass collaboration climbed to number three in Britain and performed comparably across other regions. The single accurately previewed the eclectic marriage of pop sensibility and self-aware hip-hop drive that defined the parent album Raw Like Sushi. Issued in June 1989, the number-two U.K. release that ultimately earned platinum certification benefited from executive production by McVey and further contributions from Will Malone, Nellee Hooper, and Massive Attack’s Mushroom and 3D. Follow-up singles “Manchild” and “Kisses on the Wind” accompanied the Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, an award ultimately presented to Milli Vanilli.

After supplying a reading of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” to the benefit collection Red Hot + Blue and serving as co-writer, arranger, and background vocalist on Massive Attack’s “Hymn of the Big Wheel” from Blue Lines, Cherry delivered her second album, Homebrew, in 1992. More restrained than its predecessor, the number-27 U.K. chart entry included appearances by Gang Starr and Michael Stipe along with writing and production support from McVey, Jonny Dollar, and Geoff Barrow prior to his work with Portishead. She returned to the charts in 1994 as Youssou N’Dour’s duet partner on the global success “7 Seconds,” yet largely stepped away for family reasons until resurfacing in 1996 with Man. The number-16 U.K. hit incorporated “7 Seconds,” a fresh version of Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man” featuring piano by half-brother Eagle-Eye, and “Woman,” an empowering reply to James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” A remix edition titled Remixes appeared in 1998. Cherry focused primarily on raising daughters Naima, Tyson, and Mabel well into the new millennium, surfacing occasionally for collaborations such as “Walk Into This Room” with Live’s Edward Kowalczyk, Peter Gabriel’s OVO, Gorillaz’s “Kids with Gunz,” and recordings with her group cirKus.

Cherry reemerged in the 2010s with some of her most forward-looking work to date. On 2012’s The Cherry Thing she fronted the Thing, the experimental Scandinavian jazz trio originally devoted to interpreting her stepfather’s music; the album juxtaposed original pieces with inventive readings of material first recorded by Ornette Coleman, the Stooges, Suicide, and Don Cherry. In 2013 she partnered with London duo RocketNumberNine on their album MeYouWeYou and enlisted them for her long-awaited fourth studio album, Blank Project. Produced by Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet), the 2014 release comprised originals co-written by Cherry with McVey and Paul Simm. A further set with Hebden at the controls, the reflective yet resolute Broken Politics, arrived in 2018.

A 30th-anniversary expanded reissue of Raw Like Sushi appeared in 2020. That same year the opening verse of “Buffalo Stance” featured on Dua Lipa’s Club Future Nostalgia: The Remix Album mixed by the Blessed Madonna, while Cherry co-wrote and performed on the Avalanches’ “Wherever You Go.” Continued appreciation for her first three solo albums prompted a 2022 collaboration with ten artists—among them daughter Tyson, Jamila Woods, Sia, and Robyn—resulting in The Versions, a collection of updated highlights drawn from Raw Like Sushi, Homebrew, and Man.