Camille Yarbrough

Camille Yarbrough
Born (1938-01-08) January 8, 1938
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality American
Occupation musician, actress, poet, activist, television producer, author

Camille Yarbrough (born January 8, 1938) is an American musician, actress, poet, activist, television producer, and author.

She is best known for "Take Yo' Praise", which Fatboy Slim sampled in his track "Praise You" in 1998. "Take Yo' Praise" was originally recorded in 1975 for Yarbrough's first album, The Iron Pot Cooker, released on Vanguard Records. The album was based on the 1971 stage dramatization of Yarbrough's one-woman, spoken word show, Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot. She toured nationally with this show during the 1970s and 1980s. Yarbrough's second album, Ancestor House, is a spoken word/soul/blues album that she released on her own record label, Maat Music, in 2003. Ancestor House was recorded live at Joe's Pub in New York City.[1]

Life and career

Yarbrough was born in 1938 and raised in the South Side of Chicago. She was the seventh and youngest child in her family.[2]

Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot was produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan in 1973.[3]

A vocal sample from the opening of Yarbrough's "Take Yo' Praise" features prominently in the 1999 hit "Praise You" by Fat Boy Slim.[4]

Journalist Kevin Powell wrote, regarding her first album: "Without question, The Iron Pot Cooker is a precursor to Lauryn Hill's best-seller The Mis-Education [sic] of Lauryn Hill." Other reviews of this album include Billboard: "Yarbrough has stylish traces of Nina Simone and Gil Scott-Heron but her own style of singing and recitation... are outstanding. Her songs are all thought provoking", SPIN: "Nana Camille is a 'hip-hop foremother'", and CDNow: "The most important rediscovery of the year…"

She currently resides in New York City.

References

  1. ↑ "Ancestor House". CDBaby.com. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
  2. ↑ Frazier, DuEwa M. "Taking Her Praise: Profile of Camille Yarbrough, A Renaissance Woman". AALBC.com. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
  3. ↑ La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot (1973)". Accessed July 11, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Presenting Camille Yarbrough: The Featured Voice on Fatboy Slim's Praise You". thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved July 20, 2017.


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