Bra / The Message
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Album Summary
Cymande — that beautiful, mysterious collective of Caribbean-born musicians who found each other in the heart of London — laid down something truly special when they cut 'Bra / The Message' for Janus Records in 1972. Self-produced with the kind of raw, unfiltered intention that no studio executive could manufacture, the single emerged from a deeply creative early chapter in the band's life, one where their shared roots in Caribbean and African musical tradition were flowing freely into the channels of funk, soul, reggae, and Afrobeat. The result was a groove so organic, so spiritually alive, that it sounded like nothing else coming out of Britain — or anywhere else — at that moment in time.
Reception
- 'Bra' found more love across the Atlantic than it did at home, earning modest chart recognition in the United States while British audiences largely slept on it — a bittersweet reality that nonetheless helped Cymande cultivate a devoted cult following among American funk and soul heads.
- Mainstream critical attention was quiet at the time of release, but history has been generous — 'Bra' has since been embraced as one of the defining funk recordings of the entire early 1970s era, its reputation growing richer with every passing decade.
- In underground soul and funk circles, the single found the faithful listeners it deserved, circulating through record bins and dance floors in a way that kept its flame burning long after the charts had moved on.
Significance
- 'Bra / The Message' stands as a landmark document of the British-Caribbean funk sound, proof that diaspora musicians synthesizing African rhythmic traditions, American funk, and Jamaican influences could arrive somewhere wholly original — a sound that belonged to no single geography but carried all of them at once.
- The single captures Cymande at the height of their early spiritual intensity, their hypnotic, cyclical grooves and collective chemistry setting them apart from every contemporary in the 1970s British funk scene and pointing toward a deeper, more meditative vision of what rhythm and soul could be.
- The enduring cultural presence of this single helped fuel a powerful revival of interest in Cymande beginning in the 1990s, repositioning the group as foundational architects in the broader story of funk and its profound influence on the generations of music that followed.
Samples
- "Bra" — one of the most sampled breakbeats in hip-hop history, with a documented sampling legacy spanning decades and artists including De La Soul and Kendrick Lamar among its most celebrated uses.
Tracklist
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A Bra 117
5:01
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B The Message 87
4:07
Artist Details
Cymande was a beautiful, spiritual force born out of London in 1971, a collective of Caribbean-born musicians who blended funk, soul, jazz, and African rhythms into something so deep and hypnotic it made the walls breathe. Their sound — raw, percussion-heavy, and groove-drenched — was ahead of its time, laying the foundation for what would later be celebrated as funk and soul at its most organic and uncut, with tracks like "Bra" and "The Message" becoming cornerstones of the early hip-hop sampling tradition, touched by everyone from De La Soul to The Fugees. Cymande never got the mainstream spotlight they deserved in their heyday, but history has a way of correcting itself, and today they stand as one of the most sampled and spiritually significant acts to ever bless a wax platter.
