JuJu B Solomon is the moniker of eccentric storyteller Benjamin Solomon. In 2002 he moved to India with a job in the textile export industry. There Solomon says he cultivated ennui, loneliness and a handful of what he calls "frank, irreverent song-poems about the 'sexual geography' of India, the alienations of expatriate life and the hybrid cultures of India's westernized youth."
Disenchanted with textiles, Solomon returned to the States two years later and documented his life in India as "a newcomer, an outsider, and a witness." Scattered throughout his self-titled album are references to Western culture. DVDs, polyphonic ring tones, and drum 'n' bass music are mentioned to illustrate the culture shock. The songs on Solomon's album "chart this passage from immigrant to returnee and the nebulous territory in between," he says.
Solomon currently lives in Atlanta, Ga. where he edits the forthcoming literary journal, The Open Face Sandwich. He's preparing to record his next album, which will be released by New Street in late 2007. He will tour in Europe this fall, extensively in Sweden where he has developed a strong underground following.
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