The Boulevards

Under the name Boulevards, Jamil Rashad puts his twist on funk from the '60s to the '80s, drawing from the likes of James Brown, Funkadelic, Al Green, and Rick James. Working backward somewhat, the Raleigh native leaned heaviest on polished post-disco R&B for Groove! (2016) and Hurtown, USA (2017), his first two albums, and dug into deep soul with the grittier Yadig! (2019), followed by the more expansive and Southern-rooted LPs Electric Cowboy: Born in Carolina Mud (2022) and Carolina Funk: Barn Burner on Tobacco Road (2024). Rashad's lyrics are similarly wide in scope, cover...